Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

That looks like a useful gadget, BB, where did you find that?

Do you mean the solar charger?

It's available from Amazon, for £20

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-powered-battery-charger-Camelion-Charger/dp/B0029T70CQ/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1383574353&sr=8-13&keywords=Solar+battery+charger

ragz_2

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I suspect she has, at least, a third and fourth owner.

In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised, if she's homed and fed by the entire street.

Have you read 'Six Dinner Sid?' - probably not as it's a children's book, but it's about a cat... who is very contented with his many owners and 6 meals a day, until he gets a cough. You can guess the rest. Very funny, I love reading it.

Have had the heating on twice, for about 30 minutes each time, so far this 'winter'.

DH seems to be prepping Gold bars, we have a stack of about 10 packs in the storecupboard. Everytime he goes shopping, more appear...

betterlife

ragz i thought you meant real gold bars then lol, there on offer in coop at mo, very nice they are x

jk0

cornishchick wrote: »

PP I watched that, and wondered how to do a draft/air tight test diy style.
any Ideas?

The thing is that you don't want to seal up your house too tight unless you have one of those air handlers, or you will get mould.

I have this with tenants from hot countries. They find the UK cold, so never open the window, and have the heating set at 30 degrees. The result is a mouldy flat.

I have taken to confiscating the shutters from the window trickle vents.

GreyQueen

ragz wrote: »

Have you read 'Six Dinner Sid?' - probably not as it's a children's book, but it's about a cat... who is very contented with his many owners and 6 meals a day, until he gets a cough. You can guess the rest. Very funny, I love reading it.

I've read Six Dinner Sid several times to a friend's small boy and roared with laughter; that was an author who really knew his cats.

jk0 wrote: »

The thing is that you don't want to seal up your house too tight unless you have one of those air handlers, or you will get mould.

I have this with tenants from hot countries. They find the UK cold, so never open the window, and have the heating set at 30 degrees. The result is a mouldy flat.

I have taken to confiscating the shutters from the window trickle vents.

We have problems of the same kind in council homes. Tenants complain the place is going mouldy, we send surveyors, find that the place is sealed up tight as a drum 24/7 even in summer and the heating on full whack. Don't think we can confiscate the covers off the tricke vents, tho.

I've read that your internal temperature is set by where you grew up so perhaps this is why our tenants from hot countries always feel unpleasantly cold even indoors. One of my pals, whose grandparents emigrated from UK to Africa, and who emigrated back in her thirties, feels the same way. Her work-around is thin longjohns and undershirt pretty much 12 months of the year.

I admit to being a fresh air fiend. My flat is so small that mould is an ever-present risk, simply because of the ratio of warm producing things (me breathing, cooking, dish-washing, bathing) to the volume of air. I have the windows open as much as possible. Only ever had mould once and that was on a party wall which was being wetted by a water leak in the flat on the other side. Surveyor tracked the problem and the other flat was repaired and all resolved here. He did also tell me that the fact that one side of Shoebox Towers, inc my flat, faces the river affects the damp risk on that side of the building, despite the river being 50 yards away.

I spend a lot of time booking repairs on council homes and could I just say that slow, covert leaks from plumbing, particularly kitchen plumbing, are very common. They can cause a lot of stealthy damage such as rotting undersink cupboards and flooring. So keep an eye on such places to make sure that things aren't going awry.

I have my dry cleaning products such as washing powders and soda crystals and bicarb decanted into repurposed milk bottles so that if there is a leak under the sink, they'll be OK. It also stops them clumping and makes them easier to dispense.

Prepping and good housekeeping run nicely in tandem, don't you think?

vanoonoo

thanks everyone for your kind words of support - it's a really horrible decision to have to make, for sure, but I know it's the ultimate kindness, I couldnt put her through more testing and confinement and misery with no potential improvement, she was very very unhappy.

with the idea to switch to raw feed for pets - taking GQ's idea of fish first, would old cat eat tuna? if you could try cat on cooked meats and fish first you may be able to slowly integrate raw then switch completely. also try minced/diced as it might be a texture thing. tripe is popular with dog owner community but dont know if it's suitable for cats. my pets in my adult life have all been fed dry food so I'm not really that knowledgable on wet and raw, only by what I've read on forums x

mardatha

Nevis and Cairngorm webcams are showing lots of snow, winter's coming. Loads (hundreds) of geese going south over me all day yesterday. KNIT & PREP lol

Memory_Girl

A huge amount just went honking south over our house right now - family thermals are in the wash ready for a cold snap.

Here's where we see how the winter preps stand up.

Elaine

GreyQueen

I haven't seen/ heard a massive flyover of geese yet but have had a few coming across the city towards dusk and going downriver towards the marshy ground. I think they must rest up there overnight and take off again in the morning.

If you're in the right place at the right time, you can see the sky full of the V formations of flying geese and the sound is incredible. I saw it last year coming back from the lottie one afternoon at twilight and had to stop the bike to admire them. There was about 5 skeins of geese flying simultaneously and they filled the sky, all heading (further) south. The sound of them all honking together was incredible.

We don't get a lot of snow this far south and the last bad go-round was Dec 2010. Lots of CH boilers were malfunctioning and I remember fraught calls from our tenants and equally fraught ones from me to our CH engineers. The supply chain for some parts was originating in Scotland and the answer the engineers gave me as to when the repair could be done was whenever a lorry can slither down from Scotland with the parts.

It only takes a little entirely seasonable weather to reveal the weaknesses of a JIT supply chain. Gawd help us all if we ever have a re-run of the severe winters of 1947 and 62-63. I've heard first hand accounts of living thru both and it was pretty grim.

jk0

Your posts are interesting and informative as usual GQ.

Regarding the boiler parts, would it be worth suggesting to the council that they keep a stock of common parts for the boilers in their properties?

(I do the same to a lesser extent with a few storage heater spares and immersion thermostats.)