What Preps are you doing this week? Part 13

[Peter]

The wood burner last night decided to dump a load of grit down the side of the flue that goes up the chimney. The woodburner is in the chimney breast but there is a board/plate across the top opening in the chimney. Think what has been happening is that over the years there has been a gradual accumulation of "stuff" coming down the chimney due to heating effects.

From what I can see, a bit of the heat resistant plaster the fills the gap between the plate and the flue fell out. This resulted in a nice little "sand dune" all over the top of the stove. Thats been cleaned up but now its a case of repacking the joints and gaps with heat resistant cement. Which of course has dried up in the pot.... Hello Amazon....

Gerald I use Holts Firegum paste for sealing around our flue, no problems yet, it fine enough for the smallest gaps.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Nothing overly exciting

Picked up a new washing machine since our old one let go big time last weekend (bearings collapsed)

Just ordered a new tyre plug kit since I bent the reamer tool Tuesday when I had a puncture going to work in the pouring rain .. put a temporary plug in the tyre it held firm till today when the friendly mobile tyre man was free to come to work to do a permanent repair I had no issues with the temporary plug but played it safe max speed of 50mph bimbling to and from work to be fair the weather hasn't been favourable for fast driving heavy rain and sleet this morning and a suicidal overtake from one nutter despite lots of standing water

[Yorkshire Andy]

And now the blooming car won't start .. battery has dropped a cell .. and over the weekend of no activity it decided to crank slowly and not fire up this morning... Fortunately I have a decent booster pack in the boot ..



Put it on charge after work and it's still not happy..

The battery monitor shows it failed about Thursday looking at the big dips

And the yellow battery tester says it's goosed so does my old a analogue battery tester

So friendly mechanic messaged price obtained new battery to be collected tomorrow (he's booked up this week so I'll fit it myself)

[Frnc]

Strangely, for mid winter, I'm having to keep an eye on my room in the early afternoon, to make sure it's not too HOT. If it reaches 20° in the early to mid afternoon, I need to turn the central heating off for the day. This should mean my room isn't too hot later. Was too hot about 4.30 am the other night, had to swap duvet. I was turning C/H off early anyway, to avoid going over gas budget, but now I have an extra reason. This doesn't apply when it's colder. Paradoxically, I find it easier to stick to budget in colder weather.

[Frnc]

Tried to buy a tomato knife off Amazon. Kept failing age verification. The issue was this...
1. Name on my card is initial then surname.
2. I copied exactly onto Amazon card details. This has been unchanged for years.
3. Their knife blade age verification system can only use full first name, not initial.
4. Their customer services script want you to change it on their website. But they don't explain it properly. They say 'change it on the card', as if you have to get the physical card reissued. They mean change it on the 'card details'. On there, it says 'name on card', but what they want is first name last name, no initials, NOT what's on the card!

At least I think it's worked. I got an email saying it hadn't, so I made the payment again. If it fails, I'll have to change my card details back, and just give up. Spoke to the bank though, and they said you don't have to write your name as it's written on the card, and also that it was showing payment pending (it's not in my app yet).

Payment has gone through, just the once, and I ordered something else this afternoon, that's gone through ok. So Amazon has 'name on credit card' in a different format to what's written on the card, but that's ok. First name spelled out, Surname.

[Peter]

And now the blooming car won't start .. battery has dropped a cell .. and over the weekend of no activity it decided to crank slowly and not fire up this morning... Fortunately I have a decent booster pack in the boot ..



Put it on charge after work and it's still not happy..

The battery monitor shows it failed about Thursday looking at the big dips

And the yellow battery tester says it's goosed so does my old a analogue battery tester

So friendly mechanic messaged price obtained new battery to be collected tomorrow (he's booked up this week so I'll fit it myself)

Andy you have not said how old the battery was, obviously out of warranty, had it given any indication of trouble ?.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Amazing what you find when you go rummaging... Was delving around in the darker recesses of the loft and found my old solar backpack. So that's the refurbish job for the weekend.

Currently charging the battery in it. Not been charged for years (decades?) but it's Li-Ion and seems to be taking a charge.

[Frnc]

Got some leads delivered. I need 4 types, and my emergency grab bag now has 3 of each. Realised my wired earpods were also incompatible with the new phone, so ordered USB C ones from Argos. These also live in the BOB. They were only £20 and I can collect from Sainsbury's (2 minutes walk).

Also got the offending tomato knife. Is nice. At least now I know the system for age verification, and the fact that you can write your name differntly to how it is on the card. I actually use these for slicing bake at home bread rolls. Wanted a second, as one's often in washing up.

Also got some wood stain to try to repair small damaged areas of floor finish in downstairs lodger's vacated room. Not tried it yet. Decided on a colour scheme. Just all off-white, and a sandy colour on walls to show off the cornice. Ordered a tester. I might still get a lodger. Needs painting anyway, is dirty. Gonna move the gym upstairs to other ex-lodger's room, but exercise bike will stay in the prep room. And my pullup bars will stay in kitchen doorway.

[GeeGee]

Doing a shop to restock my preps for smaller spaces
Taken a year but I've used the last of the preps food wise
Don't eat a lot so it goes to show how far I could stretch it
Obviously with other foods included I've bought but now back to buying what I can and storing

Also on the hunt for hearing aid batteries for someone who uses two but there's a national shortage
Some are getting only a pack others having to switch off altogether which does leave them isolated ...
Scouring charity shops as they sometimes have baskets of random stuff
If anyone knows of the "underground sales of hearing aid batteries " let me know
Another strange one to add to list of ..be prepared !

[berbie]

Amazon are showing hearing aid battery stock. (Of the correct one for my mother)