What a wet couple of weeks!

The seasonal creek in front of the property
and the bridge that PB built.

It's been an eventful couple of weeks, first of all, rainy season, our monsoons have hit full blast, it seems to have come a bit late, but in fact, as it has been pointed out by a good friend just up the road (thanks Robert!), it's normal for the wettest part of rainy season to hit in August. It's just that the last few years have been not so spectacular in the rain department, it's easy to get lulled into a sense of security, forgetting just how much rain changes things. 

There are a few things the rain affects out here, first and (perhaps most important) is the internet. Our internet is, well it's just bad. That has a lot to do with the fact that we are so far from town and in a hard to get to place, line of site doesn't exist because of the mountains. We don't have that many options for internet, I chose to go with the local route, it's slow, expensive and getting someone out to do any kind of repairs when lightening strikes one of the transmission points or anything else happens is near impossible, and our internet has a habit of going down over the weekend, meaning no one in the office at the internet place 2 town over. I also don't have much of a cell connection, I do have a cell booster which helps, but since I'm working from home now, I've burned through the majority of my data allowance for the month and I have over 2 weeks left in the billing cycle, so I'm trying to go easy on that as much as I can.

We do have super high speed internet at our local community center, and it's free, the problem is our second problem that happens during rainy season, the roads. Living in a rural, mountain community with unpaved roads that stay dry most of the year, when we do get major rains, either hard rain or unrelenting rain (sometimes both at the same time), our roads really suffer. They either become very muddy or completely washed out, complete with boulders that get pushed into the roads at the low water crossings, rocks that you can't see under the rushing muddy water, the kind that will tear up your vehicle... it's best to stay home if you can. Our little community FaceBook page is full of people asking if their road is passable, or posting pictures and videos of their roads being washed out. So getting up to the community center where I could use the free highspeed internet is a challenge to impossible.

We do have our own private community road crew that maintains our roads, the county/city does not maintain our roads in any way, they do the best they can to repair the bad spots as they happen, but there is only so much they can do, they are wonderful to have around, I'm very grateful for them.

The other thing that happens during the rainy season, cloud cover, which is not so good for solar power. The photons are not getting through as much and the ones that are getting through are mighty thin... We have 3 separate solar systems, I really like redundancy, we have 2 separate sets of lithium iron batteries with their associated solar panels and all the goodies that go with them, and a third set of old deep cycle FLA golf cart batteries on their own solar system with all the associated goodies, that one is typically used only for the refrigerator (chest freezer to fridge conversion).

Normally if one system gets used more and ends up running out of power, we have the other two to rely on to get us through until the sun shines again. And generally, even with the cloud cover, our solar systems are robust enough to charge fully, usually... but with the excess cloud cover, especially those days with an extra thick layer of clouds, the kind the roll through the valley between the mountain tops, it just isn't bright enough to really tickle the solar panels. So we don't get a really good solid charge. Combine that with the fact that we are having to run a sump pump 24 hours a day for days in a row, the "basement" to the SkyCastle is dug into the mountain side so during the heavy rains, we get water seeping up through the ground, we have to run a sump pump to keep it from becoming flooded under the house and potentially undermining the structure of the SkyCastle itself.

That sump pump has priority over all other things right now, we cannot allow the basement to flood, that means even the fridge and freezer, internet, lights, water pump, any and all other things take a back seat to keeping that pump running. There have been a few nights that we had no power to spare for anything else, PB got up a couple of times during each night to check the pump and plug it to another power system as each one was drained of power.

We've managed to get through this, as we do each year, the sun does come up, the solar systems do charge back up, the clouds and rain eventually do go away, the roads dry up and are repaired, it's all part of the price we pay to get to live where we do. It's not for everyone, but we love it. It's an adventure everyday.

During the worst of our power woes, I had to, HAD TO get online to setup some meetings between my employer and a potential client, the internet had been working (barely) well enough, but the power fully went out on 2 of our systems, the third was dedicated fully to keeping the sump pump going. It was one of the super thick cloud cover days, it was soaking wet, the ground saturated, the road was a mucky slimy mess, 2 of the low water crossings I would have had to drive through were near impassable, I decided to walk. I grabbed my laptop, phone and an umbrella and took off on foot to get to my friend/neighbor/employer's house, essentially a block away, you can see it in this photo that I snapped from my property, the light colored roof is on their property. Fortunately another friend was driving past in a high clearance, 4 wheel drive truck, going the right direction for me, she picked me up and dropped me off where I needed to be, that meant I showed up with less mud on my shoes LOL. I was able to make the necessary connections online to get the meetings setup, it was a very productive day.

