Preparing for Winter

mardatha

Thing on the news today about Britian not having enough gas, and they are requesting customers to cut down on useage ! This is what comes of selling North Sea gas to Europe and then having to buy it back !! First time those countries have a really bad wintery spell then the UK is on its own. Magic.

carriebradshaw

snowing hard here today and it's windy too, hope the coal man can get through on Thursday or we'll be getting the leccy fires down from the loft

mardatha

Carrie, we thought we were sooo smart having 2 coalboxes, one was for emergencies only and never used. Tried to open it this morning ( minus 9 here) and the bl**dy thing is a frozen block of wood with a frozen block of coal inside it !
if we get desperate I suppose we could just shove some firelighters in & have a barbecue ...:)

carriebradshaw

mardatha wrote: »

Carrie, we thought we were sooo smart having 2 coalboxes, one was for emergencies only and never used. Tried to open it this morning ( minus 9 here) and the bl**dy thing is a frozen block of wood with a frozen block of coal inside it !
if we get desperate I suppose we could just shove some firelighters in & have a barbecue ...:)

:rotfl: we had frozen coal last week too, never had that before in my life!

zarazara

anyone in AVIEMORE? its -14

mardatha

Whole region was cut off this morning, all main roads shut, no schools, no post, no binmen. Our whole street was out once again shovelling but we are running out of places to put it !

balmaiden

Anyone not got any snow? None where I live, West Cornwall.

smileyt_2

I've just been reading a page from the BBC Weather website and have copied this quote as a warning for people:

"Keeping a house at between 18C and 21C is key. Hypothermia is only really a risk when temperatures at home are as low as 5C, but spending more than two hours at 12C raises blood pressure and so increases the risk of heart disease and stroke." (My italics)

So please use your heating if you have it. I am worried about how much it is costing me but I have reached the conclusion that, as it is -7 outside, having the heating on is not a luxury but a necessity! I can worry about paying later. I do feel concerned about those on pre-payment meters though ; those meters eat money like it's going out of fashion.

BigMummaF

Oooh..didn't know that about "12 degrees" Guess I should be more careful as I'm already on blood pressure meds...perhaps I should get a thermometer too as I have not a clue what the temp is either inside or out Our house has the kitchen at the front & so I would say it is north facing as it NEVER sees the sun & I've often wondered how much of a variant there is between the front & back gardens, temp-wise...just [STRIKE]too tight[/STRIKE] had other things to spend my money on..
The poly-cotton curtain hanging across the glazed portion of the front door is making a difference; it would be better if it were full length but it is easy enough to pull most of the way across as you go out the door so has its advantages too.
Because of the way our little cul-de-sac is built, one pavement never sees the sun so this icy weather is really playing havoc with the cars. This morning a heavy van refused to budge after travelling approx 40 feet & it took four strapping men a good 45mins to get it shifted enough to be considered 'parked' & no longer blocking the road :eek:
I saw someone say about using cat litter as an alternative to gritting, but we don't have a cat & knowing MY luck, we'll end up trying to store 10 tonnes of the stuff cuz the Thaw will begin just as we get the bluddin' stuff home & being way darn sarf, will probably not have a lot of call to use it on this level ever again :undecided

mardatha

Our buses are all off, roads are all officially closed, schools off until monday. On BBC Scotland it showed the river Clyde in Glasgow frozen over, and they said worst weather here for over 50 years. Thank god for this forum !