Preparing for Winter V

amber03

Hi Nik, we are hopefully going to have a woodburning stove put in soon, and I cant wait. Feels like we could use it tonight as it feels chilly outside and dark. x

fuddle

The chilliness tonight has me writing my winter food stock list. In reality it's just more of the same of what is already there but it makes me feel like I'm being proactive.

I think I only really need to assemble DH's winter car box and go through the hats/gloves bag to wash. DD's will need new wellies but it seems that years of winter prepping have finally paid off and the kit and resources I have are pretty much there and waiting.

I HAVE to be part of this thread though so hopefully you'll inspire me to try other things and get creative with winter prepping.

Princess_kate

Once again I have found myself back here once the weather starts to turn, read through the checklist and caught up on posts. I now have a lit of jobs and bits to buy.

I have fleeces up at the curtains, and have done this for years but need to take up these new curtains, well I've had them nearly 3 years now! I wanted to properly interline them while taking them up, managed to find bump interlining for a really good price, paid £42 delivered for 15 metres, enough for my 3 large curtains which run across one wall in the living room. I know this will make a massive difference.

Lovely to see "old faces" kitty, MrsLurcherWalker, et al. I have used this thread for years and like coming back to it to refresh what needs to be done to be prepared for winter.

Fruball

Always love reading the posts here.

Very autumnal here today and rainy too. Bought a new jsr of hot choc and a can of squirty cream

singlestep

Lots of great ideas and reminders. Thanks, all.

As well as washing winter stuff/rotating seasonal wardrobes and bedlinen and making sure the freezer and cupboards are in a fit state, I need to do an inventory of medicine and medical supplies. I also need to try to lose the weight I've put on recently or shop accordingly (easier just to lose a few pounds).

After being stranded overnight in the town where I work back in 2010, I also ensure that I have a couple of emergency meals there of the tuna and couscous pots and pasta in a cup type, some extra meds, remedies and travel pack of wipes, toothpaste and shower gel and a small towel and something comfortable enough to sleep in I'd wear in front of a few hundred others if I ever had to spend the night in the building I work in.

ETA: It's so nice to see MrsL and others whose wisdom I've been missing!

[Deleted User]

Strange. I can feel myself slowing down, I always do as winter approaches.

Yesterday I did my food storage cupboard and added another 18 tins of various beans, I already have tins of fish and soups and jars of peanut butter etc. I need to get crispbreads in, although not too many. I am busy making sauerkraut for winter storage and making and freezing spicy red cabbage (Delia). I already have pasta, rice and flour, so there is enough food just in case of being snowed in like in winter 2010, 6 weeks of being snowed in then. Worst thing was cabin fever and potential boredom so these things are also being taken care of with loads of books, a makita radio with charged batteries that last for days, fibres and spinning, sewing, jigsaws etc. I am also ready to set up my wood carving in the kitchen, I am only talking wooden chips and not sawdust

The thing I absolutely hate most is tidying up in the garden and allotment, always needed to be done when the weather turned bad, so this year I am tidying up as I go and all empty pots washed and put away and any empty raised allotment beds are being covered

Outside wood is almost all protected against sun, rain and decay. I have finished another load yesterday, took two solid weeks of hard work with osmo over preservative but it is now ready for future winters. An easy bit left to do but I have to wait for flowers to die back first as that is just having thin preservative

Apple storage drawers are ready for the new season apples, the main crops for me will be picked in october and will last to january. My freezers are almost full, except enough room for a fish order coming next week. Chocolate ordered, lots of it but I am talking raw cacao chocolate these days, bars are small. I need organic almonds to be able to make almond milk, I sprout them first. Need to order them after I have tidied my storage outbuilding, which turned messy when I was seeing to the wood maintenance

Anyone else go into hibernation mode? I do this every year, sort of curl up and get cosy with lots of food and warmth handy. Do my own thing in my own nest

elona

I need to spend the next month doing things like visit dentist, optician , buy blinds for downstairs windows, organise integral garage etc so that I can hiberate during the winter. I don't think there is any danger of being snowed in but if it is icy and slippy I don't want to have to go out unless I choose.

I seem to remember that hospitals have noticed that three days after snow and ice lots of people come in with broken bones. It seems they can manage on things like bread, milk and eggs for a couple of days then get to the end of their stores and venture out.

nicki_2

I have my list in my planner, and I've started thinking of the winter menus I want to do, including trying a winter veg soup for the first time. DD is going to help whether she likes it or not, so after she's got her school stuff together (to make sure she's not forgotten anything before school on Wednesday) she's going to sit and polish her school shoes and boots etc. I showed her the list and she's agreed to help. Right now I'm just feeling overwhelmed but thats normal for me at the end of the summer holidays, 7 weeks is waaaayyyyyyyyy too long I'm really craving winter drinks at the minute so when I go into town for work next I'm going to treat myself to a costa latte, then sit by the river and watch nature (and the ships) pass me by

mardatha

I don't like autumn but I love winter and enjoy the prepping. This year has not really registered on me much somehow, it's an odd feeling. it's gone by in a cloud of exhaustion, and I have hibernated since last Oct really. Such an odd year and I'll be glad when we're having a wee toast to the bells on Hogmanay.

FairyPrincessk

Today I got the spare duvet down from the high shelf. I'll give it an airing on a warm day next week, ready to go on the bed when the weather turns.

I've also pencilled in a slow cooked beef dish for 22 Sept. which is the first day of autumn. I'm thinking of getting in some more candles. We probably have enough for coziness usage over the winter but we might run low if there is a power cut.

I'm trying to think of a few more coziness ideas I can factor in. I always dread winter so if I can think of ways to make it more pleasant that would be nice! I think over the coming weeks I'll make it a habit to look for autumnal things on my walks--pretty leaves, conkers etc. to display. Sort of an autumn version of 'bringing in the green.'