That has been what I have been dealing with the last few weeks. I hope your life has been good, in spite of what I just wrote above, I love this and wouldn't change it for anything. Autumn is here, winter is just around the corner, I am loving the direction my life has taken with my new job. I'm still not used to staying home as much as I have been, I do miss the people I used to interact with, but not bad enough to go back to that chapter of my life, it's time to move on and embrace this new chapter.

I have some fun and exciting things to talk about in future posts, looking forward to writing more!

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Cha, cha, change...

Change,  I know it's necessary, but I've never been one to really like it, I tend to like things to stay the same, somewhat predictable, I have a bit of a loyalty streak that runs pretty deep inside of me, so that when I get a job and I like, I tend to stick with it for a long time. I know that is not the way of things today, but it's who I am and what I do. With that being said, I just made a major change in my life, I changed for the better, nothing bad, but still a major change...

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time know I was in merchandising, I did it for 10 years for Best Buy before moving to my off grid life. After moving to west Texas, I worked at a couple of jobs, one was a job at our (very) local country store, it wasn't a regular paying job, I worked for barter, how ever many hours I worked, I could trade that in for food, fuel and the such. I did that for a few years, then I became a paid home healthcare caretaker for a good friend, I did that for about 5 years. Then a friend, the then current pastor's wife asked me to work with her as a merchandiser, I jumped at that chance, I knew that job well, eventually she moved away and I took the job fully, even going to work for multiple merchandising companies.

That had me travelling a lot, I was putting on 300-500 miles a week on my truck, I didn't mind except for the fuel costs, which fortunately for the most part were reasonable, until this year. When gas hit $4 a gallon, I quit going to my farthest store (Van Horn) every week, actually I quit it altogether but since it is near impossible to find someone to cover my store there, I agreed to go monthly, and that turned out to be every other week instead.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, a good friend, who happens to be the COO of one company, and CEO of another, both green technology companies, asked me to take over the duties of personal assistant and admin for him, the lady who had been doing that job was about to have a baby and go on maternity leave, my friend has a very busy schedule and really needs someone to help manage that for him. I heartly agreed, it was becoming well past time to move on from merchandising. I enjoyed the job, but the traveling was becoming tiresome, risky and expensive. I had hoped to give 2 weeks notice, but ended up only being able to give 1 week, that gave me a chance to tie up some loose ends and let my stores know that I wouldn't be servicing them anymore.  I'll miss the actual job and the people.

I have been doing this new job for a week now, the first few days were a bit nerve wracking, I have so much to learn, fortunately my "boss" is understanding, I was given some homework to get to know the job and the people involved in the various associated companies. Unfortunately about that same time, my internet started having troubles, it's our rainy season and we have been having lots of storms with the accompanying heavy rains, wind and lightening. It has been really messing with our local internet, I just spent the weekend without internet, I've been using my cell phone with a cell phone booster, it makes it possible for me to do limited internet things, checking email, setting up online meetings and the such. But since I only have a 15 GB data plan service, I need to be careful not to burn through all of my data.

The internet went out late in the evening Friday, and just got turned back on late in the day Monday. I'm thankful it's back on, but honestly I'm seriously considering jumping over to StarLink (anyone using that? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think about it so far), as soon as I have the funds, I'm going to sign up for them. I really hate leaving our local provider, I have been a very vocal advocate for them since day one. With the prices they charge, and the slow internet they provide (I'm on the 6 MB - yes that's megabyte!) tier, for just a little more each month, I can get much MUCH faster speeds and no worries about interruptions if the local power goes out for whatever reason.

