Preparedness for when

Butterfly_Brain

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

It's heading that way now, with the introduction of online supermarket shopping.

But we didn't pay £5 delivery charges in the old days

[Deleted User]

Paidinchickens, the Horticultural Channel on Youtube and in particular Sean's Allotment Garden are a good for finding out what people are planting and doing on the allotment each week.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thehortchanneltv?feature=watch

ragz_2

We used to have a van that came around selling shoes, mostly kids ones, and possibly vests and things. It didn't seem odd at the time... (20 years ago?)
I also remember a bakery van.
Here we get a fish van in the village once a week as well as a chip van, a pizza van and I have seen a library van too. Our village also has an internet cafe in the parish room next to the scout hut!

DH came home with MORE Gold bars today, I swear he is developing a serious problem, I told him we don't need to prep so much junk he says we will need the energy. He forgot the milk...

Need to line the curtains, must go and read the prepping for winter thread as I think they do a lot of that...

katep23

I went to Cl@s Ohlsen today and got a new hat and gloves which are fleece lined and have a tog rating! The hat is 3.2 togs and the gloves 2.4 (or something similar). They are so warm! As they were on 3 for 2 I got another hat which will live in my emergency car kit.

Also got fluorescent vests for OH and myself again for the car kit from CO; had been looking in pound shops but no luck so happy to have found them.

jk0

Good evening all,

I have a little energy saving tip that may interest you guys:

Have you heard of the Chop Clock?: http://chop-cloc.com/

I read about this item last year, but they weren't available. My (combi) boiler was installed in 2002 by the previous owner. Since I moved in I have installed cavity wall insulation, extra loft insulation, and triple glazing.

The result is that even with the boiler on the lowest setting, the heating tends to 'overshoot' the temperature set on the thermostat, due to the response lag of a boiler & radiators. If I set the thermostat to 22, it should come on at 21.5, and go off at 22.5.

Sure enough, it does that, but due to the radiators now being red hot, it goes on up to 23 even after the boiler has shut off. Thus you sit here getting alternately too hot, then too cold.

The idea of the chop clock, is that it only turns the boiler on for 15 mins, then cuts it off for 15 to 45 mins. As these weren't available, I came up with an alternative method of achieving the same thing.

This is the timeswitch of my boiler:

http://www.akgas.co.uk/Worcester-Time-Clock/WORCESTER-TIME-CLOCK-24262835CDI-24i28i-RSF-77161920020.html

You can see that it has 15 minute divisions. I simply set it so that it is on for 15 mins, then off for 15 mins, and so on.

The result is that the house stays at a much more constant temperature.

Hollyberry

RAS wrote: »

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

*Waves to my former neighbours*

All we Devonians are emerging on this thread. We used to live on the Southern side of Dartmoor on the Teign valley road - end of the garden was the Dartmoor park sign. Mum and Dad moved there when I was just a baba in the mid 60s. I guess my love of a good store cupboard might be based on living somewhere with a bus a day on Wednesday and Saturday only!

I wasn't around for the very bad winter, but I do remember my mum driving home over a snowy Haldon Hill a few years later with two stranded lorry drivers in her boot for added traction.

Hollyberry

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

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.

In the late 1980s I rented a flat in a beautiful Georgian house in Hereford - sole source of heating, one gas fire. I used to sleep on the sofa in front of the fire when it was really chilly. The loo froze there overnight on occasions. One night I woke up to a crunching noise, and was convinced someone was breaking into the kitchen. Armed only with my trusty hairdryer (the most solid object to hand), I inched to the back of the flat only to find that the ice in the toilet had finally thawed.

This probably accounts for why I am constantly turning the thermostat down now.

[Deleted User]

VJsmum wrote: »

I made a buddy burner today. It isn't very pretty

Try a Spirit Stove instead.

[Deleted User]

craigywv wrote: »

BOB what is the name of the batteries you have been using in your lantern please ta very much.

I used the blue and silver Daewoo ones, from the 99p Store, in the test.

I also buy the Powercell Super Heavy Duty ones, from £Land, a lot.

However, according to test results from the Bitbox Battery Showdown Website, the best value for money batteries, from a large range they tested, is the Ikea alkaline batteries.

scottishminnie

mardatha wrote: »

. Used to be a mobile bank but it's long gone.QUOTE]

Some years back (mid 80's now that I really think about it) I worked for RBS and applied to be on their relief staff where you spent a year trotting round the country filling in at branches where there were staff shortages.

I was aghast to find that instead of an assignment to the big cities of Edinburgh or Glasgow (where all my chums got sent) I was sent to Oban where I spent the next three weeks on the "bank van". In the end though it was amazing fun, real community banking and they even carried the odd non bank things on board. I remember handing over a package full of wool to a customer on Mull.

I know the mobile branches are still around however I have a feeling they aren't quite the same