What are you all up to
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Yes it is madness…..yes we need green energy but even today i see new houses being built with no solar panels on the roof, and, yet 11 years ago when we had ours installed the engineer took me to a new build site where they were putting solar panels on the roof all nicely counter sunk into the roof so the visual effect was not so drastic as ours seemed when first installed, but you get used to them, and you dont need a south facing roof, ours on a bungalow are east/west 8 each side, but we still get plenty of electricity from them and nearly £1k per annum in return for what we feed back into the grid, cost £6k when installed, win win 😁
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@Goldie146 - Whilst we sit here and bemoan our lot you and your family are going through a lot worse. My commiserations to you. I hope matters soon start to take an upswing.
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Absolutely hosing it down at present in a cold wind, which will soon seem like a mere whiff if the forecast is right. I tried the gas again in the van this morning and it worked fine, which in itself shows how inconsistent this problem is. We've agreed to check it twice a day until Monday and report back to the dealers.
MiL declared herself thrilled to butterkins with the shower this morning. Well, she actually said "It was OK" when asked but I know from years of experience that she really means "thrilled to butterkins".😂
How are the repairs to your caravan coming on @nelliethehooker?
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@Goldie146 terrible situation for you all, that’s history, careful management, so much hard work😢 Lots of us on here will be thinking of you and your family.
@Wherenext sorry the hob saga goes on😡 hoping you get some proper and quick resolution
@DavidKlyne the video was interesting, mainly because it showed just how close the open cast mining got to the mansion doors, and the terrible irony of all that wealth gained from mining, but then the tables turned to try and kick the Fitzwilliam’s, super rich, by ignoring even the pleas of local Miners and the NUM. They were good employers in so much as they did look after tenants and workers, as much, probably more than many would do today. The whole of this area is sat on coal, hence all the pits, hundreds of them, so they didn’t really need to do the overground damage that they did with such glee. Churchill might well have visited, it was that sort of place that saw regular visits by Kings and Queens, aristo’s and politicians.
I have a lot of sympathy for those who are going to have solar farms, wind turbines close by. But, and it’s a big but, I grew up looking at collieries and associated slag heaps, coking works, and other than the Tin/Copper mining of old in Cornwall, cannot think of any industry that so devastated a landscape. For 150 years, South Yorkshire, along with other places like South Wales etc…… powered this country, kept it running through all sorts of times. Sir Walter Scott visited while writing Ivanhoe (set at Conisborough Castle) and he wrote that it was one of the most beautiful areas of England at the time of his visit. For the last 35-40 years, as the pits were closed, we now have a great deal of our beautiful landscape restored, wildlife returning, wonderful walks, wonderful views. With solar farms and wind turbines, a whole lot better than slag heaps and muddy collieries. Many of our local farmers can get a lot more money allowing solar farms, turbines and communication masts on their land, even if it’s arable land, so I am sure they will have done the maths. I do feel for those who have moved to the areas of their choice, perhaps for retirement, but it’s not just solar farms, wind turbines but new housing developments as well. We had a big gap of a few years between visits to West Cornwall, and couldn’t believe all the changes to infrastructure, thousands of new homes. It’s nothing new, it’s just change, much like happened during the Industrial Revolution, this is the Tech Revolution cum Climate changes, cum need for new houses. Hopefully it will be shared out with most areas taking some sort of hit, rather than devastating one or two areas.🙂
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"…other than the Tin/Copper mining of old in Cornwall, cannot think of any industry that so devastated a landscape."
I think it's the open cast china clay mining which devastated the Cornish landscape @Takethedogalong 🤔. In Devon, both Tungsten open cast and china clay pits.
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@Tinwheeler oh gosh yes🫣 I forgot about the China Clay. We used to stay around St Austell a lot during the 1980’s, and the whole area was dedicated in lots of different ways to China Clay. Even the pubs had names like The White Pyramid. It had a beauty in its own way, from a distance, and of course employed thousands, much like our pits. We nicknamed the huge white mountain you could see “White Willy” rather than the Brown Willy on Bodmin Moor. A much transformed landscape and area now, like here at home.😁
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The White Pyramid pub was named after the white pyramid 'mountain' which bears the flag of St Piran at its peak. It’s a landmark from miles away. These days the white pyramid has turned green 🙂.
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I do wonder how many people are living in houses that once was farmed land? Our own house certainly is, built in the 1970s. Part of the village that has succumbed to houses was once the "Coal Yard" where the coal merchants operated out of. As an asthmatic I know which one of solar farm or coal pit I'd rather live next to.
OH patriarch family were originally from Cornwall and moved to coal mining areas in the North West when tin mining went into decline. Their health was very poor.
The only caveat I would put in would be that the materials and technology for solar farms and wind farms be sourced from British companies but I suppose that's asking too much.
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Thank you to all of you who understand how devastating a TB breakdown is. Our family have been here since 20th February 1875 (when we will be having a small celebration). We’ve always had Dairy Shortorns and the the first pedigree was registered in 1918. The cows in the current herd are from families going back to almost that time. We are a “closed herd” i.e. we don’t buy cows in. They are all homebred. The cows that have gone are not just numbers. They all have pedigree names. So far the youngstock have been OK, and eventually they will be bulled, and calve and go into the milking herd.