Back to my job situation, the last week I worked for the merchandising companies, I thought I'd be much more sad about leaving, but as each day passed, I felt freer and freer, it felt like weights were dropping off of me. The last store I worked in with my work partner, it was a major mess, it was a very difficult medicine reset, about an hour into the job, the lights went out in the store, they stayed out for a couple of hours, we ended up working by flashlights, we couldn't leave the job partially done because I wasn't going to be coming back, we had to get the job completed before we left. The lights finally came back on, and we finished the job, I was happy to be done with that and out of the store. 

It's been really nice to be able to stay home and work, I miss the people I used to see every week, the store employees and the regular customers, I'll also miss the deals I would get from time to time, being in the right place at the right time...

This is also good timing, with our heavy rains, there would have been days where I couldn't get out of my neighborhood, and worse than that, there would have been days I could get out, but wouldn't have been able to get back in due to flooding and muddy road conditions. This has just been a blessing all the way around. Oh and I can't believe how much money I'm saving on fuel, it was costing me $50-$100 a week and it wasn't getting any cheaper no matter where I bought gas, and that wasn't even filling up my truck completely! How are fuel prices where you live? 

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

The calm before the storm

This week is literally the calm before the storm... It's about to be rainy season, something that officially begins late June-early July, but overnight we have been having the promise of rain, I've heard a few sprinkles and seen some lightening flashes, it's supposed to rain later today and I think it's actually going to happen. We really REALLY need this rain, I'm hoping it's just a nice rain and not a gully washer. I do have to go to work in a few hours, it's going to be a long day, I plan on working 2, possibly 3 stores today. The reason I'm working so many stores (typically I spend one day a week in one store) is because of what I have going on the rest of the week...

I have a funeral to attend mid-week, a good friend, someone we have known and loved since moving to our community in 2007. As the music director of my church, I'm involved in the music part of the service, I sat down yesterday after church with the pastor's wife and the family of the deceased to work out the order of service and what songs they want. That was when I realized that I needed to seriously cut my work week short. Fortunately I am able to do that, I have a fairly light week anyhow, I just need to have my boss move one big job to next week, it's no big deal.

The following day (Thursday) we have family coming out for a visit, I'll remain vague about who it is until after they go home. It's going to be an exciting visit though, it's basically going to be a long weekend with them going home on Monday,

My house is getting full, the little SkyCastle, PB's brother has purchased the property to the west of us, he is working on getting his place setup for him to live there. And just recently, PB's grown son moved out here, he is in the process of buying a property out here as well, it's a little farther away but still in the neighborhood. He is converting a cargo trailer into a tiny house, he's been staying in that at the bottom of our property until his property closes. I am so happy to be getting more and more of our family moving out here, I enjoy having them closeby. 

I hope your week is going well, I must get ready for work now, have a blessed week!

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

One More Radiator

I had an "encounter" about 3 years ago with an elk cow while driving my truck at about 50mph. Fortunately the damage was not severe and I was able to drive home. It did rearrange some of the front end of my truck, my air conditioner condenser was ruined and it pushed my radiator about 4 inches back toward the engine.

My original radiator wasn't damaged to the point where it wouldn't work, PB did some work to corral the things up in front that were no longer properly attached where they should be. The repair lasted quite a while, then last January my radiator finally sprung a leak and had to be replaced.

Now, fast forward to this week, Tuesday to be exact, I was heading to work, I stopped by the mailboxes by the main highway, it's a near 6 mile drive to get that far. I saw a friend there, I hopped out to speak to her and check my mail. About 10 minutes later, as I was about to get back into my truck, I noticed green fluid dripping from under the front end.

That meant only one thing, I wasn't going to work that day. I pulled a U-turn and went straight back to the SkyCastle to get PB. The leak wasn't major so I didn't lose too much fluid, but I definitely wasn't going to be driving around west Texas, especially in the heat we are having right now.

I couple of phone calls later, I had another radiator lined up 2 towns over and scored a ride with a friend to go pick up the parts. I will admit that it was nice to be riding in big truck with air conditioning! Some day I'll fix mine, but for now, I'm just not willing to part with the $$$.

I spent the rest of the day watching about half of my neighborhood working on my truck, it truly was a group effort! I greatly appreciate my neighbors/friends, they really come together when it's time to help. The photo shows 3 of the 4 men who worked to get my new radiator installed.

