Hard News: When the Weather is the News
190 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 4 5 6 7 8 Newer→ Last
-
Hilary Stace, in reply to
We installed a pellet fire last year but it is a bit of a disappointment. The fan is quite noisy (and fires are supposed to be silent apart from occasional crackles), the pellets only come in huge heavy bags, and the design means the heat comes out of the top vent, not the bottom, so it is cold for the first metre above ground.
-
Carol Stewart, in reply to
That teacher wouldn't be Bernard by any chance?)
Why yes! It is indeed the lovely Bernard, in upper-upper-Karori.
Interesting about the pellet fire. We have a standard woodburner and I will have to say that it is great, particularly right now. Heat pumps are great and convenient and all that, but you don't exactly cosy up to one. -
Speaking of upper upper Karori, on the bank of usually grassy farmland above my street I couldn't help but notice at lunchtime a number of skidmarks of the sort someone or someones very very keen might perhaps make with a snowboard. At least hopefully it wasn't the result of all the cows losing their footing.
-
giovanni tiso, in reply to
Why yes! It is indeed the lovely Bernard, in upper-upper-Karori.
Why, no! It's not :-)
-
JLM, in reply to
and the design means the heat comes out of the top vent, not the bottom, so it is cold for the first metre above ground.
Well, that's daft, isn't it? What are fires designed for if not for sitting in front of (not on top of).
What I'm aiming for long term is a woodrange I can cook in and on. Something like this
-
Jackie Clark, in reply to
As Ruby and I were walking up the mountain, at about 5.10pm, there was the very tiniest flurry of snow. Teeny tiny amount that lasted for about 2 seconds. Imagine my horror, however, to discover on our arrival to the top, standing around watching the dogs play, when I looked to my left and the woman standing beside me had no socks on. "I left all my winter clothes in Nashville" says she. We all gaped in plain disbelief. Auckland isn't usually this cold but then this is winter.
-
recordari, in reply to
Something like this
We used to have something like the 'Before' photo in the picture. It was considered a classic, and the real estate agent up-sold it something chronic when we were looking to buy.
Then, once we owned it, we were encouraged not to actually use it so as not to burn the house down. I'd love one of the working ones though.
-
Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Some of the schools I’m referring to that have been closed were affected by… some rain. And possibly the odd teacher from out of town having concerns about the commute. It does beggar belief somewhat.
If it happens once every forty years then I can't begrudge them too much.
-
Biobbs, in reply to
You have my sympathy David and I so hope someone in power sees fit to make intelligent and compassionate exceptions to the blanket decisions made so far.
I still don't understand why the NZ media aren't all over this problem? It has everything they usually love in a story - why aren't they camped on Gerry Brownlee's doorstep, shoving microphones in his face and demanding answers on how, when (and if?) this will be fixed? Why should people like David have to go through this, when our forefathers set up EQC specifically to deal with things like this. You'd think it would be a banner headline every day on Stuff, given how many people are affected. Yet if it wasn't for reading about it here on PAS, I'd hardly even have heard about it.
And for god's sake let's mandate some decent compulsory building insulation standards in the ChCh rebuild, if that's not too 'nanny state' for the usual suspects. Here in Denmark my apartment building has 40 cm thick walls, and my annual winter heating bill is about 20% of what it was in ChCh. And the winters here are only slightly colder, although they are much longer.
-
Carol Stewart, in reply to
Some of the schools I’m referring to that have been closed were affected by… some rain
I was just shooing mine out the door this morning, lunchbox packed, on his scooter, when a text came in saying school was closed. In this case, because of staff based in various higher and hillier suburbs than ours.
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
The Screwtrope Letters or
just another thread jack...Your next challenge: a pun on “Stelvin enclosure”*
ahh that would be the much put upon Stelvin Closure...
*I think you'll find the Stelvin Enclosure is probably an
Amcor sponsored stand at some posh race course...
