Preparing for Winter

Rummer

The cars here today are icy!!!

Frugaldom

Rummer wrote: »

The cars here today are icy!!!

It's been like that for the past week or so here, it's still frosty in the shade and the surface water & chicken coop roofs were all frozen this morning. I was out taking photos at about 7.30am as it looks so lovely with the pink & blue sky! Didn't realise it was so cold until I went outdoors.

Thanks for the fire blanket and £land suggestions, both of which I had thought about. Will watch out for stuff like that, as I need to get a fire blanket for the kitchen anyway. Nowhere near a £land here, though. Will check out eBid & eBay. I'm thinking a fire blanket with the silver as a liner between it and the fireplace. Shaz, do you know if these can tear easily?

Going to make the fleece covers for livingroom window today as this room is the coldest, being northerly facing and having the fireplace open.

twiglet98

The cream fleeces from Mr T are a huge success :j! Blanket stitched all round so they were really easy to just loop the curtain hooks through. The sitting room seemed warmer as soon as they were up, just before dusk, though lighting the first fire of the winter probably had a lot to do with it!

Rummaging through a cupboard I found an unused oil lamp, a Christmas present from ages ago. It's a ceramic base with a glass goblet, and a thing on the side that winds a webbing 'wick' up and down. It doesn't have instructions. Has anyone used one, what sort of oil would it burn and where is it sold? Do they give off much heat compared to a candle, say, or are they just for light? I'm not entirely sure if it's meant to be lit at all, or if it's just decorative My mother had an Aladdin paraffin heater on the landing outside my bedroom when I was little and got rid of it when she was told they were dangerous, but whether it was the risk of knocking it over or the risk from fumes, I don't know.

DdraigGoch

I often use oil lamps and prefer Alladin lamps as the single or double wick ones tend to be a lot more liable to be smokey with me. Try looking on www.lehmans.com for more advice on lamps. There are many UK sites too, but Lehman's is such a joy :-)

Hope this helps.

downshifter

DdraigGoch wrote: »

I often use oil lamps and prefer Alladin lamps as the single or double wick ones tend to be a lot more liable to be smokey with me. Try looking on www.lehmans.com for more advice on lamps. There are many UK sites too, but Lehman's is such a joy :-)

Hope this helps.

Wow! What a wonderful site, thank you for telling us about it. Does anyone know if there's anything similar in the uk?

DS

BigMummaF

nykmedia wrote: »

.........
Thanks for the fire blanket and £land suggestions, both of which I had thought about. Will watch out for stuff like that, as I need to get a fire blanket for the kitchen anyway. Nowhere near a £land here, though. Will check out eBid & eBay. I'm thinking a fire blanket with the silver as a liner between it and the fireplace. Shaz, do you know if these can tear easily?
...........

Might be worth asking at your local [manned] fire station; I've a feeling they may sell things like this with a bit going towards the Firefighters Benevolent Fund so well worth any possible increased price in my book. They may even have suggestions for a better alternative that we've not thought of..

Frugaldom

BigMummaF wrote: »

Might be worth asking at your local [manned] fire station; I've a feeling they may sell things like this with a bit going towards the Firefighters Benevolent Fund so well worth any possible increased price in my book. They may even have suggestions for a better alternative that we've not thought of..

Doh! Me stoopit and never even thought of that - will go ask my bro-in-law. :rotfl:

Edited in - Just noticed that you said 'manned' - not sure where nearest one of those would be, certainly not within easy reach of here

mardatha

I haven't found anything like Lehmans here. It is amazing. I can spend half a day looking at the stoves !

BigMummaF

If you've someone in the 'know' Nyk then ask them! I did say manned because our local ones are retained so no-one there unless there's a 'shout', but I think the phone no for 'district' is on the wall outside.

Been meaning to ask too, if anyone knows of a battery operated lamp that is safe to leave on all night? Me muvva often has to use the little girl's room & is looking for something to leave in the passage, just to give a bit of light when she first wakes. There's no socket in easy reach & the dimmer switch in the ceiling light means it's difficult to find the right low-watt bulb with the right fixing. It would be good to find a similar set-up to a cordless phone I suppose, where she could put it on charge during the day to save buying batteries every week.
I've tried everything I can think of so...over to yooze lot of intrepid finder-outers *cue Mission Impossible theme*

laurel7172

Difficult to find the right light bulb, or impossible? That's got to be the easiest, lowest maintenance option if it can be done. Even changing the light fitting or switch might be time/cost effective compared to having to babysit a rechargeable lamp-the batteries in those don't last forever.