THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

[Deleted User]

The shower never crossed my mind and now that is another thing on my list as a potential, to do. The shower I have now works perfectly, heated by wood pellets, which heats the top 1/3 of the tank efficiently but this house of mine is unusual. It is also cold here and hailstones and I noticed this morning that the building fabric is cooling ie 17.5 in the central hall. It will cool without heat input and I have been electric heating whatever rooms I am using. So full ch has been on for 2 hours and I felt the warmth in the air when I came down, this warmth will enter the building fabric

I intend to get a multi fuel stove in the future, reading what mar says. It is nice to have the option and I intend to get pressed wood briquettes delivered on a pallet. Lol so yes I need a house with a drive that leads to a garage, so the pallet can be delivered as is.Tbh I have done my share of `saving the planet` to now and the future is all about me. Wood and coal and anthracite, bring it on

mar, shoulder pain: knitting with the head slightly forward, also maybe not supporting the neck with the right pillow at night. Been there, done that

fuddle

I have learned a new word. I shall go educate myself about Burco's any minute.

Mar. I know you're super sensible but when you talk about your shoulder pain please mention the breathlessness on the stairs. In my experience shoulder pain is connected to lung difficulties. I am well aware that I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs here but just incase I'll chirp up.

I've read a lot about wood smoke pollution because I know wood smoke effects my asthma. The reason I have asthma isn't because of woodsmoke in the atmosphere. I also struggle where there are a lot of parked cars with their engines on (outside of school or in a city centre. Princess Street Edinburgh had me panicking about my breathing but once up the old bit I was ok, I digress.) The cold has me struggling, the hot dry air too, pollen, when I have an infection and I now realise that bloating through diet effected my asthma too and don't get me started on cigarette smoke. It's not just a woodsmoke problem. I still made the decision to install a multifuel stove because for me, the need to be as self reliant as possible is important to me. Man has been burning wood for heat and cooking since day dot. I think if every household the world over just burned wood we wouldn't have the pollution we have today. I do understand that woodsmoke particles are awful for the lungs but maybe our lungs could cope if they weren't struggling with modern day life?

Those that have green credentials aren't wasting or consuming the vast amount of stuff that the gas, oil, petro etc lovers (abusers) are and therefore I think it's the most environmentally friendly heat source that is beneficial to the earth once burned too.

That isn't me, by the way. I try but I'm far from being able to stand on a pedestal about it. I just don't think burning wood is the problem and think the problem is burning wood alongside the horrific levels of burning other stuff too.

All that said, going forward I need to be able to heat water and food stuffs on the stove and need to investigate kit. What do you use? Does it have to be cast iron?

DawnW

Fuddle You don't need specific pans etc to use on the stove top. Our kettle is a tinned copper one that came from a car boot sale, but any type, with a flat and fairly solid base would do. I have used an enamel and an aluminium kettle previously, all car boot or junk shop finds. My only real criterion is that it fits physically on the stove top, as ours has the pipe going up straight out of the top, so space is limited, and I can only use quite small items. Having said that, the kettle holds more than a litre, so not THAT small! As for pans, I just use the (smaller) ones from the set I use for everything else (stainless steel ones, with flat, fairly solid bases). No need to spend out on extras

fuddle

Fab DawnW. Do you use a trivet or straight on the stove top? Yeah we have the flue at the top but I can see I would fit the milk pan on there quite fine

mardatha

Will mention that fuddle yes xx Might not actually get to the doc today though. Got an emergency appt for 3.45 and the snow is getting ever heavier. We went up to Costco earlier and the moor was pretty bad then, so the road down to the docs will be worse. Going to see how it is at 3 when we have to leave. If it's bad then not going, canny risk the car being damaged.
kittie - I absolutely agree with you re staying warm v saving the planet I'm saving me first! lol

zeupater

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I have had 3 x boils of the camping kettle on the stove since we lit it at 3.30 this afternoon, one I made sure it WAS boiling on the hob and it made us a hot drink, the next one washed up after supper and the last one has just given me a thorough good wash and half a hair wash, I boiled the electric kettle for the rinsing water and it worked a treat. A very good trial for prepping I think and we've cracked step one of the learning curve. The kettle is a LiTech one and is the first container I've used on the stove that has got the water approaching boiling so I'm now considering getting some LiTech pans too, whatever they're made from seems to work!

Hi

We had a similar problem a few years back when there were problems with the local electricity supply ... no electricity, no pump, so no heating .... it's surprising what you can do with a log-burner if you put your mind to it ... kettle, teapot, pan, toasting fork ... all came in handy ... toasted bread with fork-roasted bacon ... mmmm! ...

Our only real problem is that the burner we have is a canopy type (similar to the one shown in this high efficiency home energy blog ... link here ) so there's not much room on the top for anything other than a small kettle and/or pan!

Hope they sort it soon, but enjoy the camping & keep warm!

HTH
Z

DawnW

fuddle wrote: »

Fab DawnW. Do you use a trivet or straight on the stove top? Yeah we have the flue at the top but I can see I would fit the milk pan on there quite fine

Just straight on the stove top. I have a trivet on the hearth, but just to rest hot pans etc on, though to be honest I hardly ever use it because of the dog sticking his nose where it isn't wanted, and potentially burning it!

I don't really use it for serious cooking because of the size issue, but it is fine for heating /boiling water (I always have a kettle on there when it is alight, even if the water isn't boiling it is fine for washing up, a bit of hand washing etc, but when the stove is good and hot it boils fine), and heating things like milk, soup or beans in a pan. Give it a try

DawnW

Ooh I forgot about the toasting fork Zeupater. It seriously makes the BEST toast

zeupater

DawnW wrote: »

Ooh I forgot about the toasting fork Zeupater. It seriously makes the BEST toast

... and surprisingly quickly - it puts our feeble lump of modern electric toaster technology to shame! ... doesn't take long to carbonise though .. :eek::)

Anyway, on the trivet front, it's pretty normal to have one on the stove-top to move the kettle over to after it's boiled & possibly one on the hearth to move pans to when needed .... I think there was a small one on the top of the log-burner in the previous link!

HTH
Z

mardatha

Well that was a waste of time. Trekked down in the snow to the docs, to find the waitingroom jampacked and not one empty seat. Asked reception what was going on and she said the doc had been called out to an accident on the road and they were running 40+ minutes late. I made another appt for Monday morning and we came home.
Just got to the gate and the snow really got into gear. Nice to be home and settled in now, I'd have to deranged or close to death to sit in that surgery with people coughin on me for hours.
WCS I hope the missing boat is not your sons. xxx