Preparing for Winter

Gigervamp

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

We never have enough umbrellas. DD loses them all. We've gone through ten this year! Needless to say, I need to buy in a bulk order of cheap ones. With Woollies gone, I'm not sure where to go. Any ideas?

Poundland usually have brollies.

missychrissy

kingshir wrote: »

I didn't even know there was a homebrewing thread, will definately have a look.:beer:

I've made plum wine in the past but found it was a bit 'thin' but it improved no end when I added a (cheap) carton of grape or pear juice to the fermentation mix. Do you add anything?

This is my first attempt at plum wine. I am using 2 books by C J J Berry for recipes and he says that plum wine can be 'thin'. I used an extra 1lb of plums and will see how it goes and report back. I have approx 45 galls of wine fermenting now including cranberry, hop, barley, wheat, rice and raisin, apple etc so something should be successful. I only started wine production last autumn in my quest to become as self sufficient as possible.

alice-mary

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

We never have enough umbrellas. DD loses them all. We've gone through ten this year! Needless to say, I need to buy in a bulk order of cheap ones. With Woollies gone, I'm not sure where to go. Any ideas?

I bought a brolly a couple of weeks ago in Wilkinsons for £2 and even though I've only used it a couple of times, it's fine. I also saw some in the Pound Shop but they were all pink and I didn't fancy it!

Skint_Catt

Sports World often have the large umbrellas in their doorway - can't remember how much they were but it was somehting like £1.50 each. Fab to stand by the front door!

nickynoo - what about the foam strip sealant thingy's? Maybe putting a strip of this where the doors meet would help the draft between them? (example: http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9273819&fh_view_size=10&fh_location=%2f%2fcatal!!!1%2fen_GB&fh_search=foam+seal&fh_eds=%C3%9F&fh_refview=search&ts=1251220013600&isSearch=true )

nickynoo08

Thanks skint_catt, just been chatting to OH and he suggested the same sort of thing. Think i'll have a look in to them and see how effective they are.

Butterfly_Brain

Poor old boiler on last legs :eek:
But ray of hope had a look on the warm front web page and had a visit today. Boiler condemned and awarded a government grant for up to £3,500 to replace it because I have DLA but I could also have got it for Council Tax Benefit or Working Families Tax credit plus the man gave me a telephone number to talk to their advisors who will tell me everything that I can claim for :T

Confuzzled

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

We never have enough umbrellas. DD loses them all. We've gone through ten this year! Needless to say, I need to buy in a bulk order of cheap ones. With Woollies gone, I'm not sure where to go. Any ideas?

sure do!

accept that you live in britain, that all umbrellas will die a horrible death the moment the wind flips them inside out two times (this will happen roughly within 3 uses) and buy a raincoat instead :rotfl:

saying that though, if you insist on an umbrella you'll find that the bubble type don't get turned inside out so often because their shape keeps more of the wind out and they don't bend quite as easily as a standard umbrella

if however it's a case of them being lost, please see my first reccomendation!

Confuzzled

nickynoo08 wrote: »

Hiya all, I've been geting a few bits n bobs sorted for xmas too, got loads of fleece blankets, cardigans jumpers for us all etc, sorted out linings for curtains that need it but i'm stuck with one large problem. I have wooden french doors in my dining room and they let through one helluva draft. Ideally i'd love to replace them but i cant afford to till next year now so i need to draft proof them but not quite sure were to start. The main problem is down the middle where the doors meet and at the bottom. I've got some old fleece and pillows to make draft excluder but what to i do down the middle of the doors them selves? I dont think an extra lining would help much. Any ideas?

i don't know if they sell this here (i'm fairly sure they do though) but in the states you can get this thin strip of insulation, it's got an adhesive on it so you peel away the backing and it automatically sticks to the surface (clean it first!) it's foam and it's normally used around doors and occasionally windows to stop the draught.

not sure what it's called here but if you can find something like that and you won't be opening the doors a lot then you could just press that right down the middle of the seam between the doors and that would help a lot. you can remove it later, not sure if it will take away any paint or not but repainting is much cheaper than all that heat loss (i don't think it would though, it's not terribly strong)

perhaps something like that would help?

if not that then you could try cutting a strip of fleece blanket long enough to cover the seam. maybe even double it over so it's extra thick, perhaps use cup hooks at the top of the doors and put a small dowel rod through both the top and the bottom of the piece, the dowel at the top could rest in the cup hooks to allow it to hang down in the right position.

then the dowel rod at the bottom acts both as a weight to help keep it in place and you can then roll the fleece up that and hook it to the cup hooks at the top if you need it out of the way

EDITED TO ADD: well if i'd read further on i'd have noticed that someone has already sent you a link for pretty much what i was talking about!

shaz_mum_of__2

Confuzzled wrote: »

sure do!

accept that you live in britain, that all umbrellas will die a horrible death the moment the wind flips them inside out two times (this will happen roughly within 3 uses) and buy a raincoat instead :rotfl:

QUOTE]

I agree , i hate brollies they turn people into ignorant eyepokers:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

seriously a waterproof with a hood keeps you drier....................but won'win any fashion contests

I actually need a new one as i reproofed mine recently and it has become les effective we caravan and walk a lot so the waterprooofing gets some use...............i noticed millets had a sale too........................

Shaz

kingshir

oldMcDonald wrote: »

Going to butt in here and ask if you would mind PMimg the coffee wine recipe to me too please, kingshir. Hope you don't mind, but I've not tried this before

No problem, pm sent. :beer: