THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

zeupater

tori.k wrote: »

We are in double figures still had a few odd days in the 7/8c and a couple of frosty starts but expect the winter to hit February/March onwards if the last few years are anything to go on,be another bad year for spuds, Cornwall is a giant sponge should be renamed bogswall

Hi

Don't know if it's comparable, but driving down any of the lanes around our village at the moment is more like being in a speedboat in a decent swell ... splish, splash, splosh ... with the number of times I've seen gritters recently, there's a good chance that the water's saltier than the sea too ! ...

Z

moneyistooshorttomention

fuddle wrote: »

Winters are definitely different down the South. They have their own problem and it's there that I saw the manhole cover about to blow bit I admit it took me a while to adjust to the constant cold here. Money I bet you get a horrible wind chill temp and there's nothing worse than wind and rain together.

.

Yep.....:(:(

Just done a quick check on both areas:

Here is 8C, feels like 4C
My home city is 9C, feels like 7C

So guess that translates not just into marginally colder here - but the wind today is halving the temperature.

I'm used to rarely having any wind at all - other than occasional mild breeze.

Wind & rain at the same time has me mentally "shaking my fist" at the sky and going "Come on - cut it out - bad enough to have one of those to cope with. But both - gimme a break....".

I can cope more at a personal level (though I do worry whether the frequent wind will permanently redden my complexion from what it's supposed to be like....and I'm not sure whether it is and, if so, what to do to stop that).

I try and tell myself that the plus side of the "lie of the land" here is I'm not having to walk through/have my house in a "sea of other peoples car fumes". It was very very noticeable indeed in my home city that, as I came back into it from the outskirts, I was virtually coming through an invisible "wall of car fumes" and it was no longer air I was breathing - and I still had a distance to keep going further into it before I got to my house:eek:. The only time I dared to take a deep breath basically was at dawn on a Bank Holiday - ie with less traffic around. Coming from a family where there are some respiratory problems and not having a car myself = that was not good news for me. That's part of why I couldnt afford to keep living in my home city any longer - as I'd long ago decided to move to one of the nicer/less polluted parts of it and just couldnt afford it.

My garden is my biggest concern - as I decided years ago very much what it was going to be like - and my planning didn't involve any wind at all or loads of rain and I'm not quite sure how to fit "my" garden as best possible into the garden I have here. I keep deciding what to have first - and then wondering if it will stand up to the wind.

Karmacat

fuddle wrote: »

Winters are definitely different down the South. They have their own problem and it's there that I saw the manhole cover about to blow

Absolutely. There was a spot on the Brighton-London road, just on Brighton outskirts, where that was happening to 4 or 5 manhole covers for months, a few years ago. It was boggling.

https://ibb.co/cvaXRw myself and the DDs sledging yesterday. You can't see our faces so it's ok to post.

Fantastic :j you could make your own Christmas card out of that!

Weather down here: rain, and more rain, on clay ground - and even my commuter town of 30k people has lots of footpaths instead of pavements, walking around is pretty dirty. When the mud freezes, that's a whole other set of problems.

There's also the sleeplessness caused by a particular building method down here, which I regard as utter madness: tile hung walls. Each tile is hung by one nail, but because the surface is vertical, unlike a roof, they clack in the wind. For hours at a time.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just goes to show that there is a heading of "We don't know what it's like to live outside own area" - as I've seen photos of houses with those tiles and just thought how attractive they look/I fancy that

- but I hadnt realised they would "clack in the wind" like that. I can see that would be annoying.

[Deleted User]

Hi ZEUPATER they've just started manufacturing a purpose made eco fan for an inset wood stove, we're debating the pro's and con's of getting one too. I'm not sure if the conventional fan would work on our shelf but DD1 has a wood burner and we got her a fan last Christmas and it makes such a difference to how warm the house gets, it's a super thing!

I was in a H*mesense store on Saturday and saw some small cast iron dishes and small pans and they're just the right size for 1 portion or anything. I was thinking of investing but decided I had enough already, good price though!

jk0

I had an eye test this morning and need a new prescription. Last time to get the glasses I wanted I had to order from America. However, the Transitions website lists my local Boots Opticians as having them.

I just took my prescription in. Obviously English was not the girl's first language. I have my doubts if it was her second. I asked for Transitions Drivewear lenses. She said: 'Oh yes, you can use these for the driving.'

I picked up my prescription and left... America it is.

thriftwizard

I've also seen the manhole covers close to being popped up like corks, as close as the bottom of our street. Sometimes the tarmac cracks and water fountains up out of that; the main road at the end of the street lies along the junction of two different bedrocks & there's a well-hidden springline there, which becomes active when we get torrential rain. The centre of our town is no stranger to flash floods, too, when it rains so hard it can't drain off into the rivers fast enough. The few remaining independent shops have terrible trouble getting insurance cover; I sometimes wonder if we're transitioning into a monsoon-type climate down here.

ivyleaf

jk0 Those lenses look really good! In our town, according to the website, they're available through Boots but also from the independent optician I go to, so it may be easier to look for an independent stockist in your area rather than getting them from America

jk0

ivyleaf wrote: »

jk0 Those lenses look really good! In our town, according to the website, they're available through Boots but also from the independent optician I go to, so it may be easier to look for an independent stockist in your area rather than getting them from America

Thanks Ivyleaf.

When I asked a UK optician for Transitions lenses for driving four years ago, they did not tell me that Drivewear existed, because it was not available here. I presume they thought the sun never gets very bright here. They instead sold me some that only go darker when you are not in the car! I then had to pay again for the ones from America.

I hoped that they would be available in the UK, but the Boots opticians girl yesterday did not seem to appreciate that there were different types of Transitions lenses. Frankly she seemed like a complete f***wit.

I have now ordered the ones from Frames Direct in America. They are a similar price to here.

zeupater

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Hi ZEUPATER they've just started manufacturing a purpose made eco fan for an inset wood stove, we're debating the pro's and con's of getting one too. I'm not sure if the conventional fan would work on our shelf but DD1 has a wood burner and we got her a fan last Christmas and it makes such a difference to how warm the house gets, it's a super thing!

I was in a H*mesense store on Saturday and saw some small cast iron dishes and small pans and they're just the right size for 1 portion or anything. I was thinking of investing but decided I had enough already, good price though!

Hi

Just checked on-line and it seems that they're part of the same group, so probably the same product - can't tell though as both have poor on-line presence! ..

On the fan, I've seen small ones which strap to the pipe, but can't remember seeing anything specifically for a built-in unit ... I'll have a look at some time ..

Well, isn't that just dandy ... it's been cloudy & miserable all day & the sky's now wedgewood blue & the sun's just started to shine on the trees in the garden ... just as it sinks below the horizon! ... pah!

HTH
Z