I know Met forecasts are notoriously inaccurate, but there does seem to be a general feeling that we're in for a harder winter than last year, which was bad enough.
What do you do to prepare for the worst?
I just found myself looking at snow plough blades for our tractor, then coughed and spluttered at the price. We have had very deep snow here on occasion and it can be hard going but in reality we could use a front loader or back bucket just as easily for zero cost
For us the feed store is a 25 mile round trip so not bad, but if the roads are blocked then it's impossible, so we keep a full bin of both sheep feed and poultry food. Our hay shed is stocked up, we have straw. When it's cold our livestock water comes from the house, so we have to keep the pipes thawed - we're just about to check the rats haven't chewed through the water pipe insulation again.
We also need to stock up on fuel for machinery and generators (we get a lot of power cuts) and make sure the central heating kerosene tank is full. We have our wood supplies in although they are stored a bit of a trek from the house, so perhaps we should move some down to be more accessible.
Inside the house, I usually have plenty of stores anyway, so I just need UHT milk, bread flour for a couple of weeks (? three weeks?) or I could put a few loaves in the freezer, and make sure there are plenty of gas cyclinders for the camping cooker. In the last freeze, it was fresh milk we ran out of first, but neighbours had plenty in their freezer, which they shared
Then there's medicines - we both have loads of those so we never let them run too low in winter. Good old NHS.
What does everyone else do to prepare, or are you close enough to shops that you won't run short of anything? Or do you just ignore the fact that
winter is coming?