And on other wider farming matters - I’m totally against solar farms on good agricultural land. We need the land to grow food. But this is getting political so I’ll shut up.
P.S. we put solar panels on a new building a couple of years ago.
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It would help if every new build, business and domestic had to include solar panels as part of the remit. Scandalous that housebuilding companies can throw up housing estates but give no thought to putting solar panels and associated feed in equipment on the roofs where suitable. That would be a big help. Cannot for the life of me see why it doesn’t happen🤷♀️ Most of the big industrial units round here (SY has good logistics links) have solar panels, some of the units are as large as small fields. It all helps.
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@Goldie146 - so sad - I expect with it being a dairy herd, you know all the animals and their characters - must be like losing part of the family. Take care, all of you, and let's hope for better news in the future.
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@Wherenext Getting on for 300,000 people in Milton Keynes living on land that was previously farmed. According to original investigation it was classed as poor quality farmland but I don't know why it would be classed as such. When we first came to MK, in 1979, we used to regularly travel back down to Southampton to visit relatives. In the old days we didn't encounter much in the way of housing en route other than established communities. 45 years later it is a very different story with lots of new housing all along the route. Having painted that, perhaps, gloomy picture, we do have to remember that, depending on what study you use, only about 8% of the UK is actually built on.
@Takethedogalong I completely agree that it would be common sense to mandate that all new houses should have solar panels. I suspect the problem is that it puts the Government between a rock and hard place should they insist as they depend on the cooperation of the house builders to meet their housing targets? I wonder if a fairly modest subsidy of £1000 per property, also open to existing home owners, would probably see that goal achieved? I am currently thinking of putting solar panels on my house. At my age I doubt I would get complete repayment of the investment but I would be doing my bit and electricity is the largest part of our energy costs. A small subsidy would encourage me😉
David
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This hobby of ours allows travel around the UK and we have noticed over the past few years just how much housing IS actually or has been built in recent years.
Travelling down from North Wales to East Anglia last year we came across large swathes of ongoing building almost everywhere so I was a little surprised to find that targets weren't being met. At the moment our "village" is in danger of meeting up with a neighbouring district. It only needs one farm to go and we'll be joined at the hip. Part of that farm is currently having foundations put down for about 40 properties in what has always been a flood field.
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@Wherenext we too have commented on just how much house building is going on throughout the country. From what we see there does not appear to be many "affordable" houses going up, the vast majority are certainly not for first time buyers, which the politicians keep saying are in the greatest shortage!! Also there are relatively few that appear not to be carrying solar panel, which seems to me to be a mistake.
As far as the caravan is concerned we not have had any word yet as to when it will be ready for collection. No news is good news, or so they say! one thing for certain is that we will not be picking it up tomorrow even if they phone to say it is ready for collection. Hope that your cooker works fine tomorrow, although my concern would be what might happen when you are away in it and are ready for a prepared meal and it fails again.We may not be around to assist!😄😆😁
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@DavidKlyne for some reason the YouTube video of Wentworth Woodhouse Restored that you uploaded has been removed, when I tried to view it again today. I do see that there are 80+ videos on YouTube of the restoration project, many of them about the stables.
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Another mixed day here with one wet walk, so far. The wind has not yet arrived but we have battered down the hatches.
Stay safe one and all.
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Nellie, that seems a bit odd, can't really understand why it was removed. Might investigate tomorrow?
David
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Son in NI has just been in contact. All the schools are closed over there which I am relieved about as our grandchildren have about a 15 mile bus journey to school, and also his office so he is working from home which is also good as he would have to drive about 40 miles into Belfast otherwise. He said the wind is very fierce and very loud but no damage that they can see so far. Fingers crossed they will be 🤞. The storm here seems to have passed through overnight and it is now a bright day with a very stiff breeze. I hope everyone on here is safe.
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@DavidKlyne yes we keep considering solar panels, our house faces predominantly South. We didn’t really expect to be still in same house after 40 years, but a few things have made us accept that moving might not be in our best interests, not least the really good health care we have on our doorstep, and our lovely little community. Plus, it’s taken us 40 years to sort the house and garden out, and we do love it. We just didn’t have the money for solar panels 20 years ago, and as you say, the incentives for doing it now aren’t as good for retro fitting. OH keeps his eye on this particular juggling ball, so who knows.
Meanwhile, we had torrential rain overnight, but it’s bone dry and sunny now, but the wind is terrific. Mum lives at the top of a big hill and it’s usually a lot worse up there, so just hope it passes us by safely and quickly. Keep safe all👍
edit @milliehull good to hear your family are safe, good decision by schools as well. I think this country is getting a bit more used to bad weather, and keeping people more informed. I had two emails, one a couple of days ago from Powergen around some useful information and contact numbers, and this morning, I got one for Mum around house insurance, making it easy to put in a damage claim if the worst does happen. I think some folks are getting weather alarms now, but I haven’t had one of these. But we aren’t in a flood area.0 -
NI son has just been in contact again to say that their power is now off so they have the candles out and he has managed to find an old fashioned radio (whatever that means) so they can keep up to date with the news. I don't suppose the power will be back on until the wind dies down as it would be far too dangerous for anyone to go out and try to reconnect it at the moment. Son said he is relieved that they don't have chickens anymore otherwise he would be really worried about them.
