Preparedness for when

daz378

The last ship....sky 1..... premise is that a naval warship on a 6 month silent mission.....have been looking in the antartic for an ancient virus ... in the 6 months most of the world as succumbed to the virus .....quite good... yet another survival show. Waiting in my local kebab shop .. a guy storms in how dare you treat my daughter like this ....very upset ... i was intently reading my paper and when ready grabbed my food .. before violence ensued.... wonder what happened afterwards

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Alcohol is the last thing you should be consuming, when it's cold.

Awww, you're no fun. Correct, but no fun.

fuddle

GQ when you say we could be in for a chilly winter, have you read something or are you just thinking aloud?

Want an insight into my sadness? I'm gradually weaning my kids off porridge made with milk in favour of water. It's not too bad with brown sugar but I still top it up with milk as of now there's no need to completely be frugal.

Still on the hunt for dried egg powder. Seems I can get it from protein websites but it's not cheap and will be an investment. Anyone used it?

Before investing on the kelly kettle I am planning on a cake tin mock up again. I have sourced silver birch. That is the tree that drops it's leaves on my car right now We'll be along shortly for the conkers over that way on.

GreyQueen

I always eat porridge with only water.

Haven't any clue whether the winter will be bad, just that bad ones come around every few years. Can vividly recall the 'fun and games (not)' of Dec 2012, and I'm in the south of England. Hope we don't get a reprise. Have heard many a tale of the terrible winter of 62-63 and cannot imagine how a world with so many commuters and JIT deliveries could begin to cope with such sustained low temps that snow lingered for months, even in lowland England.

One of my sets of grandparents had a galv iron water tank outside freeze solid overnight and pop its seals. Now that was what you'd call an ice cube (several feet square).

fuddle

Dec '12 is the year I realised that when it's -temp all day and snow on the ground not to wear wellies with general socks as they offer no protection against the cold!

You really had it bad in the south temp wise? I was hoping I'd only really see a bit frost down here.

GreyQueen

fuddle wrote: »

Dec '12 is the year I realised that when it's -temp all day and snow on the ground not to wear wellies with general socks as they offer no protection against the cold!

You really had it bad in the south temp wise? I was hoping I'd only really see a bit frost down here.

I know northerners take the P outta us southern softies, but yes, it can get really cold Dahn Sarf. One of my pals in Kent had about 6 feet of snow to contend with at one point a few years ago.

The biggest problem in Dec 2012 in my city was that a helluva lot of our council houses and flats (not the tower flats, they're on communal heat) had been ungraded to combi boilers and 2012 was the first really bitter winter since these things became commonplace.

Combi boilers have something called a condensate pipe. Which goes out through the wall and is made of copper. Which froze, causing the boilers to shut down. Which caused the gas engineers to run around like headless chickens. One told me that they were cutting the pipes off to get the boilers up and running again. Should you have a combi boiler, now's the time to get that pipe lagged.

In the winter of 62-63, snow fell in November and was still around in early Feb. Dad recalls biking to work and having a bottle of squash freeze solid in the haversack on his back.

It can get very bitterly cold in southern England. Not very often, and nothing compared with up a mountain somewhere, but don't assume you'll cruise through the winter with nothing worse than a few pretty frosts to deal with. Maybe you will, maybe you won't.

Let's hope we all get lucky this year, hey?

PS the last sentence was deliberately created to give Bedsit Bob a chance to make an innuendo............. everyone needs a hobby.

1Tonsil

I thought you might like to read this

http://realityweather.net/current-weather-patterns-bring-severe-cold-winter-will-continue/

People (including myself) in this part of Europe and Eastern Europe are preparing for a very cold winter, with spells of stormy, windy , rainy weather in between. I will keep you updated as the forecasts are released.

nuatha

the_cake wrote: »

Climbing a paperwork mountain today preparing our case against my OH's imminent dismissal...
Reviewing our pre-winter preps, we have much wood in the store, heaps of cosy woolly blankets etc., and I have been building up food stocks in the last few weeks. Whilst our last legal fandango played out our friends were brilliant, coming over with cheering words, welcome distractions and food parcels. Hope they will do so again, if needed ..... life at the mo just seems surreal!
Anyway, hugs to all dealing with illness and sadness, which are much more important and real concerns. xx the cake xx

I hope this goes as smoothly and quickly as it can, and that you come out of it vindicated and compensated.
Hopefully we can supply the odd welcome distraction (possibly very odd, given some of the locals).

