Preparing for winter III

Pooky

Congrats Nanny:T

Woke to a light dusting of the white stuff this morning, everything is still white and pretty and with temperatures not set to rise today I think it will be the nice frozen under blanket for what we are due to get this evening.

The birds were all sitting on the fence waiting for food this morning, they don't normally feed here until 2pmish so I've popped out lots of bread, seeds and nuts and they're all scrabbling around in the grass having a lovely time.

Noticed my water butt is brimful and only frozen at the top so will run off as much as I can into the drain before any snow we do get melts.....who ever fitted this water butt didn't put any sort of overflow in so it just gushes onto the bit of garden next to it and is causing damp in the conservatory....another job to add to the "when it's a bit warmer" list.

Beccatje

Congrats Nanny!! What wonderful news!

Winter has hit us here in HOlland with a vengeance. Last night record temps were measured at -22.8 Celsius!.
My washing came out of the machine in frozen clumps! Luckily machine is fine.. (phew)
there's a thick cover of snow, I have to give the chickens fresh water every few hours as it keeps freezing.. and the woodburner is going full steam.
We have enough coal, but wood not so much and i do find that burning wood keeps us warmer. Coal burns longer but the wood puts out more heat.
We do have central heating for back up so we won't freeze.

I"m off to do a little shop. Might take the dog sled, instead of slipping and sliding on the roads. :-)

prepareathome

[QUOTE=thenanny2die4;50772681
Big news - I'm a Granny. :j:j:j

Molly Maria was born at 10.50 last night. I'm a happy thing today. [/QUOTE]

Oh that is fantastic news - and I love her names, I adore Molly always wanted one of my daughters to have that name but hubby loathes it. She is a wee ray of sunshine now to keep your hearts warm.

Now thenanny you are a nanny ( will you be called that or grandma, I opted for grandma as that is what we called the only grandparent I knew, then mum wanted to be grandma so seemed right to me). My sons children call her mum nanny as that is what was used in her family.

Sending lots of love and congratulations to everyone, enjoy your present buying

nicki_2

Well despite my winter prep I've got my heating up at 25degC There's a problem with my boiler and the engineer said he can't fix it without being here when its not working but all he can tell me for sure is there is a slight dip in the gas pressure when the boiler kicks in :mad: However the dip shouldn't be enough to cause a problem. :mad: Since its intermitent and typically the boiler was working when he came out, I've been trying to keep track of when it happens and discovered that if the temp is set to say 18 (which is where I normally have it) and the heating is kicking in and then going off again the boiler 'faults' a lot. However, if I set the target temp to say 25 when I want it on and 14 when I don't then the heating kicks in with no problem *fingers crossed & touching wood* The only curve ball seems to be when we run hot water as that can make the boiler sulk and fault, yet not all the time. So while this cold weather is here, I'm just cranking up the heat instead to avoid multiple pointless engineer visits. Looks like I will be having a large gas bill

Fruball

I am soooooooooooooooooo stressed - Some of you might remember the 4/5 days I had no washing machine last winter as it froze up.

Well guess what?

I am sooooooooo mad. I am going on hols next week and only have 3 days to get everything sorted and now I have no damned WM.

I have put the TD on in there (energy bills :eek:) in the hope that that will defrost it - have poured hot water all over the pipes that I can get to and they are flexible so they can't be frozen solid... I hope its just the machine as the TD SHOULD eventually defrost it.

In the meantime I have poured so much water outside that it will be an ice rink tomorrow and Monday when I have to keep nipping out there to do all the washing... assuming I can get it going.

THIRZAH

Congratulations, Nanny. I became a grandma for the first time last year and it's lovely. My DD lives about 200 miles away but she emails me a photo each day and I go down as often as I can.

The snow has arrived in the Peak District.

Fruball

Frugal wrote: »

I am soooooooooooooooooo stressed - Some of you might remember the 4/5 days I had no washing machine last winter as it froze up.

Well guess what?

I am sooooooooo mad. I am going on hols next week and only have 3 days to get everything sorted and now I have no damned WM.

I have put the TD on in there (energy bills :eek:) in the hope that that will defrost it - have poured hot water all over the pipes that I can get to and they are flexible so they can't be frozen solid... I hope its just the machine as the TD SHOULD eventually defrost it.

In the meantime I have poured so much water outside that it will be an ice rink tomorrow and Monday when I have to keep nipping out there to do all the washing... assuming I can get it going.

Got it going but its packed up again - i've put an elec radiator in there and if it does the job, I will have to keep it on low until the bad weather passes :eek: Hate to think of the cost

Blue_Elephant

you know, i was just saying a couple of weeks ago that I'd done my preps for winter and how I hadn't needed to use them. Silly me!

I'm happy that I have my thermals and my wellies etc yes. But I realised today there was an even better prep I'd done. I've stopped "needing to go shopping" just as something to do. Once upon a time I would have felt I needed to go into town to shop for nothing in particular. Now I can stay inside all warm and cosy in my slanket

alice-mary

Well, it's 0 degrees here but no forecast of snow for us so....... I will put my snow shovel back up in the loft and wait for the white stuff to arrive!;)

Alice
xx
P.S. CONGRATULATIONS to nanny2die4, welcome Molly Maria xxx

Alisonpennypincher

We are forecast snow in Northampton! It is due tonight according to the BBC and Pitsford weather but could be followed by sleet/rain so not sure what we'll wake up too.

APP x