Here are some ideas for warming up your home and getting your outdoor area ready -
* Clean your outdoor furniture and pack away anything that is light weight. This could include chairs, pool toys, garden tools, bbq equipment, rubbish and umbrellas. You don't want to be running around outside in the middle of a storm rescuing flying objects.
* If your garden sheds or garages leak, either fix the leaks or move everything away from potential leaks.
* Get out your extra blanket and give them a wash. Pick a windy day to dry them on the line or if they are polar fleece, they'll dry quickly on a clothes horses within a day.
* Get your door snakes out Do they need filling up ? Maybe you need to make new ones. Scrap bits of material hand sewn or by machine and filled with rice, sawdust, old rags or sand make great door snakes.
* Have your heat packs in an easy to reach location? Do you need to make more ?
* Service your heater if it's due. If it breaks down, you could be waiting for up to a week for a repairer to be available ( from past experience ).
* If you have a portable heater, get it out of storage and check it over for damage. If your main heater breaks down, it's important to have your back up ready to go.
* Do you have a good supply of hot drinks ? Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cuppa soups or even Vegemite and hot water ( not a fan ) are a quick way to heat up your insides.
Great Post Wendy. After the oppressive heat of summer up here in QLD, winter is very welcome at our home. I have been making chicken and veggie soup and other comforting meals for the freezer. Our fluffy blankets are clean and already out for snuggling. I've noticed coffee and tea coming on specials that are worth stocking up on too. I'm not a fan on vegimite and hot water either. I know many enjoy Bovril? Stay toasty! Rachel :)
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy and great advice to get ready for winter.
ReplyDeleteWe usually wash all our blankets at the end of winter and store them in vacuum seal bags ready for the next winter. We have three sets of blankets and comforters that we rotate through each winter. When it gets cold we pull them out and put them on the bed. Likewise we do with our flannelette sheets.
We also dust off our heater ready for the winter. Our main source of warmth here is our slow combustion fireplace which warms up our whole house as it has a fan in it. As we see firewood throughout the year we can collect from the verges on the side of the road we cut it, split it and leave it to dry in the shed as firewood is extraordinarily expensive here. We recently cut about 3 cubic metres of iron-bark firewood from a tree that was hit by lightning and had fallen on the side of the road so that would be most of next winters firewood cut and it will season until next winter for us.
With clothing we wash them and then vacuum seal them for the next winter or season and pull them out when each season arrives so they are ready to use.
The outdoor BBQ and furniture get a good clean too in winter ready for warmer weather.
With food as we are LDS, we pick up food as we see it on good specials so we have a stock for all seasons in the home. Our preferred drink is hot chocolate that we make from cocoa powder which we buy in bulk and sweeten ourselves, as the shop purchased hot chocolate drink mixes have a heap of sugar added to them. I recently stocked up on tins of soup at better than half price special too. We keep anywhere from 9 - 12 months worth of food and all our needs in our home as a way to be prepared.
With medical for the winter season we keep extra cold and flu medications and honey also in bulk here. There is mini heat and cold packs in there too.
It has taken us a few years to get to this stage and also good budgeting and having a pantry stocking budget for when we see good specials to build our supplies. Definitely well worth having a good stockpile for a number of life's ups and downs.
Have a fantastic week ahead everyone :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Hi Wendy
ReplyDeleteAs we live in a cold climate and have open fireplaces it's important for us to stock up with wood, kindling sticks, matches and firelighters. It's cheaper to buy wood in the summer and we buy at least a year ahead so there's a load in the log shed drying out for future years.
We wash heavy blankets, bedcovers and winter dressing gowns etc in the summer.
First aid supplies particularly for colds etc are checked over and replenished and in September we book for flu vaccinations.
We check over the electric bedblanket to make sure it's working and safe.
The cars need more screen wash and we add defrost spray for icy locks and check the supply of salt we need for icy paths.
At the end of summer we oil our wooden outdoor furniture with teak oil and either cover things up with tarpaulins or put them under cover.
We can get powercuts here so we make sure we have enough candles, the torches have batteries and our little gas canister stove is OK.
I'm sure there's lots more but that's it for now.
Good to be reminded to be like the busy ant and prepare well ahead for winter.
Wendy we have been getting ready. Now we have a wood fire we are cutting and stacking wood. If the power went out in winter we would be at least warm and able to cook. I made chicken stock and soup and freezer meals. I have a pretty good medical cabinet and essential oils. I am on to the germ fighter and oregano oil as soon as I get a hint of a cold. I swear by these. We have extra rugs on beds and I start wiping down handles and tv removed etc with something germ killing when I start worrying about flu. The flu broken out very seriously in Adelaide with many deaths. This shakes me up to be careful!
ReplyDeleteOn the other side of the planet, I am getting ready for summer. Are ACs working? Pulling out summer furniture, getting the garden ready.
ReplyDeleteI am doing the exact opposite right now. Washing the yard furniture, scrubbing the decks, planting flowers and basically getting ready for summer. I will reread this post in October when the weather will begin to change again.
ReplyDeleteHi, here in the Uk we are just doing the opposite. Put my door snake into the washing machine today to pack away for the summer.
ReplyDeleteGood advice Wendy, thanks :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy, from an Irishwoman living in Scotland U.K.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your lovely blog. I really enjoy reading it. My son now lives on the Central Coast and is marrying his beautiful Australian fiancée there next year. I love reading about day to day life in Australia, it makes me feel closer to them somehow! I have been over there several times and absolutely adore it. My son is planning on sponsoring me soon so that I can go out there to live. Can't wait for the day! Sorry for the long post! Thank you again and God Bless. Love, Maureen xxx