Preparing for Winter V

Laura_Elsewhere

Ys, everything kittie said...

I love snow, adore cold weather, am exhilarated by a good hard glittering frost - but I'm also a weathergeek and have been glued to the forums for a fortnight now - a lot of us are now starting to get seriously concerned.

If you have, or know someone who has, a 4wd AND experience of driving in icy, snowy conditions, please be prepared to help out your local hospital or council with vital transport...

The snow is totally uncertain - there's going to be lots, but at present it's impossible to forecast accurately how much and where - some areas may get none. What we DO know is that it will be bloody cold. Very bloody cold. They're comparing the expected coldness with 1963, 1956, several in the 1940s... many younger people won't have experienced it before and won't know how to cope...

And the farming knock-ons are very bad.

Take care of yourselves, everyone!

mardatha

All sorted up here Laura Food, coal, calor gas, meds, all stashed to the rafters. The bit I hate most is that our loo is like a deep freeze in a north easterly..
:rudolf::snow_grin

Laura_Elsewhere

Good on you, mardatha! When we build ourselves out Courtyard house sometime years form now, we plan to have the ability to withstand these kinds of potential "what if..."!

At present, though, in a rented flat with everything dependent on electricity, if we seriously lose power and they don't get a gennie-truck out as they do once or twice a year... if we're stuck with no power then I reckon we walk up the hill to the nearest neighbours who have a wood-burning stove! I warned them last Wed at the Sewing Group they would see us visiting them in the event of that kind of thing

But so long as the electric does stay on, I reckon we're well-prepared.

[Deleted User]

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

If you have, or know someone who has, a 4wd AND experience of driving in icy, snowy conditions, please be prepared to help out your local hospital or council with vital transport...
!

Laura I wanted to highlight that because so many people have 4wd and think they are invincible. I used to drive a land rover with winter tyres in snow, now that was a reliable beast. It was a local farmer who taught me in snow and it takes SKILL.

I have a 4wd yeti with normal tyres and no doubt would be more reliable than a normal car but there is no way that I will be venturing out. It just takes one out of control car sliding backwards. Modern cars are just not made for slippy ice, not like the ancient beetle I used to have. I still remember trundling up a very slippy hill in pitch black, it was so sure footed but darn cars in front started sliding backwards and I had to reverse, blind, back down with an unprotected river at the bottom, river kent near kendal. Hairy scary

Yes Laura, my 40+ year old children have no idea either. Our week old cortina was a write off, snow ploughed lane, near kendal, baby was very ill, chest was going the wrong way. Doctor had been, I had to get medicine. 1977/1978 I think. Drove very slowly with piled up snow each side of narrow lane, got to a bend, met a lorry going very slow and bang, crush crush crush. That is how dangerous a snow ploughed lane can be. I have huge respect for ice and snow, especially freezer weather, like what we are about to enter

tori.k

fuddle wrote: »

Potatoes! You don't know just how useful your post is mar.

I'm just wondering, if it came down to it, would jacket potatoes cook in foil in the/on top of the wood stove. Actually we would probably favour burning smokeless ovals next week. Would coals be appropriate for making a jacket potato... of course, if it came to it.

I do jackets on the stove top, wrapped in foil in a cast iron casserole med sized spuds takes around 9 hrs on my stove, I'm awfully tight if the stove is going something is on there, even if it's just the kettle for washing dishes, tonight we have cheese and onion soup for tomorrows lunch, followed in the morning the root veg for mash for tomorrow night tea.

greenbee

I'm flying to Brazil for work on Monday. It's going to be cold on the way to the airport but I need to pack for hot (and thunderstorms). I'll be coming back to snow...

mardatha

We stay put in bad weather too kittie, wrote off a couple of cars back in the days when we had to go to work every day, so now we sit tight until the weather gets better, or even jump on a bus. The buses nearly always get through but sometimes take a long time. The snow gates shut if things get really bad, and they're under half a mile from my house, on the highest part of the moor.

THIRZAH

Bitterly cold wind here already. I dread to think what it's going to be like next week. I can remember the winter of 1962-3. We lived in Cambridgeshire then and rarely got snow but that winter it didn't thaw for weeks. We had chilblains and scorched legs from sitting so close to the fire-our only source of heat apart from the rayburn in the kitchen. We washed and got dressed in the kitchen.

At least these days little girls can wear trousers for school. We wore skirts and knee high socks. Most of us only had one pair of shoes so had nothing to change into if they got wet. We had to walk to the village hall for school lunches and that was only warm once a week the day when they had the baby clinic in the morning.On days when the school milk was frozen we got out of having to drink it at break but usually the teacher remember to put it by the stove at start of school so it was unpleasantly luke warm by break.

[Deleted User]

THIRZAH wrote: »

1962, I was 14 and had one pair of shoes, we had to walk through very deep slush and stay in those shoes and soaking socks all day. We walked about 3/4 mile home for dinner, helped with the dishes and then walked back

When I was at primary school we had the milk, kept in front of the fire to melt and I can remember the taste now. Didn`t like it, no-one did but we all had hungry tummies so never moaned

I have kept electric heaters on each day, five of them and glad to have so many, scattered through the house. It is nice and warm so I have reserve ambient heat in case the power goes off

fuddle

I don't know whether to say say children are spoilt these days or whether today they're looked after. I think I'll just say they are lucky that wellies, waterproofs, thermals, heating etc are relatively cheap and easy to come by these days. It must have broke your parents hearts to see you go out the door with bare knees.

My eldest's school doesn't allow wellies or outer coats. Tough. On snow days she wears wellies and an outer coat. She removes them when she gets to school. She wraps her coat around the straps of her bag so it becomes part of her bag and her wellies get put inside each other and tucked in the strapping, also becoming part of her bag. Any teacher just needs to say one word about it and I'll be lying in wait with a snowball as they approach their car in their boots and coats!!