Late Autumn Days

Hello, friends.  I'm so thankful for the rain we received, which filled our tanks.  J worked out of town most of last week.  I hoped to get lots done, and worked on soapmaking and wrapping, cleaning the layer of sheetrock dust on everything in the studio (whew, was that a job!), and canning tomato sauce.  The tomato skins and bits remaining were dehydrated.  While he was gone, I cooked up some of our frozen okra, which he can no longer eat.  I harvested chard, and enjoyed having that.  For an online purchase, I went through Swagbucks for 8% back, with an additional 20% coupon code.  Joseph worked on finishing the interior of the sewing room when he got back.  He got the walls primed and painted, caulked nail holes, and put up trim molding.  

The solar saga is ongoing.  J decided to purchase another board for the inverter, to have as a backup, due to their unreliability so far.  The company promised to send a new board a couple of weeks ago, as part of their warranty agreement, but they've yet to send any shipping info.  The one Joseph bought arrived, we changed it out, and it worked....For.One.Hour.  He's done a huge amount of electrical work in various positions he's held over the years, and thinks it's likely an issue with sensors not communicating properly.  On a somewhat positive note, he did purchase a (much more expensive) U.S. made inverter, which we hope will arrive next week.  We're not sure what, if any, recourse we have with the company in China.  The inverter worked 8 months out of a 2 year warranty, with several outages before that that required resets.  With the multiple boards he's already changed out that didn't work, it's obvious it's not anything we can count on.  May the USA made one be all we hope for, or even better.  

I was blessed to have a customer purchase multiples of my Garden sets for gifts, and worked on wrapping the soap for them over the weekend.  I noticed gas had fallen to $2.99 while out, so I stopped and filled up.  While at the grocery store, I found one marked down raw honey.  Other than that, there was nothing I needed on sale, so I got the usual produce and a handful of other things.  I go through a fair amount of honey, having it every day in my lemon water, and using it in my salad dressing, so I'm always thankful to find some at a good price.  Saturday was drizzly, and I decided it was a good day to drink tea and write Christmas cards.  It's only a little over two weeks before winter begins, and the days begin growing longer again.  That's a day I always cherish.  I have some fun things to look forward to in the coming week, spending time with people I love.  May your week be filled with blessings of the season.