What Preps are you doing this week? Part 13

[Frnc]

Checked two (top and bottom) of the freezer drawers in my fridge. Both read -17°C, which is near as dammit perfect. Beko say a 4 star freezer should be - 18 minimum - I don't know if mine is 4 star or what, but I'm not worried about one degree. Which say -18 to -20 is ideal range.

I used a Therm Pro freezer thermometer. It records minimum temperature. It also showed the fridge minimum as 0, which is plenty cold enough. It's way better than the dial thermometers, which quickly jump up when you remove them. In the freezer, you need to jam it in between some bags of peas or whatever. The air can read quite a bit higher. But in the fridge I just sit it on a shelf. It has a hook that also acts as a stand.

[DustyDog]

I'm really hoping that the government pulls their fingers out over the whole balcony solar systems which are legal all over Europe apparently IKEA is piling on the pressure as they want to sell the systems in the UK

What are these balcony solar systems? Never heard of them before.
Does anyone have any experience with the fogstar battery kits, they look tempting for starting a backup battery system, to run stuff in the house in a blackout but I have zero experience with these LifePo batteries.

[Yorkshire Andy]

I'm really hoping that the government pulls their fingers out over the whole balcony solar systems which are legal all over Europe apparently IKEA is piling on the pressure as they want to sell the systems in the UK

What are these balcony solar systems? Never heard of them before.
Does anyone have any experience with the fogstar battery kits, they look tempting for starting a backup battery system, to run stuff in the house in a blackout but I have zero experience with these LifePo batteries.

Balcony solar name coined from their initial intended use in rented flats which have a balcony...... Solar panels with brackets to mount to the handrails.... But the clever bit is the magic box which converts solar to mains power and they simply plug into the nearest mains socket and back power the house reducing the leccy bills some have the facilities to plug in a battery

[Kiwififer]

Not sure if there’s a current weather thread but I’m just back from the football and waves at the sea wall next to my ground were coming well over and spraying half of the cars in the car park. The weather throughout was terrible and it was absolutely freezing. The picture doesn’t do it justice, I hate to think what it’s like up the road at Arbroath!

[Yorkshire Andy]

Stripped and cleaned my big brass double wick paraffin lantern the snuffer mechanism was stiff and the wick adjustment wasn't working the wicks had got "stuck".. so stripped cleaned re lubed. Topped up with fresh lamp oil .. globe and chimney cleaned and delivered fluffed and de sorted

[Arzosah]

Stripped and cleaned my big brass double wick paraffin lantern the snuffer mechanism was stiff and the wick adjustment wasn't working the wicks had got "stuck".. so stripped cleaned re lubed. Topped up with fresh lamp oil .. globe and chimney cleaned and delivered fluffed and de sorted

That sounds amazing! My preps are much lower key I've got my niece's cat for 10 days while she's off on holiday, and if I had to evacuate (like those people where the WWII bombs were found) I don't know how to shut him in his cat box, my sister always handles that bit. So yesterday, I learned I felt a complete prat explaining why I needed to learn, but although it's very low probability, it's potentially very high impact. So I learned

[Yorkshire Andy]

Stripped and cleaned my big brass double wick paraffin lantern the snuffer mechanism was stiff and the wick adjustment wasn't working the wicks had got "stuck".. so stripped cleaned re lubed. Topped up with fresh lamp oil .. globe and chimney cleaned and delivered fluffed and de sorted

That sounds amazing! My preps are much lower key I've got my niece's cat for 10 days while she's off on holiday, and if I had to evacuate (like those people where the WWII bombs were found) I don't know how to shut him in his cat box, my sister always handles that bit. So yesterday, I learned I felt a complete prat explaining why I needed to learn, but although it's very low probability, it's potentially very high impact. So I learned

Hardest part is avoiding the claws

Don't usually agree by scruffing the cats but one won't go in the pet box any other way unless you want to loose a pint of blood in the process... Usually a vet visit involves prepping the box outside away from her.... Other half scruffs cat box gets brought in and she knows it's for her



Lantern rebuild hardest part was getting the wicks back in and removing the oily crud ( domestic fluff dust and paraffin sat on the air intake gauze below the wicks ) I used a solvent spray cleaner to flush it all out

Nice low tech prep ideal for winter grid down (can't put your hand over the glass chimney due to the heat blasting out the top

See geegee it's not just torches

[Frnc]

Looks like cold forecasted for the end of January isn't coming now. Average temps now expected to be 4 - 6°. Gonna leave my boiler at my winter default of 61°. Checked on Met and Accu.

Accu currently showing similar for whole of Feb, with daytime highs of around 9 and mostly 3-4 at night, occasionally 1 or 2°, so again, 4-6° average. It's not particularly warm, but not particularly cold, very average. Obviously Feb forecast could change.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

We have a reasonable sized garden that has, over the years, not really been looked after other than basic mow the lawn etc. Now that I have retired we have decided to spend more effort on it, in particular growing things. In the past we have grow tomatoes and the likes, but this year we are going to try and be a bit more ambitious.

So at the moment we are trying to work out what we want to grow, and trying to plan accordingly. The criteria we are adopting is that if something is really cheap in the shops, then its not really worth the effort. For instance, a sack of spuds from Lidl is so cheap, there is no point in growing spuds. So thats the challenge at the moment - come up with a crop plan which is worth the effort.

[Arzosah]

Stripped and cleaned my big brass double wick paraffin lantern the snuffer mechanism was stiff and the wick adjustment wasn't working the wicks had got "stuck".. so stripped cleaned re lubed. Topped up with fresh lamp oil .. globe and chimney cleaned and delivered fluffed and de sorted

I've got my niece's cat for 10 days while she's off on holiday, and if I had to evacuate (like those people where the WWII bombs were found) I don't know how to shut him in his cat box, my sister always handles that bit. So yesterday, I learned

Hardest part is avoiding the claws

He doesn't really use his claws - well, he hasn't so far but he's strong, really strong. I have to immobilise his body and his legs, because otherwise he twists around as I'm holding him, and gets his back leg as leverage on my forearm, and kind of bounces away my cats used to claw me to death in those situations, but this one has a very sweet nature

Lantern rebuild hardest part was getting the wicks back in and removing the oily crud ( domestic fluff dust and paraffin sat on the air intake gauze below the wicks ) I used a solvent spray cleaner to flush it all out

Nice low tech prep ideal for winter grid down (can't put your hand over the glass chimney due to the heat blasting out the top

See geegee it's not just torches

Gorgeous photo! I'm well jell, and I bet geegee is too, secretly