Preparing for winter III

THIRZAH

almond wrote: »

i was a little girl then and remember my family were travelling down to wedding in durington that winter and got stuck in snow somewhere outside birmingham, always remember i was to be a bridemaid but was ill so never made it , neither did our family from the north

I remember it too. We were living in Cambridgeshire which doesn't get snow that often compared with the rest of the country.

My Dad inherited a house from his Great Aunt in the January. My parents were very keen to move in as they were renting at the time but the house needed a lot of work doing to it. Every day my Mum would go to the house light a fire in one room and strip wall paper etc.

There was a water tank behind the house. It was raised about two foot off the ground and must have had a slight leak as there was an enormous mound of ice beneath it which didn't melt for weeks.


Got my Yak-tracks yesterday so hope will be able to do more walking. I also got a couple of packs of hand warmers. When we go walking in the cold I wear gloves but have to take them off at lunch time so I can eat my sandwiches. My hands get so cold then that they don't thaw out for ages so I thought I would try warming them up before putting my gloves back on.

prepareathome

Thanks for the info about the biobulb, I have ordered just one at moment from Amazon they have a special on this one
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ecozone-Biobulb-Energy-Saving-Daylight-Bayonet/dp/B000F5FNXE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320666496&sr=8-1#lbhuc_534096

£7.25 instead of £14.99

I have tried daylight bulbs in the past and found they gave me headaches, hence just ordering the one just now, but if I find its good will buy more.

veggieblob

kittie wrote: »

so sorry, I knew I was too quick posting but was in a mad rush. They absolutely do work and so easily but they are pricey. In our last house I had them everywhere, 10 in all, so everywhere there was this lovely white non-flickering light. The bulbs in this house are not at all bad but they are very expensive and the fittings are the special ones for energy saving, As soon as the bulbs start failing then we will replace the fittings to take the bayonet biobulbs that I have kept (all 10). I just have 3 now and all in table lamps

http://www.fullspectrumlighting.co.uk/

The very worst lights are the nasty energy saving ones with the yellow tones (chap). They make me feel lethargic and down so I don`t have any in the house

You would need to shop around for the cheapest source
http://www.fullspectrumlighting.co.uk/

http://www.allergybestbuys.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/energysavingdaylightbiobulbs-901037m.shtml

If you have the Eudemon bulbs, they have been recalled - not quite sure what the issue was but I got mine from Gizoo and they emailed me asking me to send them back for a refund.

triticale

LavenderBees wrote: »

I know I mention kitten an awful lot, but I can't tell you how much he has helped me...makes me laugh out loud so often even when I think I'll not laugh again .

LavenderBees, please keep on mentioning kitten!

We got a little furry girl recently and as she lives with OH I only see her at weekends, means I spend the week missing them both and your little tales about hot water bottle stoppers etc make me chuckle. Reminded me of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYlD0KXujAk Simon's Cat video :rotfl:

hollieinbloom

hello! i've just been reading everyone's winter prep! i've been stocking up with food more than anything else. i bought a shelving unit for under the stairs and some crates for the shelves. so we have cereal (which was all free from nestle after a nice voucher for £6 from them), long life milk, packs of noodles, pastas sauces etc and some boxes of popcorn so we're stocked for our movie night treats. We've also had to get nappies and wipes although we're trying to potty train, and toilet roll too!
Last year we were very unprepared and with our silly little car having teeny tiny wheels (its a ford Ka) it couldn't drive well in the snow and we were living off food from the corner shop. was rather awful and gobbled alot of our money up!
so this year we are very prepared for not being able to get out to the shops.

i've yet to wash all our winter bedding for this year, but i think this week i will have to do it as it's getting very chilly already!
My poor DD was freezing this morning! she'd kicked all her covers off and couldnt get to them in the dark! x

Confuzzled

prepareathome wrote: »

well we have had the first frost of this winter - during the night you could see the white on the lawn, glistening in the light, it looks so lovely and such a clear sky, and woke up to a white world this morning and quite thick frost, and took till nearly 9am before sun melted it all - oh well this is my wake up call, not put cover on outside tap yet, so better get it done today. A perfect Autumn day chilly but sun is shinning.

