What Preps are you doing this week? Part 13

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Emergency fence repair yesterday. We live about 200yards from the coast, which is to the south of us. Garden goes East/West and we have a 6ft fence along the south side. When the wind blows, due to the way the houses are aligned they act as a funnel, so the fences get the brunt. It can be so strong, a few years back it took down a garden wall (onto the Mrs car.. - write off).

Anyway, Mrs shouts out "the fence is really moving!". Sure enough, one of the wooden pillars is swaying by over a foot. Had a look (of course, its raining, isn't it) and sure enough the post has a shear just below soil level. Not particularly rotted - just looks like a horizontal shear. Anyway, prepper to the rescue - dig out the base a bit, hammer two sharpened battons into the soil and attach to main post, then a diagonal onto the post to add support. Because I had some wood and the tools at hand, took about 20 mins to fix. Should last for bit until I get a proper fix in place.

But the big win. Mrs goes "good job you had all this wood and tools. Might be an idea if you got some more stuff in....."

[Frnc]

4 heavy extra thick bin bags of decorating rubbish picked up. Didn't hear him, and didn't hear text, so didn't get a price, so in theory I suppose he could have charged anything he wanted. £20. Bargain!

[Peter]

Emergency fence repair yesterday. We live about 200yards from the coast, which is to the south of us. Garden goes East/West and we have a 6ft fence along the south side. When the wind blows, due to the way the houses are aligned they act as a funnel, so the fences get the brunt. It can be so strong, a few years back it took down a garden wall (onto the Mrs car.. - write off).

Anyway, Mrs shouts out "the fence is really moving!". Sure enough, one of the wooden pillars is swaying by over a foot. Had a look (of course, its raining, isn't it) and sure enough the post has a shear just below soil level. Not particularly rotted - just looks like a horizontal shear. Anyway, prepper to the rescue - dig out the base a bit, hammer two sharpened battons into the soil and attach to main post, then a diagonal onto the post to add support. Because I had some wood and the tools at hand, took about 20 mins to fix. Should last for bit until I get a proper fix in place.

But the big win. Mrs goes "good job you had all this wood and tools. Might be an idea if you got some more stuff in....."

Angle iron God-father post got me out of trouble in the past.

[Frnc]

Filled a couple of small holes outside with Stixall. Not sure if they will fix the small damp patch next to the bottom of the window - hopefully. Also sealed around the kitchen waste pipe. There is another, old, redundant hole with a bin bag stuffed in. I've bought a tube of expanding foam for that. Will do in warm weather, wearing old clothes. Trashed a top doing a bit recently inside.

Recently got internet taken over by Utility Warehouse, and they are delivering a new router today. I don't want to fit it until the sanding's all done, even though I will remove the router while the living room is being sanded. Hopefully the old one will keep working for a few days. In the meantime I have phone data. I could link my mac to it, but it would eat up data quicker, so I haven't bothered trying that so far.

February gas and electric will be about £105, down from £150 last year. And that includes some days where the decorator wanted the heat on longer, to dry paint. It has been slightly warmer than last year, but only by 0.7°.

[Peter]

Over the weekend filled every vehicle and fuel can with fuel, oil prices are expected to exceed $100 a barrel,
pump prices could reach the levels of 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

[GeeGee]

Went out and filled car queues just begining to show here now
Theres some kind out outage in a load of places so card readers not working
Smug face as they drive off when it says cash only and I dont
Got another calor gas bottle and stuck it in shed..just in case...
Went and did some shopping to top up as I fly this week also ( I hope ) and no idea how things will change in a week so wanted to be sure I had enough in ..
More smug face as their card readers not working also but cash is good ...
Funny how outages don't hit the car parking cameras etc tho that'd be a shame !
Pest control man my new buddy came
Its taken 12 months to the month and the poison is still intact in the loft for the first time
The squirrels seem to be ok outside for now ..Will keep a eye on the rat situation .

[Frnc]

Am on the worst day of sanding. He has sanded the living room ceiling and top of walls. Did wood and upstairs bedroom yesterday. Dust escaping, but not horrifically. Slightly visible on black jacket in hall. I wrapped the sofa in dust sheets, so it shouldn't be too bad. Gonna wash the covers, and put a throw on top anyway. It is an Aztec design, woven not printed, only £50.

Tethered my mac to my phone to use the big screen, keyboard and trackpad. I should have enough GB rolled over for today and tomorrow. Might even get the router back in sometime tomorrow. Had to turn off VPN on my phone to get Netfix and Amazon to connect on my mac. Their data one off packages are useless (1 GB for £6) . But apparently, according to GPT, if I sign up to a 40GB package 11 days before my monthly renewal date, I get the full 40GB, but only pay for 11 days. Then if I cancel it a few days later, I've got all that data until renewal date, and go back to a 3GB package in 11 days. A 40GB plan is £18, so I should only get charged about £6. Same price as 1 GB, 40 times more data!

[GillyBee]

No issues with fuel in South London yet. I just filled up and all OK. But we all know that once one area starts to panic, the rest will follow so I am glad to have a full tank.
Have been topping up the long term stores with rice, lentils and oil. Add dried onions and spices and we will have dhal/kitcheree to eat if things all go to pot.

[Ara]

Noticed today that the petrol at our local garage had gone up 2p per litre since Mr A filled up 2 days ago.
Was wondering aloud whether we should start stocking up with toilet rolls and tinned tomatoes. Mr A just laughed. We've loads of both.
We have oil central heating and guess what? The price has just gone up but as it fluctuates constantly it's difficult to know when to buy. Also, there's only so much an oil tank will hold. I think we'd better get a more substantial padlock for the tank although if people are really desperate you won't stop them stealing it. We have a gauge in the house which sets off an alarm if the supply goes too low so we might catch them at it but I'm not fighting.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

With the price of gas going up due to the conflict, I'm expecting both domestic gas and electricity prices to go up. We has started ramping down the wood burner usage, mainly because its been a bit warmer but also because the wood stock is starting to get a bit low. Now going to go back to the wood burner if it gets chilly. Unfortunately, all of the local log suppliers are out of stock so current job is to start preparing what I call our "rough" wood - non split (but dried) logs, burnable wood that was saved from gardening etc.