Preparing for Winter V

Living_proof

Butterfly_Brain said:

Tink 
I changed from BG to Octopus three years ago and have saved on average £48 a month plus they have actually reduced their prices this year, their customer service is fantastic and I will never go back to the big six again.

I am with Octopus too, having been moved on from Coop who ceased trading and before them GB Energy. They seem great so far and I will stick with them for another year.

[Deleted User]

I've got some oranges in the fruit bowl that are past their best and I don't think we can eat them so rather than waste them I'm going to have a go at drying them and see if they smell nice enough when they are dry to go in a bowl and freshen a room.  I've seen them sold as Christmas decorations and on wreaths etc. but never had a go myself.  I've got some cinnamon sticks and some cloves too so that could go in with them and add to the perfume (was going to say smell! but perhaps not ?).

Laura_Elsewhere

boazu said:

I've got some oranges in the fruit bowl that are past their best and I don't think we can eat them so rather than waste them I'm going to have a go at drying them and see if they smell nice enough when they are dry to go in a bowl and freshen a room.  I've seen them sold as Christmas decorations and on wreaths etc. but never had a go myself.  I've got some cinnamon sticks and some cloves too so that could go in with them and add to the perfume (was going to say smell! but perhaps not ?).

I grew up making these each winter - wrap ribbon round an orange in two directions and push pins right in to hold it at the crossings; make one ribbon longer to make a hanging-loop if you want. then use a knitting needle to make holes and push cloves in to fill the quadrants still exposed - you don't need to cover every bit, you can do lines or circles or whatever. Then you leave the orange in a very well-aired warm place for a few weeks to dry and shrink (my Gran used first to roll them in powdered orris root but it's not essential), and tighten the ribbons if needed. You can tie the cinnamon sticks on if you like. 

Just experiment As long as they have plenty of air around, they won't go mouldy and if they're too 'gone' to eat then you lose nothing even if it doens't work  

[Deleted User]

I've made the 'orange pomanders' in the past and they smell lovely, I used to keep them on top of a radiator in the bedroom so it always smelled lovely when I went in.  Thanks for the heads up I'd forgotten about them, wish I hadn't sliced the oranges up now, next time  though I'll have a go again. I've got the slices in the dehydrator and the kitchen smells tropical, it's ever so nice.

[Deleted User]

Stuck indoors all day due to the bucketing rain that went on all night and shows no signs of slowing down so I'm looking ahead to this coming winter and trying to guess what the situation will be here in the UK if covid doesn't go away or diminish and we're still socially distancing until this time next year.  Making a list of 'to do's' and 'to get's' and 'to make's' that will make life more comfortable and also more interesting if we are still in 4 walls with the daily walk out to keep us sane.  I'm wondering how the retail market will be if or when we make a deal with Europe or if we exit Brexit with no deal I suspect it will be rising prices and lack of goods in the shops from this point on and I'm also wondering if it might be sensible to get used to most of our food being vegetarian/vegan and home made using lots of pulses and grains.  Part of my next few months will be to make a written book of recipes that we've actually enjoyed rather than them just being 'alright' using mostly beans and lentils because they store in the cupboard without needing a power source.  I'm also wondering if the electricity grid infrastructure will be in good enough state to give us a continuous power supply or if the maintenance work that should have been carried out hasn't been because of staff furloughs or quarantine periods.  I worry too much but I'll be looking at alternatives for lighting and perhaps buy a good indoors broom for cleaning if I can't use the vacuum and maybe a manual washer like the little ones for caravans to do the washing.  Sounds bleak and I hope it doesn't happen but at the back of my mind I have a growing concern.

boultdj

I've just been gifted a slow cooker, same brand and size of the one I already have.  Said to other half I'll use that one for doing sweet stuff/ bread in. Which should fill us up in winter as well as helping heat the place up.

If we get power cuts, we'll be going to bed, I'll grab the furry one and take her with me, seeing as the heating uses gas and electric, so we will lose both, we do have a gas fire but why stay up watching that burn, especially at the price of gas.  