It was Darryl, Dale and PB, Rex showed up later, everyone had a part in working on the truck (Thanks everyone!!!!). The reason the first and second radiator failed was because of the frame that holds the radiator secure had broken at the bottom (from the original damage caused by the elk), it allowed the radiator(s) to move and rubbed a hole in the bottom. A bit of reconstructive surgery on that part and I don't expect my radiator will move like that again.

It was imperative that my truck be running by the end of the day, I had a "date" with my glasses boss the following morning at 8:30 in the next town over. We had some work to do in a couple of stores and he was coming from Lubbock, I couldn't bow out of it.

Fortunately, I was able to get on the road the following day with nary a drip, the gauge read in the perfect range (it's the upper gauge)

I feel very blessed to have a great hubby (PB) and great friends. I did have to rearrange my jobs for the week, but got everything done with no problems. Now it's time to enjoy the weekend.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Memorial Day, family and heat!

Holy moly it's hot! OK, I really can't complain, much, our summer is honestly pretty mild, and the heat doesn't last that long, about a month to month and a half, then the rainy season hits and just like that, summer is over. And it's "dry" heat, being in the desert, there isn't much humidity which makes the heat we get much more bearable... And the fact that it almost always cools off at night is a plus. In fact, it often gets cold at night, so I am able to sleep well.

One of the ways I escape the heat is to go under the SkyCastle, being partially buried underground, it's cave like properties means it's cool during the heat of the day, I can't wait for that space to be finished so we can spend more time down there.

I had a visit from my daughter, her husband and 2 of my grands over the weekend, it was nice, though I wish it had been a bit cooler during the day. We didn't do a lot, mostly just visited. They live less than 2 hours away so it's not difficult for them to come out here. We had a BBQ on Saturday evening and we all went to church on Sunday.

Another fun thing we did was we went scorpion hunting. I have several UV LED (blacklight) flashlights, the scorpions light up like a kid's cheap glow in the dark toy. My daughter and I found 3 scorpions near the SkyCastle then later all of us found a couple more of them at the neighbor's house.

I spent Monday recooperating from the visit, I enjoyed it, but I also need my quiet time. I am about to go to sleep, I have a rather lite week at work this week, a nice change from the insane schedules of reset season. Next week picks back up again.

I hope everyone had a thoughtful and enjoyable Memorial Day. I am ready to get back into my semi-regular routine 😊


All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Updates and random pictures...

This week has been a very light week, my work partner and I got all of our work done on Monday, for the entire week! So this week has been almost a vacation...

A couple of weeks ago, PB's brother and friend came in for a visit, a bit of a surprise visit, that's fine though, they are fairly low maintenance guests and they helped PB around the sky castle, they even got in on some bridge building.

I made my monthly pilgrimage out to the big city (3 hours away) on Tuesday but didn't do much shopping this time, I just picked up some staples, a 25 lb bag of sugar and 4 big creamers from Sam's, I tried to find some black polo shirts at WalMart, but they had every color BUT black, so I'll order them from Amazon, I found Dickies black polo's for around $10, so I'll snag a few of them. I wear these to work, the companies want us to blend in with the employees there, which is somewhat confusing to the customers.... oh and I have learned a few Spanish phrases for when I'm on the border, there are many non-English speaking customers, I know how to say "I don't understand Spanish", I decided I needed to know how to say "I don't work here", so I got on Google and found the phrase, including the pronunciation "No trabajo aquí" or more properly "Yo no trabajo aquí". I haven't had a chance to try out my Spanish on anyone there yet, I'm sure I'm butchering the pronunciation, but it will get the job done, or at the very least, allow me to get my job done :)

One of the things I got done this week while work was slow, I took Casper (Raggmopp) to the vet to get a check up and get his shots, I am mainly concerned about rabies with him, he is allowed to roam around, he doesn't go far and he is very well behaved, he mainly goes to visit the neighbors, but while outside of the fence, he is exposed to more risks than Zoe is, so he got his vet visit first.

He was very VERY well behaved, it was my first time taking him anywhere, I had never put a collar or leash on him, he seemed to enjoy the whole thing, he stood very still for me while I leashed him up, he acted almost proud that he was getting leashed up and taking a trip. At the vet, he did very well for his exam and shots. I now know he isn't a problem for car trips.

