Preparing for winter II

Confuzzled

paidinchickens wrote: »

Everyone I know is taking the mick out of my preps so I am quite used to people thinking I am bonkers.

everytime i see a post like that i'm reminded of the old ant and the grasshopper fable (wiki link provided for those unfamiliar with it)

mind you if someone i knew really was starving i wouldn't totally turn them away BUT i would happily gloat that i was right all along :rotfl:

Confuzzled

tugrin wrote: »

I often wonder what some of the people who have that 'you're all bl******' mental' town-centric attitude expect the rural population to do?...

Anyone who is over 40 and lives on their own, who has had a fall will know WHY yaktrax were actually invented - oh and I wonder if Helenium has ever heard of Scandinavia......

i had planned to move back to edinburgh, however after my last few visits there with my cane in tow, i now realise it is NOT a friendly place for those with disabilities. i love edinburgh, it's our destination of choice for mini breaks and i really miss living there, especially easy access to hogmanay celebrations on north bridge and the christmas village BUT it has wayyy too many stairs, and whilst it does have ramps etc you often still have to get around stairs

and even though most buses are low riders now getting a seat isn't always possible, even having a cane many people will still stare at me like 'so what' even when it's obvious i desperately need to sit down (i actually give up my seat to elderly people despite the cane, you should see the smiles that puts on their faces ).

also with sooo many people on the high street shopping when you have issues walking can be a nightmare so whilst i'm just 40 i couldn't live in a city... and, even edinburgh had so much trouble with snow last year they had to call in for help from the military to shovel it all!!!

my yax trax will keep me from breaking my knee or back both which are already screwed up terribly or and i know this sounds odd, even worse breaking my hands/wrist because as another self employed single mother here mentioned, without working hands or even an arm there would be no income coming in, i MUST be able to work at my computer if not i'm bu&&ered!

also i have issues with my coccyx, if i fell on that, a very likely scenario, i shudder to think what would happen

i spent £14.50 on mine last year, they will last years, the peace of mind is worth far more than the price even for one winter let alone many, and i'm also keen to avoid the pain too :rotfl:

Ziggy8083

Red Doe : Keeping fingers crossed for you. I really hope that you get the result you need and deserve.

Going into L*dl on way home to have a raid round. Noticed that they have some good deals on just now. Still no blessed freezer so I am calling company at lunch time. This is getting beyond the joke. Think it is time to threaten to cancel order although this is last resort as they are selling the freezer for the cheapest price! Typical.

Just to add my tuppence worth:
I could ahve been caught out last year if it had not been for my preparations prior to winter. Was interesting to see that Helenium has not posted since spouting that bile earlier on. Shame they give newbies a bad rep.

Hope everyone is doing ok today :A

Confuzzled

nicki wrote: »

Some advice please on Yaktraks or equivalents. I'm an avon rep so will be out walking a lot in the winter and taking my daughter with me (and I can already envision the sledge with all the books on being pulled down the road behind us ) Anyways, do you think it'll be worth paying out the extra money to get the "pro" version? And has anyone managed to source them at less that £22 for the pro or £18 for the normal? I can't take the risk of falling, being a self-employed single parent means no work, no money! :eek:

i can't remember who posted this originally, but i would actually recommend the qvc version which have a strap that closes over the top of the shoe so they are far less likely to fall off. i've had problems with one of mine falling off, had to strap it on with a shoelace so i've decided to order these this year, they come in a two pack for £18.75 + £3.35p&p so you could have one for you and one for your daughter

they have excellent reviews both from teh op and online after 134 reviews it's at 4.9 out of 5 :T

i'm not sure what the pro version of yak trax are, if they have a strap they might be worth it too

i have a knock off version that has both the coil like things and some spikey bits, i'm going to give the old ones to a family member that works outside a lot.

Confuzzled

Frugal wrote: »

I got the pro ones as a couple of people had said that one pinged off and they didn't realise so it was lost... The pro ones have an extra strap so that can't happen. I decided it was worth the extra couple of quid rather than risk having to buy another pair...

(self employed single parent too so daren't risk falls)

ahh so the pro ones do have the strap, cool

and another self employed single parent? is that 3 now including myself?

i've also noticed LOADS of people from scotland here, makes for a nice change *waves to all the lovely scots*

redlady_1

Um, I live on the edge of town (more a village) however, my heating is solid fuel. If I dont plan then I freeze. My OH couldnt get any oil last year (remember that?) as he didnt plan so guess where he came as I had lots of wood and coal.

So newbie, unless you walk in our shoes I would suggest you leave us all alone and go and enlighten some other poor sod with your wisdom of winter.

redlady_1

Whoever wanted to know about storage heaters, you need to put the input up to max at night and the boost down to minimum so that it is storing the heat over night and then when you get home the next evening open the boost to max and it will spill out all the lovely heat. You just need to remember to turn it down again before you go to bed.

Hope that helps.

taxsaver

Last night I went to Tesco Peterborough (Serpentine Green) where they had a huge stack of single electric blankets at £3.75 - it's this one:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-0861.aspx

which is still £14.97 at Tesco Direct.

I bought three for use on chairs and settees, meaning we can keep the heating a bit lower and still be lovely and snug.

Can't go wrong at that price!

Carolyntia

Afternoon preppers :wave:

Glad to see you've all been busy while I've been away....I'm still catching up with the thread

Just to let you know I finally found some de-icer.....all the way down in Devon! So I'm now stocked up with two large tins

I'm now back in sunny Aberdeen but I've seen two flocks of geese flying over this morning heading south

helen_jelly

Coming out of lurkdom to say "fingers crossed" for Red Doe

And to Helenium - I live in a large town that's nearly a city [when Her Majesty decides to give us that status] and I live about 3 miles from the nearest supermarket - not far - but when the estate roads are not gritted at all and the snow has compacted down to solid ice and doesn't defrost until Feb and the local shop run out of everything very quickly then I have to be prepared, I also need to keep our bills to an absolute minimum. I'm not justifying myself - I never do - just explaining why!!

Helen