The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

cuddlymarm

If your ceilings are high enough fans could be a way forward in keeping your house cooler. We’re quite lucky that we face north ( a flat with windows just on one side)  so keeping the curtains shut on the hot side of the house may help.
Tonight we had salad wraps ( OH had corned beef with his) and I had some Boursin cheese which I froze at Xmas. Most meals have been cool this week. None of my chilled stuff arrived because Tescos fridges broke but a good prepper can always make a meal of of bits and pieces.

maryb

Shade trees if you can.  They’ll take a while but once grown they should let in low winter sun but block the high summer sun.  Also shade canopies over windows.  A pergola with climbing shrubs so you can sit outside - less stuffy than an awning or parasol.  We had a conservatory built a few years ago.  It’s great most of the time because the back of the house has a big retaining wall built into the hillside behind us so the back tends to be dark.  But today it was an oven.  If I were to do it again I would go for a partial tiled roof with a lantern light or choose a design which would be easier to install shade blinds.
 

When we had our kitchen done, dark slate floor tiles were the big design “thing”. I’m very glad we went for light coloured travertine floor tiles instead, the dark slates would have absorbed and retained a lot of heat.

another thing to think about is insect barriers so you can have windows open without lying quaking under the covers as you hear that high pitched whine that tells you there’s a mozzie in the room and he vons to trink  your blood!

-taff

Paint your house white, put solar panels on the roof.

[Deleted User]

Just a reminder to you all that you can whisk eggs and freeze them, I have a stash of frozen eggs in the freezer for when my girls stop laying in the winter months.

If you haven’t already, watch @MSE_Martin video that was uploaded to YouTube and various other platforms yesterday regarding energy price rises and other issues. Should be mandatory watching for everyone IMHO xx

Si_Clist

Deleted_User said:

... If you haven’t already, watch @MSE_Martin video that was uploaded to YouTube and various other platforms yesterday regarding energy price rises and other issues. Should be mandatory watching for everyone IMHO xx

Indeed, but I very much doubt it would do much good.  IMO those who could see which way the wind was blowing started doing something about it long ago.  Those who can now see what's coming are starting to get their act together.  But the rest (the vast majority?) either don't want to know or will expect the government to bail them out when the SHTF.

It's really interesting reading the German news and seeing what a panic they're getting themselves into over gas and the lack thereof this coming winter - and they're actually far better placed than we are thanks to decades of short-termism by our beloved leaders.  

Apparently it's almost impossible to buy a logburner in Germany now, and even if you can get one, you'd better have access to a few trees 'cos you can't get firewood for love nor money!

DigForVictory

I read of a "standing bath" & thought interesting idea. Then Google wouldn't tell me what one was but filled with freestanding baths and where to buy them...

So I went back and searched the site again and this is a standing bath:

Bowl for water (back in the day it was a washing up bowl)
Soap
1 wash cloth
1 sponge
Kettle

boil up a kettle full
fill bowl with cold water
add boiling from kettle until warm enough, put kettle still mostly full aside
strip
one leg with foot in bowl and wash everything attached to it with soap and the wash cloth, don't bother rinsing it off yet
other leg in bowl and wash everything attached to it with the wash cloth, don't rinse
now throw away soapy water
fill bowl with cold and use kettle to warm it up
wash upper torso in same fashion standing over the bowl
once you've done yer head empty away soapy water by emptying over your whole soapy body
fill bowl with cold water and warm it with some from the kettle
use sponge to rinse yourself off
pour water from bowl over head
repeat until not soapy
a proper standing bath as we used to call it, full and total hygiene when you have no running water for whatever reason

So if the idea of the cost of the heat & water for a shower seems exorbitant (or you just want to hammer down the bills a bit), you now have an alternative.

annieb64

Had to wash like that when camping once and there were only a couple of showers on the site which was full. Didn't pour the water over my head as would have made the tent floor wet.

Si_Clist

DigForVictory said:

 ... a proper standing bath as we used to call it, full and total hygiene when you have no running water for whatever reason.  So if the idea of the cost of the heat & water for a shower seems exorbitant (or you just want to hammer down the bills a bit), you now have an alternative.

And if my considerable experience of "bathing" like this is anything to go by, you also have a large puddle on the floor unless you remembered to place the bowl on top of a large bath towel 

maryb

White flannel for top half, blue flannel for lower extremities.  Once it's soapy don't dip the flannel in the clean water, save it for rinsing. It helps to have a third flannel for wiping off the soap before you rinse.  Many camping family holidays refined this.

Another option is a garden pressure sprayer.  One kettleful of boiling water and twice the volume of cold.  Pump it up and you can have a good shower

-taff

Si_Clist said:

DigForVictory said:

 ... a proper standing bath as we used to call it, full and total hygiene when you have no running water for whatever reason.  So if the idea of the cost of the heat & water for a shower seems exorbitant (or you just want to hammer down the bills a bit), you now have an alternative.

And if my considerable experience of "bathing" like this is anything to go by, you also have a large puddle on the floor unless you remembered to place the bowl on top of a large bath towel 

I'd hope that most people would realise the bath would be a good place to stand. Failing that, stand in the shower with your feet in the bowl. This is of course for those who aren't unsteady on their feet before someone starts with the 'but what about' stuff.