The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

GreyQueen

Nursie got stuck on the other side of the planet due to C-19 and, although Softstuff swore she'd mailed her back - she's never arrived. Henri d'Vac is still going strong, he had a little spin around the flat the other day. Should last forever, there's so little floor in here to be vac'd.

I found some slug eggs when gardening and dropped them into the pondlet. I am proud chatelaine of a very large and handsome froggy, which spends some of its time in the pondlet. I hope it liked the slug eggs. Organic pest control at its finest......

Karmacat

GreyQueen said:

I found some slug eggs when gardening and dropped them into the pondlet. I am proud chatelaine of a very large and handsome froggy, which spends some of its time in the pondlet. I hope it liked the slug eggs. Organic pest control at its finest......

Hi GQ!  Something similar happened here without me actually doing anything During the summer, I rolled a wheelie bin out to the pavement to be collected, and underneath it were dozens of ants' eggs laying on the surface.  Yuck.  I didn't take any action, just watched, and within 15 minutes there was a blackbird there having the feast of his life, it was great to see natural pest control.

So glad Wild Thing is doing well.

weenancyinAmerica

Regards to Grey Queen from America too. I have saved quotes from a lot of her posts over the years. She was one of my absolutely favorite posters.

DigForVictory

Seems I've joined the unhappy campers who have had their supplier go sideways.
Other than meter reads sharpish, what's the drill? As for this check your outstanding balance, I don't have that from migrating from British Gas which is now looking like a penny wise pound foolish move, but thems the breaks.

Nargleblast

Take photos of your meter readings DfV then sit back and do nothing. Leave your direct debit in place, it will be transferred automatically to your new supplier and your account details will be needed if you're owed a refund, You will in a week or two get a letter from the new supplier explaining what's happening. Your new tariff will probably be dearer than the old but once the changeover is done and dusted you will be free to look around for a better deal - if there are any.

Nargleblast

I was with GOTO energy, and am now transferred to Shell Energy. Their tariff is several pence per unit dearer but I have a healthy credit balance to help with that until I am in a position to shop around.

greenbee

If you're with Bulb DfV, it's going to be a bit different. As it's the 7th biggest supplier, it's going down the route of special administration. None of the big 6 can be supplier of last resort for 1.7M customers in one go - although as only BG & Ovo are UK-owned (Centrica public, Ovo private), the German/French/Spanish might have the financial flexibility to cope. So for the moment, it's likely that the government will appoint an administrator and look for a buyer. The business will keep running as normal until they find a solution. 

The cap needs to be revisted - it needs the flexibility to change with market shifts. If they'd removed it or lifted it when all of this started we might still have more than 6 suppliers energy suppliers. Competition and value in this market has taken decades to achieve, and weeks to destroy. The comparison sites may well be the next casualty, although hopefully they'll be kept going by insurance, savings, bank accounts, mortgages etc.  

LadOnTheHill

DigForVictory said:

Other than meter reads sharpish, what's the drill?

Sit tight and wait for the new supplier to contact you. If you know who it is, and you can, send them a meter reading ASAP. Other than that, it takes a while for everything to filter through properly and get set up. Any credit you had built up with the old supplier will be transferred. When the new supplier wants direct debit details, or whatever, they'll contact you. It's frustrating to have to wait, I know, I'm in the same boat.

I've been trying to test out some of my stuff recently to make sure A) I'm familiar with it, and don't have to find out what its idiosyncrasies are at an unfortunate time and that it actually works. Some stuff I've played with as soon as it arrived, but others, like the marksman heater I have, haven't been touched since they were unpacked. They are very similar in concept to those flat, square camping hobs, in that they run on 227g canisters of gas that slot in, then you pull a handle to click it in place. Searching for "marksman heater" on the big river website will bring one up. Anyway, I can't get the piezo ignition to work on it. I never have much luck with those doodahs, so I fetched a lighter.

Problem #1) a small bic lighter, with the roll-y flint and flame right next to each other, doesn't fit through the grille on the front, designed to keep objects away from the flame. 😏 So I fetched a "long nosed" lighter.

Problem #2) the nozzle on the lighter is still too big to fit through the hole, and there was rather too big a flow of gas before it caught, for my liking. So I fetched a pair of pliers and made a gap in the bars so the lighter nozzle could fit through. Only small, but do I really want to have to modify a safety feature on a device in order to use it?

I ended up searching online, and found a completely electric lighter. No gas at all. It's charged via USB, and at the top emits an arc of plasma. It's windproof, doesn't rely on fossil fuels and works great for what I need, as the head is quite slim and fits between the bars a treat. They're about £10 on the big river website, searching for "arc lighter" will bring them up.

The awkwardness of lighting the heater also got me thinking about what else I'd have difficulty lighting with one of those small lighters. I have lots of them, and they do work for lighting tealight candles, for example, but I'd struggle if to light a candle in a jar, for example. All of my stash are either candles in jars, or pillar candles that I put in jars because I've had so many melt down the side and make a huge mess. It's a waste of wax when that happens, too. I don't want to lose all of that light, skinflint that I am.😁

RAS

GreyQueen said:

My allotment has a handsome leek patch, which I fought the slugs for with Cold Steel as they tried to eat everything down to nubbins when the leeks were transplanted. I had to kill upwards of 100 each evening just to hold the line. Vile creatures. I'm now eating them (the leeks, not the slugs)! 

............I hope tonight finds you all well. Love and peas, GQ xxx

Good to hear from you GQ and glad you've recovered from the repair work.

I resorted to slipping a slug pellet into the hole with the leek seedling because that nice cool spot was just what a mollusc wanted in the heatwave. Not keen on the new sort because the local rodents hoover them up!

Then the rain came.......

Do slip in more often, please.

daz378

Glad to hear your doing ok...GQ....ive 2 days  off...might nip to Mcr  xmas markets. .and have to restock batteries...i have a tubful   over 8 years old...and more led,s   especially if we start getting powercuts..friend sometimes comes with  me  but  is cautious cos of covid...i say your welcome but if you have to cancel last minute   thats fine...she once walked up 16 floors to help me clean my flat .