Prepping for winter 24/25

[Diversion]

If you prep for winter how are you getting on? We have a delivery of logs due shortly and plenty of kindling and fire lighters. I need to order the oil. Ok for food and water and I have recently increased my first aid supplies and OTC meds. Plenty of batteries for torches and lanterns and have bought new PIR lanterns for indoors rather than switching on the lights to save on electric. Need to increase my stock of non scented candles. Stocked up on de-icer and screen wash and we have a good supply of woollen blankets and hot water bottles. We also have alternative ways to cook including the woodburners should we have power cuts and have emergency chargers for phones etc. Still need to stock up on salt/grit sand for icy weather. The weather has been so strange recently that I think autumn and then winter are just going to sneak up on us.

Hmm. Interesting. I felt that I ought to prep early this year.

Empty gutters at mums.
Dig out drain at mums.
Insulate pipes at mums.
Get boiler serviced/turn up heating.

(Cold house)

Mend windows at mums. Just waiting for a spell of dry weather.

Home: top up supplies of some things.
Thanks

DH is in charge of prepping the house this year - organising gas boiler service, getting logs, chimney swept, clean out gutters, ...

My guess is that he may arrange the boiler servicing once I remind him.

He will say that I got the chimney swept last summer before I left ("and we barely lit the fire last winter"...although he also told me how often DD lit the fire over the winter...).

He will buy a single bag of logs when he runs out. He won't buy the 10 bags for the price of 9 offer and have plenty there before bad weather arrives. And our log supplier DOES sell out!

And he won't bother with the gutters as "they don't get much up there" (it's a job I do every autumn and get a couple of buckets from the lower level ones always, lots of trees around and moss from north facing roof).

There's not a lot I can do here (11th storey apartment) - communal boiler for the building, city centre location, and generally well set up on arrival.

I want to get a decent power bank/solar generator and single ring induction plate as backup, as naked flame options are not allowed (although I don't think there are rules around candles so a tea lights/roasting tin option is my current plan for a backup). I have a good south facing window for charging it. I already have a camping solar shower that I could use for warm water.

No car, have a bike that is in good order, and both hiking boots and snow boots for walking in bad weather. I got a down long coat last year as it is a colder winter here.

I will need to clear the pots from the balcony, but there are still a lot of tomatoes to ripen so I am waiting another few weeks to do that. And enjoying morning coffees out here - but I think it will be too wild to keep the table and chairs out so they'll come in once the weather turns. Actually, just remembered I must get DH to oil the table at home as that mechanism was getting stiff, and buy a cover for the gas BBQ as the old one has shredded and it stays outdoors (it gets used year round).

I bought my logs at summer prices, so they are stacked up in the log store. I have battery back up for the fridge and freezer. Wind up lanterns and radio and plenty of camping gas and candles, hot water bottles and blankets, so we are ok if there is a power cut.

We've got the landline still, but I am thinking about a solar charger for the phone, but I could charge it in the car if it was dead. A bit of an extravagant use of petrol, but if I needed to, I could.

I've booked the chimney to be swept next week, and the boiler the week after. We have overpaid the electric so have about £400 in credit, Just as well as DH doesn't qualify for the winter fuel payment anymore.

I've got a fairly good stock of shelf stable food, but need to add a bit more fruit and veg to balance it out. It's a bit protein and carb heavy at the moment.

I've got loads of blankets and quilts, but could do with some more hot water bottles, I had to chuck a couple away because they'd perished.

I have a month of medication, and a good stock of over the counter meds and first aid items.

We have enough logs and kindling for a couple of years as well as plenty of coal. We invested in a dual fuel generator to power our battery bank this year and will probably invest in another battery too. I have been canning meat to provide an easy to store form of protein. We have plenty of dried food as well as the freezers which can run off the generator. We don’t have central heating so have always had plenty of blankets and hottie botties and I have knitted some hottie bottie covers this year too.

Hey! Out of interest, where do you all get your logs from and roughly how much do they cost? We are in the suburbs of SW London. So far we have just bought bags of logs which hasn’t been very cost effective. Hasn’t been that cold though since we had a stove installed.

@Atomsaway We are on the Welsh borders and get our logs locally. We have a huge log store and buy them in bulk. It is our only source of heating we need to have enough to see us through a long cold winter. We paid near enough £500 for soft, hard and kindling.

Thanks @Helloandgoodmorning2
we need to investigate some suppliers locally. Not so many in suburbia!

We have spent much of this weekend taking down some dead trees (just small ones) and cutting them into lengths. But actually our log store is full anyway. DH and DS1 are going to reroof the log store next weekend since it’s in desperate need of sorting out.

I’ve just ordered a top up of oil.

We also need to put in some more loft insulation. It’s sitting there waiting for a rainy weekend.

Rural South West/Welsh Border, we get ours from a local supplier, this Summer it was £80 for a Toyota Pick Up full. I couldn't tell you how much that is in yardage, or bags worth, though.

We used 3 loads last winter, and we have 2.5 loads stored. That's all we have room for. Last year the winter price was £90 a load, so will probably be at least £100 this year.

We only have a wood burner in the living room, and air source heat pump central heating for the rest of the house. So we keep the living room warm in the winter, and the rest of the house just above bearable with the central heating.

In an emergency, like a power cut meaning no central heating pump, we can and have, slept in the living room on an air bed.

Edited to add - we use chopped up pallets and fir cones for kindling, both free.

