Preparing for winter III

beanrua

Frugal wrote: »

:wave: hello everybody

Its surprising isn't it how much of a difference a few winter preps can make. My kitchen has always been freezing but now that the door to outside is double bubblewrapped, it makes a huge difference.

I need to get outside and chop some more wood today but its raining on and off - I am hoping it will cheer up a bit later so I can get some wood done for tonight. Tomorrow is meant to be brighter so will cut loads then.

There are thick grey clouds above and its blowing a hoolie out there (not a Mardy Hoolie, we don't get it so bad down this way ) but enough to blow some of the garden furniture over :eek: It looks like steptoes yard out the back of mine now what with wood to be cut and stuff strewn about

Just been to MrS and they have 25% off all clothes atm - got a warm woolie jumper/dress thing to be worn with leggings and a few xmas pressies! Did ALL the kids stuff online last night - no way am I hitting the shops _pale_

Thanks to this thread I have already bubble wrapped windows but never thought of doors - how does it work - is it just the door -what about the frame - or is it door and frame separate but overlapping?
Thanks in advance.

prepareathome

Yes I agree nice to know power companies will be receiving a lot less of our money.

I have the cover with light also with the kindle so hoping the solar charger will power the kindle so can use both.

Frugal just think of the wall sconces as material items that one day can be replaced - check charity shops or I forgot I have oval shaped black metal ones with mirror that holds one called I picked up ages ago in 99p ( the ones from Past Times are brass but I think I paid £5 for each in their sale). Have a look at history sites and see what they used for lighting before electricity. Just make sure wall sconces are not to near the ceiling. I remember about 5 years ago fire brigade were coming round doing house safety checks and the fireman saw my wall sconces and went pale. He agreed they were at right height but being a fireman he told me he would ban anything like that. Told me he would not let his wife light any candles and how she bought on of those essential oil holders that you have a tea light underneath to heat up the oil and he threw it out as open flame is dangerous, to him only lighting and cooking should be electric, he doesn't hold with gas either as its an naked flame. I do sometimes wonder what he would do if there was a power cut during the winter, would they all sit and freeze in his house as lighting ok you can use battery and wind up torches but not heating or cooking. He told me I should replace my gas cooker ( didn't have gas hob and electric oven in wall then) and get electric. I didn't have any electric blankets but got a big rant about them as well. I understood why he felt everything like that was dangerous but way he went on it made me wonder how mankind had not burnt themselves to death as soon as they found fire.

I made lentil soup for tonight but don't know what I did wrong but just not right, hubby says its ok, but I am going to give it a miss, just don't like the taste, first time this has happened.

Safe warm folks

beanrua

My cousin's OH was a fireman and most plugs were unplugged at night and set down with the three prongs facing up - in case they were faulty and caused fire in carpet/rug etc. Down thro' the years I've found myself unplugging plugs and saying 'prongs up'!!!!

Blue_Elephant

beanrua wrote: »

My cousin's OH was a fireman and most plugs were unplugged at night and set down with the three prongs facing up - in case they were faulty and caused fire in carpet/rug etc. Down thro' the years I've found myself unplugging plugs and saying 'prongs up'!!!!

But what if you stand on them?? :eek: Is there much that is more painful??

tugrin

The corner of a duplo brick in he dark comes a close second to the upturned plug!

LavenderBees

Hello, Fellow Preppers:wave:

Can I just ask a quick question? or two?

I had completely forgotten that I have an electric blanket. This is probably about 8 years old (barely used) but has been in a cupboard for 6 years as when I moved in here, I packed it away and promptly forgot about it! Grrrrrr! When I think how last year I was going to bed with more clothes on than during the day, and still shivering myself to sleep! :cool: Thicko!

Anyroadup, presumably, the blanket will be pretty much as good as new...? Any advice gratefully received.

And, given that I now have a toasty duvet under me as well as over me, where would I put the blanket if the temperature drops drastically this winter? Do I take off the trusty under duvet or should I just put the leccy blanket on top of it?

Many thanks in anticipation of yet more words of wisdom

Lavvy x

P.S. I've been given a star. Don't know why, but I'm well chuffed :rotfl:

Confuzzled

brrr it's cold here tonight, well, at least according to the weather

it's 2C but the realfeel is -9 and from what i can hear of the howling wind and beating rain outside i can believe it!

inside it's a lovely 18.3C with NO heat on! gosh i love my wasteful neighbour downstairs!

i also have my duvet over my lap and we've used some hotwater bottles today so i've actually been very very toasty and comfy all day despite the weather

wasn't one of the paid services predicting pretty bad weather today? guess they were right! stay warm everyone

annie123

This week last year temperatures here in London were between 1c and -5c, and we had snow :eek:
Todays high is 11c, my bank account and I are very grateful long may this continue.

Pleased the newspapers have stopped going on about Siberia weather due. It does nothing but scare some people.
I was talking to an elderly neighbour and those reports of that sort of thing from October onwards had really frightened him, he's still paying for last winters fuel bill and said he was ready to end his days if it happened again this year. :eek:
He'd got through the bitter winters in the war years and 62/63 but he had an open fire then and said you could burn any sort of carp to keep warm and of course he was younger and didn't feel the cold.

I had a quick look around his flat last night to see if anything else could be done to insulate it and will be providing some fleeces for the curtains in 2 rooms, and a few other bits.
If you have an elderly neighbour, do pop in now to see if you could help to prepare them for winter. What may be obvious to us isn't to them or their home helps, social services, etc.
My neighbour had never heard of fleeces for example! That would be a better headline in the papers 'The many uses of fleeces and bubblewrap for the winter' much more practical

prepareathome

No elderly neighbours by me, if they think of me at all I will be at 55 be classed as the elderly neighbour :rotfl::rotfl: One by one all my elderly neighbours have either died or gone into homes and their houses have been sold on, and either bought or rented by younger families. We're the oldies on the block. I wonder if any of them will knock to check we are ok when it gets cold, bet I am better prepared than any of them :rotfl::rotfl:

Toonie

Well, I'm in and settled...well settled-ish. My friend and I got a lovely 2 bedroom house with a garden and it's newly double glazed, has a combi boiler (never had one of those before) and is carpeted. It's a lovely little house and the central heating system is new too. We've got a lot of sorting out to do, but we feel at home already, neither of us had trouble getting to sleep our first night. One thing I need to figure out is the boiler. What temperature should the water and heating be on? When we moved in we had to turn on the system and the display said 50 for both...I don't know what it should be, but I have noticed that at "50" the radiators don't heat up much.

Also, not sure how to set the timer properly as the mornings have been chilly, could do with a bit of warmth at 6am.

I also need to go out tomorrow and buy a bed (been sleeping on a folding bed). I've never been out to buy my own bed before. I'm a bit perplexed by all the options...metal, wood frame? Divan? I don't know. Any advice? I've only ever slept on wooden slated frames before, so don't know what the others are like. I don't have a great deal of money to spend (well it's my savings) but I do want something decent, at least to support my back (sciatica).