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THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

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  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 4 March 2018 at 6:27PM
    fuddle wrote: »
    Where's me pen? Ah yes. Vick's First Defence. There, it's on the list. Much obliged GQ :D

    Congratulations on the extra growing space! ;)

    From someone who takes life at 100mph and has to do everything, all the time, at speed, I'm finding my latest health problem a bit of a mental grapple really. I'm lucky in that I have engineered a life that can cope with me taking a step back... whether I can cope mentality with having to do that I don't know.
    :) My pleasure.

    My temperament is also to go at life like a bull at a gate, full of enthusiasms and at breakneck speed. Physically, I can't stand the pace, so have to practise advance wiliness, using my brain to save my back. After 30+ years of ME, I can't claim to have cracked it but am still a work-in-progress.

    A pal who was disabled with arthritus but who loved to both be with energetic small children and energetic dogs, demonstated how you can do some things which appear very physical but which aren't nearly so.

    Out in the woods, she'd spin on her own axis to throw dog toys (or kid toys) making them take about 15 steps for one of her own. She showed me how to entertain a kitten by throwing a ping-pong ball up the stairs and watching it go crazy trying to catch it on the way down...... and she always had pkts of UHT milk ready for those unpredicable days when the arthur was too bad for her to go anywhere.

    My microwave died about 2 pm this aft. It's about 20 years old and I've had it from my late Nan's bungalow. It's served me 18 months. I want it gone and may not even replace it. The tip is open until 17.00 hrs and is just over a mile away.

    In the space of five minutes I'd mentally run thru the available options:

    1. Strap onto pushbike (dangerous, will prob fall). next!
    2. Put into newspaper trolley and walk it up. Do-able, except I'd just come in from what was prolly a 1.5 m wander around the shopping streets and am lurgy with the proto-cold. I could've gone to the dump but would have wiped myself out for a day or two.
    3. Have texted a dear pal, for whom I have done a favour as recently as yesterday, and asked if they could help me by taking it to the dump at some point?

    :o The third option is the hardest one for me, I really don't like admitting that I need help occasionally, but I'm trying to get over myself. I'll get it outta here one way or t'other.

    ETA pal has come back to me, it'll have to be a weekend, probably Sunday coming. Go pal!
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • We've now got heavy rain, which will hopefully see off the last of the snow.
  • ivyleaf
    ivyleaf Posts: 6,431 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Re cats on YouTube - the video "Cat watching horror movie" is probably the funniest one I've seen.

    Thank you money - that was so funny (I watched the topmost one in the list of similar titles). Poor cat though!
  • thriftwizard
    thriftwizard Posts: 4,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Ohmigosh, fuddle, take good care of yourself! And you too, Cappella, and Bob... I'm in awe of everyone's good sense & heart in here, as usual.

    But dismayed by conversations earwigged at this morning's market... "It was a once in a lifetime weather event!" apparently. This was said by someone a good ten years older than me; I'll be 60 at the tail-end of this year, and I can remember, just, the winter of 62-63, and several other much longer-lasting events than what we've just suffered - for two whole days, down here. OK, it was sudden, and dramatic, but it was also over quickly, and we had plenty of warning. I think we've got a bit soft...

    And I'm reflecting on what I'd need to do if a similar event did happen, in January say, and stayed around for longer. We managed fine this time, but what could we have done better?
    Angie - GC Jul 25: £225.85/£500 : 2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 26/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)
  • westcoastscot
    westcoastscot Posts: 1,404 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    keeping mentally well is part of prepping isn't it? I think a positive outlook makes a huge difference and I'm grateful to have one - I know folks who struggle with positivity and it's a huge drain on their inner resources.

    I'm looking towards spring now and planting my garden. I only have a bit of veg growing space now, but quite a bit of soft fruit (it looks after itself). I'm looking for flowering plants that are perennial, and can cope with a northern coastal garden.

    Right off to book a grocery delivery - we get home delivery here now, and I'm just loving it!!! so convenient and it's halved my grocery budget :-)

    I really appreciate all your support - it's been a difficult couple of years but lovely to know I can just pop back in and everyone is so welcoming. Planning to stick around for a while this time :-)
  • Witless
    Witless Posts: 728 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    Would you still have been able to heat your home, wash, etc.?

