Preparedness for when

betony

mardatha wrote: »

I wouldn't pay £14 either but might just pay £7
My son once rented a gorgeous house, a lodge for a big estate near here. It had 1881 carved above the door and tiny beautiful cast iron fireplaces in each bedroom. In the livingroom was a big black cast iron fireplace with a wee box for a kettle to sit on at one side of the fire, and a built-in oven at the other. The oven door was done in highly shiny earthenware brown tiles - like those Brown Betty teapots that you get. Inside the oven were 2 shelves and a wire basket thing at the bottom - I found out that is for drying logs. It was perfect. Smallish fire so didnt take tons of coal, but it heated the water/dried the wood/cooked the dinner/made you tea - all at once! I just bet some smartass yuppy type has "renovated" it and put in ugly storage radiators that go off in the powercuts lol.

I grew up in a pit village in the north east 30+ years ago and can remember my nanna living in a council house - a council house, mark you- that had a similar sort of fire, with a grid for boiling a kettle and a little oven to the side. Presumably, all of the council houses in the village originally had the same, though the one that we lived in had had the sitting room fire 'modernised' with an electric one. The kitchen/dining room, however had an open fire and I can remember the large, brown kettle that Dad boiled to fill our hot water bottles in the winter. No central heating then, we sometimes used to wake up to frost on the inside of the windows

Those same council houses now have electric-controlled gas combi-boilers; totally useless in a power cut.

Progress, eh? :rotfl:

mardatha

Yes, you canny beat progress Now our neighbours have storage heaters -all electric house- we have powercuts frequently and bad winters, and these heaters are controlled from somewhere else, you cant turn them up... so while it might be balmy and mild 1000ft lower down in the control room, the neighbours are huddled in 6 woolly jumpers and 3 prs of socks - but it's her own fault - she thinks coal is "dirty" :rotfl:

grandma247

2tonsils ((hugs)) Are you able to rent out a room as a holiday let or even do house swap so you could come over here for doctors and medicine trips?
Maybe think about renting the house out for holidays? There are still people who are able to go on holiday.

betony

Mardatha you can't even make toast on a storage heater. Or a combi-boiler for that matter.

*thinks wistfully of holding a toasting fork with a slice of home made bread on the end over a real fire*

mardatha

I think that's one good prep that people should do if they can, although I know many can't. If you've got any open fires in your house then look into the cost of opening up the chimneys and re- using them. It might cost at first but if you lived where there is wood then you could just Put off the heating and use the one room as a cosy den. Up here, landlowners will let you take fallen wood - it helps them anyway. You get people with chainsaws in lay bys lol cutting up huge bits of trees.

westcoastscot

vanoonoo wrote: »

really really dont want to end up in a political debate but my personal opinion is that as long as we are not in the euro we might be ok but there is much intervention needed in the plans of our coalition government. ugh.

No me neither, and that was my understanding - just wondered what those who are better read on this thought.

Mar its the same here, we have a solid fuel/wood burning stove which heats the radiators and water, but most of the other houses have had to go electric through the HA. Stupid really considering where we live - suspect I shall be feeding the street this year

meme30

I was a child in the pre-central heating days.
We were all bathed on Sunday nights and dressed for bed in front of the living room fire. This was the only heat in the house. Then it was a quick scamper up the stairs (past the bears I always imagined lived there!?) :pand diving into a cold bed, always flannelette sheets and sometimes a hot water bottle! Winter windows were always covered in ice on the inside and I do remember my Dad putting a tiny oil lamp thingy under the toilet to stop the water freezing in the pipes.:(
My lovely FiL never got out of the habit of getting dressed/undressed in front of the fire. He used to keep his PJ's in the warm cupboard next to the chimney breast and I can remember walking in on him and getting told "Eee pet. I'm still in me linings!" I think they were his long johns...I beat a hasty retreat!:rotfl:

westlothianlass

Hi all
A big hug to all our new prepping peeps:T
We still have open fires in the house. The one in the living room has an iron oven built in next to the fire, we played around a few years ago making bread but I haven't looked in it since. I think it might need to go on to the ever expanding list of things to do.
However before we use the fire properly we need to do some repairs to the chimney (scaffolding has been purchased though, much to OH's delight:D) just waiting on the weather being okay, we may have a long wait....
The open fire in our bedroom is fine which is very handy when we have power cuts but we have closed off the one in DS's room, as the draft was immense and his wee tootsies got cold:rotfl:.
I have to remind myself when the house is covered in soot/dust etc that they are handy in winter:o.

Looking round the garden today and we have a rhubarb forest so really need to get domesticated and make some jam and chutney,
hope everyone has a lovely day
Hugs x WLL

D&DD

WLL if you have any apricots or raspberries to hand/frozen both rhubarb and apricot jam, and rhubarb and raspberry are lovely

I must take some cuttings of my gooseberry,jostaberry and blackcurrants this year,christ only knows where I'll put more plants but I don't think you can go wrong with fruits..
If you only have space for a few pots even most will grow quite happily in containers.

Prepping today consists of dehydrating toms,laminating some more lists I found for DS3,and rejigging the freezers again as somehow my dire looking blackberry bushes have produced a shedload again..I've not got enough jars left to bottle any just yet and resisting the urge to buy yet more!

Fay/Grandma I know there was something I wanted to ask you re canning but can't for the life of me remember what it was :rotfl:

Hope everyone has a great day XX

prepareathome

mardatha wrote: »

I think that's one good prep that people should do if they can, although I know many can't. If you've got any open fires in your house then look into the cost of opening up the chimneys and re- using them. It might cost at first but if you lived where there is wood then you could just Put off the heating and use the one room as a cosy den. Up here, landlowners will let you take fallen wood - it helps them anyway. You get people with chainsaws in lay bys lol cutting up huge bits of trees.

I have to get chimney sweep out, been saying it for years to check them as doubt HA will although as the bedroom fireplaces are open I guess technically they should check them. Living room has the horrible gas fire. I phoned a sweep firm they quoted me £45 to remove the horrible gas fire, cap off the gas( corgi registered) and clean the chimney and check if its safe and £40 each to clean the bedroom ones and check if they are safe to use. Is this good or not?

I could have had horrible gas fire removed when they put in the CH but they said they couldn't leave it open so would have bricked it all up so told them leave it. It is hidden behind a lovely fine mesh cast iron spark guard I picked up in Lidl for £16 last year, I was really pleased at the quality and the price, before that I had a big picture sitting in fireplace, looked daft but better than gas fire on show. Before we moved in they had removed both back boiler and fireplace so I bought one and son helped me attach it to wall and bought the proper base,forget what its called plus fender and marble to lay over it. So that is at least done.

Bedrooms still have their grates thankfully. Cannot measure fireplace in living room for a grate until gas fire has gone. I know the chimney is clear as when HA do gas safety check they put a smoke bomb in through the hole where gas fire sits on wall, but not sure of its condition.

If you think price is good then will hopefully book them for end of month or whenever after that they can fit me in. We do still have a few people round here who use their coal fire,you can smell it and I love the smell. If do get fireplace up and running might be cheeky and knock at one of the houses and ask where they get their coal from. Where to store that coal that is the question, would the old type metal or even plastic bins that used to be what we had for rubbish be suitable do you think as coal cupboard was taken out to extend the kitchen ( it was 9ft long, 4 ft wide and 12ft high with walls 9 ins thick).

A couple of houses we have lived in, in past had coal fire as only heating and only way to heat water so not unused to them and we had coal fire at home till I was 15.

Thanks