How do I prepare for winter ?

[John Headstrong]

OK, I know most of the stuff, but I want a list of what you all do here to prepare for winter, I may even remix everyones thoughts into a story for the front page of the site. I am in Scotland, so I am expecting and preparing for the same amount of snow that we got last year.

I have a huge pile of wood, well seasoned and I have cleaned the wood burner. sorted hats, extra coats, scarfs for all the family, we have candles/torches and I am making a few LED lamps with some recycled batteries I got from a old UPS. Got a fair amount of food stored.

I really need to do what Durgan has done http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... 57#p247757 but the weather is already against me and a back injury has really slowed things up.

so, anything that I am missing ? what are you doing to prepare ?

[Potter's Farm]

We have done the same as you, but as our water comes from the mountain behind our house and is suppiled by an electric pump, we have bought in 5litre bottles of drinking water and also filled large containers for the animals as when we have power cuts we have no water too.

[Green Aura]

Nothing much different here either but one thing I have been looking at is getting snow chains for the car and gripper soles for my boots. Last year I carried a wicker basket in the car, complete with a blanket, camping stove, meths and a lighter and tea, condensed milk and cupasoups in case we got stranded between here and civilisation. Sounds like overkill but we really are isolated round here - remember the woman who got stranded trying to get her Christmas turkey home, a couple of years ago? She lives here.

I also have loads of dried pulses which I not only can cook but also sprout so if we are cut off for a few days we can still have fresh veg. I'm also growing marrowfat peas for larger shoots and some cut and come again leaves, on our south facing windowsills - even with the reduced light levels up here we can still grow some.

Finally, I have my light lamp - I think I'm a bit susceptible to SAD so even if I can't get out of the house, I'll still have some rays!

[Christian]

Just moved into a lovely old cottage circa 1600's and the economy 7 heating and single glazed windows are driving me nuts already

So far -

Organised log pile/delivery. Loads of logs by the back and front doors and in the huge log basket.
Patchwork quilt and spare blankets dotted around.
Hot water bottles at the ready.
Have lined the front & rear door curtain with quilter's wadding to insulate them better. Draught excluders made!
Have a small sheet of bubble wrap to wrap up the outside tap before the frost sets in.

Small camping gas stove & extra canisters ready just in case
Hundreds of tea lights/candles
LED Head torch with extra batteries. A life saver in a power cut.
Lots of tins in larder

Snow shovel under bed. Don't laugh It's no good in the shed if you can't dig it out.....

Extra pellets and bedding for the hens. Electrician sorted so I can run power to the run - a warm plate to stop the drinker freezing.

Oh, and a small box with matches, space blankets, chocolate, water, gloves and candles in the car. Plus blanket and thick jacket.

Can't think of anything else....

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

John, my husband and I noticed the amount of posts you've made and we worked out it averaged at well over 700 a day since you joined - is this right?!?!

[Millymollymandy]

If you click on his name his profile comes up and it does the maths for you - it is precisely 6287.94 posts per day

[John Headstrong]

John, my husband and I noticed the amount of posts you've made and we worked out it averaged at well over 700 a day since you joined - is this right?!?!

yes, this is totally normal, I am a droid.

[pelmetman]

Booked the Chunnel and will head to Spain in Horace the camper for a month

Dave

[mattbrown]

me and my partner have given up the 3 bed detached house and moved into a caravan, our biggest concern was winter but weve monitored our gas usage and we average 13kg every 2 and a half weeks so weve got 3 19kg gas bottles and each time one is emptied we have it exchanged so we will always have a couple of months of heat and cooking gas. our electricity is supplied from a small generator we have 3 large 12 volt batteries that are charged when the generator is running and we plan to get an invertor soon we have a stock of tinned soup and packet soup and bottled water. the caravan water supply comes from a water barrel outside and i'm trying to find out a way that i can stop it from freezing as it feeds the shower.

[fruitcake]

Just moved into a lovely old cottage circa 1600's and the economy 7 heating and single glazed windows are driving me nuts already
Can't think of anything else....

I used to put cling film or 2 inch masking tape over / round single glazed windows in the days when i inhabited such properties - if i remember rightly using a hairdryer over the cling film helps it tighten nicely and leave less creases......made a big difference - as did sewing old blankets onto the bottom of the curtains that didn't reach the ground - I will never see the point of short curtains! (even though we've now built our own house and indulged in the luxury of double glazing all the curtains go to the floor (mind you - so do most of the windows = no window ledges for dust and junk )

[coillte]

I had a three page list for preparing for this winter. Partially because we havn't finished building yet.

I'd add a car kit ti your list. Ours has a hi vis vest, 2 litres of water, a spade, tow rope, battery and windup torch, car mobile phone chargers, chocolate bars, warm blanket, warm extra large socks, and ice grips for the shoes, snopw socks for the car tyres.

We live in a large frost pocket, in an isolated area, with terrible emregency response times (local hospital is over 1 hour away in good weather).