Preparing for winter III

rosieben

Frugal wrote: »

Thank you - I will let my 'friend' know. Optician or shrink you say... Nice

they aren't the most polite person on this board, are they? :rotfl:
not just on this thread either if you look at their other posts, I suspect maybe an AI rather than a newbie

tugrin

In theory you can just build a wigwam typ construction of wood and kindling and it should burn rather like a campfire but it might take a bit to get it going - have you got firelighters - I find those ESSENTIAL when lighting fires or stoves. I know there a clever people who take pride in just using paper and kindling but I recognised my shortcomings in that area years ago. Dont see why the barbie plus log wouldnt work but it wont really look lik a real fire I think - but it may surprise you! Go for it!!
Yes Rosie - I thought that was unecessarily rude too - it sort of felt like someone just barging into our house and shouting at us - howver we will rise above that sort of thing!

Fruball

rosieben wrote: »

they aren't the most polite person on this board, are they? :rotfl:
not just on this thread either if you look at their other posts, I suspect maybe an AI rather than a newbie

LOL Quite!

I have had a couple of PMs re said 'newbie'

Rose_Crow

toottifrootti wrote: »

gr.w.nv the thunsulate gloves look ok - have you thought about the USB fingerless gloves - someone on here mentioned them - you can get them on ebay - very toasty if you are on your pc a lot.

toots x

Toots - thanks they sound scrummy, will go on an ebay mission in a min, see if I can find them.

I just have to say - I've sorted the hay problem! I am so relieved as it's been a weight on my mind for a while now. It's being delivered on Monday and we should have more than enough for the two girls. I even got a free bag of Hi-Fi Lite for Rosie as the shop was running a promotion where if someone recommends the delivery service to someone else, they get a £10 voucher and the noob (me) gets a free (£10) bag of feed. Obviously roped my friend in so she's well chuffed as she got £10 for doing nothing!

To celebrate, I'm migrating my list to this new thread, and actually have something to cross off of it! Woohoo!

House / Other

[STRIKE]Get salt / grit for steps[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Buy cover for outside furniture[/STRIKE]
Get boiler serviced - Quotes obtained, waiting for payday
Have rads replaced in bedroom and bathroom - Booked in
Fix gutter at front of house - Don't have a ladder long enough, and if we could borrow one, we don't have a suitable car to transport it
Buy draught excluders
Possible curtain for front door
[STRIKE]Buy blind for bathroom[/STRIKE]
Finish painting windows (2 down, 3 to go!)
[STRIKE]Paint fence / shed / decking[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Buy hot water bottle
Add extra insulation to loft
Buy Yaktrax[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Buy USB heated fingerless gloves[/STRIKE]

Car

Buy 4 new tyres (very cheap and nasty ones when I bought car = very slippery in rain!)
Buy glow plugs and change - bit of a nightmare, managed to change 1 of 3 successfully, but broke the other 2, need to order more

Horses

Send rugs to be washed - change of plan, only one really needs washing, so will send that in at the weekend
[STRIKE]Buy hay[/STRIKE] :j
[STRIKE]Get outdoor coat zip fixed[/STRIKE]
Buy welly liners
[STRIKE]Buy soft hay replacer feed for old girl[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Buy lo-cal chaff for fat pony[/STRIKE] - £FREE :j
[STRIKE]Buy and install remaining electric fence rings to protect rugs from fence damage[/STRIKE] (my horses are hooligans and don't understand that rugs cost money!!)

Fruball

tugrin wrote: »

In theory you can just build a wigwam typ construction of wood and kindling and it should burn rather like a campfire but it might take a bit to get it going - have you got firelighters - I find those ESSENTIAL when lighting fires or stoves. I know there a clever people who take pride in just using paper and kindling but I recognised my shortcomings in that area years ago. Dont see why the barbie plus log wouldnt work but it wont really look lik a real fire I think - but it may surprise you! Go for it!!
Yes Rosie - I thought that was unecessarily rude too - it sort of felt like someone just barging into our house and shouting at us - howver we will rise above that sort of thing!

I like that. Very true!

and darn it - i forgot firelighters... I can usually build a good fire with only paper and kindling but I don't have really good kindling yet...

rising_from_the_ashes

tugrin wrote: »

have you got firelighters - I find those ESSENTIAL when lighting fires or stoves. I know there a clever people who take pride in just using paper and kindling but I recognised my shortcomings in that area years ago.

This has made me chuckle - I remember when I first moved into the cottage and my neighbours were showing me how to lay and light a fire (didn't have a clue).

Of course, having done it for years, there was 1 firelighter and about 3 bits of kindling and a couple of scrunched bits of newspaper in theirs - and it lit first time, no problem.

When I tried it, the *£$&* thing just kept dying...... for the first couple of months I had to use about 1/2 pack of firelighters, a whole newspaper and lots of kindling to get mine going!:o

I did eventually get the hang of it and manage to cut down a lot but never managed with HM firelighters etc.

Fruball

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

This has made me chuckle - I remember when I first moved into the cottage and my neighbours were showing me how to lay and light a fire (didn't have a clue).

Of course, having done it for years, there was 1 firelighter and about 3 bits of kindling and a couple of scrunched bits of newspaper in theirs - and it lit first time, no problem.

When I tried it, the *£$&* thing just kept dying...... for the first couple of months I had to use about 1/2 pack of firelighters, a whole newspaper and lots of kindling to get mine going!:o

I did eventually get the hang of it and manage to cut down a lot but never managed with HM firelighters etc.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Love it!!!

notjustlaura

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Meant to ask yesterday as the 2 bags of dog food arrived ... do you think it'll be OK to store the "emergency" bag in the garage?

I'd be wary of putting a bag of dog food in the garage unless you can find a tough plastic container with a lid to put it in. My mum was storing a maize-based cat litter in her garage last year - mice made a hole in the plastic bag and ... well - you can guess the rest!

abwsco

notjustlaura wrote: »

I'd be wary of putting a bag of dog food in the garage unless you can find a tough plastic container with a lid to put it in. My mum was storing a maize-based cat litter in her garage last year - mice made a hole in the plastic bag and ... well - you can guess the rest!

We had mice eat through the bottom of a plastic dustbin. Metal bins are really the best for storing any feed.

rising_from_the_ashes

abwsco wrote: »

We had mice eat through the bottom of a plastic dustbin. Metal bins are really the best for storing any feed.

:eek: Oh no - was it a heavy duty outside bin or an inside one? Maybe it's not such a great idea then:(

Will have a shuffle in the wee room tomorrow and see if I can squeeze it in - if not, I'll have to take my chances with the bin.....