Here is a random shot of the small gate, it is painted red and looks quite interesting, especially in the semi-wet of a late summer/early autumn shower.

Here is some history, this plant is garlic chives, I originally planted this when I was a pre-teen in my dad's backyard, the seeds you see here are the direct descendents of that original plant, I dug it up before moving away and have kept it alive and thriving every since, I may be incorrect in calling it descendents, it is actually part of the original plant I grew, dug up, divided and brought with me.

Here is another shot of the sky castle.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Updates on life....

Well, here I sit, trying to put on my best sad face because I haven't been here in a while, but I'm in such a good mood that my sad face just will not appear :)

A volcanic plug just around the corner from us :)

It's the tail end of our rainy season, and this year we actually HAD a rainy season, in fact there were times it was a bit much, not that I am complaining though, we NEEDED it and it was good to have it. The only problem I have is when it's raining so much, it makes the unpaved roads a little difficult (sometimes impossible) to navigate, I got stuck on the main ranch road coming in, fortunately I was able to get myself moving again, it was good experience, and if I had been truly stuck, someone would have picked me up and brought me in.

Well I have some good news, I've been working working working, I am no longer a caretaker, I did that for 5 years for my friend, it was time for both of us to take a break from that, we are still good friends though, I chat with her most days and am still available if she needs me for something.

You can just make out the sky castle in the lower left....

My new job is merchandising, something I did for 10 years at Best Buy, I loved doing it and missed it very much, but never thought I'd get to go back into that field again, then a friend who lives nearby (CS) asked me if I wanted to ride along with her and help her do some jobs, I jumped at the idea. Next thing I know, I'm filling out an online application to work for a major merchandising company.

We drive all over west Texas servicing all the dollar stores, Alco, WalMart, we have even gone into a few of the bigger truck stop fuel stations to set up displays. I've never been one to like traveling, but this is quite pleasant, I get to see the sun come up, and often get to see it go down. We work long days, and we work hard, but having a great teammate to work with is such a pleasure, we work great together.

Same view as above, but not so close, can you see the sky castle?

Mostly what we do is move merchandise around, reset displays and shelves, we are given a set of instructions (planograms), along with price strips, peg labels, and other materials, sometimes it's as easy as just changing out a couple of shelf strips, other times it's as involved as removing everything from a section (or two, or more), changing out the shelves, placing new price strips (or peg labels) then stocking the shelves with the product. We have "regular" weekly and biweekly jobs that are the same each time, stocking-straightening-counting inventory, when we are done with a job, we take a picture of two and that gets sent in to the company along with a report.

I have been slowly putting together my "kit", my working gear, the first thing I purchased was a set of knee pads, I crawl on the floor-a lot, these are concrete floors and not forgiving to knees. Today I purchased a bag to carry my tools and such, it's really a baby-bag, but it works just fine for what I need.

In the beginning CS and I were working 12+ hour days trying to catch up on the backlog of work that had been leftover, jobs that hadn't been done and needed to get done. That was hard, but even harder on CS's hubby and mine, leaving at 6am and not getting home until 7-11pm, fortunately I think those long days are behind us now. I expect to be busy through Christmas, then it should ease off but we will still have lots of work to do. We turn down work on a regular basis, work that would require us to be gone for a few days at a time, for now it's not something either of us wants to do, but it may be something to consider in the future.

I'll leave off for now, I need to go to bed so I can get up early in the morning for another day, one last thing, I thank the Lord above for dropping this job into my lap when I needed it, it was time to move on from the caretaker job, this merchandising job came around at the perfect time, I am truly blessed. :)

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Summer Days Before The Monsoon Season

Summer is in full swing, the garden is growing, the sky castle is growing, well sort of growing, it's being improved anyhow. PB has been working on the roof of the extra room on the end of the west deck. I like saying "west deck" because I hope to someday have other decks around the sky castle. It's been so blasted hot that PB only works in the mornings and the evenings. We are supposed to be getting some rain this weekend, though they keep pushing it back, we had 50% chance of rain on Saturday, now it's a 30% on Sunday, I just want it to RAIN!

