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urgent snow "must do do da do do

• Message 1. 

  Posted by punpun (U14553477) on Friday, 3rd December 2010

  Hi All,
  Well what do you think of the "Heading" do you like it do do you,
  
  Ive cut me finger today and so the typing has hot a bit out of line here & there.
  
  Gardening can be a funny old world and today ive been out side for about 6 hours sorting snow problems out and thought i'd pass on to the newer gardeners a few must do's when the snows laying thick,
  
  Apart from shaking the snow off the likes of large ferns, topiary (ive got two cork screw shaped topiary that tend to get the snow on them) and any trees/shrubs that tend to hold the snow so much that the tree's branches bend due to the weight of the snow, (They can break if left with snow on them)
  
  So do yourself and your plants a bit of good and shake the snow off them,
  you may have to do this every day until the snows gone!
  
  But more important is the greenhouse (Ive got glass in my window's but the same thing is for any other material you may have)
  
  Get the snow off the roof area's, the weight of the snow will not do the frame of the greenhouse anygood at all,
  
  Do not try using any form of hot or warm water to remove the snow as this will cause the glass to crack;
  
  Use a long handled soft brush and be very very gentle when your removing the snow, (a little at a time is the best way to do it)
  
  Start at the bottom of the greenhouse roof and then the middle and then the top,
  Take your time and when all the snow is off "remove what you've taken off away from the sides of the greenhouse (this will stop this snow from refreezing and sticking to the side glass and give you more snow problems.
  
  It really is worth while having a think about what ive covered today as it will save you the cost of at least new glass and it could save you the cost of a bent greenhouse frame and once bent they are never the same again.
  
  STICKING GREENHOUSE DOOR;
  Again dont use water on the frame, Use a hair dryer if you can get an extention lead to the stuck door, and remember to also de-ice the runner part of the frame we're the door will run along to open once its unstucked.
  
  You can buy special grease that will not freeze, and use this on the runners and the door frame if your really bothered about the door sticking.
  
  Well i said at the start gardening can be a funny old world and after i'd spent 6 hours or so in the snow I came in to have dinner and sit infront of a nice french log fire just thawing out, the T.V 's on and the cats got the best seat in the house,
  Then one of the adverts came on for christmas showing this snow machine blowing false snow over a roof!
  
  Sometimes you just cant win.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by John Moodie (U14353581) on Friday, 3rd December 2010

  Hello punpun,
  Living in the Rocky Mountain foothills we get many heavy snowfalls every winter. I have a poly greenhouse and I do exactly what you do to remove the snow from the roof. But I also have a problem with snow building up on the sides so I carefully shovel the snow away. I did neglect to remove the snow from the roof a couple weeks ago and so I found on a warmer day, ice build up on the roof. Being a warm day I just turned both heaters on and in a few hours the ice was gone.
  do do da do do? Isn't that a song?
  What's the difference between a French log fire and an English log fire? Location?

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by As_Iff (U13951957) on Saturday, 4th December 2010

  The difference is probably one of frequency rather than location.
  In England I haven`t seen a real log fire in years.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by punpun (U14553477) on Saturday, 4th December 2010

  Hi john,
  I hope your in good health and enjoying the thread and all the talk about cold weather they're having in england,
  
  the trouble is that to a lot of the councils and goverment depts in england "Winter comes as a complete shock, and inspite of it coming every year the powers tobe have not got the timing of winter sorted out yet,ie
  Road grit shortage, heating costings,etc etc etc.
  
  Hence the general public are scared stiff of the cost to get through the cold spells in the winter,
  
  IE you just never know from one winter to the next what fuel will cost you and so it's the difference between french heating and what the average person can do about it.
  
  
  
  Let me explain "now im on my box" Here in the countryside just about everyone heats with wood, "but a lot of people are having oil tanks fitted and running centrial heating this way but this is the newer houses and the younger generation "But even they like the wood fire.
  
  Here in the countryside most people have large gardens or land and space to store logs and as we have woods all over the place "wood" can and is bought with no problem from saw mills who just do fire wood,
  
  Now by buying and storing such wood at todays prices you can build up a good wood suppy "as the french do" and keep a very good eye on what your going to use in the future (at todays cost) if we have a mild winter then we wont burn as much this winter But what we didnt use this winter will be ready for use next winter.
  
  You just cant do this in the U.K "or not when we lived there anyway, (1) to have space to store such amounts of wood was out of the question for most folk,
  And as ive said you never know from one month never mind one year what the cost are going to be, Gas/oil/ electric no one company can offer you fuel in say 3 years time at todays prices and you cant store gas or electric in large amounts for future use if you've not used it this winter can you?
  
  But here in this part of france
  (i cant say ref other parts of france as i dont live there) it's the norm to see the complete boundry of property with 5 feet high walls of logs, just work it out yourself the cost of these walls of logs in years to come?? and how much you will save?
  
  The older houses all have large fire places, and wood burners are the norm.
  
  Each evening as i walk the dog back to our home i can smell the wood burning just drifting out of the chimney and it's both a warming feel to the body inside and out to think i do have some control as to the future cost im paying
  
  (Im burning wood i bought 5 years ago tonight at the price i paid 5 years ago.
  
  Thats the difference between a french fire and an english wood burner.
  Hope ive explained this to you.
  Regards punpun

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by John Moodie (U14353581) on Sunday, 5th December 2010

  Hi punpun,
  OK, I got it. I was camping once out on the prairie and this was the only time I had to purchase fire wood. The reason was that the camp ground had to have the wood hauled in from a couple hundred miles away. On the farm there is so much old wood around we never ran out. Dad put in a wood burning stove when he built the new house and their is an old pot bell stove in the pump house to keep warm doing repairs in the winter. There is so much natural gas here in Alberta it would come out the water faucets in the old farm house. We would amaze and scare people when we would open the tap a bit and light a match to it. Dad always had wanted to utilize that natural resource in some way.

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by punpun (U14553477) on Sunday, 5th December 2010

  Hi john,
  just goes to show the differnce one country from another can make.
  
  You really got my mind playing tricks just thinking about camping,
  as a young lad i tried to join the local scouts but got turned down because of our postal area, (we lived in a rough area, not that as a kid we thought it was rough)
  
  I wanted to join so i could go camping as one of my school friends had been camping with his mum and dad and he told me the breakfast tasted so much better when your outside in the wild,
  
  (they went about 30 miles away to north wales and it never got sunny just rained & rained & rained)
  
  Little did i know how life would turn out later on in life.
  
  

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