GreyQueen wrote: »

There are only about half-a-dozen engineers who work on the boiler houses of the council tower blocks. Easy to envisage a situation where they could be run off their feet and unavailable. As one ordinary gas safe register engineer told me about the boiler house Unless you're trained on industrial boilers, you'd be a fool to even go in there. He certainly wouldn't touch them.

Sobering to contemplate how many things which we take for granted are maintained by a relatively small amount of highly-skilled individuals.

And how few of those who are qualified have trained replacements. I worked with a guy who'd commissioned power stations in the 60s had gone on to work in other industries since who has been approached to pick up his old tools - apparently there's at least 10 years work and a serious shortage of suitably qualified people under retirement age.

Margaret54 wrote: »

I was sitting in the car a few days ago in a part of town waiting on my husband, and I noticed something which I have never seen before. There is a small shop open which said it sells your clothes by the kilo and it pays 75 pence per kilo. I then saw a man walking into it with a big black bag over his shoulder and the bag looked full and heavy. Then I watched two women getting out of a car next to it and they carried several black bags and went into the shop as well. I mentioned it to my dh when he came back and he said "well love in these times maybe people are doing that because they need the money desperately". Has anyone on here ever seen a shop like this one? Hugs to those who are going through tough stuff and hope everyone is able to have a nice weekend. x Margaret

There were two in the town I live in, though I believe that we only have one now. We regularly get leaflets advertising this service at a local market or carboot sale.
I've noticed that it was originally textiles, but is now just clothes. There were documentaries a few months back claiming the trade was damaging African economies. Charities used to sell surplus clothes for recycling, the recyclers started selling them as clothes to African countries. Now there are a number of businesses selling clothes to Africa, most working from a profit motive. Meanwhile local clothing manufacture across most of Africa has apparently collapsed.

cornishchick

Re boilers. I had mine serviced ready for winter and asked the guy about the condenser pipe freezing. He told me that as mine was only two years old this wasn't an issue, because it " insert some technical lingo I can't remember " but not to worry ..

nuatha

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

So under 73 days reserve.

Not what I'd call a lot.

And not even that. 73 days assumes that consumption is even across the year. The article assumes the same. Demand is far higher in winter than summer and even moreso in a harsh winter.
The winter quarter generally accounts for 43% of annual consumption. I'd make that 42 days of usual winter consumption, even less if its colder than usual (usual being an average of 4.02C across the quarter).

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Alcohol is the last thing you should be consuming, when it's cold.

Generally I prefer my alcohol well chilled.
Yes, you're right alcohol can be fatal in low temperatures.

GreyQueen wrote: »

I know northerners take the P outta us southern softies, but yes, it can get really cold Dahn Sarf. One of my pals in Kent had about 6 feet of snow to contend with at one point a few years ago.

The biggest problem in Dec 2012 in my city was that a helluva lot of our council houses and flats (not the tower flats, they're on communal heat) had been ungraded to combi boilers and 2012 was the first really bitter winter since these things became commonplace.

Combi boilers have something called a condensate pipe. Which goes out through the wall and is made of copper. Which froze, causing the boilers to shut down. Which caused the gas engineers to run around like headless chickens. One told me that they were cutting the pipes off to get the boilers up and running again. Should you have a combi boiler, now's the time to get that pipe lagged.

Condensate pipes can be plastic and still freeze - as I found out in 2012. Lagging is definitely a good idea. It took me about a day and a half to thaw the pipe using a hairdryer and heating the immediate area with a 100W incandescent bulb.