Plus side, we now have a big 3 litre pump action flask, so we tend to fill that first thing in the morning and use it through the rest of the day. 

Laura_Elsewhere

We did a fair bit of preparing on the previous Brexit dates (!) - we're in a top-floor rented flat, all-electric, so no chance of eg cooking over a little campfire in the garden, etc.! 
We now have a little plastic case tucked up on the hat-shelf over the front door which holds a small camping-kettle, and a gas ring and can of butane, with half a dozen spares stored in the coolest bit of he box-room. We also purloined back from my parents my old camping-lantern which takes large batteries but runs for hours and is a good general light for a room. 
So if power becomes unreliable we will be able to boil a kettle to fill the 'stone pig' (it's a Victorian ceramic hotwater-bottle that acts like a tiny storage heater - a couple of pints of boiling water and if kept covered, ie under bedclothes, it will be hot next morning, ie 10pm through til 8am. Not just tepid-warm but actually hot. Makes a big difference!) and we'll be able to heat a tin of soup or can of beans, and have light to read or play cards by. 
If electricity becomes reliably-unreliable (so to speak!) then I'll probably get my Intended to make me a haybox. I've a medium-sized Le Creuest lidded pan that would be ideal for that. 

And although we have no garden as such, I've got a little guerilla-garden on waste ground where woodland meets our big shared car-park, and I intend to get that sown and fully-planted this August/Sept with winer salads and greens - lambs lettuce and red chard do wonderfully over the winter if you get them established before the first frosts, and black kale and so on. It's only one raised bed about 2.5 x 1.5m but it should really help with fresh greens over autumn and winter. 

Also, I'm looking over all our woollens and making sure they are darned and washed and hung to air well at an open window, and if it's forecast to be a cold one, I shall probably knit us wrist-warmers in fine soft wool, as my intended is working from home for probably the rest of this year. We have very thick socks for wearing inside the flat: I knit them huge and then carefully tumble-dry them for brief periods til they are fulled down to our sizes  

Butterfly_Brain

The best thing we did was to have a multi fuel stove put in, it cost a lot of money at the time but more than makes up for itself in the winter, it is lovely to come in to a blazing fire and I know that if the power goes out that I can cook a pan of something on the top and stick jacket potatoes in but only if I am burning wood. DH just chopped all of the seasoned logs ready for winter and we get our coal in June from a local farm shop because that is the cheapest time to buy it.
My next want is a wood pellet cooker it will take a while to save for one, they are very expensive.
There is a Kelly Kettle for hot drinks or soups if push comes to shove.
A trick learned during power cuts in the seventies was to always have a flask filled with hot water so at least you got a cuppa when the power went out. We were living in a house with  Parkray central heating in those days, it heated the radiators and the hot water ,I would love one now!
I still do that now every time I boil a kettle I put what is left from the kettle into the flask, saves a couple of kettle boils a day...every little helps!
We are on a water meter and mainly have showers plus six water butts in the garden and I have found that it has actually saved us money, we were paying £57 a month before being forced by the water company to have one and it is now £24 a month. so they have actually lost money from us LOL.

boultdj

We are in a park home, I would love a multi fuel but it's not worth doing it here, as we do not intend staying, but with what is going off in the world I'm glad we are where we are, country side at the end of the row, up a hill, so safe from flooding, egg farmers in the village, 2 butchers, greedy beggers that we are, and a bakery, plus we get a fish man, a veg man and a pie man all with vans and stands come to the village, so we may end up cold, but we will be well fed.

Primrose

Lura elsewhere and others:  the most Important parts of the body to protect in cold weather are your extremities - head, hand and feet, so thick woollen socks, a woollen bobble hat of some kind and  fingererless gloves (much loved by outdoor market traders) really make a difference is helping to keep you warm indoors as well as outside.
i use the fingerless gloves when typing on my laptop in our study which can get rather chilly.