I've been busier than ever, I am still a caretaker for a friend out here, I go to her house 3x a week and do whatever needs to be done, that usually means cooking, cleaning and such. I'm also driving another lady into town once a week, sometimes more often. She is losing her eyesight and isn't comfortable driving anymore, so I get to go into town at least once a week and do whatever shopping I need to do, we tend to go to the same places so it works out great for both of us, I help her with her shopping too. I bought some brightly colored t-shirts, hot pink, red, orange, safety yellow and purple, I wear one when I'm out with her so that when we are in the stores, she can spot me easily, she has some eyesight, and can still see color quite nicely, I don't have to stick to her like glue, this way she knows when I'm next to her and when I'm at the other end of the aisle.

Back at the sky castle, we hung up a second hummingbird feeder, and the hummers are quite happy about it, just having one means the most dominant hummer gets most of the food, now more of the hummers can get some, though they still fight over it. Right now it's not so bad, but when the Rufus hummer shows up, they are very aggressive and will not share at all, with the second feeder, this will give everyone a chance to feed, unless a second Rufus shows up...

Our west deck is nicely illuminated now, when my Dad came out to visit, he arrived bearing gifts (my Dad is the best!), one of those gifts was a package of those solar lights, this was meant to go on the trail between our house and our neighbor's house. PB had other ideas, he placed them outside around the deck, including the steps he made for the deck, the lights are subtle, they don't make so much light as to attract a myriad of night bugs, but they make a soft light so that you can walk outside on the deck at night and not fear tripping over something or taking a misstep on the steps. PB's Mom also sent a package to us, one of the items on this package was a solar light, this one is shaped like a decorative lantern, the light is green and is quite pretty. We placed it where we can see it from inside the sky castle, PB's Mom is also the best!

I received a printer last week, it's something I have wanted and somewhat needed since we moved here, it would seem that my old all in one printer/scanner/copier died a couple of weeks before moving out here, I had already quit working at Best Buy (bummer), money was real tight and I couldn't justify spending any money on another one when it wasn't a complete necessity. I was able to buy this with my Amazon.com credits from the clicks and sales from this site and the other sites where I write, thanks to everyone who made their purchases through my links, those pennies really do add up!

Here is the printer I purchased, it's a Canon PIXMA MG5220 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One (4502B017), I wanted an all in one printer, I was very interested in the scanner part, since I do a lot of crochet now, it's much easier to scan the pattern (from a magazine or book) and take that with me, or printing off songs (lyrics) so I can use it at my music keyboard, I'm getting better and better at playing BTW, at church this Sunday a couple of people told me I was sounding very good.

Back to the printer, before I ordered it, I was concerned about it working on my off grid system, I knew that a laser printer would not work on a modified sine wave inverter, but I wasn't sure about this particular printer, I was mainly worried about the scanner part not working. I emailed Canon and asked them about it, apparently they don't get questions like that, they couldn't give me an answer, finally they just said "try it and see".  I even considered getting a battery backup (UPS) but then I remembered that even with those, they say not to hook up a printer on the battery side, so that wouldn't work either.

I am happy to state that it does work very well on my system, wow have printers changed in 3 years! It took about an hour to hook it up and get it running, it was mainly the software/driver side that took so long, but I was patient and followed all of the steps. I chose not to use one of the features on this one, it has a wireless printing feature, I can always access that later if I want, but for my needs, I just don't need it, but I'm glad it's available.

I'm being very frugal with it, I only ordered one package of paper, it also had free shipping so it didn't run my total bill up at all. I haven't gone crazy with printing and such, I want to save as much of the ink and paper as possible, even though this printer has separate ink tanks for each color, I still don't want to have to shell out more $$$ for more any time soon.

I have more to write, but I'll save it for another post. Oh, almost forgot to report, I have another book to review, I just received it, it looks very promising, more to come later! You can see my other book reviews here CLICK FOR BOOK REVIEWS, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm now offering ad space on this blog, the prices are very reasonable, I also limit the number of ads so your ad will not be lost in a sea of ads. Be sure to visit my newest advertiser, http://www.shedandshelter.com/, there's lots of great resources there about different ways to make/build/purchase conventional and unconventional homes, many are very inexpensive and ingenious.



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Wretha,

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