"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it"

Double_Trouble

I like all the shower in the garden talk - but it did remind me of when we extended our first house it was a square old lodge with a leanto kitchen and bathroom on the side so the first job before building the extension was to demolish the lean to thus leaving the fully working shower exposed on the outside wall the building inspector when he called did enquire whether I was planning on having a shower during his visit :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I was young and very slim in those days pre children

It also meant for 6 months our toilet was a camping portaloo in the bedroom our washing facilities a plastic bowl in the lounge and our kitchen facilities a microwave and toaster also in the lounge ahh those were the days :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

DTxx

Triciaxx

:hello: from a (wet) field in Norfolk. Pack your wellies, KC. Actually, it is the first day it has started raining and looking as if it will keep on. We don't care, we'll have a quiet day and go out if it clears (or maybe if it doesn't).

Solar showers, I know nothing about except for the bags you hang up when camping - they were around before the term 'solar energy' was in use. We have a solar panel on the caravan which charges 2 batteries and it kept them fully charged right through the winter. We obviously didn't use much power but there is a trickle going to the tracking system - the unit transmits its location every few minutes and the security company phone us if it moves more than 200 meters if it is armed. It works, because we once forgot to text to disarm it

The guys that installed it said the newer ones will pick up power even when the sun is not out - not as much, but at least some. We changed all the lights to LED and can pretty much get by for around 5 days without mains. However, that would mean using gas to heat the hot water and restricting our use of gadgets.

Squizz : I was brought up in a similar way, though living in a small market town. My parents were frugal out of necessity but never lost the habit.

Karmacat

Jollidays! I like that, Gill

Love the renovation story too, DT I'll go online on Friday night to order the shower to be delivered to my nearest Wilko - it'll be there by the time I get back from jollidays (tm).

Well, here I am, with an echo-y living room emptied of everything except the sofa and the mahoosive bookcase, ready for the flooring to be laid ... and no flooring men. My stomach is tying itself up in knots - I have a client at 2pm! I said it to them over and over again (too much?) but they're still not here. I'm typing now so that its well past 9am when I ring. Right, off to ring and verbalise the worry ...



EDIT - no, have to come back - you popped in Tricia, thank you! Mac will be packed, oh boy. The shower bag is exactly what I've been prattling about, thats it! Interesting about the solar panel on the caravan - recent efficiencies must be huge!

gilligansyle

Hope your flooring people arrive soon KC, at least if you ring, you know what's happening, rather than 'internalising' the worry that they won't be clear in time

Karmacat

Thanks Gill - and they're here! They arrived, of course, a few minutes after I phoned the store so I rang the store back :o:o

And it is the lovely fitter who did my office, which is a very tricky space, and he's got another tricky spot to do in my hallway, but he's got the solutions right there for me :kisses3: he's really young, but I don't dare ogle him, I'd feel less cougar more baby snatcher :rotfl:

Anyway, all is well :j

So I'm sort of stuck in the office - even tho I've been decluttering, to empty out one room means everywhere is chocker; still, I can be on here and I can input phone numbers to my new phone, which is actually really important, seeing as the jollidays are so near.

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning Karmacat hope the flooring is sorted as I type and the tradespeople are gluing and sticking with a passion.

Apropos of nothing, I was musing at holiday cottage lettings last night (can you tell that the camping expansion plans are not going well ...:rotfl:) and i happened to be looking at cottages in Southwold (other holiday destinations are available - compliance - tsk!) anyway, interestingly one firm is marketing Southwold as an Olympics base. It says on their blurb that they are '1.50 minutes' I]sic[/I from London and the venues. Now I'm not too sure if this is 150 minutes, 2 and a half hours or 90 minutes, but none the less, I was impressed at their marketing. Because of course they were also looking to interest people who wanted to get away from the Olympics. Just imagine, if people residing in the capital could rent out their London home for loadsa wonga, they've still gotta live somewhere for the duration.........

Just a musing.

Also, Tricia, despite being in a muddy field somewhere in Norfolk beat me to my other point! I was browsing a camping/tent/caravan catalogue (there are other things going on in my life, honest!) and i came across their range of portable solar panels and though of you. Whilst you might not be able to run a household off one, it's possbily worth persuing to see if they could add to your cost saving. I suppose it depends how many small electrical items you use. But if they boiled every kettle, charged every battery or ran a laptop for even 6 months of the year, then that may help. I'll admit to not knowing enough about the technology but I was impressed by the range of small/portable panels you can get now. Food for though if nothing else. Also in same catalogue they had the shower bags - interestingly they were silver and black - a few pennies dearer than Wilks at £5.25 - no idea about quality of the product though.

Have a good day!

Greying

Karmacat

Hi Greying! Yes, they're here, and doing wonderfully thank you

The Olympics rental is interesting - I was musing again yesterday while out inspecting my domain (okay, inspecting the recreation ground ) and I realised its not quite as simple for me as it might sound - thing is, I work from home, its not as if I have a job to go to while staying at my sister's. If I can't work, I won't get pay anyway - so the payment for the house, if I were to rent it out for the Olympics, would need to be *very* high. Probably prohibitively. It is funny to think tho, that the first place I ever bought, my little flat in Walthamstow, would probably rent out for the same money I'd charge for this one, because its so close to the Olympic site - two tube stops from Stratford!

What an interesting catalogue you have hold of! Can you pm me the company name? I may have to spend the day googling camping sites :rotfl: I just adore the concept of a self contained solar charger

Pippilongstocking

gilligansyle wrote: »

Gosh I'm not around for a few days and you lot start talking about showering in your gardens! And it all started because you were looking at water butts. It's interesting though, how the connections happen.

And you're off on your jollidays at the weekend too!

Enjoy the jollibub - showering the in garden very fashionable


solar chargers etc sound interesting - had thought about them here due to the amount of light we have over summer as greying says (hello greying) if you can even contribute a bit, then its all a type patchwork generation)

Ellidee

KC - jollidays= jollies for short ! Have you never heard the expression 'Off on your jollies' ?

rtandon27

:rotfl::rotfl:showering in the garden:rotfl::rotfl:

Reminds me of childhood holidays with my aunt!

My cousin and I hated that thought of showering outdoors at the cottage so we had soap on a rope and had to bathe in the lake!

Being an operating room nurse with british training - hygiene was paramount - we had to bathe twice a day every day and always had the little fishies nipping at our toes!