Preparing for winter IV

GreenFairy

Downstairs neighbour (I live in a duplex) has clearly put on her heating as we've had to abandon jumpers over the last couple of evenings as the place is so warm. It's terrible for her heating bill, but great for mine - am still not planning on turning it on til November.

Got my sausage draught excluder at the front door today, and have wrapped a fleece blanket around the fireguard in the living room to stop draughts coming down the chimney - makes a huge difference (and don't worry, it's a totally unused fireplace).

Have a sturdy shoebox with candles and matches on a shelf in the kitchen. First aid kit all restocked, though I want to pick up a cough bottle and some more lemsip. Hot water bottles tested for leaks.

Hoping to get the lawn cut one more time, but it has been so wet and our drainage is really terrible.
Going to launder my feather pillows when I visit my mother in a couple of weeks - she has a giant American washer and dryer so it can be done easily and for the price of a homemade cake and pot of jam

Rainy-Days

mcjordi wrote: »

someone has posted on fb that we are expecting snow in 3 weeks.. i cant see no forecast for snow yet....

It was from the Express newspaper yesterday - that is a long range forecast although generally they are not that far out. The Met Office dob't do anything longer than 5 or 7 days due to serious flak from recent years like the bar-b-que summer fiasco!

Got the remainder of the summer plants out of their tubs tday and went and bought some pansies - I know I said I wouldn't but everwhere looks so flipping bare I cannot abide it!

Cut back some plants in tubs and in the garden and thats about it. The lawns got cut Saturday afternoon but they have really slowed down on growing although the lawens may need another cut before we can finally put the mower away.

Main things for next week is the butchers stock up and the gutterings may need a clean out as well. I tidied the freezer up today as well so that it is fairly clear on Tuesday when I put everything in there.

2tonsils

I just had this sent to me, its not looking good for the UK next week

http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/09/30/uk-weather-forecaste-snow-ice-floods-britain-october-autumn/

Someone else told me about the remains of Hurricane Nadene being expected to head towards the UK towards the end of next week...after the extremely cold temperatures. It looks like its going to be a rough week for you all, better stock up as soon as you can and prepare for it. Stay warm and safe folks xxxx

2tonsils

Confuzzled wrote: »

well think of the extra heat as keeping the thermal mass of your house warmer for longer so you can use less fuel!

have you considered making a solar oven and/or a haybox? fairly easy to do from cheap (often salvaged) materials, i hear they can be used even in winter, you just have to turn them more frequently to catch the sun.

also, do you have a way of cooking on or near your fire? might be an idea as you will be dealing with those rolling powercuts. if you can find some cast iron pans those can go straight on the fire with no problems (just be sure you have a safe method for removing them and a safe place to let them cool down)

please let us know how you get on without electricity, i'm quite curious to see how you cope and what workarounds you come up with.

wishing you the best, enjoy the free heat whilst you have it (maybe enjoy it a little extra for those of us here that have been deprived of it all summer )

It's now nearly nine at night here and still 24 in the house with no heating on and windows open. The walls are limestone and a meter thick so hold the heat for us. It does save on fuel and we have solid wood floors and ceilings upstairs.

I have been thinking of making a solar cooker to use on the patio ( a haybox is out of the question due to my allergies to grains and I can't buy any here in Greece anyway) The foil and box is easy to get for the cooker. I think I could just put covered oven trays out and it would cook in that heat.

We can cook on the fire in the winter, have a trivet etc...but there is no fire wood or fuel available till it turns colder so that is out at the moment. We have calor gas for the hob and charcoal in for the bbq so well sorted for cooking. Salads are good in this weather and fresh fruit so not a problem at the moment.

Tomorrow is the first day of the rolling strikes but it doesn't mean our electric will be off tomorrow...we won't know in advance when it will be our turn. We can charge the phones in the car and if the electric is on outside the village we can drive to the Marina and connect to internet and charge the laptop at the same time.

Just in case, I have 150 new free books on my Kobo.....I speed read LOL as well as touch typing.

[Deleted User]

2tonsils you can too make a Haybox you don't need to go anywhere near a single grain either. You line the big box with several layers of newspaper and then get hold of some polystyrene packaging, the beads or little beans that are used for loose packing and use them instead they work just as well as hay. Then put your heated pot into the middle and pack it round with more packaging. If you dont have a box with a lid an old pillow with a weight on top to hold it in place works perfectly. Hope that's useful, Cheers Lyn x.

SpikyHedgehog

I've ordered DS1 some slippers from amazon, will post from the pc rather than my phone when they're here so I can do a link & tell you what we think

Would have liked new ones for me too, but I don't need them, so it's silly to spend money on something for the sake of it. But I'll put them on my wish list

I got safety pins yesterday, & pinned fleece on the back on my bedroom curtains, though I haven't put the blind behind them yet. I've also had to do a fix on the blind on the back door - DS2 decided it was a good idea to slam the door open, breaking the brackets for the blind. So I've cut the blackout material off the blind mechanism, & used stick & stick velcro to reattach it. Fine when I want it shut, but it will mean finding somewhere to put it while it's open. Ho hum.

mineallmine

Just a reminder for those stocking their car boots with emergency bits and pieces. Some things, like fluorescent jackets, may be handy to keep in your glovebox or tucked under a seat. Just bear in mind you may not be able to open the car boot always (mine can freeze solid in winter!).

Love this thread

kibblerok

2tonsils wrote: »

I just had this sent to me, its not looking good for the UK next week

http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/09/30/uk-weather-forecaste-snow-ice-floods-britain-october-autumn/

Someone else told me about the remains of Hurricane Nadene being expected to head towards the UK towards the end of next week...after the extremely cold temperatures. It looks like its going to be a rough week for you all, better stock up as soon as you can and prepare for it. Stay warm and safe folks xxxx

It's always a good idea to keep an eye on the weather and to be prepared but the express is ridiculously poor at their weather articles.

Here's analysis of their forecast headlines from the last year....

http://ohitsscottbryan.com/2012/08/23/the-daily-express-and-the-weather/

The best one is on the 15th May with "New cold snap to last for a month" followed by "Glorious summer on the way" just 4 days later!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/jun/15/daily-express-weather-forecast-jonathan-powell

Popperwell

butterfly72 wrote: »

Could you make batches of homemade big soup and freeze it in portions? Might be cheaper than tins?

I have a cupboard of tinned soups but looked at some Heinz big soups yesterday on offer but not by much...saw the ingredients and thought "I could do that!" in theory some diced meat and veg that's all there is to it. Cheaper? I don't know but put in the Slow Cooker it should not take a lot of preperation.

Perhaps if there is enough I can have it the next day and just heat up what is left.

SIRENS

Well have spent all day swapping over the kids summer wardrobes for winter, they are in long sleeve pj's for bed so nice and snug. It is not cold here, we are lucky that the weather is not normaly that bad in London, i didn't put the heating on at all last winter (we did put the fire on in the living room for the dog at one point though:rotfl:)

The only thing is we are an end terrace on the corner of an allotment so ds room is on the potside corner and does get a little damp around the window and the corner of rhe ceiling. Not sure how to combat that, he has a small storage heater in his room, but as he is only in his room to sleep we don't put his heater on, does this help or hinder the damp?