Preparing for winter III

[Deleted User]

I am loving this thread

tugrin, that was fantastic, you must be so happy re your drain clearing

rachbc, our stove is wood pellet and was designed by an italian male so there is no facility to warm anything on top and it needs electricity to work

mardatha, lol that was plan B, ie cold food and a warm room and I also saw that couple with the gas hob and coal fire. Doh, I even said to dh about the people without either of those. Bbc gets up my nose at times

I can`t think of any way to get electricity to a freezer except by a generator, which would have to be outside the house. Mine is bulging too and I`ve just checked house insurance and it is covered. It would only last a day without electric, I suppose. Fingers crossed, the energy companies did a good job last year in most areas so it would take a lot of adverse stuff to knock the power off. Sil works in RR and they are told to cut energy consumption if there is a risk to the overall supply, I think industry has to reduce first and then us

Becky_2

Finally I have caught up with this interesting thread. Hope you are all safe now when it has turned colder. In the south west it's cold but sunny.

We store some of our food in a cupboard on wheels in the snug and 2 weeks ago when I opened the cupboard a mouse had bitten a hole in our monkey nut bag and a bag of cranberries, these went in the bin. It suddenly occured to me that the cupboard is not completely sealed underneath so now all the food in that cupboard have now been moved to a sealed cupboard that I now keep locked at all times in case the mouse returns. We think it must have entered in to our snug from the cupboard under the stairs, in there we have have put up 2 traps but since we moved all the food we have seen no sign of the mouse. I have definetely learn my lesson and will in the future be careful where I store food!

rising_from_the_ashes

I'm so glad it wasn't just me that was a bit annoyed about the power bit on the news last night - I do know how awful it is when it goes off .... but with a fire & gas hob you're so much better off than many.

Mardatha DP have a generator - it's honestly fab and I feel so much better knowing they will have some heat etc.

They got a bit of compensation after the 8 day outage and put this towards the generator as DF said he never wanted to go through that again.

I don't know an awful lot about it - it's not hugely powerful (I think these ones are really expensive) but it does run the central heating & hot water controller, power the fridges & freezers (3) and I think can run the odd light or two as well. It runs on petrol (or diesel) - certainly something from the filling station.

DM said the other night they'd got it out and started it up etc (been lying since last winter) to make sure it was working fine.

Whoever designed heating controllers etc to not work without electricity is a numpty (trying to be polite here!) - what's the point of gas or oil if the beeping controller won't work!

ETA: Kittie I know most house insurance policies will cover freezer loss (please check everyone), however, depending on where you are, it could be a disaster to lose the food supplies in the winter which is why many people go down the generator route. Last year DP didn't have rubbish collections for 7 weeks as the lorries couldn't get down the road and didn't manage to get out themselves for over 4 weeks so the freezer really is a lifeline.

Sunnyday

Well i can confirm that the winter lined craghoppers are stunning :D

Mine are just a bit too long too so i tucked them into my socks when i went out with the woofaloes earlier. Yaktrax have also had their first airing and i`m really pleased with those too :j

The temperature outside is back up to 2 degrees now so the ice has mostly melted, there are blobs all down the driveway from when the cars had to be scraped this morning that haven't melted away though. DH made his toast this morning and then sat in the car to eat it so that he could thaw it out lol. I couldn`t get in mine at all as the door was frozen shut and the key wouldn`t go into the lock. I went back in to get the lock deicer spray that i got from the pound shop ages ago, think that will live in my bag for a while now.

Looks like its going to be another cold one, i`ve just covered the outside table in a groundsheet so that i can feed the birds on it, I noticed that some of the bigger birds that visited earlier struggled getting onto the birdtable so i`m using the big one again like i did last year, it never got covered up last year and was a bu**er to clean.