(Amcor recently bought the Stelvin Cap rights
from Rio Tinto Alcan - and screw the poor
Portuguese cork growers... meanwhile the
Zork waits to 'pop' out from the wings) -
Hilary Stace, in reply to
Not everyone lives next door to the school, Giovanni Teachers come from all over Wellington, and it was bad enough even where we are and was a lot worse in many suburbs. The roads and footpaths were covered with snow and ice and cars and people were skidding in it, so it was good that schools closed.
-
Islander, in reply to
I think it's an old Orion (or possibly, a Shacklock.) Use to have one here-but everything rusts, and the Orion, despite the enamelling, finally rusted through...
replaced it with a Gourmet (Australian brand) which has been good but is also now showing signs of terminal rust.Somewhere in CHCH, in the workshop of a person who restores old ranges, is my Nanna's 1920s Orion (they didnt have the enamelling, but did heat water via a wetback & a cylinder: their oven was smallish but very efficient; the top-plates
worked well, and it kept the kitchen (the living room in more modern parlance) toasty...chewed through the coal, though...Havent been able to contact the bloke who runs the workshop, so Nanna's range maybe rubble.
-
Hilary Stace, in reply to
Do you go to the end of term recitals? I'm the person sitting at the back reading the Bible.
-
Lilith __, in reply to
my Nanna’s 1920s Orion (they didnt have the enamelling, but did heat water via a wetback & a cylinder: their oven was smallish but very efficient; the top-plates
worked well, and it kept the kitchen (the living room in more modern parlance) toasty…chewed through the coal, though…My sister used a coal range very like that as recently as the early 1980s in her place in Dunedin. Heated the water and the kitchen and she kept a steady stream of cooking and baking and preserves issuing from it…very Little House on the Prairie ! I particularly remember the melt-in-the-mouth ginger gems she used to make, instantly yummed up by me and by her kids, who are close to me in age.
-
Islander, in reply to
Nanna's Orion finally went out of commission when one of my uncles took over the house in 1994. He replaced it with a wet-back logburner, and carefully placed all the bits in the garage. When he died in 2001, as trustee-executrix I asked if anybody else in the whanau wanted it? No. Whew! I plan to (c'mon Lotto!) put it in the home I will build. On a hillside section I own. Above the kaik' bay-
-
Carol Stewart, in reply to
I'll look out for you, Hilary, though we'll probably miss this term's one because of .. reasons. Be nice to meet you.
-
I lived with a coal range when I lived in Waitati years ago ... it heated the water - the place had an outside bathroom (and an outside toilet). I had to lug home sacks of coal in my Mini (just room for one in the boot) - I forgot to get coal before xmas one year (back when everything shut) and had no hot water for a month. I hated that thing - I liked the vaguely romantic idea of it but it was old, it smoked and was decidedly no fun ...
-
Re the not getting paid on a snow day, yesterday I did wonder why these guys weren’t leaving a Willis St construction site after an hour of snow:
Snow at work -
giovanni tiso, in reply to
[deleted for pointlessness of whole polemic]
-
Sacha, in reply to
lug home sacks of coal in my Mini
My grandmother's Hillman Imp had sacks of roadside pinecones for similar purposes.
-
Che Tibby, in reply to
Wellington is plainly messed up. But even there, people are are live-tweeting their ascents to the hill suburbs.
seriously. getting home was looking like being a mission. made it, no dramas, no children having to be eaten. tomorrow am taking the ubiquitous "socks over shoes" advice.
-
Che Tibby, in reply to
and, they need electricity to run. we pretty much discounted them immediately once we saw that.
anyone advised dr haywood to shrink-wrap his windows yet? cheap "double-glazing".
-
giovanni tiso, in reply to
anyone advised dr hayward
Haywood.
-
Lilith __, in reply to
anyone advised dr haywood to shrink-wrap his windows yet? cheap “double-glazing”.
That stuff seems like a good idea, but in practice I’ve had trouble getting the moisture out of the inside of the window frame and getting the plastic on flat and sealed. And if you’ve got outside air leaking in around the frame you may not make a lot of difference anyway, IMHO.
I have a great wee gadget that scrapes condensation off the inside of the windows and catches it in the handle. Yes, double glazing would be better! But it’s a relatively painless way of removing the moisture.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.