Preparing for Winter V

MrsCD

Today hubby sanded then I painted two coats of primer/undercoat on the garage door to get it weatherproof again! I'll do a top coat tomorrow. 
I bought a small camping burner for using the Fire dragon gel so I tried it out after I was all cleared up. Verdict is that it burns easily and works well, just as long as you're not in a hurry! It took 15 minutes to boil 1 litre of water, but it is another alternative for when the electric goes off!😄 I like to have options.

Nelliegrace

I hate the weeks in autumn and spring when it is not cold enough for the central heating, which includes the heated towel rail, but it is not warm enough for the thick, cotton bath sheets to dry between showers.  I do use a flannel to get most of the water off, cold damp towels are not pleasant, but I shall be putting the thick bath sheets away for winter and getting the smaller, thinner, old bath towels out. There will be less to wash and they might just dry outside on the line, even in winter. When did towels get so big?
I have found some unused, vintage linen towels on eB, £11 for two. 20 inches by 36 was the normal size. Hand towels were about 20 x 16 inches. I remember soft, huckaback linen towels from my nurse training. I found a vintage, textured linen tablecloth for £5 which will make two fair size, bath towels.

Primrose

I think the best thing to do with these huge  bath towels, especially if you have a sewing machine and can do it easily, is to cut them into two, or even three and securely hem them. They won't look particularly elegant but will certainly reduce the damp  towel drying and washing problem particularly in winter when they often can't be dried outdoors.  

Florafauna

Hammam towels are brilliant.  They are thin, absorbent and dry in about an hour

shoei

Well Autumn seems to have arrived for us!

We have had power cuts everyday for a week and the power has been out since 11pm last night!  Not expecting it I had let my work battery become depleted so I've had to take a trip out to charge it!

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come!

Cherryfudge

I hope so too @shoei! A warning to the rest of us to get things charged up and have some sort of backup if possible. I hope the power is back soon.

SuzeQStan

shoei said:

Well Autumn seems to have arrived for us!

We have had power cuts everyday for a week and the power has been out since 11pm last night!  Not expecting it I had let my work battery become depleted so I've had to take a trip out to charge it!

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come!

Gosh so power cuts must feature regularly for where you live?  When you say work battery what is that please?  I have to wfh as lost office in pandem!c so something like that would be of interest to me if you don’t mind advising your current set up please?

shoei

Sorry it was a typo... work laptop battery it should have said :-) 

We are rural but we haven't had them like this for ages!  Hence not being prepared!  There are only a handful of properties being impacted so low priority but one is our elderly neighbour who is extremely unwell 

Laura_Elsewhere

We had a power cut for a few hours recently but that was the first in several years- our little estate was built 30 years ago with electricity cables swooping in on telegraph poles from an older hamlet up the hill, over derelict ex-industrial land, and powercuts were several times a year, usually a few hours, occasionally a couple of days- but now they've cleared and made safe the derelict land (it wasn't beautiful wilderness, it was derelict! There's a difference...) and over the past 4 years it's become streets of fairly pleasant housing, (inc affordable ones), green open spaces, woodland areas retained (dormice nesting there! How lovely!), etc., and all our electricity now is via modern cabling underground, properly housed, etc., so a lot less likely to have problems. 

We still have all the emergency back-up stuff though! My husband built a shelf in the dead space above the front door into our flat, and it holds a briefcase-sized case with one gas-ring and butane cylinder, a kettle and small saucepan suitable for said gas-ring, my old battery-operated lantern which will light a fair-sized room, and so on. We usually make sure we have a four pack of 2-litre bottled water - normally we avoid buying plastic bottles of water but it makes sense to have some just in case, so four bottles a year. We have ceramic Victorian 'stone pig' hot water bottles, so if we boil a pint of water we have a kind of miniature storage heater to keep us cosy for 8-10 hours if it's under the bedcovers with us, 2-3 hours if used as foot-warmer in sitting-room uncovered. 

We must check the car's winter-box too. I'd forgotten that! 

sammy_kaye18

Afternoon All
Well doesnt it feel like Autumn arrived all of a sudden. 
One minute I was picking the last of the runner beans in 24 degree heat and today Im contemplating putting on a jumper because there is a definite chill in the air today and its blowing hard outside. 

Like most I spent some of the nicer days focusing on getting blankets washed and dried. 
I brought a second extending shower curtain pole to use in the doorways where we dont have doors. I used one the last two years in the space between living room and kitchen and it worked wonders to help keep heat in so want to put one over the back door this year too as it has two glass panes and I think it will make a difference there. I use a net curtain cable above the front door because its easier to move the curtain then for people coming in and leaving. 

Kids both have blinds up in their rooms and can hang a blanket up if they choose too with some well placed hooks. 

Also discovered last year that using a fleece blanket as your bottom sheet in bed is so warm and comfortable so we have one now that covers the whole bed for myself and husband. Kids have them too but may invest in some teddy bedding for them both. 

All have gotten oodies earleir this year too which keeps us all snug. 
Will be investing in some new quilts soon though as both kids have requested double beds for christmas so new bedding will be needed but I will put the old duvets to good use and maybe turn them into lap blankets or dog beds. 

Need to work on building up food storage though for us this winter. We get easily cut off in bad weather with downed trees, mudslides etc so want to make sure I have plenty in. 

Garden this year produced lots of strawberries, lettuce, peas and green beans......I currently have 119 tomatoes on my plants but not one has ripened yet! Have chillis in the greenhouse, and one cucumber. I do have 4 pumpkin plants growing at the minute though so I'm hoping they will provide for us too. I was planning to grow over winter in the greenhouse but with the wind today blasting us I'm not sure how well it will hold up (its plastic) so I may do what I did last year and collapse it down to just the frame again so it survives another year. 

Have got to make a van box for husband though - we brought a new van that the seats fold down to make a bed, so when he goes away to work he sometimes stays in that - we have a small single ring gas cooker with plenty of bottles and sleeping bags etc but really should make him something for if hes stuck in bad weather.