She is a contract employee of ours and we have used her before - but highly likely that we won't be using her again!
On another thread we've been discussing composting toilets and septic systems. My system won't work without electricity so awhile back I bought a bunch of marine batteries and an inverter for my son to hook up a battery back-up system for me. It's the same kind of battery set-up that you could use with a solar system; I just don't have the solar panels. However, you can charge the batteries with a charger and still have them available when the power goes out. I have enough batteries to run my fridge/freezer/fans/lights for a couple days...and maybe longer if we're careful. In a major emergency - even without solar panels I could use the generator to keep the batteries charged. We would use much less gasoline and less wear and tear on the generator too.
Unfortunately, the inverter that we bought was a dud and we're waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the company to send us a mailing label so we can ship back the dud. As soon as they get it back they'll send us a new one.
My plan is to eventually start getting some solar panels and transition over to having that for emergency backup. I don't think I'll ever get totally off grid, but having a system that can supplement what we have and can use when there's an outage would be nice. In a perfect world - I'd at least like to have my water well set up on a back-up system so I would never be without water.
In other news... thankfully, nothing exciting going on with my parents. I need to call them and see what they want to do about Thanksgiving. My plan, which might change after talking to them, would be to cook a simple meal and take to their house on Turkey day. I had thought about bringing them to my house for a day or so, but they're not comfortable away from home. So, DH and I, and possibly his mom (if she comes in to visit with us) would visit with them for a while and then come home. Then - on Friday I'd have another dinner at my house for me, DH, his mom, my son and his wife and whoever else might show up. Nothing is set in stone at this point - so whatever happens will happen.
My poor clumsy DH. He takes a lot of meds and several of them affect his balance. He fell in the mud on Sunday. His boot got stuck so instead of pulling his foot out and stepping into the mud - he just sat down, lol. That one was funny. However, the next day he was leading a goat out of a pen when Gracie ran up behind the goat to "help". That's her job, right? Well, the goat wasn't happy about it, darted in front of DH and he tumbled over her landing on his right side and shoulder. Fairly probable that he broke a couple of ribs again. He is sooooo fragile. He's a big ol' strappin' guy, but he's easily breakable.
When he had his bypass surgery the surgeon even remarked that his sternum was very thin and that he needed to be very careful in his recovery. He's broken ribs three times since I've known him... beginning to wonder that he has some 'condition' that is undiagnosed at this point. Poor guy - life throws him so many challenges.
Speaking of DH and his work woes. He found out that as soon as he 'resigned' from his previous position that the state lifted the suspension against his company and all lawsuits were dropped. That certainly confirmed that he was the sacrificial lamb.
He had a phone interview with a major insurance company yesterday and the job sounds like what he wants to do. And, it's a work from home position. Significant pay cut - but who cares! I'd take a pay cut too if I could work from home! Of course, he hasn't been offered the job yet,
but he did make it to the next round and will have another interview coming up. He also has an interview at a hospital on Friday for the Risk Manager position. Things are rocking and rolling - but still no guarantees so we're not getting complacent.
Goats are goating, chickens are chickening and everything is chugging along. I've got some fall veggies in the ground that look good. Hopefully I can get a few more things planted while I'm OFF ALL NEXT WEEK!!!!!
Praying that there's not a ton of rain - but the forecasters are already predicting some fairly high probabilities. UGH! That might mean I'd have to clean house instead of working outside and who wants to do that? Oh well...
Happy Wednesday ya'll!
