Egluntyne Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 (edited) ...........to coin a phrase. Am in a state of delirium agitatums. Have just ordered 6 x 50kg bags of our usual "coal". It is called "Room Heat". Last time I ordered this quantity, it cost £85 ish. It has gone up to a massive £115! As Him Indoors likes to have the fires blazing up the chimneys, this will last 5 minutes. His pyromaniac tendencies will have to be curbed. He has already dropped ash all over a carpet because he insisted that there was plenty of life left in one of the ash pans and the bottom fell out of it as he carried it (full) over the new beige dining room carpet. Careful digital examination (by me) of the one in the sitting room left a hole in the bottom of that one too, so a second disaster was narrowly averted. Funnily enough, three new ashpans (one as a spare) and a new set of wotsits for tidying the hearth cost £115 too, as I recall. Bloomin' expensive this keeping the home fires burning lark. Edited for typo. Edited October 31, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiggy Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 I know the feeling, our coal billis normally about £50 my last order was £85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 I think you'll have to persuade him to go hunting for wood instead - that coal price is a big jump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 I have no idea what my parents pay for their coal. I just like going around & setting their chimney ablaze. My dad chunners at me. Maybe Him Indoors & me would make a good couple? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paola Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 His pyromaniac tendencies will have to be curbed. I have had to stop myself from crying with laughter You are such a tonic Egluntine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 What is it with men & fire? I have a nice fire going - not too big, not too hot, not unmanageable. Hubby has a huge behemoth spouting flames up the chimney which makes the room so hot we have to open the windows! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted October 31, 2008 Author Share Posted October 31, 2008 What is it with men & fire? I have a nice fire going - not too big, not too hot, not unmanageable. Hubby has a huge behemoth spouting flames up the chimney which makes the room so hot we have to open the windows! Exactly! There is something primeval about it all I reckon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quickcluck Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 have you tried the 'logmaker'? http://www.logmaker.org.uk/ My friend has one and they are FAB!!! Each 'log' burns for about an hour, is free and green as it's all recycled!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted October 31, 2008 Author Share Posted October 31, 2008 I had something very similar a while ago, and it didn't impress me. Maybe this one is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omletina Kyckling Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 ....it's either fire or water they're fascinated by....my brother is the same, whenever he comes down here, I'll have a perfectly respectable fire going and he has to go and poke at it and put a couple of trees on....I've taken to hiding the 4* for the mowers in case that goes in too....I remember when we were ickle, he used to do experiments, and his favourite was to empty the fridge of ice cubes, fill the kettle and then time how long it would take to boil....this was always done in summer of course when you wanted ice cubes ......his girlfriend (sounds silly calling her girlfriend as they've lived together about 20 years!) says he still does this from time to time.... Hubby's father was the worst, he never bought wood, but would claim it from various places, any old trees going, or s"Ooops, word censored!" wood, old window frames and the like were his favourites, and he'd never chop them up so you'd have an 8ft piece of wood across the room with one end in the fire and we'd have to take it in turns to kick it in from time to time!! They were usually painted things, probably with lead paint, so I dread to think what fumes I've breathed in over the years (explains a lot).... By the way, I loved your original post, Egluntine, brilliantly written... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted October 31, 2008 Author Share Posted October 31, 2008 Gosh...thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlo Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 This "Fire ...Man" thing also explains many men's enthusiasm for barbeques don't you find? The fact that the women usually have to do ALL the preparation; ALL the fetching and carrying and ALL of the cleaning away doesn't stop fellow male homo sapiens clapping the great man on the back for cooking with fire! (Or maybe that is just amongst a lot of my friends - apologies to all the men out there who think that I am geralising a bit too muhch! ) In fact, my OH doesn't do BBQs so they tend not to get done at all as I cannot do all the above and stand around checking burgers and stuff. When we had some friends around in September and it was getting a little chilly I tried to get the chiminea working. Of course, it wasn't burning nearly well enough for the males in the crowd. They had a working party set up in no time to ensure that the flames were blazing out of the top - with the end result that my clematis was burned to a cinder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 I think it all goes back to the cave man days That & speaking in grunts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paola Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 OH in his wisdom decided to have a bonfire a few weeks ago between my Eglu run, the kids sand table and the garage, which is about 2 meters I was livid. So he propped some wood up against the run to stop it from melting and had to constantly hose that and the garage wall He was there tending to his fire for a good couple of hours until it went out. My poor girls were shut in the eglu I was worried they would suffer from smoke inhalation. All because he would not take it to the tip or save it for a skip. It still amazes me that he did it. Our garden is not that big as you can see from the pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaz Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 ...I mean at Paola's OH. Yes, I've noticed the price increase (& love your post too) Egluntine. After the disintegration our 3rd or 4th ash tray, my Firestarter had a good idea! We abandoned the ashtray altogether & let the ash drop through. The next day he uses a small handshovel to scoop all the ash into a metal bucket which is then kept outside the French windows and needs emptying every 2 or 3 days. Brilliant! We don't need an ashtray at all. I used to hate touching that horrid metal tray, the job is much easier now. Would this work for your fireplace? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 What is it with men & fire? Ha! agree with that! My sister's two boys are obsessed aswell, they are always rushing to help OH on bonfire night with the fire (and they never rush to do anything else!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenGirl Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 I agree with that, we have a real wood fire, and whenever I go to light it my OH says 'here, let me' and then proceeds to build a huge thing that never burns whilst singing Firestarter out loud we go through hundreds of matches with his technique, and wood seems to have gone up a lot this year, and we are nearly out of our own supply Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 We are lucky that in our line of work we never run out of wood. We are burning a very nice old conservatory from down by the river that kept flooding out & had to be replaced with uPVC at the moment We get some odd shaped logs,but what the heck, wood is wood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clootie Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Paola, your garden is lovely !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clootie Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Am in a state of delirium agitatums. Is that from the same family as annus horribilis? oops edited - no caps!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted November 1, 2008 Author Share Posted November 1, 2008 my OH says 'here, let me' and then proceeds to build a huge thing that never burns whilst singing Firestarter out loud Him Indoors' song of choice is Burn Baby Burn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paola Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Paola, your garden is lovely !! Thank you Clootie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 OH hasn't had a bonfire for ages, but when he does he's out for ages. Once there were so many branches on there and all the leaves caught and blew up in the air and all over to the front garden where they settled in little black lumps on next door's car. He did wash it off to make amends. Then the BBQ. At SIL's housewarming party (billions of years ago) he put some igniting fuel on there. Then another lad added more - I think quite a few of them squirted the coals. At last someone decided to light it after adding yet more. Consequence was the BBQ almost blew up and this fellow's eyebrows were completely singed off, along with a little bit of his fringe! Howls of laughter from the men, loads of sympathy from the ladies. I agree, when OH has a BBQ why am I always the last to sit down to eat? Then they go before I've finished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 OH hasn't had a bonfire for ages, but when he does he's out for ages. Once there were so many branches on there and all the leaves caught and blew up in the air and all over to the front garden where they settled in little black lumps on next door's car. He did wash it off to make amends. The hubby once had a bonfire so fierce that it MELTED the BT wires going cross the garden & into my house & my 2 neighbours. It was only a few weeks after we had moved in & boy,was I embarassed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Oh no! What happened after that? I hope your neighbours are friendly now! Just taking a time out - the England cricket team are hopeless this evening! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