In fact i`m off back outside in a mo as i`ve just remembered that i need to drag some rubber sheeting up the garden and put it over some of the paving slabs towards the steps, little old doggie struggles with these now so hopefully that will make it easier for him, if he thinks he will slip he will turn around and walk backwards DH said that he was doing this on the paths in the park last night :rotfl: Bet he got some strange looks:rotfl:

The longest that we have been without power is just over two days and we were fine. The heating won't work but we have a gas cooker in the kitchen and a gas kettle too so not much different from normal really, the pots can be washed with a kettlefull of water and so can we. I have lots of candles and a couple of torches and a lantern so we just sat and read books. It was surprisingly nice and very peaceful

I can`t for the life of me remember whether or not we got the gas fire to work or not, its got an electronic ignition thingy so maybe not as its enclosed in glass, well its half a fire really as the back boiler is behind it lol

Anyhow i need to get wrapped up again and venture down the rather horrible boggy garden :eek:

Tugrin - Great to see that your drains are clear, i`ve been wondering if you had managed to get them sorted all day.

SD

tugrin

Becky - I love the iea that you have to keep the cupboard locked - your mice must be like the Pixar ones!
Where oh where can you get cheap candle sconces from peeps???? I would love 2 or 3 in the sitting room as I tink there is less likelihood of accidents with them. Let me know your secret supplier! I dont think Past Times do them anymore and ebay seems to be full of antique stuff that is priced ridiculously.

prepareathome

My shopping List so far

Loo Roll - only got 18 Rolls unopened ( 2 x 9) + 1 in use and 1 on stand
Sugar - white only got 2 1kg bags ( I get twitchy when staples get that low and that is a staple, hubby would not be worth living with without his two heaped teaspoons in tea and heaped desert spoon full on his breakfast - no matter what that is)
Teabags - only got about 600
Sophie ( Madam) ( dog food trays) - need to buy about 30 ( enough for a month)
Pixie and Tysons ( dog food trays) - need to buy about 10 ) they have a small amount every day so they can have their plaque off, no good on dried food, they eat any wet food put in front of them unlike Madam who will only eat her beef and veg Mr S own
Fishy - our extra large goldfish who was put in a pond in the garden for a two months then in the October I felt it was to cold and his pal had died so I felt he must be lonely so got a tank ( freecycle) and pump ( £27) gravel and plants and he has been inside ever since ( 4 1/2 yrs) - he needs more food less than half a tub ( a tub lasts him a year). At least if power goes off, so long as I can get fresh water I can keep him alive as he has not heat.
Water - I have 60 2lt bottles of water sitting outside back door as just no where else to put them, think I will get another 40 ( only put them out there in November before that downstair toilet could not be used as it was dumping ground for them.
FB Pies - only 3 now as hubby actually asked for one on Thursday night for tea - he just fancied a Minced Beef and Onion one
Stewed steak - tins -two have gone from stock - used on days I have not been up till tea time and at least with them can produce a nice stew/ steak dinner quickly
Tongue - tin - only had one in and I had it for my tea on Thursday night ( not fond of pies and hubby happily eats a whole one with some mash and veg
Condensed Milk - only two tins left, hubby likes it on his puds, I loathe the stuff
Evaporated Milk - thought I had some but nope and I want to make tablet
Unsalted butter - for tablet and fudge plus baking and just because I love a piece with it
Salted peanuts to make more peanut brittle ( hubby told me first lot tasted just like shop bought - the highest recomendation lol and I ate the packet I had in
More Dog treats - as far as dogs are concerned so long as those are in we can starve
Long Life/UHT Milk

Opps just remembered Tinned Beans, Tinned Spaghetti and Tomato soup for hubby. I buy one step up from basics with them as hubby doesn't like the basics although he is pretty good over most things there are about 7 things he doesn't like at basics level.

