What Preps are you doing this week? Part 9

[Frnc]

We are using a couple of hand warmer ideas that may work if you are skint.
You can make microwaveable hand warmers from a cup of rice or wheat either sewn or tied into a piece of cotton/old clothes or a handkerchief. I have a couple of these for my desk. They only need 30 seconds in the microwave to get quite hot but as they are small they only last half an hour or so.
Or if you have a hoodie with kangaroo hand pockets you can tuck a small hot water bottle in there or a bigger wheat/rice bag and then tuck your hands inside to warm up - This also warms up your core so we like it a lot

Obviously the rice bags only work if you have a microwave. The hot water bottle will fill from a kettle or hot tap .

I could fill an old sock with rice and sew the end up.

[GillyBee]

That should work. Certainly worth a try.

[Frnc]

I tried an electric radiator today when the heating was off, it's way better than my fan heater for keeping the room at a nice steady temp. Was literally 0.2° between it coming on for about 6 or 8 minutes every half hour. Rad is Dimplex oil-free baby column heater 700w. At 15 mins per hour that's 0.175 kW per hour. I think the thermostat on my fan heater's not very good, either it stays on too long or doesn't come on, so I end up having to do it manually. It's decades old anyway.

[Frnc]

Remember I said I was going to dig out around my condensate soakaway and put in some limestone chips? This was to make sure the acid is neutralised. Well, I wish I had. The soil had turned to mud and blocked the soakaway. This was why the pump was running for hours. That was why the boiler conked out last night. For now, we put a few stones down there and put the soil on top to stop it freezing.

Got a bag ordered for delivery next week.

[Arzosah]

Remember I said I was going to dig out around my condensate soakaway and put in some limestone chips? This was to make sure the acid is neutralised. Well, I wish I had. The soil had turned to mud and blocked the soakaway. This was why the pump was running for hours. That was why the boiler conked out last night. For now, we put a few stones down there and put the soil on top to stop it freezing.

Got a bag ordered for delivery next week.

That must be annoying, but actually it's a great discovery - nothing wrong with the boiler!

[steptoe]

I am just sta in the front room making some fire lighter tins , little bags in a 2ox baccy tin well tins thta looks like baccy tins , putting in ziplock bag of fatwood shavings , 4 sticks of fat wood about 1 1/2 inch long , 1 clipper lighter a spare clipper flint stork and 5 spare flints , a length of jute , a little bag of cotton wool , some wirewool ,and a bag of charcloth , now with all that in the rucksack grab and go bag if you can not start a fire you best practise , i might rub the cottonwool in vaseline as well and then se how much room left in tin for maybe some mag powder , oh also a ferrious rod and scrapper .

ok anything else you think i coudl squeeze in

[ForgeCorvus]

I am just sta in the front room making some fire lighter tins , little bags in a 2ox baccy tin well tins thta looks like baccy tins , putting in ziplock bag of fatwood shavings , 4 sticks of fat wood about 1 1/2 inch long , 1 clipper lighter a spare clipper flint stork and 5 spare flints , a length of jute , a little bag of cotton wool , some wirewool ,and a bag of charcloth , now with all that in the rucksack grab and go bag if you can not start a fire you best practise , i might rub the cottonwool in vaseline as well and then se how much room left in tin for maybe some mag powder , oh also a ferrious rod and scrapper .

ok anything else you think i coudl squeeze in

Magic biscuits..... I don't carry things pre-smeared with Vaseline as its far too easy to make a mess.

[Frnc]

I am just sta in the front room making some fire lighter tins , little bags in a 2ox baccy tin well tins thta looks like baccy tins , putting in ziplock bag of fatwood shavings , 4 sticks of fat wood about 1 1/2 inch long , 1 clipper lighter a spare clipper flint stork and 5 spare flints , a length of jute , a little bag of cotton wool , some wirewool ,and a bag of charcloth , now with all that in the rucksack grab and go bag if you can not start a fire you best practise , i might rub the cottonwool in vaseline as well and then se how much room left in tin for maybe some mag powder , oh also a ferrious rod and scrapper .

ok anything else you think i coudl squeeze in

Magic biscuits..... I don't carry things pre-smeared with Vaseline as its far too easy to make a mess.

Yeah I keep my vaseline and cotton wool balls separate until I need them. As well as avoiding mess, there are a few other thing you can do with vaseline. Eg use on your hands if they get dry, which mine are prone to due to incipient eczema. I normally use E45 or Zero cream which I don't like as much but that what I get for free via prescription.

[steptoe]

I am just sta in the front room making some fire lighter tins , little bags in a 2ox baccy tin well tins thta looks like baccy tins , putting in ziplock bag of fatwood shavings , 4 sticks of fat wood about 1 1/2 inch long , 1 clipper lighter a spare clipper flint stork and 5 spare flints , a length of jute , a little bag of cotton wool , some wirewool ,and a bag of charcloth , now with all that in the rucksack grab and go bag if you can not start a fire you best practise , i might rub the cottonwool in vaseline as well and then se how much room left in tin for maybe some mag powder , oh also a ferrious rod and scrapper .

ok anything else you think i coudl squeeze in

Magic biscuits..... I don't carry things pre-smeared with Vaseline as its far too easy to make a mess.

I see the point to that but they will be in a ziplock bag and i am going to tomorrow weather permitting has a sit out in the bbq area and light the chimnea but i am going to put some babyoil on the cotton wool tongiht to saok in and see if that or the vaseline burns longer , i do see the point but the other reason i like vaseline on cotton wool is it is also a first aid , you can open the fire kit if your lips get sore out in the cold say or i nthe sun rub the cotton wool over the lips or rub your finger in the cotton wool then on lip you have a chapstick , it is trying to make things multi use really , i hope i will never need the stuff we stock pile , the food yes and meds and so on but all the camping kit all the wild survival stuff well they are there in case say we were forced to leave roits or well you know things can dgo bad so we could throw the grab bags in the car knowing we would have some warm undies warm socks and a few bits to help outdoors but also we would put these in last so should we be forced to dump the car we could grab the go bags and look to move on and find another car or transport then go back for the other stuff all being well no one finds it .
It is funny people use to say about use bulk buying loo rolls and kitchen roll the kitchen rolls i use huge amounts due to gun refurbishing but we just use to smile and say oh big family or just oh picking some extra up as friends coming lol , i will say when we would get trays and trays of food people use to tut and one woman did comment have you left anything for others my wife thinking on her feet told a lie but in a nice way she said oh we are donating to food banks , i never knew she could lie so easy and well

[steptoe]

I am just sta in the front room making some fire lighter tins , little bags in a 2ox baccy tin well tins thta looks like baccy tins , putting in ziplock bag of fatwood shavings , 4 sticks of fat wood about 1 1/2 inch long , 1 clipper lighter a spare clipper flint stork and 5 spare flints , a length of jute , a little bag of cotton wool , some wirewool ,and a bag of charcloth , now with all that in the rucksack grab and go bag if you can not start a fire you best practise , i might rub the cottonwool in vaseline as well and then se how much room left in tin for maybe some mag powder , oh also a ferrious rod and scrapper .

ok anything else you think i coudl squeeze in

sorry just adding a couple of picture hope thats ok fire lighter kit build and also my faraday box to keep bits in i will work on the box to fill with stuff and have just ordered in some 500gb laptop drives i can put in caddies to save as much info as i can book wise herbal wise and so on