Forcing The Children To Build Shelters In the Snow

If you live in the UK I don't have to tell you it's been cold.

It's quite an unusual storm, a mixture of cold strong winds that are blowing in a different direction from what is normal and snow. The snow is far dryer than normal as well (if that makes sense) and is blowing everywhere. I have areas with no snow on the ground at all and some drifts higher than me (6ft).

We're not used to this type of weather anymore and things like keeping the wood burner going and the heating on have been a priority. The new unfinished extension that we've knocked through to has been chilly as there was quite a few drafts for the wind to blow through. I spent a good half hour with some expanding foam to fix that problem!

The children were quite happy inside, watching films, making crafts and baking cakes but I decided it was the perfect weather to take them outside for a light bit of survival training! I'm a mean dad, but want to try to teach them some things they might remember.

First of all we talked about where they could find natural shelter or things that they might not have thought about. They both suggested sleeping in the animal housing or finding somewhere under the trees. We also talked about which way the wind was blowing and how to tell.

For the first shelter we took out a tarp, rope and paracord. We're short on suitable trees here  (they're busy growing) so we decided upon a few gate posts to build it around.

 Certainly not the best shelter in the world and I could have done with some way to peg it down better. It did show them how easy it is to build one and what a difference it makes getting out of the wind. It also took a bit of teamwork as the wind was gusty so needed us all to hold it as we built it.

 We talked about holding the back down with snow if we had no other option to stop the wind. Some pegs would have been a good idea to keep the lines and the tarp lower. It wasn't the ideal shape for the conditions either, a normal small tent shape would have been better, but my younger daughter was cold so we just tried to build it quickly.

 My younger daughter then went in as she was too cold (it was blinking cold), but I suggested to my eldest that we should build a snow shelter, (with much pretending about polar bears chasing us) it was a great fun little exercise.

This girl is such a trooper, nothing phases her. 

 We made our way down to the bigger field where the drifts were higher (6ft). She struggled through the deep snow but didn't give up.

We then set to digging ourselves a cave in the deep snow - keeping a watchful eye out for polar bears the whole time ;-). We brought her little proper shovel, one for digging trenches - children's ones don't last five minutes with my kids, and dug as deep as we could.

quite happy out of the wind! 

 We tried it a few times until it was deep enough for her to get completely out of the driving snow and wind.

Digging

Our snow cave

My eldest getting out of the wind and the elements in the cave she helped to dig. 

 A great way to spend a few hours with my children in some harsh elements we don't get to practice in very often. My eldest really impressed me with the snow cave, she didn't give up digging or walking and didn't make a fuss, asked sensible questions and enjoyed the whole thing, she's got some real determination there!  I also taught her the trick for warming your hands up in your armpits, which is something I watched on a program somewhere and it really works!

Also no polar bears got us either, which is always good!

How's everyone else in the UK dealing with the snow? Anyone else forcing their kids to learn stuff in these conditions?

Whats the weather like elsewhere in the world?

Get Home Car Kit For My Wife

The wife makes a fuss about carrying extra stuff in the car because I'm paranoid. But if she's gotta go to work she's going to be prepared!

Not sure what else I should pack for her, but in there she's got 
Good sleeping bag, 
Folding shovel, 
Snow chains, 
24 hour ration pack, 
Water, 
Flashing beacon, 
First aid kit, 
Head torch and normal torch, 
Boots, 
Extra socks
Good coat and bag. 

After posting this on Facebook, I'm going to add a phone charger and maybe some jump leads, extra chocolate, a small knife, matches and a few candles. A battery pack for her phone would be a good idea as well. 

I also need to check there's a hooking eye for towing and buy a tow rope for my truck (ratchet straps would do at a push but not ideal)

What else would you add to this car kit?

Into The Extension Upstairs

I woke up his morning feeling like my body is a little bit broken.
My dad and brother both feel the same.
It's been a hard weekend!

Over half term I've been getting the extension ready for the big knock through. The idea being to have a big push with my dad and brother on the weekend to knock through to the top of the extension, removing the old bathroom in the process.

During the four days on my own I managed to get the bedroom ready, skirting on and all painted (Sean plastered it the weekend before), the loft boarded out and some of the plumbing sorted for the bathroom.

 Dad turned up on the Friday, he mainly concentrated on the heating and the plumbing whilst I got ready to knock through. The pictures show some of what we got up to!

