Preparedness for when

ALIBOBSY

GreyQueen wrote: »

Interesting post, thriftwizard.

I've never lived anywhere nearly as remote as Dartmoor but we did spend our earliest years in an early 17th century cottage with very thick walls. Dad and I had a "walk" online around the one next door to what was ours (we rented it) and compared how ours was, back in the day, to this expensively-improved one.

Our cottage had originally been one room downstairs with a large fireplace at one end, a staircase at the other with a larder underneath. Staircase went around a tight bend and into main bedroom, smaller bedroom off the main room and a sort of ladder/ stair into a fully-boarded attic with a window in the gable end.

At some point it had acquired a grown-on kitchen under a catslide roof but there was no bathroom when we had it, and the only plumbing was a cold tap in the kitchen, and the only heating the one fire.

I was born there and so was kid bruv. We're both wintertime babies. The folks used to keep me downstairs with them until they went up to bed, me in the carrycot and then just put the carrycot into my cot. I was never a sickly snotty child, either. We moved not long after kid bruv was born when we got a council house. That was much bigger and much colder but it did have indoor plumbing. Luxury or wot?

Mind you, that cottage only cost £1 old money a week when Dad earned £16 a week. You can buy the one next door, mucho improved, for £350,000.............!

I think a lot of modern housing is appalling and won't be able to be retro-fitted for more sensible living such as woodburners. When we pass the era of affordable gas (give it a couple of months) people will be left with leaky boxes made of ticky tacky.

Enjoy Pete Seegar's Little Boxes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlSpc87Jfr0

Proof positive that devastating social commentary can be delivered in a non-aggressive way.

My kids used to laugh at me when I sang "little boxes" to them when they were small lol.

I suspect most of us on here are those who have realised the futility and pointlessness of the "little boxes", TBH all the little boxes would now be magnolia and empty all day whilst the people were out desperately chasing the acquisition of money to buy themselves a bigger box lol.

I am beginning to think had I been born 20 years earlier I would have been a hippy .

Ali x

RAS

thriftwizard wrote: »

I grew up on the edge of Dartmoor. Our village was cut off from the rest of the world, apart from a couple of helicopter food/medicine drops, for 6 weeks in '62-'63.

thrift; we were "neighbours" at the time (well we were off the A30 as it skirted round the top of Dartmoor).

We had no running water in the house for 6 weeks; but one of the springs feeding a cattle trough at the top of the farm continued to flow throughout, so we had a third to a half a churn of potable water every day. And the larder was full; mum had lived through '47. I suspect the only issues would have been meat and bread as she usually bought those from the touring vans. There would however have been loads of flour in the house.

Those cob walls and thatch certainly helped; heating was one inglenook open log fire and the Aga. Thankfully dad managed to dig out the anthracite. He also kept the road into the village open although we could not get to town for weeks. So we went to school (I used to refuse to go out at break and huddle the stove).

After the second storm, we could not see out of the bedroom windows and the drifts were taller than the 'drover.

thriftwizard

RAS wrote: »

thrift; we were "neighbours" at the time (well we were off the A30 as it skirted round the top of Dartmoor).

We had no running water in the house for 6 weeks; but one of the springs feeding a cattle trough at the top of the farm continued to flow throughout, so we had a third to a half a churn of potable water every day. And the larder was full; mum had lived through '47. I suspect the only issues would have been meat and bread as she usually bought those from the touring vans. There would however have been loads of flour in the house.

Those cob walls and thatch certainly helped; heating was one inglenook open log fire and the Aga. Thankfully dad managed to dig out the anthracite. He also kept the road into the village open although we could not get to town for weeks. So we went to school (I used to refuse to go out at break and huddle the stove).

After the second storm, we could not see out of the bedroom windows and the drifts were taller than the 'drover.

I wonder if you had the same lorries as we did - the meat lorry with the flapping green canvas, and the fish van twice a week? And I'm beginning to wonder whether there might be the germ of an idea there for the next generation; if the big supermarkets stop delivering to remote addresses, will the touring fishmongers & grocers be needed once more? We still have library vans serving the rural communities here, and the remoter villages in North Dorset have a fish & chip van call twice a week. The tiny little market we shopped at in France also springs to mind; 5 vans of very excellent local produce, visiting a different village each day of the week. Hmmm…

paidinchickens

Afternoon everyone

I'm so exited as we have finally had an offer come through for an allotment :j:j

We had a choice of a double plot which is up and running or a half a plot which resembles the Amazon but not as pretty. The double plot is £9 a year more but I shall throw caution to the wind and to hell with the extravagance.

The plan is to be more self sufficient and spend a little more time outdoors.

I would like to be as chemical free as possible but hey I know nothing and I will be reliant on the "people who know" who have managed to grow things up there for years.

