What are you all up to
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An exciting Xmas present Steve, one off the bucket list!👍
Much to my surprise, phoned this morning and now have two nights at Forton House CL, recommended on here. Sounds very nice, is around an hour and half from where we are hopping from, so should make two very nice days in the Chard area. This tour is coming together nicely now, just need another couple of places of interest, and Sites to overnight and will have cracked it😁
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A damp start to the day but seems to be lifting now.
Very autumnal here just now, the silver birches at the bottom of the garden are starting to drop their leaves.
The grass is not growing as fast and it's cool in the mornings and night. There is dew on the grass and plants, also noticed lots of spider webs on the big hedges.
OH out cutting the little hedge at the front of the house its actually the neighbours hedge between us. He never cuts his side so it looks awful but at least our side and the top look fine.
I'm currently out of action as I have a cat sat asleep on my lap
its the one that next door abandoned, she comes in to see us but rarely stays. Lately she has changed and has become more friendly and spends more time just being with us. She is 5 years old now so guessing she is maturing a bit, certainly seems to be less mad 0 -
Out in the garden, again, first thing. Bit of everything. Weeded a big area yesterday so putting bark down this morning. Lemon Balm had a haircut and so did I later on.😂
Our hedges in the front need a trim before we go away but they can wait a while.
Must get out to wash the caravan! Sky now overcast, looks like we might get some rain.
What an exciting pressie Steve. Better than socks.
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Home after an enjoyable weekend at Ayr Craigie Gardens club site didn’t really do much but was nice to relax away from home the weather yesterday was decent so managed to cook on the Cadac last night. Easy 35 min tow home today was a bit of hassle when we got home though. We live at the bottom of a cul de sac but there are rarely any cars parked on the street so when we get back I’m always able to turn the van round and reverse it on to the drive but today when we got back the family across the road we’re having a gathering so the street was full of cars so had to un hitch and use the mover to get the van in which takes longer anyway doesn’t happen often so won’t complain too much. After a coffee I went out and cleaned the van and car. Busy next weekend then away again the following week. TG and Brue I hope you both enjoy your up coming trips away
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Reasonably sunny here today, so managed to get the car ready without getting soaked. Also found our house keys that have been missing for a few weeks......OH always puts them somewhere safe when we are away, and invariably we forget where that was! Also found our keys for DD's house which had been missing since last week.
Doing well today, we now have a working CH system again. Yesterday I found the pipes to the kitchen plinth heater were blocked with black debris (worryingly possibly rust from our radiators), so cleaned all that out and flushed through the pipes, but still no heat coming through.
Hauled it all out again and eventually found the air vent valve was also blocked so heater was full of air. Now working fine. Have put in a system cleaner to circulate for a week, so will empty and flush through the system next weekend before adding fresh inhibitor.
We are considering whether we should replace our ancient boiler soon, also thinking whether an air source heat pump could be an alternative. Will need a lot of research first.
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I have been on a holiday roll today. All sites for our SW tour sorted now, moved onto October, and we now have a break away with Mum and Sister as well all booked. Us in our MH, them on some nice adjacent posh accommodation close by. I even know where I want to go in November, just need to persuade OH now😁
Thats been the good part of the day, however, struggling to put our renovated greenhouse back together. Frame is being an absolute pain in the proverbial. The glass came out, but it’s reluctant to go back in😡 Riddy nightmare, how can something so simple end up being so frustrating.
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Kj
On your last point regarding and Air Source Heat Pump I would suggest you wander over to YouTube and have a look at "Skill Builder" on the subject!!!! You have to satisfy yourself that a Heat Pump would provide you with enough hot water and heating in the winter without using an excessive amount of electricity to supplement any shortfall. I appreciate that you have solar panels which from your posts seem to give you a decent amount of power but the calculation needs to be made. Many boiler manufacturers are now producing Hydrogen ready boilers which might be an alternative?
David
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Well once the cat got off my knee I managed a fair amount of work.
House hoovered, bathroom cleaned, bed made.
Outside I cut and strimmed both back grass and front grass, then scarified the back grass. Had to go over it again with the mower to tidy it up.
Next I spread some soil over the now bald bits and brushed it in, I'll sow some grass seed tomorrow. Couldn't do it today as OH was dismantling our green house and kept walking across it.
The green house has been offered up to someone in the village. I don't use it these days so a shed for my tools would be better. It comes on Friday, hence the green house going.
Then it was give the beds and borders a hoe over.
Wash my car, hoover the inside and clean the windows. OH washed and hoovered his car.
By the time we had finished it was 18.30 in the house for a shower then get dinner on.
Phew I think we've done enough for one day. Feet and back now telling me I've possibly done to much😁😁
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😁
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Glad you have your trip away sorted out TDA , Hope you enjoy your next trip brue. How lovely to see your son and his family TG. Enjoy your meal.
Decent weather today (by this year's standards
) Warm, some sun, some cloud, no rain. DIL popped over this afternoon. She, our son and 2 grandsons are off to NI shortly and she wanted to weigh their suitcase. Their scales have broken could she borrow ours? She mentioned that they are getting s skip when they get back as they are having their downstairs toilet and upstairs en suite redone. Did we have anything we wanted to put in it? So we spent a 'happy hour' in our garage looking for possibilities and found quite a few. We also found some things that she has put up for sale on her Facebook groups. She has already rung us to say that she has a buyer for our electric cool box that we used to take away in the caravan 
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Greenhouse now almost finished, just need a couple of new panes and some more clips. Looking good now, there won’t be as much stuff going back in as I had a good sort out when emptying it.
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Son and family arrived yesterday to spend their annual summer holiday staying with us. Two hours after they arrived we all decided to walk along the footpath into the woods, partly to give their springer spaniel a good run to calm her down. She raced into the water and, on racing up the bank, she caught herself on a tree stump and ripped her chest open. Blood everywhere, son carried her home to get his car, I phoned the vets, who were then waiting outside ready for her and took her straight in. After a CT scan, stitches and a night at the vets she is now pacing around our lounge, with her chest bandaged and with a look that says, why can’t I go out for a run! How to keep a manic springer to 10 minutes gentle walk a day for 6 days. Not a good start to their break and a £2,000 bill, good job she’s insured. But it could have been much worse.
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What a dreadful experience for all concerned Heddlo., except the dog has probably got over it quicker than the humans. Amazing resilience have dogs.
You must ask Nellie how he managed to keep his mad one quiet during his recuperation recently. Springers?? Completetly bonkers but I love em.
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Gosh what an awful start to their holiday DEBSC but so glad to hear that their dog is on the mend. Yes, we had a springer - they are completely bonkers. Such lovely, happy, good natured dogs but difficult to keep down!
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That is interesting, David, thanks. Something else to research!
You are right about the costs, particularly if we needed to supplement the system in winter.
OH spent the evening looking into the heat pump possibility, and doing the arithmetic on costs and subsidies, and has come to the conclusion that it is not for us.
The extra cost of using electricity for heating, and the huge installation cost, would far outweigh any renewable heat incentives we would qualify for, so we will discuss the idea of a new gas boiler with our boiler engineer when he comes to do the service and the safety checks at the guide hall on Wednesday.
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Hope you can all retrieve the holiday somehow Debsc and the dog makes a good recovery.
We hand back visiting dog later today, he's getting older now so life with him has slowed up slightly.
Got to sort the van but not much to take due a short break, the weather looks a bit iffy.
We could do with a skip here Millie! Glad you managed to sort and sell surplus stock.
TDA a relief to get the greenhouse back together and TG take it apart! Ours is packed with tomatoes and cucumbers at the moment, OH is supplying cucumbers to anyone who mentions they like them!
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"The extra cost of using electricity for heating, and the huge installation cost, would far outweigh any renewable heat incentives we would qualify for, so we will discuss the idea of a new gas boiler with our boiler engineer when he comes to do the service "
we jumped thru these hoops 12 months ago and decided to plug for new gas boiler, my thinking was that the goverment might condem gas boilers older than "X" and allow new boilers to continue in service for "X", we went for Vailiant Tech pro30, well pleased with it, engineer coming tomorrow for 1st svc. We live in a bungalow which we find is much more economical to heat etc and with solar panels providing much of the electricity during the day our energy bills are manageable.
Just given the caravan a swill over, not very dirty mainly dusty, 2 weeks tomorrow and we are off, and then 1 month just to chill, seems like an age since we had the caravan out.
Had a great family picnic yesterday, MIL was well chuffed I am sure, and surprisingly the sun shone for most of the afternoon, great day again here but only showing 18c just now, but looking as though it will warm up later
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We had a new gas boiler installed a year ago after our old one died. We are hoping that it will 'see us out' and we won't have to go down the expensive route of a heat exchange boiler. Our gas fire also died shortly afterwards and they don't make the ones like we used to have anymore (no chimney) so we went for an electric fire. We have noticed that our electricity bill has shot up. It might be several layers of woolly jumpers and several pairs of socks for us this winter!!
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We've just spent a few restful days at Englethwaite Hall. The weather was "mixed" but we did manage to sit outside a few times (plus a very warm cardigan).
The site was full and as far as I could tell a mixture of carvans and motorhomes (some very long, and one near us with a slide out side). It's a quiet site. no toilet block and WiFi only near a Hotspot, but none of that bothered us. We slept late, ate when we were hungry and read. With occassional watching films I had downloaded onto the laptop. The television reception was perfect - but our rather old TV seems to have developed a fault since the last time we used it (June) - the sound is a bit too quiet and unchangeable. So we've broaght it into the house to fiddle about with.
Now it's back to reality - paperwork and cooking for me. We're selling some cows at a sale on Friday, and entries for the Westmorland Show have to be done today, so it's onwards and upwards.
Links in case you're in the area!
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Gosh everybody has been busy and hope your sons springer improves Debsc been there with two springers in our past they recover so much quicker than we do.
Did a boot sale with our friends in their village yesterday very different at 6am in the morning and fairly chilly as next to the river Cele but better than Saturday with extreme heat and to warm to sleep overnight but did well at the bootsale better than we thought but the locals and holidaymakers do like a bargain our friend really got cross with one local who wanted some towels cheaper but our friend won as he walked away as he said that was the local roofer who gave him some grief about 2 years ago, back home now and much cooler today about 20C and a lot of traffic about.
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Poor pooch, best wishes for a swift recovery. That’s quite a dent in the wallet, good job he is insured.
I am on the hunt for greenhouse glass clips today. We lost our B&Q and Homebase a few years ago, and online everywhere is coming up up out of stock. We have a local glass and glazing form though, that I think sells both, so will get the panes we need, and hopefully the clips.
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Kj
I must admit I was surprised when I watched the videos. OK you have to be careful that it's not just one person who is a bit anti but much of the information made sense. There seem to be two types, one that draws its heat from the air and another that draws the heat from the ground. Obviously the latter being much more expensive. Installation is also not so simple as an "ordinary" boiler as you have to have space internally to have quite large tanks and if you currently have a micro bore heating system that would likely need to be stripped our and replaced with 15mm pipes plus large radiators. I do sometimes think the Government are in cloud cuckoo land on this issue as this sort of system is just totally unsuitable for millions of houses. New boilers are pretty efficient. If they were really serious they would insist that all new houses were built to a much higher standard incorporating these new heating systems. Why has this not happened? Better probably to concentrate on helping people install proper windows and other insulation so we had to use the current boilers less?
David
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Not really, but it depends on many things.
For example, in Norway pretty much all heating is by electricity, produced mainly using HEP, and electricity is much less expensive than here, so using an air to air heat pump rather than panel heaters makes good financial sense. All my relatives are using them. They also use a lot of underfloor heating. Houses are very well insulated, which keeps heat demand lower.
In UK, only newer or recently upgraded properties have anything like the same level of insulation, so the heat needed in older houses in winter means that a heat pump will struggle when it is very cold and supplementary heating may be needed, as well as larger radiators than used with gas or oil boilers.
The gov has also capped the amount of "subsidy" available when installing a heat pump, so if you have a larger house that needs more heat you get far less help compared to smaller houses.
If you are using electricity for heating at present, then you will save money, but if you already use gas then it works out better to stick with that meantime. Older gas boilers and Oil and LPG work out somewhere in between.
So, in our case, we have an older, less efficient boiler (+ for HP), a reasonably well insulated house but not as well as it could be (probably neutral for HP) fitting larger radiators would be costly (-for HP) and a larger property that would get a lower level of financial help (-for HP), so taking it all into account, and considering we are well on in our life, it does not make financial sense for us.
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We have a friend who has recently done major renovations and changes to his home. Whilst he had an architect and other services available he investigated heat pumps and the like. It was decided, after much too-img and fro-ing, that it was never going to be cost effective to go down that route. Perhaps if all new housing was built with them, or with them in mind, it may work but, for the general population and the existing housing stock we already have, it’s a nonsense! Hydrogen boilers might make more sense; after all, we’ve had piped hydrogen before in the form of coal gas, though that had a few nasties in it, like carbon monoxide!
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Had our first fall of beech mast today. Splattered all over the car and stuck as well as it was wet. That will be it now for the next 3 months. Forever hoovering up the stuff.
Had an on/off day with the rain today, some of it quite heavy, other times mizzle.
Started to pack the caravan which made us feel a whole lot better. Off out for lunch with a cousin tomorrow. it's their first outing in a pub this year but it is one we all know and there is usually lots of space between tables. Fingers crossed all goes well.
We've nearly made our minds up as to which new ebikes to buy but there is one last shop to call in at Chester tomorrow before finally making the decision.
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Been quite a busy day here today first thing this morning I had to take the Volvo in to our local dealer for a recall on the front seatbelt turned out my one actually was faulty so good job I went also quite impressed with the service as our car is almost 12 years old so good to know these things get followed up on. Then later on this afternoon I went up to Glasgow to pick up another classics Merc that’s me got 2 now and only one garage so think my original one will have to go. The new one is nice though 30 years old but still great to drive and everything works so that’s me got a new toy to tinker with and polish hopefully get to a few shows/ car meets with it soon. Will be sad to see my other one go but SWMBO doesn’t want another car sat on the drive so that’s me told
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