The dark nights are coming

How are you preparing
Frnc
Posts: 3206
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:54 pm

Re: The dark nights are coming

Post by Frnc »

HomeHardener wrote: Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:28 pm My first comment from a long haul of keeping my head down and working, working, working.

This post reminded me to order another solar PIR light for the side of the house/driveway. Already have one but only covers half the drive and always intended to buy another after I knew it wasn’t crap! (Which it isn’t)

Didn’t even think to oil locks/padlocks, though I did recently clean all the internal window frames and oil the mechanisms to keep them smooth.

I have a new letterbox draft excluder to fit as mine busted over the summer.
Boiler service is next week.
About to order some tea lights and stick candles as our stocks have depleted over winter.

Saying that, I’ve let my food preps deplete massively! Need to get that under control.
I think it's good to let your food preps run down once in a while. You can make sure stuff gets used before expiry. Also you can reassess what items you should be buying more or less of. My food store is low at the moment. I'm trying to use up some bags of pasta before they expire. I used to store loads of baked beans and instant mash, but I never eat those now due to kidney stones. I finally used some tinned butter beans I'd had for ages, and now I will use those regularly, so I'll stock up on them.
Frnc
Posts: 3206
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:54 pm

Re: The dark nights are coming

Post by Frnc »

First of September.

One month until winter/summer bugout clothes rotation. Day to day clothes can get done whenever.

Two months until heating timer gets turned on. I shouldn't need it on before 1st Nov unless we get some freak weather. I reckon it needs to be on if it's down to 7 outside, but not if it's just one day, as the house retains heat for a few days. Plus it makes a difference what temperature it gets up to outside during the day. In fact it's when my living room goes below 17.5 in the morning that I need heating. This temperature is shown in an app on my phone. If my living room is 17.5 or higher, I know my lodger's room should be ok. Will need to check rads for air. Might do a test run in October if we get a cold day. The boiler has already been serviced. It's like new.

I checked my two outdoor lights. One is mains, one solar, both motion. Both working fine and even the solar is very bright. The only thing I don't know is if they are both triggered by motion, or if one triggers the other.

Got 6 x AAA new batteries ready for my motion lights on the stairs. Got 10 x AAs charged ready for use (mainly keyboard and trackpad). I see from my battery spreadsheet I have 24 x NiMH AAAs that need their annual charge this month. Made note in Calender with annual repeat. Got quite a few batteries that need to be taken to Sainbury's for recycling. All smoke alarm batteries up to date and less than a year old.

Need to do monthly print of something to keep printer jets clear in the next few days. I already line up things I want to print for this month and next.

Got dental check next week. Need to book eye test. I think it's free, not sure. Routine checks, nothing new hopefully.
HomeHardener
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon May 27, 2019 11:06 pm
Location: Essex

Re: The dark nights are coming

Post by HomeHardener »

Frnc wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 4:26 am
HomeHardener wrote: Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:28 pm My first comment from a long haul of keeping my head down and working, working, working.

This post reminded me to order another solar PIR light for the side of the house/driveway. Already have one but only covers half the drive and always intended to buy another after I knew it wasn’t crap! (Which it isn’t)

Didn’t even think to oil locks/padlocks, though I did recently clean all the internal window frames and oil the mechanisms to keep them smooth.

I have a new letterbox draft excluder to fit as mine busted over the summer.
Boiler service is next week.
About to order some tea lights and stick candles as our stocks have depleted over winter.

Saying that, I’ve let my food preps deplete massively! Need to get that under control.
I think it's good to let your food preps run down once in a while. You can make sure stuff gets used before expiry. Also you can reassess what items you should be buying more or less of. My food store is low at the moment. I'm trying to use up some bags of pasta before they expire. I used to store loads of baked beans and instant mash, but I never eat those now due to kidney stones. I finally used some tinned butter beans I'd had for ages, and now I will use those regularly, so I'll stock up on them.
Very true, my largest turn around of tinned/dried goods from my preps is pasta, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, sweetcorn, stock cubes, hotdogs (my little one loves them)
I have a few stray tins of stuff I don’t really use, butter beans being one of them.
I try to only keep food in my stores that I KNOW I’m going to use (which I know is a rule anyway) but it means my food preps are pretty limited in variety.
@Homehardening_uk