Stay warm folks.

we've had frost the last 3 days, in fact on saturday i waited til 14:30 to mow the lawn so the frost could evaporate and the lawn was still sopping wet, what a joy to moy

today we have been enveloped in fog the entire day, the only thing i can see relatively well is the neighbour that is practically on top of us, everything else is vague at best

i still don't have my heat on though it's starting to be noticeably colder in the bedrooms as we keep the doors mostly closed during the day. i'm just gonna leave putting the heating on til i really start to feel it as i fear that once it goes on it won't come off again til spring so i'm trying to push it as far as i can without being miserable

chirpychick

Hiiiiii

We managed to get a good chunk of things done this weekend.
I have just set the thermostat :S 15 during the day (im home alone all day and its been 18 here today and im in a t shirt and joggers and socks so assumed 15 would mean slippers, jumpers and the duvet and gloves too. However its annoying because i always have to let the dogs in the garden so it lets the heat out so it seems a waste to have it any higher than that.
I can have hot tea/hot chocolate/soups/shower etc to warm up and housework warms me up. Also as downstairs is small and open plan if i cook using the oven it heats up the downstairs anyway.
If we get sick at anytime then i will put it up slightly or if its particularly cold.

Ive set it to 13 degrees at night time.

I still need:
finish foil radiators
bleed radiators (this will be done when the heating goes on the first time)
label 2 loaves of bread and 2 pints of milk "emergency" in the freezer
sort kitchen cupboards
create my winter stash cupboard (ive got most things just need some soup and rice pudding and just need to organise it)
put duvet on the sofa
print out list of emergency numbers and stick one on fridge and one in car
find 3 water bottles in my price range!!!! ANY SUGGESTIONS???
buy radio batteries

that it!

ive almost finished my entire christmas shopping! Just got 2 things left to buy and 2 things left to make. They are all wrapped and put in the suitable size box for the courier and i think we will end up sending them soon just to get some space. I havent wrapped hubbys.

Ive created a "snow day" box for hubby and i lol.
also done a small christmas eve hamper
done my squaddie shoe box just needs posting

im still keeping my eye open for some slippers as my 20p ones cut my ankle.

im aiming to have everything finished by weeks end as i know nobody says snow right now, the sky really looks snowy today!

saverholic

temperatures are definitely beginning to drop here. Still not got the heating on though, I want to save that for when I really really need it.

People earlier up the thread were talking about biobulbs. Not sure what the difference is but I love my daylight bulbs and wouldn't be without them any more.

The cheapest place I've ever found them is in John Lewis
http://www.johnlewis.com/Search/Search.aspx?SearchTerm=daylight+bulb

Postage is £3 so if you are ordering a couple it would probably work out cheaper.

I had them last winter and can't believe how much of a difference it made.

jamanda

Thanks for the daylight bulb info. When I asked hubby what he would like for Christmas, he requested a floor standing lamp with a daylight bulb in so he can sit and read without falling asleep. I saw a reasonable lamp in Wilkos with a pole which is bent over at the top which would hang over his chair (well, I know what I mean!)

We have a log fire tonight, but I'm sitting at the puter having fished out my bootie slippers, T shirt, thin fleece and big fluffy (very big, like 2 sizes too big but I liked it) waistcoat on. Blanket round my legs and I'm still flipping chilly. I'm either coming down with something or I've turned into a wuss. Goodness knows what I'm going to be like when it gets "proper" cold. I'll be sleeping in the blooming snow boots and lined trousers :eek:

Anyone spotting a theme here with my elegant modes of dress?

I have to look smart for work, but boy I hope they don't catch me at home :rotfl::rotfl:

muffin_man_7

hollieinbloom wrote: »

hello!

i've yet to wash all our winter bedding for this year, but i think this week i will have to do it as it's getting very chilly already!
My poor DD was freezing this morning! she'd kicked all her covers off and couldnt get to them in the dark! x

Hollie bit too late for this year but have you considered washing all winter bedding when the warm weather arrives you can dry it outside for free and then store in a vac pouch save washing bedding when weather bad i put covers on then store really usefull if you have an unexpected guest due to bad weather and in the night when kiddies poorly so much quicker too i do the same with pillows too keep to plain colours
or
if the bedding is clean and you just want to freshen it have you thought about using steam hold a steam iron (if you havn't got a steamer over bedding while on the bed
i even stash some of the bath towels away with teenagers they rarely put a towel to dry and when i need one none left (except for my stash they don't know about hehe) hth