Drain opened up ready! I'd left a bung in it until we were ready to connect everything up

We ate well for three days. Not for the ones worried about their weight but I think we burnt it off! We had to cook outside for the weekend.  

Dad in the old bathroom

My brother helping to break through, these bricks were so hard - even with the big breaker it was hard to do! 

Taking advantage of the bath outside as somewhere to lie for a minute...

My brother next to the last wall to come down - clinker block. Much easier to knock down! 

A little bit of mess in the old bathroom...

Plastic to try and stop the dust going downstairs

The bathroom on Saturday night. I couldn't help thinking I'd ruined my house! 

Getting the joists in the access hole that's been in the extension since I built it. I've been up and down here hundreds of times but it was good to see it blocked up. 

I lugged everything up that hole to make sure the extension was pretty much ready to go when we knocked through! 

Gone! Glad to see it boarded up and much safer with the kids! 

Finished bedroom. 

New corridor where the old bathroom was

New small shower room 

Coming from the other side. 

The house suddenly feels much bigger!
The kids were funny when they got back, My middle one wasn't even sure where her bedroom was even though it hadn't moved!
It's odd to get used to the new layout, especially when you need to go to the loo in the middle of the night, but I doubt it'll take long until i'm used to it.
Lots more to do up stairs yet though! Wiring and sockets, plasterboard walls, create a shower room, the list goes on! Then once that's all done I can start on the downstairs! Fun fun fun! Hopefully have a full day at it tomorrow when the kids are at school. Probably box in pipes around the toilet first to stop the kids standing on them!
Hopefully I'll get to the end of this extension one day, but it's not going to be for a while yet!

Rubbish Removal

This is a collaborative post

I've done pretty well for rubbish while building our extension. There hasn't been huge amounts of waste, we burn the wood on the fire and any hardcore has already been reused. There are certain items that are harder to get rid of though, things like plasterboard should be recycled and plastics if they can.

I drive what's classed as a commercial vehicle so I'm only allowed so many trips to the tip each year and when you do go they can be quite funny about plasterboard waste and I hate things going to landfill.

The other day I was saying to my wife that it might be time for us to get a skip. As well as the plasterboard, from the ceiling I ripped down, there is also a fair amount of plastic collected over the last few years. Things like ton bags and empty cement bags soon mount up, in fact I'd collected 4 bulk bags full.

The downside is our drive is quite tight so having to have a skip on it for a few weeks would be a real pain (no chance of having it on the field as it's far too wet at the moment).

 So I was chuffed when I came across clearabee and saw the services they offered.

I chose their "man with a van service" and a few emails and a couple of photos later I had a big van coming to pick up my waste.

There was three really friendly guys in the truck and they moved the rubbish in no time at all. I thought I was being a bit cheeky getting rid of all the ton bags but they took them without question, to be honest I don't think they would have fitted in a skip as they are so bulky but weigh very little.

 They also took all my plasterboard waste and some doors from a previous job that had glass in.

I know it's very sad to get excited about getting rid of some rubbish but I was so pleased to get it all from here. It's made the place look so much tidier and I hadn't expected them to take it all - I just kept grinning afterwards! It's the simple things that please me!




#### For this post Clearabee offered their services free of charge to me but the opinions and silly gleefulness once the rubbish was removed are all my own! ####

Smalec - Polish Pork Dripping

There was a lot of fat on the pigs when we were processing them at the weekend, so gets added to the sausages but there was still a lot there. 

One of the guys was Polish and wanted to make smalec. This is basically like dripping but with pork fat instead of beef and the fat is flavoured. 

It was simple to make. We first minced up a good amount of fat. 

 It was then rendered it down on the hob until it started to separate.

 Then an onion cut in half was added to flavour the fat, he did this on sticks so he could stir it round.

 He took this outside to cool for a while then once it was cold enough to pour into plastic containers he broke up the onion and shared it between three tubs.

 Once cool it solidified.

 Apparently they spread it on bread instead of butter with a sprinkling of salt and fresh onion on top.

I tried it on some fresh bread (without fresh onion - no way can I eat that) and a bit of salt, it was lovely, a great alternative to butter and one worth remembering encase things ever got harder and dairy products were harder to get.

Stores for a long time as well as fat is basically a preserve.

Apparently they sometimes flavour the fat with apples instead of onions. I think I still prefer beef dripping but this is genuinely good to eat. The girls liked it as well!

Who else has tried this or something similar?