Simple living in the country - back to basics

LadyWithAPlan

I love my coil but there is definitely a bit of the shock to the system when  a new one is fitted. I nearly fainted. Having said that I would not be without it - thinking of getting a hormonal one next time.



On electric usage there is a fascinating energy where the poster has been trying to track down her usage. Well I found it fascinating and lots of interesting feedback - PC's and monitors turn out to be bigger than you expect energy users ... as do showers...
I dont know how much your electric fencing  is but I do know my family members always seems to be down as the ponies knock it over  
 thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6379621/oct-price-cap-increase-likely-to-push-energy-bill-to-over-10k-for-a-family-of-4/p1

After your comment and the thread I will get a monitor - one with a screen on seems like a good idea especially as I can share it with my parents and they are not good with apps.

themadvix

I wonder if the power used by electric fence varies? (Bear in mind I’m slightly delirious, sleep-deprived and no nothing about electric fences!)

Cheery_Daff

No idea TMV! It'll be turned off in November when the cows leave so we can find out i suppose...

LadyWithAPlan - I saw that thread,  that's the one i posted a link to the other day,  that led me to get a monitor in the first place! Suspect none of our laptops or monitors are as high spec as theirs .... 😂😂

Not a great night's sleep,  Mr Cheery didn't come to bed till 3 and woke me up,  then the stupid mouse in the loft woke him at 5, which meant he was hanging around and woke me again 🙄 Operation Mousehunt fully underway today! 

South_coast

Yes, maybe it uses more when it zaps something 🤣

The idea of a coil makes me squeamish. I had an implant fitted last year and it's been great, completely stopped everything. Makes me wonder why I stuck with the pill for so long (only stopping after it caused a DVT 🤦‍♀️!)

SusieT

I have started monitoring what various things use for electricity over a week. So far approximate yearly energy - fridge is 71kwh, freezer (only a few years old) 215kwh, tv and sky box 00kwh
Electric fence units normally run on around 3.5 - 10w if that helps!

Cheery_Daff

That's helpful, thanks Susie 😊 so even if ours is the max, that's still less than 7p per 24 hours, so £2.17 a month, or about £15 for the whole of the period the cows are here (at current rates). Good to know. 

Checked the label on the dehumidifier this morning - 340w, which i think means it costs about 9.5p an hour at current rates, 11p at new. I'd usually leave it on for maybe 4 or 5 hours to help dry clothes inside, so worst case that would be about 55p for 5 hours.

Just checked wattage on the electric heaters i have under my desk. Don't use them all the time, but pretty constantly through the coldest months, which it seems is costing me about £2 a day - and some days I have them both on! Not as bad as I thought, but I usually work at home 2 or 3 days a week, so that adds up.

It's funny, I've always been reasonably abstentions with energy use, but never actually sat down to work out cost per appliance before. Interesting stuff.

Karmacat

I keep wanting to understand watts and voltages and whatnot, and I keep reading about them, but it doesn't stick in my brain.  It's not even early senility - I've always been this way, since my 20s, its a block of some sort, I wish I knew why or at least how to shift it.  That plug, with the inbuilt screen, does seem a really useful thing, especially for someone like me!

Cheery_Daff

Oops, missed you there SC! I can't imagine ours zaps anything very often - there are only about 5 cows in there, across about 8 acres, and the whole fence runs along a wall, so they'd have to be trying to ram through a bit of fallen down wall to get through. No idea if it uses more though! 

I never found a pill that suited in years of trying - the main reason I've avoided the implant or similar, and the hormonal coil too for the most part. Got to the point now though where on balance, I'm willing to give it a go.

The main thing that's vexing me is that I feel I should probably give scything a rest for a few days - I feel like all that repetitive waist twisting won't help in the first few days 🙄😂 Don't want to be encouraging it to dislodge before it gets settled in 🙄

I can see why they make some people squeamish!

badmemory

I swear by the pill followed by HRT.  They made me come off in my late 60s.  My younger sister still has HRT patches but then she is only 72.

Cheery_Daff

Still having HRT at 72?? Crikey, I think I was assuming it would end well before that (although I suppose everyone is different). So much to learn 😮

I'm not in pain today, but I do feel weirdly 'interfered with' and a bit generally delicate. I've actually got quite a bit done though in a slow, pottering way.

* washing done and on the line. New machine spins beautifully, and flannelette duvet cover has dried on the line in a couple of hours despite not being particularly warm out there.

* paid garage bill, and booked MOT for a couple of weeks

* finished sewing Mr Cheery's hat - and then had to unstitch everything I'd done today as it just wasn't sitting right 🙄

* spent half an hour putting stuff away in the new bedroom

* made £50 on the Happy Wheel! So now I'm only down £69 for September 🙄

* turned 3 rows of grass - I was planning to rake to compost, but it was actually nearly dry, so I've flipped it, and it should dry out enough to store as hay by tomorrow

* banks and YNAB, this month's extra dosh added to the pot for plastering the stairs

* made lentil soup in the hay box

I think that's it, but that's plenty for a gentle day. We're going to a friend's house for tea, meant to be leaving in 25 mins but we had a small fight and Mr (not very) Cheery drove off in a huff an hour ago and hasn't been seen since. Hey ho,  at least it's nice and quiet here for a while 🙄

My mum's coming tomorrow, and I hope will be helping me with all that hay, and maybe a few other gardening things. Then a party in the evening. Then Sunday I might just not speak to anyone at all

Thursday it looks like Mr Cheery is having some kind of rare family gathering with long distant relatives - I'm meant to be working, but may rejig things, which might involve working some of either Monday or Friday instead. Friday several of his relatives are coming to stay for two nights 😮 Not ideal, as we will have seen some of them on Thursday... but hey ho.

And then I may well set up a tent at the bottom of a field and not speak to anyone for a few weeks! 

(Oh! Bottom of field reminds me that I still didn't pick the blackberries! Definitely a job for my mum tomorrow!)