The wind here seems to be picking up again. I hope you all stay safe @Takethedogalong
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well if we had a storm in Stubbers it passed by whilst i was sleeping and now we have some sunshine and light winds, not been out on my bike yet to check out the beach house etc, but not expecting anything too bad, and certainly not had any power cuts, and the garden furniture does not seem to have been thrown about so all good
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Fortunately, this tornado missed us yesterday although we had a terrific rain and hail storm at the time.
Eowyn started overnight with fairly high winds but all is calm and OK this morning.
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@Tinwheeler crikey, that looks awful. All in a few minutes. I am at Mums here, and the wind is roaring outside, but thankfully no damage as I drove up and through her area. It’s actually beautifully sunny outside, but very cold.
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@Takethedogalong Our electricity bill for 2024 was just over £1100, we only use gas for heating and hot water. I would imagine that solar panels would halve that and if we went for the battery option probably the saving would be more but so would the investment. I suppose the gamble is whether electricity prices will continue to rise or as we become more independent in electricity generation will the prices drop. Even if the do drop I suspect that is some way in the future. Being a bit of a nerd on such things I would probably enjoy monitoring what was happening. Have to wait until Margaret has had her operation before I am really able to concentrate on the decision viz a viz solar panels.
David
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That same tornado overturned and smashed static vans near Newquay yesterday.
It’s a bright and pleasant day here today.
Take care out there, everyone.1 -
I've just had to revise my definition of "Hoolie". Crikey, it sounded like the roof was coming off at 5 a.m. Of course, it's recycling collection here today and the road is strewn with rubbish because people are too stupid to realise that an 80 mph wind will blow your unsecured bag away!😡 As the wind is from the south-west we tend to end up with most of the detritus. We use a half brick to keep our own safe after making sure not to overfill it. No idea who the 3 bags we had this morning belong to. Will leave them on our wall, under a brick, for owners to collect. Hope nobody suffered any injuries or damage.
Have to go to town but it looks and feels like a 30-40mph wind at the moment with some sun.
I read somewhere that the UK gets a lot of tornados, more than one might think. Wouldn't like to be caught under one.
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@DavidKlyne yes, we use gas for heating, hot water, cooking. But we do have a solid fuel stove as well, and burn smokeless and seasoned wood, which really keeps our bills down. It’s not an option for all, as there can be work involved, but we find wood foraging, prepping interesting and good exercise still, so we don’t buy wood in very much. We have done a lot to keep our bills in check, we have an old house (1862), with high ceilings, big rooms, so we have had as much insulating work done as we can, decent windows, good, thick curtains, and the heating is only on in the rooms we use, off or very low in others. We are both hardy as well, still very mobile, and unless OH is in recovery from an Op, we don’t tend to have heating on in day, unless it’s very very cold. But we are thinking ahead, trying to change things if needed. We hum and arr about downsizing, we love our home and it suits us fine. I don’t think we could find anything as convenient in terms of rooms, garden, parking without spending a huge sum of money. We do need a downstairs wet room though, so that is a future plan. Luckily we have the room.
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Really strong winds here…..our house is quite high up, looking south over Glasgow. The trees in the garden are thrashing about, but still standing so far, certainly the worst winds we have had in the almost 37 years we have lived here. Cars and caravan on driveway are so far undamaged.
DD lives just on the outskirts of Glasgow, but quite low down. Her upstairs neighbour has his garden furniture blowing around, the top board of his fence flapping, and there is a tree down on their shared driveway, probably one of the skinny conifers.
Their old roof really needs to be replaced, tiles fall off frequently, so DD has moved their cars down the driveway, well out of range of flying tiles and not beside the conifers. Next door neighbour has a couple of very big trees near the boundary and her garage, but they seem to have good roots….so far. There are a couple of long branches overhanging her garage, they really need to be removed before they do any damage.
School and nursery are shut, so the whole family are home. Most shops are closed too.Once things calm down I will go to the top of the garden to inspect the back of the house roof for damage, and across the road to look at the front. Glad we no longer have any greenhouses!
OH is worried about the Guide Hall, quite a few big trees in the grounds, plus next door neighbour has several huge conifers, just inside his boundary and very close to the Hall. Will need to go down there and see if there is any damage. The building has a very large roof too.
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@KjellNN keep safe! All you can do is ensure loose items are removed or tied down. There are a lot of trees that need attention, we have our big beeches checked out regularly, and cut back if needed. I had the huge Ash tree at Mums taken down a long time ago, as it was very big and a danger to them. No longer a worry now. I hated having to do it, but had to make the decision.
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It's been a bit windy here today in Hornsea - but nothing like the 50-60 mph winds that were forecast. The last storm we had was far worse which was probably because that one came from the north. Stay safe, everyone.
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