I’m going to start the dc collecting kindling this week. We often flick on the heating rather than starting the fires because nobody wants to go out and get kindling so I want some bundles. My aim is to try to keep the log burner going in the living room pretty much constantly this year

Got one half of one window to the waterproof stage.

Got to go back and sort more of mum's house.

I am absolutely delayed on a lot of prep this year. Chimney swept, no logs yet. Trying to preserve the last rush of food from the garden. Was a terrible year for growing, but we do have a few million green tomatoes and a pretty good crop of apples. It's just finding the time to get it all put away now.

@SprigatitoYouAndIKnow I agree that it has been a terrible growing year. We harvested all the apples last weekend and I made 14 apple crumbles which were shared with family and the rest frozen.

I was oven drying tomatoes during the week as my freezer didn't have capacity for sauces. I now have 2 small jars (like old El Paso salsa sized) and a 2-regular jam jar sized killer of semidried tomatoes in olive oil.

But if I eat a couple of other dinners this week (and my travels mean that's likely as I won't get food shopping until next weekend), I'll probably end up making a batch of pasta sauce with the next lot.

Weather turned from 27 degrees and sunny last weekend to only 10 degrees with a distinct biting chill in the air (and more rain!) by yesterday. So I was in a long alleged top for the first time in months. I'll need to do a proper seasonal clothes swop given the bigger extremes so that starts next weekend (I'm visiting childhood home this weekend and have a work trip midweek).

I've also started clearing out old papers etc to make space for winter evening sewing. And restarted my yoga practise to rebuild some fitness and strength.

Still not ordered logs! It's been a pretty horrible autumn so far, so really need to get around to it in case it is a theme for winter to come. Today I did get the kids to try on the collection of hats and gloves to see what is needed. If you wait until it snows to get ski gloves, they miss out on snowball fights. Also put some oats and powdered milk in the shopping basket, as porridge is so lovely and warming in the cold.

I have a fully stocked woodshed, and enough kindling to keep me going all winter. We'll be harvesting apples this week, and bagging up crumble filling. My chillies are all dried or frozen.

Other than apples and chillies, gardening was a disaster this year.

Inside I have got all the blankets sorted, and will be putting second duvets onto beds soon.

Rhubarb was good this year and the raspberries are still going, I have lots in the freezer for crumbles throughout winter.

Im going to put in some additional loft insulation this weekend.

My kilner jar of oven dried tomatoes fermented...so disappointing. But I still have 2 smaller jars and my plants are still producing despite the colder weather. I think I even need to feed them again this week to keep going another couple of weeks and finish what's coming.

DH has been giving the gas BBQ and his bike good cleans over the weekend - bbq gets well used in summer but occasional use in winter and is his emergency backup if the power goes out. And he cycles to work as much as possible even in winter, but the chain picks up a lot of grit in wet weather.

Dd is starting to think about winter in uni - hot water bottle, thermals and a clothes horse to dry clothes in south facing room are on her request list.

DH is also going to replace the original window unit back into the playroom window, as adding is getting rehomed (through breed charity for her own sake) as she's alone 5 long days a week as both DD and I are away and DH back in the office FT. So the cat flap won't be needed anymore and the original double glazed unit is still behind the couch so can go back in and fully seal up that space.

I've got a full freezer and second freezer for overspill from fruit and vegetables from the garden half full with several loaves of bread on top. I've got plenty of dried food like pasta and tinned foods and stuff like loo rolls and washing powder to last for 3-4 months. I've checked torches and have 3 packs of new batteries for them. I've got 4 large bags of grit for our drive as on a slope and extra tubs of salt to add to it. I've got fuel for the generator and 10 litres of spare fuel for the car. DH hasn't done gutters yet because there are still leaves falling but he generally does at the beginning of November. Gas service for boiler booked first week of December. All first aid kits, we have 3 for house and 2 for cars fully stocked. I also keep a snow shovel in boot of both cars and bottles of water and oat with fruit snacks bars.

Does anyone have any tips for warm clothing.

I got an amazing mattress cover a couple of years ago which arrived with a sample of the sheep’s wool in it. That was a mumsnet recommendation. Does anyone know the supplier?

@Gruffalosoulja I find natural fibres warmest, so wool, merino, cashmere, alpaca types. Layers underneath to stop it being itchy and that as a top layer. My duvet is sheep's wool too and it is so much nicer than polyester.

I do layers as well. A proper thermal layer underneath (M&S have some decent, Damart or Uniqlo also good, if not going for full on merino options from outdoors brands).

2/3 thinner layers are better than 1 thick one. And I agree about natural fibres.

I tend to do thermal layer (sleeveless if not too cold, but long sleeved on colder days), a long sleeved top pr a thin jumper, with a jacket over that (either formal work blazer or a casual fleece/hoodie type top). If very cold, I'll add a sleeveless jumper under my jacket.

Anytime I am outdoors, I wear a proper wool hat. And a windproof coat and gloves.

I’m in a colder country than the UK, and I’m outdoors a lot at work (I work with childen). At work it’s been the usual check of what we’ve got..bright usb lights, 20 l water in every fridge, blankets, wet wipes, proper outdoor clothing, whistles...basically everything so that we won’t have to close down for almost anything. There is a plan for every single scenario I can think of. And we practice for it too. Hopefully we will not need any of it.

@gladflyingducks

What sort of things going wrong/being difficult do you prepare for?