Preparing for Winter V

villagelife

Heating on here yesterday as DS2 spent most of the day complaining. He was working from home in the dining room which is by far the coldest room in the house.
Does anyone have any ideas for storage of cobnuts?. I have 30 cobnut trees and have given some away but have a lot to store. 

Nargleblast

Here in County Durham the heating was switched on on Wednesday because of the significant overnight drop in daytime and nighttime temperatures. I looked on the BBC weather forecast and we are due for these cooler autumn temperatures for the next couple of weeks at least (that's as far as the forecast goes). The date on the calendar is irrelevant, if it's cold it's cold.

Laura_Elsewhere

villagelife said:

Heating on here yesterday as DS2 spent most of the day complaining. He was working from home in the dining room which is by far the coldest room in the house.
Does anyone have any ideas for storage of cobnuts?. I have 30 cobnut trees and have given some away but have a lot to store. 

I think an awful lot of people are about to find out that the dining room is the coldest room in many houses, as well as being the most easily-spared room for home-working... 
Can I suggest getting really organised about pulling the curtains closed as soon as the sun starts to set? When it's shining you are getting some tiny bit of solar gain (if it shines onto the room), but once it starts to set, all your window is doing is transferring heat busily outwards, so covering the window before sunset, even if only half-drawing them, will help prevent a little bit of warmth-loss. Check the curtains have a good lining, too, and consider adding extra, esp if you don't have double-glazing or have less-efficient dg. If there's a fireplace, check the chimney is well-blocked - you can get various devices for doing this, although check for safety if you have a gas-fire, of course! And several thin layers are typically warmer than one thick layer, so get him to go old-fashioned and wear a t-shirt under his shirt, and consider a vintage-style sleeveless 'slipover' to keep torso warm without adding bulk or restricting arm movement - my grandfather worked in unheated offices in the 1930s as a clerk and would have worn a cotton or cotton-woollen undershirt, a cotton shirt, a thin woollen slipover (sleeveless thin jumper), a thin woollen V-neck jumper and possibly a thin woollen cardigan as well - and quite a bit of the time he'd have had his woollen suit-jacket on as well, for any kind of meeting or going out of his office at all. We expect to be fine in a t-shirt and acrylic jumper  

cobnuts: er, anywhere that is squirrel-proof!  

3secondmemory

@Laura_Elsewhere

I have to wear a body warmer and a hat if I need to be sat at my desk for a long time. I really feel the cold but my house warms up quickly once I’ve put the heating on. I’m one of the mad freaks that has the windows open as much as possible in the day. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@3secondmemory, oh I'm with you on the Fresh Air Fiend bench!  

I lived til age 45 in a house where every (original, wooden-framed, cylinder-blown glass) sash window was a major wrestling job to open or close, even without the problem of reaching said window through the clutter... now I live in a little 1992 flat with windows that just... well, you just turn a handle and out they swing. It's extraordinary. And closing them is similar, swing them shut and turn the handle. Quite amazing. And the most incredible thing of all, is when you close them then the weather *all stays outside*! I've never in my life had windows that did that and even after nearly 6 years I still stand and gaze in amazement at trees whipping about outside and me indoors feeling I could drop a feather like a dg advert  

nannywindow

Re cobnuts - I have gathered about 4lbs which are now drying on the dining table. I shall then bag them and keep them in the dark in a cupboard for a couple of months. We never eat them but I save them for the squirrels because when we have snow lying on the ground they don't have to dig through the snow. I'm such a big softie ! HTH

Greenglockenspiel

I’m going to get some more thermal socks as they’re the bit that gets coldest when working from home, but also I think I’ll set a timer to move about to keep the blood flowing. Trying to keep the heating off as long as possible - it’s still 20 degrees in the living room according to the thermostat but I accidentally left the bathroom door closed the other night and it was 14 in there the next morning! I think the heating is set to click on when it gets to 15 in the living room so still a way to go.

Tink_04

Autumn has arrived in force! Finally managed to get the fence repaired, the guy was messing us around with dates.

I have new windows on order and should be done in 6 weeks, that will make a big difference as even tho we have DG the windows are 20 years old.

Im also making some soup as it’s definitely soup weather now

villagelife

Laura- I'll try and get hi!m to wear layers but it has a struggle to get him to wear a jumper! He did have 2 pairs of socks on yesterday though.
Curtains are drawn at dusk here as makes a difference. My heating bills went up after neighbours who liked their house like a sauna moved out!!

I like cobnuts but no one else here is too keen.

Wednesday2000

I woke up feeling chilly today and I put the thick red blanket over our duvet. I had washed it and left it by the bed as I assumed it would be needed soon.  

I thought about putting the heating on but after going out for a walk it's not that cold. I didn't even wear a jacket or cardigan over my jumper. I had the garden door open for a bit but the wind is brisk out there so it's closed for now. It's definitely tea and soup weather now.