That's it for moment apart from fresh milk, we have ran out but using up the uht carton, hubby and I agreed we will have a rest and pop up to MR S later on, its open till 10 and if we go around 8 - 8.30pm when they do their final reductions we might just strike lucky - NOTE TO SELF do not buy any more meat you have enough in freezer to do at least 2 -3 months and its so full you had to almost sit on everything to get it closed when you added the meat today,
- well ok if its says sliced meat that can slide down the side but nothing else :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I have three very happy doggies at the moment, as the organic butcher had a big box of bones in front of his stall with a big sign saying don't forget your dogs, give them a christmas treat. Bones are about 15ins long and very thick and of course not free £1 each and he said they were roasted, but looked a bit raw to me, so bought them one each then threw them in the oven for an hour to fully cook, and boy are they enjoying them, not often they get bones as usually you only see small ones. Darn I did mean to ask if he had any bones for humans so I could do a meat soup. will pop to butchers on Monday and ask.

Right I have been awake 23 hrs so will leave dogs happily chewing and have a doze, I bet hubby is flat out on couch in front of TV with the darts on.

Oh Turgrin I told hubby what you said and I could see he was pleased, he is used to me moaning at him not praising him poor guy :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Still dry here, amazing, longest we have had without rain in weeks, nothing since the sleet before, maybe rain clouds are in a huff as it was sleet that came down not rain, long may it continue

Stay warm and well prepared folks

rising_from_the_ashes

Sunnyday wrote: »

I can`t for the life of me remember whether or not we got the gas fire to work or not, its got an electronic ignition thingy so maybe not as its enclosed in glass

Sounds a bit like mine as I also can't get it lit if the power's off (another great invention!).

I can leave it with the pilot light lit though which solves this problem - I personally hate doing this (worried about pets and the knob to turn it up) but I did put it on the other night just in case.

I've got a big old fashioned water jug with dried flowers in at the other side of my fireplace and think I may see if I can get this in front of the controller to protect it from flying cats ..... would be really, really p#d off with a power cut & a gas fire sitting there unable to be used!


Haven't managed to get the trousers taken up yet - might have to take them to DMs tomorrow (if the weather's OK) as I'd forgotten that the loss of my kitchen table means I've nowhere to put my sewing machine .....:eek:

prepareathome

tugrin wrote: »

Becky - I love the iea that you have to keep the cupboard locked - your mice must be like the Pixar ones!
Where oh where can you get cheap candle sconces from peeps???? I would love 2 or 3 in the sitting room as I tink there is less likelihood of accidents with them. Let me know your secret supplier! I dont think Past Times do them anymore and ebay seems to be full of antique stuff that is priced ridiculously.

Have a look in 99p shops if you have any, I got some lovely black mirrored ones in there last year, ( they had ten so guess who bought 10) they just hold on candle but because of the mirror they are brighter, the metal is not the strongest but a candle isn't heavy and they look good I have them along my hall wall. if not poundland, charity shops not sure where else, I would just look in any shop I passed.

I must get my past times ones up again, they are just sitting on treadle sewing machine table ( machine hides inside it) gathering dust.

I did see somewhere on how to make your own using a wire coathanger and a small candle stick, will see if I can find it or make one to show you, maybe try later after my doze..

prepareathome

Do you know I forgot about having the gas fire in the living room, its because its horrible and up till now not seen a nice firescreen so have a big picture standing in front of it which hides it completely. It works off the crystals so no need for electric and can be lit by a match, so of course have that for downstairs - come Monday I hope it will be hidden by the nice fire guard Lidl are selling for £16, as picture does look a bit daft sat in fireplace lol

Rising you mentioning the old fashioned water jug reminds me I have a fairly decent sized, but not full size jug and basin that sits on my bathroom window ledge, again bought because I like it but also because it could be used if no hot water in taps and jug could be filled and taken upstairs - hubby would still want to wash in bathroom, no matter how many journeys up and down it took to give him enough hot water - me I would take jug and basin into bedroom and imagine I am living in Victorian times - can move the furniture and light a fire in the fireplace - must dig the coal out from back of greenhouse just in case.

La-Cara

the weather outlook are also now warning of bad weather in the coming week http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twoother/latest.aspx