    Dual heating system, OFCH linked to solid fuel.

    It needs electricity for the boiler / pump to work but the solid fuel system will heat the upstairs radiators / DHW without a pump and the open fire heats downstairs anyway (the downstairs radiators will get a degree of heat eventually without the pump).

    If there was a disruption to the water supply to the boiler I have a Super Ser in the shed that I could move indoors.

    Back up cooking - 11.4 kg fed gas ring / grill set plus gamping gaz stoves / lights and the option of the open fire - I have small pots & mess tins that fit on the front cover of the all night burner when opened down and some old camping kit that could be used directly on the fire. (You can also open the boiler 'cleaning doors' to give a level surface directly over the fire)
    Back-boilers-007.jpg

    Not an ideal method of cooking, but perfectly feasible if necessary.

    Even with the cold spell I still have 5 - 6 weeks solid fuel & 1500l oil left: if I'm spared til tomorrow I'll be back up to my 12 week reserve (I don't normally buy more coal until the autumn (last year I didn't buy from Nov to Sep) but I prefer to have a stock waiting.

    I'm reasonably confident I'd survive comfortably.
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ahh... No sooner than I got rid of ratty's smell, the flies that must have feasted on him have appeared in my living room. I must have killed about nine today. I have just switched on the lights in my attached garage, in the hope that the flies will go out there through the airbricks rather than come in here.

    It seems odd that it has taken this long. I guess it's due to the cold winter.
  • Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    Would you still have been able to heat your home, wash, etc.?

    Answering my own question, the living room fire and CH are gas, so they wouldn't work.

    However, I do have a 2000W electric convector heater and a 1200w halogen heater, so I could heat the living room.

    I have an electric stove, microwave and electric kettle, so cooking and brewing up wouldn't be affected.

    Washing would be the only thing really affected, because I'd have to heat the water a kettle/pan full at a time.
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
    edited 5 March 2018 at 8:21AM
    Must admit I was totalling up respective fires for subsidiary heating - when a Facebook friend was commenting their heating had stopped working and they commented on the 3 fires they have as subsidiary heating. Now I don't know how big exactly their house is - it looks a fair size and I know it's got 4 bedrooms and large kitchen and live-in conservatory and that can't be enough subsidiary heating.

    Totalled mine up and it comes to 4 and the bathroom heated towel rail is a dual-fuel set-up and so also works off electric (not counting the sitting room fire - as that's gas). So 5 means of heating the house (for 2 bedrooms/1 bathroom/1 kitchen/1 reception room and hallway - and this is a bungalow). Add the fact I've realised switching on all my (electric) cooker hotplates at once would whack out quite a bit of heat.

    When I had the shower swopped - I would have preferred a more "invisible" type shower and huge overhead showerhead (ie it would have been heated by gas) - but I chose an electric one instead just-in-case.

    Think that's sorted then - so the only concern would be paying out the extra for heating the place via electric rather than gas.

    Whew - thank goodness the snow had gone from here by yesterday morning and I was able to get to the supermarket. All is back to normal today - so "life as normal" resumes.
  • Cappella
    Cappella Posts: 748 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Bob - we have gas ch and a gas fire so the gas situation does concern me BUT we also gave an open fire still in the front room and the chimney is swept every year though we rarely use it. Did you know that if you don't have a valid certificate to say that your chimney has been swept recently (annually) your insurance may be invalidated in the event of a fire? Our sweep told us this, I checked with the insurance company and it seems that he was correct. We also have a wood burner in the shed on the Allotment so if all else failed we could spend the days down there :-) We have enough wood chopped on the plot for at least two weeks, and plenty more to chop if necessary too. Also have two fan heaters and an electric space heater, plus a calor gas heater but that runs on gas cylinders and may not be easy to refill if things got really difficult. I have heated soup and beans on the open fire in the dim and distant past, must find the metal thing that swings over the coals so that I can put pans on it again. We also have two trangias, a primus stove and a ghillie kettle on the plot, so I think we're well covered.
    Depending on any other country for coal or gas strikes me as downright stupid, but governments are renowned for short sightedness; and for failing to act on known and received information so I guess that trying to be prepared is the only sensible option really.
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