Luckily we have a shed already on there and a sort of greenhouse. The only thing I need to know is where to start. Is this time of year just for tidying up??

Off to googly step by step allotments for beginners if there is such a thing

PiC x

mardatha

I've lived through some terrible winters too. This house is at 1000ft and we get a lot of snow always . Often it blows too and you cant see out of the windows on one side, that feels really eerie. The house was built in the late 30s so is nice and solid.
I feel so sorry for people stuck in new magnolia boxes with gas heating and no doors to keep heat in or fireplaces. To me that isn't a home, its a hotel room LOL

RAS

thriftwizard wrote: »

I wonder if you had the same lorries as we did - the meat lorry with the flapping green canvas, and the fish van twice a week?

thrift, I cannot remember the vans themselves; I tended to be off with dad when I was younger and we were fairly "wild" most days when I was not at school. Off out making camps all over the place, hunting sticklebacks and crawling home for tea. There must have been a fish van because mum rarely went into town and I remember there being fish sometimes.

thriftwizard wrote: »

And I'm beginning to wonder whether there might be the germ of an idea there for the next generation; if the big supermarkets stop delivering to remote addresses, will the touring fishmongers & grocers be needed once more? We still have library vans serving the rural communities here, and the remoter villages in North Dorset have a fish & chip van call twice a week. The tiny little market we shopped at in France also springs to mind; 5 vans of very excellent local produce, visiting a different village each day of the week. Hmmm…

There could well be something in that; I know several villages in NYM that are visited by fish and chip vans at precise times each week.

Markets are a bit more of an issue as they are governed by laws and permits but I am sure that if 5 vans happened to turn up regularly no-one would mind.

Locally there have been complaints for years since the fruit and veggie shop closed. Recently a young man has started a stall two days a week and is doing a roaring trade; this 3 miles from a major city centre.

It is not the cheapest always but he has seasonal produce, sells by weight as a rule and the quality is excellent. So people buy from him rather than the supermarkets nearby. Not just the pensioners and single people who want small portions but families wanting stuff they cannot get in the supermarket and stuff that has been handled gently.

RosiePuddingPaws

We get the fish and chip van on a Monday evening for three hours. The aroma is wonderful, but standing in the cold and rain is not so good! (The chips are worth it though).

The library van also comes but apparently the decision has been made to reduce the service in many of the local villages from fortnightly to just once a month and a smaller van. They are, supposedly, consulting about any possible reduction but, as we all know, the decision has already been made and the staff advised of the change. It is such a shame as, in our village certainly, the van is often full with a queue outside.

RPP

[Deleted User]

All our vans have not been in existance here for at least the last 5 years, we had a wet fish man twice a week, a fish and chip van twice a week and a travelling deli van most days in the local pub car park. Nowadays the local fishermen come knocking at the door and want a regular once a week order, the chippy van doesn't come because we've had a chip shop open in the village and the deli van owners took a shop in the village and only stocked very expensive lines and contravened the planning rules by opening a cafe and have now closed down. I can remember vans coming when I was little though, we had the butcher, the fish man, the corona lorry, a baker twice a week, a greengrocer and a general grocer all on a regular basis and a milkman who delivered in a horsedrawn cart. I wonder if things will ever revert back?

[Deleted User]

No Paraffin Man, MrsLurcherwalker?

katep23

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I remember getting up to a freezing cold house, the result of an unlit coal fire, and ice on the inside of bedroom windows.

I remember frozen water in the toilet cistern (a high up wooden one, with a pull chain) and, on some occasions, frozen water in the toilet bowl.

That was my house in the winter of 2010, we had no insulation in the loft, the roof felt was hanging off, no cavity wall insulation, single glazed aluminium framed windows with huge gaps. We never got damp because the house was so well ventilated - if you put a pile of papers on the dining table on a windy day they would end up on the floor :cool:.

We had ice on the inside of the landing window and a frozen cistern (high up with a chain flush) that winter - the downstairs toilet is off the utility which is single skinned.

The first year we were here that it snowed, there was no snow on the roof as the heat escaping melted it.

The landlords have now done all the insulation - loft and cavity wall, new roof and this year we have had super dooper new double glazing fitted so this winter we should be warmer.

We have got so used to putting on another layer or wearing hats indoors that my "thermometer" has changed; I can't bear to be in a too warm office where all my colleagues are swanning around in vest tops complaining of being "freezing". Today at the shops I had to walk out of Wilkinsons as it was so hot I felt like I was going to pass out :rotfl:

We do have friends who won't visit us in winter though :cool:

My neighbour (S African) said she should be able to walk around in a t-shirt in winter and not feel cold - I guess that's why a tank of heating oil lasts us 2 - 3 years and they fill up 2 - 3 times a year :eek: