2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

dolly84

Laura_Elsewhere - so sorry to hear about your friends.

TwibbleDee - Brrr, hope you get the power back on.

joedenise

Definitely a caravan towed by a large car.  

PipneyJane

Who was it who said that the United Kingdom and the United States were "two countries separated by a common language?".  I think our conversation re caravans and towing vehicles is a good example.

@TwibbleDee, the snow in Texas made it onto the BBC Breakfast news program this morning.  They interviewed a TV weather presenter from Houston, who said that they've broken the record set in ?1896 for the coldest day in Houston.  He also mentioned that 2/3 of the city was without power.  

I hope things warm up for you, soon.

- Pip

TwibbleDee

@PipneyJane It's 2/3 of the state, not just Houston.  Dallas is supposed to get another half inch of ice today, I believe.  I have friends there who are literally living in their cars because they can at least keep the heat on in there.  Friends in Austin are clocking the indoor temperatures at 28F.  Luckily, the second round isn't expected to hit us too hard where we are, in the western part of the state - temperatures will stay about the same, but our chance of precipitation does go up to about 50.  As long as we can get gas, we'll be fine.  Not even worried about the propane so much, although it would be nice to use the built-in heater and stove - we can run electric heaters inside the camper off the gasoline generator (although we did learn this morning that 2 electric heaters, the fridge, AND the coffee pot might be a bit much).  We do have a portable propane stove that we have the tiny bottles of propane for.

There are many advantages to being prepared to go camping when the power goes out...

Our power is on for the moment.  We've refilled the water jugs and need to check the propane on the camper.  It didn't switch over to the second bottle last night.  I think I'm going to go see if we can get more propane - yesterday, the lines were 70-80 cars long.

joedenise

Good luck with getting more propane @TwibbleDee.  We have refillable bottles in our motorhome so we can actually survive for a couple of weeks when it's cold in there.  We always make sure they are filled up once a holiday is over so both bottles are always full in case we need to use it whilst we're at home (we keep it on our drive) - we used to get regular power cuts where we live but, fortunately, it doesn't seem to happen quite as often now.

TwibbleDee

joedenise said:

Good luck with getting more propane @TwibbleDee.  We have refillable bottles in our motorhome so we can actually survive for a couple of weeks when it's cold in there.  We always make sure they are filled up once a holiday is over so both bottles are always full in case we need to use it whilst we're at home (we keep it on our drive) - we used to get regular power cuts where we live but, fortunately, it doesn't seem to happen quite as often now.

We've gone through 6 bottles, I believe.  If we had refilled everything before it hit, we would probably be fine as we normally have 2 on the camper, 2 for the grill, 1 for the propane fire pit, and 1 extra.  Instead, I think only 2 of them started out full, and 2 were partial.  Pretty certain my math is off somewhere, because we have 2 full bottles right now.  

thriftwizard

Laura, I'm sorry to hear about your friends. Sending virtual {{{hugs}}} and just howl or let off steam here in the Village Hall when you need to.

Twibble-Dee - hope you have got hold of some propane, somehow, and that the weather eases up before too long.

TwibbleDee

We've had power all day today except for about 5 minutes before we ate supper.  I think we're going to risk staying inside tonight - I was voting for going back out because I don't want to have to go back out there in the cold at 3 am, but we're staying inside unless the power goes out before then.

Liverpool_Anne

Laura, I am so sorry to hear about your friends, try to look after yourself while you are supporting them, big hugs from me and if there is anything I can do to help please just ask
TwibbleDee I hope you can get some propane and can somehow keep warm, hopefully the weather will improve soon, the reports I am reading say things will warm up by the weekend, take care

maryb

Did anyone see the programme on Wartime Britain last night on Channel 5?  It's available on catch up.  It talks about food rationing and clothes rationing. The usual format with a modern family trying to live as they would in 1940.  What was quite good was that they were an ordinary family whereas a lot of these programmes choose a family that was always going to struggle and were not representative eg vegetarians in the early 20th century A bit superficial but interesting anyway with some black and white film footage I hadn't seen before