Simple living in the country - back to basics

rtandon27

Hope you rested well Cheery & that the pond in the cellar disapates soon! Is it the well that has overflowed?

I've had the dehumidifier running for the past couple of days in the small foyer between the kitchen and bathroom - we've emptied it 3 times in 48 hours and it still feels damp out there!

Cheery_Daff

I think I'll get our dehumidifier on in the kitchen today at some point, it's over the cellar and does sometimes feel rather damp! 

Friends aren't coming today, one doesn't feel well, and there has been a LOT of water around. All roads are open now apparently, but several rivers are overflowing and everywhere is quite soggy. 

Unexpected post today - Mr Cheery's new passport!! He only applied online on Sunday, posted the old one on Monday afternoon. Certainly didn't expect it that quickly, but very pleased. We may get to see our friends before Christmas after all! 😊

beanielou

Great news on passport. 

themadvix

Excellent about the passport - that was super quick!

Cheery_Daff

We nipped out yesterday afternoon for a bimble round town - no flooding evident in our area now (we did take the high road out, not the low one) and the sun came out eventually.

Sun's shining this morning too, but as Mr Cheery is still unwell, I am remaining in shouting distance, which means kitchen/dining room/study. The coldest and darkest bits of the house, but I do at least have a nice view of the garden, a nice cup of tea, and I've lit a candle 😊 And I have my hot water bottle and cosy poncho of course! 

I'm going to do an hour of work I think. Lots to do, and his health situation is uncertain at the minute, which has meant quite a bit of disruption to my work over the last few weeks, and I have a busy few weeks coming up, so it seems wise to get stuff finished while I can. Not going to spend too long on that though. 

I do also need to make some progress on this job application, which I have been thinking about a lot, not practically DOING anything about 🙄

And I want to have a good long thing about emergency preparedness. All this health business is making me think a lot about various dire situations, and what would make them easier to deal with, and therefore less stressful. 

We started a kit for if the power goes out, but I'm not sure it extended far beyond a gas camping stove. Annoyingly, they've switched us over to that stupid Internet phone nonsense - I'm sure there were very good reasons, but that leaves us without any means of contact if we lose electricity (the mobile mast went down at the same time last time, and of course mobiles only last so long without power). The house phone was a good way of ringing the power company, checking if the local shop was open before walking 2 miles in the snow, ringing family to let them know we were OK etc, and ringing friends for light entertainment 🙄😂 Can't do that now, so need a rethink. 

Also NOT liking how far we are from urgent medical facilities 🙄 Nearest A&E is 30 mins drive (it was about that when we lived in the city with the traffic! But at least there was an option of a taxi if necessary, and route was unlikely to be cut off by blizzards 🙄). Not much we can do about that of course 🙄

Anyway, all this is to say my thoughts are turning (again) to moving back to the city, as they often do at times like this, especially heading into winter. There are SO very many things I love about it here, but uncertainties in the health department are not one of them. 

Not a decision, or even a conversation, for today, but in the back of my mind. Clearly it's not going to happen before this winter, but I would like to focus and be in a position to move next year if needs be, which means dealing with ongoing DIY jobs 🙄 

Need a 'little and often' strategy I think. Just doing the one next thing.

Anyway, just pondering. More tea, an hour of work, and then we'll see where the day takes us.

greenbee

Sorry to hear you are worrying about Mr Cheery and your location. When it comes to the internet phone, you should be able to get your phone provider to sort out a backup battery for you so that your phone will keep working in the event of a power cut. I'm not sure how long they work for, but you could always keep it for if you need to make an urgent outgoing call. Sadly I don't think you can get them to fund solar panels and battery storage (although in rural areas there are lots of schemes to subsidise these if you're not on mains gas - I get stuff about it all the time but don't qualify). 

If you're thinking seriously that you might need to move back to the city, use it as motivation to finish the things in the house that you'd need to do if you wanted to sell. That way it'll either be more comfortable for you, or easier to sell, or both. 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks greenbee. Yes, we often get stuff about solar etc subsidies, not being on mains gas, but also don't qualify. Something to consider for the future (especially if I get this new job!)

Will definitely invest in a back up battery charger thing for the mobiles. I don't think there's such a thing for the landlines- provider says back up is having a mobile phone 🙄 All very well if your power isn't off for four days! Although to be fair, that's only happened once...

And yes, will definitely be using that as motivation to get things sorted.

Just had a bit of a chat with Mr Cheery. As an experimental one off, we're going to get someone in to mow/strim the grass as a one off, see how that feels (and how much it costs). At least takes something tedious off my plate, and hopefully it'll be the last time before the winter. We'll see.

greenbee

I think they only have to provide you with the battery back-up if you live in an area with no reception or have no mobile phone. I have considered getting a decent battery back-up to use for work, but will ignore it a bit longer and panic when we have a power cut  

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes, when our power goes out I mutter about getting a generator or something, but it's only actually been out for about 6 days in total since we moved 5 years ago (4 days of that was in one go, in unusual circumstances), so not really worth the bother! 

Just messaged someone to ask about gardening 😊

And we are collectively feeling well enough to head to our planned gathering, so hooray! Although the sun is shining, so part of me would rather be in the garden, but hey ho 🙄😂

redofromstart

a decent power pack will recharge your mobile a few times (we have several Ankers and have a charged one in the car emergency packs etc). We also have a solar powered charger thing (for when he is camping), but I am not sure how well that works. We also have a portable wifi thing for different networks so we aren't reliant on one. We always have enough tins and packets to feed us for a few weeks. We also have a petrol powered generator.

we sound like preppers at this point, but we know we will be moving to the middle of nowhere eventually and we have bought things as we have seen a good price.