Preparing for winter III

prepareathome

I have a calar gas heater, used to use it to warm up up stairs before bed before CH and its got about half a cannister I reckon left and its still sitting upstairs in hall ready for use if needed (CD monitor just beside it lol) Have oil lamps, wind up lanterns, candles, wall sconce's and candle sticks to hold them, gas hob and if that goes off a flat camping stove and rather a lot of the gas canisters as we went a year without a cooker and although I did buy a mini kitchen ( oven with two hot plates on top) to use I didn't like the hot plates so used the camping stove, well two of them to cook on ( was getting a new fitted kitchen and wanted a hob and wall mounted oven hence me not buying a cooker). Mind gone blank as tiredness is hitting, maybe it will be Monday I go shopping after all - but still want ideas please.

rising_from_the_ashes

PAH - is your power likely to go off / how would you cook if so?

Ours is fairly likely to go off when the weather's really bad (but somehow didn't on Thursday!), so I did my emergency stocks on a worst case basis of having to cook on the camping stove - in torchlight! so went for easy things like pasta & sauces, soups, savoury rice etc.

If you're in a city where it's less likely to go off / get fixed quickly if it does, then you can probably be a lot more adventurous (sp?) than this!

HTH

mama67

rosieben wrote: »

its worth a look at Nectar's list of stores - I lost points on a big electrical purchase from Currys a while ago because I didn't know they were part of the scheme

I think if you sign up for the Nectar toolbar a flash comes accross any site which you can go through nectar to, also get points for using said toolbar as a search tool. hth

lizzyb1812

tugrin - re the marks, try an eraser, WD40 or toothpaste - these aare suggestions for getting rubber sole marks off floors.

prepareathome - I stocked up by looking at my last few menu plans, ie what would I need to repeat them. Don't forget condiments etc and things to cook with like flour, sugar, stock cubes, that sort of thing. Toiletries and cleaning products - collect all these together in one place before stocking up, I bet you'll be surprised how much you have

mardatha

I saw that report on the BBC as well, that couple were moaning their faces off that they had no power and yet they looked ok to me
CAN I ASK, has anybody got a genny ? We are thinking of one for the freezer. Our longest powercut last into the 5th day and we had to claim off Scottish Power. i would hate that to happen again as the freezer is bulging at the seams now.

Fruball

Kittie - I have also been thinking about what I would do with no heating/hot water/electricity...

We can cook on the open fire if needs be, and I also have a gas cannister stove so I can also use that.

Hot water, more of a problem but can use the above to heat small quantities.

Light will be candles, wind up torches and wind up lanterns.

The only real thing I see being an issue is bathing, altho we can wash with water warmed by the fire/on the camping stove. Plus I have a can of MrT Dry Shampoo so we can get by with that for a few days

I am lucky that where I live isn't rural and we rarely get many problems with powercuts etc, altho thats not to say we won't!!! I feel really comfortable knowing I am prepared and can feed us, keep us warm etc even in the face of adversity.

ps - Was thinking about this earlier... Worth keeping a loo roll in the car
Have mentioned before but for smokers, keep a spare pack plus lighter in the car!

rising_from_the_ashes

Thanks Frugal - meant to put a loo roll into my emergency car bag after seeing the news the other morning (3 days food & water mentioned, but no loo roll:eek: and just can't see people managing to hang on that long:eek::eek::eek:) but had totally forgotten about it.

Will try to pluck up the courage to venture outside again .... it's freezing out there (too cold to snow atm, although a few miles up the road, it's apparently awful so may be headed our way)

mardatha

And there is life without a twice daily shower - use a face cloth and have a quick cats lick on the bits that show
Dishes can be done with a kettleful of hot water. You can go walks - heats you up and improves your mood no end.

rising_from_the_ashes

Now ... I really must go and do something useful - like take up my fleece lined Crag*hoppers trousers so many of us got at a bargain price a while ago.

I did try them this morning but they were unfortunately still a bit too long even with my hiking boots on......

poohbear59

mardatha, I totally agree. It is quite amazing what we can live without. Especially the twice daily shower. Last year we had to accept that we were all in the same boat in this house and had to live with it. I am sure none of us were smelly.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement to be better organised for Winter. I now have full cupboards thanks to SIL who went shopping fpr me yesterday. My secondary glazing arrived today so when I have a bit of assistance from DS1 I will get it put onto the windows. I even ordered a replacement door for the living room as the wind howls through the sides and DS2 is going to fit it next week.

One thing I am not sure how to prepare for is our mains water freezing. Last year we had 19 very long days with no running water. A friend has suggested that we always keep the tap nearest to the stopcock running but that is such a massive waste of water.Any ideas?


List of things still need to do:
Buy candles and nightlights
Hire wood splitter
Prepare cars for Winter
buy extra sledges for getting things to the house
Buy another snow shovel
Make door snakes
Find and fill gaps in hall wall
Get DD to buy 4 bags kindling
Buy cold and flu remedies


I know I am way behind in my planning. I thin k I was in denial this year.