THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

elona

mardatha

You need to see a gp about the breathlessness especially if it is not normal for you. DDs nagged me to go last February and I ended up at the hospital with blood clots in my lungs.

mardatha

Got appointment for 8.30 Monday morning elona ty x

thriftwizard

Goodness, MrsLW, not the ideal moment for a boiler breakdown! Glad you have your woodburner, though. We did two Christmasses in a row with no boiler, 7 & 8 years ago, with a full house & guests. One was rather cold; the other, not so bad. Luckily we have an electric shower so we were all able to keep clean, and the washing machine heated its own water, but by the time the second one happened I'd invested in a small Burco for emergencies, which is still with us & gets loaned out to friends in need. It sits on the draining board, which luckily isn't too far from the nearest plug. I didn't have a dishwasher at that point (do now, a gift from a brother with an embarrassment of kitchen gadgets after moving) and it was no joke trying to do the washing up for a Christmas meal for 10 with just a kettle.

At that point we had an open fire which did provide a small amount of heat in the living room, but fairly galloped through our wood supplies. But now we too have our stove, which keeps us very cosy, and I can heat water (slowly) & keep casseroles simmering on that. And there's washing drying in front of it tonight too, as no-one's watching TV. We did have a couple of small electric heaters back then, but their valiant efforts just managed to keep the odd corner of the house slightly defrosted; it was a good job we don't live further north!

I think everyone needs a plan B in case of boiler failure, as well as power cuts and interruption to the water supply. Even if it's just a supply of good warm blankets and a gallon bottle of tapwater under the stairs...

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

and 69 hasn't had much relevance

Not one of your favourite positions then?

[Deleted User]

good luck monday Mar, we`ll be thinking of you with fingers crossed

I am all the more determined to get a house with a wood burner

mardatha

No problem with breathing at all, just this constant nagging ache from the shoulderblade really getting me down. Can't sit can't lie, but ok walking about or standing.
It's snowing again here. They were saying last year at this time we had an ave temp of 10C and the bulbs were a few inches out of the ground - this year the ave temp is 1.5C and no bulbs to be seen yet. Thank god for the stove, I'd hate to be stuck with a tiny wee electric fire or paraffin heater now, was ok when young and fit and busy.

Karmacat

Mar, I'm glad you've got an appointment to investigate whats up.

I was thinking of you yesterday with all our talk of temperatures recently: it was cold down south here yesterday, but nothing at all to what's been happening everywhere else, and even the wind wasn't terribly bad.

Loving the descriptions of how to get washed in the shower

I could manage if my boiler went, but life would be severely interrupted. January has been (and continues to be) paperwork month because of taxes and insurance, but I'm not far off the end now, and when its done, my preps really need to come to the fore. Bit of future-proofing in there too, as I'm in my 60s as well, although the first half, not the second. Not hugely happy about it, but just determined to carry on recovering what health and strength I have after illness.

[Deleted User]

We too decided on a cold fill washing machine and I dried two racks of washing in the residual heat from the wood stove last night. I really, really wanted an electric shower when we had the bathroom replaced but the plumber attached to our builder talked a good talk on what he installed, it could have been worse though he wanted us to have a shower that worked from a remote control NO WAY!!! If I ever have another bathroom put in anywhere it WILL be an electric Mira Shower, DD1 has one and I love it!!!

Do I get brownie points for filling my hot water bottle from my camping kettle heated up on the wood stove? made for lovely toasty toes and was very welcome in an extremely chilly bedroom!

moneyistooshorttomention

kittie wrote: »

good luck monday Mar, we`ll be thinking of you with fingers crossed

I am all the more determined to get a house with a wood burner

Must admit I used to lust after one of them - but knew I couldnt have one (combination of the way my house is and who would be the person doing the chopping of the wood?)

- but I believe it's all of them (not just some of them) that have been found to cause pollution.

Bit ironic that an item many people put in to be "green" has proven to be the reverse by the sound of it....(the "diesel cars" of the house thing then...:cool:).

*******************

Definitely thinking ruefully re how one manages if a shower stops working - as mine did so recently and I had to get in an electrician for what is only a pretty new shower!!!!!!! Thankfully - my back-up is that I can have an all-over wash if need be (and had to do so for a couple of days). If at all possible, I think it's probably wise to have a shower that works off one fuel and a bath that works off the other (ie one gas-heated water, the other electric-heated water) - but my house is too small to have both a bath and a shower.

I use a trug personally and finally managed to buy one that I think is rubber (ie rather than plastic - eek!) the other day. So stand in the trug in the shower cubicle and that's how I did it.

EDIT; Found the details of the trug I think really IS rubber - "Flexible rubber bucket horse feeding water bucket garden storage basket tub trug" is what it's described as on Amazon. I did land up with others described as "rubber" - but they turned out to be plastic - even though that was in writing/we have a Trades Description Act!!! But this one really seems to be - and I figured a horse-feeding bucket should be a good bit stronger than those plastic ones (which you're lucky to have last more than a year or two).

THIRZAH

Snowing again here. DH has gone to work on the train-he insisted he had to go in. He's just phoned to say he arrived safely but that the path down to town is slippery.

I'm not going out today-we have plenty of food and I have books and knitting to keep me occupied this afternoon. It's days like this that make you realise the advantages of prepping.