THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Living_proof

I have had several woodburners and multifuel stoves over the years and loved the heat given out by them. All surfaces in the room became warm and cosy which doesn't happen with GHC. Each stove had to be nursed carefully to get the right sort of burn but sometimes the weather conditions meant that the flue didn't get hot enough and black bits of sooty type stuff floated out into the garden. My friend has one in his living room but he burns softwood which always disappoints somehow and takes much more to create a decent heat than hardwood.

I wouldn't go back to all the work involved now I am on my own I think the worst part of the process was clearing up all the 'slaters' which seemed to get into the logs! and in any case I now live in a much milder part of the country in a very well insulated house, so it would be surplus to requirements I think.

maryb

Hopefully they will target the stove manufacturers first. I know that Clearview have the best reputation for burning efficiently - which is why we are allowed to use it in the first place in a smokeless zone - but not all of them are as good, especially the cheaper makes. I think we do use it properly because I love that mysterious looking second burn - it's so beautiful to sit and watch

fuddle

The smokeless zones make me laugh. It's post code dependant here. I'm not in a smokeless zone and the only reason why that is is because when the district council's merged (even though the people voted they didn't want to merge) to a county council, those that were in the main district were subject to smokeless zones and those who weren't have to have DEFRA approved stoves. My home village was a booming mining community and subject to being smokeless. I grew up in the miner's strikes and then about 10 years later all the fires that had been used were no longer allowed under the smokeless zone rules. Many gave up and had gas installed but the bad feeling that left was hard hitting.

As I say, I'm not in a smokeless zone but we installed as if we were to try to pre-empt a problem but I know very well what a change in rules can mean. Such is life I guess.

[Deleted User]

We don't have a problem with Pilly Bugs in the woodpile but we do seem to get lots of queen wasps waking up in a bad mood and doing chain saw impressions against the window in the lounge as the stove warms the room. Patent wasp removal kit lives on the window sill and is a lidless jam jar and an old envelope to slip behind the opening on the window and I just chuck them out of the window, easy peasy!

I don't see the stove as work, I'm sad enough to actually enjoy cleaning the wood ash out every day and popping it into the compost heap and I love laying a new fire in the afternoons and setting it off as it cools down. He Who Knows processes most of the wood we use and doesn't see that as a chore either and the sight of a fully stacked and ready to go wood pile is more beautiful in my eyes than the Mona Lisa! Horses for courses I know but I LOVE my stove!!!

Living_proof

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Horses for courses I know but I LOVE my stove!!!

I love the memory of mine and am glad to have had the experience, but at one point I lived three quarters of a mile up a track 1000 ft above sea level and had two open fires and two woodburners to feed. One of the burners was enamel and stood on legs, taking whole branches of wood horizontally - a Jotel,from Norway. They don't make them any more although more modern and conventional Jotels are still available. My joints are now feeling the wear and tear from splitting great tree trunks, stacking and carrying logs and also coal. I could still do it if I had to, but I am sure in ten years from now that won't be the case! Like you I just love the sight of a really well-stacked log pile - if only they didn't go down so quickly!

[Deleted User]

I'm sad, I covet lorry loads of logs that pass us on the road, I covet a stack of wood cut in the New Forest and I swoon at the sight of an ordered and copious wood pile if we pass one in someones house. Wood and lots of it is worth more in pleasure to us than posh cars, jewellery or status, give me a nice piece of ash wood any time and I'm happy!!!

mardatha

That's one reason why I don't burn wood, the insect life in it! I would be lost and unhappy without a coal fire, I'm not into central heating on it's own. I need a fire to sit at.
Our forecast for Thurs is heavy snow gales and blizzards, so my power will go off at some point and I will be warm and cosy at my fire. Worth the bl00dy fortune it costs to run lol

[Deleted User]

I give you a scenario to ponder, there is unrest in Europe and the gas pipeline has been damaged and we've lost the supply. A massive storm roars in from the Atlantic and causes widespread damage to the power grid, actually taking out several power stations and severely damaging many areas of pylons so the supply is out over most of the country, the water in the taps isn't safe to drink and the sewerage plants are out of action because they have no power supply.....how would you make out under that set of circumstances?

maryb

I'd light the stove and boil some water

maryb

oops, posted too soon - though that would be a big chunk of preps. Sewage is trickier. Two sides to it - stopping backflow and dealing with your own. I think in the scenario you are talking about they would focus on restoring vital services before they got round to fixing the power supply to houses so hopefully the water and sewage treatment plants wouldn't be out of action for too long. So, not looking at long term alternatives. So I would stuff an old pillow into a black plastic sack to stop backflow from the loo and I would bucket and chuck it (into a carefully positioned and deeply dug hole) for the duration.