Preparing for winter III

pumpkinlife

I haven't been posting around here much but have been subscribed by email and reading avidly. My own preparations are plodding along and I haven't got half as much done as I would like and am playing catch up.

I found this http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/02/body-insulation-thermal-underwear.html#more
It's about the thermal properties of clothes vs space heating. It's quite technical but interesting. I remember someone around here was asking about tog ratings and fleece and it sort of covers that, if it is any help.

Incidentally, with the exception of elderberries, the berry crop is scanty this year. We won't be making rosehip wine this year, I felt too guilty to pick them Perhaps we are due a mild winter in this part of the country.

Aurora

Fruball

I am behind now with my winter preps

This week is manic but will set a day aside next week to go and get materials (insulation for pipe, baton for curtain rail etc) and make sure all jobs are done by the end of October.

Found another builder to do the fireplace so i hope it actually happens this time! Neighbour is busy stashing crates dumped at work ready for us to cut up and burn. I know the work involved in restoring the open fire is going to cost me but it will make its money back eventually, by burning free wood, as I can see me being in this house for a looooooooooong loooooooooooooooooong time

First stage is to take the old liner out of the chimney, change the pot on the roof and get it swept. That is being done tomorrow :j:j

lizzyb1812

pumpkinlife - thanks for the link to that article - as you said, quite technical but very interesting. It's long, so to summarise VERY succinctly, wearing long thermal underwear - top and bottom - can make you warm enough to be able to cut energy bills for heating significantly.

Whilst this is good news in itself, it occurred to me that encouraging people who are sedentary either by nature, because of illness/disability or because of old age, to wear long underwear could improve quality of life for many during the winter months.

There are caveats - ie if all the family wear full thermal underwear and turn down the heating what do you do with visitors? Hand out extra sets? :rotfl:

Thanks again for the link - good reading for anyone wanting to stay warm on a budget this winter.

D&DD

Thriftkitten heres a link to my councils website explaining how it works http://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=8639

Looks like they are doing it again this year so will ring tomorrow to see when its available.
It did help out last year its been so long since we've had proper snow here the last two years have been a learning curve,one of my boys can't go out in it at all due to his past operations and youngest's school bus was stranded for 7 hours last year.
Fortunately I'd seen the weather forecast and conditions were so bad I kept him home.
Our council was much better second time around at least they learned from what went wrong the year before.
We have extra grit bins too and there's a great community spirit here when it comes to digging people out

littlecal

congratulations Darkrev health and happiness to you both!!!!!

Princess_kate

Hi all, been manic with work the last few weeks so fallen behind in reading everyones preps! Caught up now!

Someone mentioned Asda winter prep items in, honestly, I felt like I was in heaven! Snow shovels, I got one on saturday when it was 25 degrees & boiling, everyone else was buying BBQ food! Look really sturdy, metal strip on the end too, £8, de-icer, £2 per trigger bottle, a can is just too cold to hold, for 3 for £3, i got 6 bottles! They had bags of grit, around the size of kids sandbox sand bags, £4, tho I have a bucket stashed in the shed from earlier in the winter & lots of dishwasher salt in. They also had a fab car scraper, on an extendable pole with a brush on the other end for sweeping snow off the car, £5 got one for me and got one for my brother in law for his birthday as he has a van for work. They were sold out of cream fleeces, wanted to get a few more to finish lining the curtains I got for the hall. Got fab rails from ikea, only £3 but they just clip over a screw in the celing, probablyy wouldnt hold a massive weight but I think they will make a difference, my hall is single story so much colder than the rest of the house!
Going to put the hose pipe away & turn off the outside tap this weekend. Also try & sort the pots of their dead flowers & get anything that needs to put brought in & put away done. Winter is coming ladies but we'll all be ok!

Has someone got a link to a good long range forcast, always forget to save the links people post & I want to keep an eye on things! Net weather was the one I used last year which was really good on a day by day basis for about a week, anything good thats a bit more ahead!

Kate

ScottishOstrich

have had a sucessful day today
bought both my mum and I a bag of Rock Salt from h base £8.99
I received a pay from a part time job tonight, so I am going to nip down to building supplies to see if it is cheaper.
alas, i will have to light the fire tomorrow. My partner is coming over and he is not used to the cold as I am. he says i am used to living in the cold.
still have to put up a few blinds and change curtains, but I hope to be on track for the weekend.
They say low temperatures at the weekend :-(
lets just hope the snow takes the scenic route to Scotland
I live on very high ground in central scotland and a mutal friend told me that Falkirk Council are preparing for the worst. I was snowed in for 4 days last year. I have intentionally kept 8 days holidays to try to cover if i cant get to work, lets hope i dont need to use them for snow days

This ostrich would rather have her head in warm sand rather than cold snow

ScottishOstrich

Has anyone heard how Red Deer is getting on ?
Cheers
Ostrich x

nursey3

As a background, I moved from london to norfolk about 18months ago and after a year of commuting at weekends between cornwall and norfolk my other half finally moved up in May. I work mainly nights as I usually really do not function well before midday! lol. However, s*d's law...I finished a set of 6 nights yesterday morning, I start another set of 3 tomorrow and after my beloved 'kindly' let me sleep until 7:30pm!!! I got to bed at 1am and was wide awake at 4am! So far, I've done the washing up, put a load of washing on, taken him a cup of tea, brushed the dog (where DOES he get all this fur?! he's a collie but I swear I seem to get more fur on the carpet than he wears!).

Anyhows, long story short...a busy day today. Thank you to whoever posted about the cushelle back on offer in L*dl - I;ll be off there shortly to add the mountain I have already and to get some for my mum in london (who I am off to see on monday morning) together with whatever other goodies I can find her.

I persuaded my lovely bloke to wash his stinky (but less stinky now!) dog yesterday and we have been making the most of the good weather getting some of the bigger bedding items washed then dired on the whirly gig outside.

Congrats to darkrev btw, wishing you both many years of happiness!

Rsing from the ashes...fabulous throw! I'm sure all your friends and family will be queuing up with requests for their own!

Has anyone tried covering cardboard with ordinary kitchen foil as radiator reflectors? my other half insists that its just as effective as the 'propper' stuff one can buy, but I am yet to be convinced!

Bless him, I've been a long time lurker on here, only occasionally posting but, I've gotten a lot of 'good' ideas from all your posts -which I usually then persuade (or at least try to!) my better half that he really wants to do for me

Anyhows, wish me luck on my foraging at l*dl and I hope everyone has a great day!

nursey

nursey3

MaxSusie wrote: »

Winter prep today has only involved doing a stock take in the
Good news I have an interview on Thursday at 11am :T Also got a phone call from my ex boss asking me if I'd be interested in another position with the company working on a new contract which is 5 years long. I said yes and have an application form to complete. I'll go into the office for him to have a scan over it this week before submitting before the closing date next Monday. Nothing for 4 months then 2 come along at once! You must all have brought me some luck :A

Just remebered that you have an interview tomorrow..wishing you the very best of luck!

nursey