h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Still just dark out there where I am....

it's a blizzard here..we are cut off until someone digs us out..probably tomorrow..the snow is two feet below the study window and rising...we are warm though and dry so we are

Good Scottish weather by the sounds of that!!

Didn't know you ever got weather quite *that* severe in the british isles...

We're actually expecting a high of 42F/5C today - which will be very nice for a change!

That's relatively warm considering we've had minus temperatures over here for the past few days!

We has horribly cold weather for about 2 weeks. It's all up there in the b'log on some thread or other, but we were in single digits F for way too long - that was about -10 or more C!

Ok, ok, you win!
We didn't have weather that cold, but I can't say what it was like in Scotland!

I'd say it was rather....
























"Scottish"!

it got down to -17 C one night..the gas froze in the pipes so we couldn't use the oven.Luckily I have one of those little electric bedsit ovens ..you know with a hot plate and a tiny oven/toaster..the mini-me of cookers! so we heated up pizza etc. The electricity is still on but I have got the candles out ready..it has gone off for days before now in this weather. The snow is drifting now so the roads will be bad tonight.

I figured it out: -17C is about 1F...

When it gets that cold here water pipes in unheated areas of the house sometimes freeze. To prevent this, we will leave the faucet that's furthest from where the water comes into the house at a slow drip. Waste of water, yes, but at least the pipes don't freeze. Don't know if leaving something lit to keep the gas flowing might help prevent it from freezing agian - in fact I didn't realize gas would freeze at that temperature.

-17C.....that's....that's.......1.4F.
That's COLD!!!!

The gas tank is outside the kitchen for safety reasons so parts of the pipe are exposed..it's very common in rural places ..we don't have piped main gas.Our central heating runs from a solid fuel rayburn(aga) but it's not very good for cooking as it's hard to regulate the temperature hence the gas cooker.

you can see why I intend to move nearer to civilisation in the near future!(If you can call aberdeen cosmopolitan)

Yeah, we have those little outdoor gas tanks here too (well not *we* - I *wish* we had gas in this house!), but it's not uncommon at all for us to get temps that low during the winter - and yet I never hear of gas lines freezing. Does your stove/cooker have an automatic pilot? or an old fashioned pilot light? The pilot light itself might keep the gas flowing enough to keep it from freezing in the pipe.

nope you have to light it each time. But if the electricity goes off at least we can boil water etc.

Why do you have to light it each time?



Then again, maybe your stoves don't have pilot lights on them at all

no it's a thing that you push and it's sends a spark to ignite the gas. There is no pilot light. Some cookers have pilot lights but they are mains gas. I prefer electric to be honest but there wasn't a choice.

You prefer electric?

Wanna trade?

wish I could! I used to have a double oven on my electric cooker. this one is only small and temperamental. still we won't be here for ever, it is only a temporary place until I find something more permanent.

And welcome to todays edition of Can't Cook, Won't Cook!





Now there was a decent program!