I have only seen one solar water heater, used for horses. It worked OK. Downsides were it did not hold a lot of water, like 20 gallons. Good for one horse, not for multiples. It has a floating ball cover, which got frozen when horse dripped on it. Some vegtable oil is supposed to help prevent the freezing problem. It also was pretty expensive for a plastic unit. The person who owned it, was satisfied, only had one horse. Another idea to consider would be a propane water tank heater. Also rather expensive, but appears to be a well thought out idea in several designs. Do a search for sellers. Lots of cattle and sheep owners who pasture animals where there is no electric available. Those who owned them were pretty happy with the heaters. You could resell it when you didn't need it anymore, probably get most of your money back. Not sure how fast heaters go thru fuel. The livestock owners did protect the fuel tank and heater unit, so animals could not reach or rub against it. Cows are so ready to break things rubbing on them, that good protection would be important!! We insulate our tanks inside wooden boxes. This does hold in the heat, keeps water from freezing quickly. We have electric heaters, so it saves us money not running heaters all the time.

I guess the fan motor is as good as any to discuss the problem. The one on my car is the original one from Dodge and has lasted 19 years and 220,000 miles. I buy my cars new and keep them until they die. This one is a 1990 Dodge caravan where all the seats except the front 2 have been removed making it ideal for transporting orchids to shows and meetings. To get a replacement from the Dodge dealer is $160, just for the stupid little motor. The car parts dealers have fan motors for about $25 to $35 but not my particular one which is a 'Dealer only' item what ever the H--- that means. It means officially sanctioned rip-off. By fixing mine they saved me way over $100. If I could get a Chinese one for $20 like you Arthurm, I would, for my car that just did not work out. My main complaint is about the radiator which was declared 'non-repairable' because it has a plastic top part. New radiators (probably made in China) were pushed on me for $100 to $150 plus $70 plus for labor. The fix it guys solved everything for $90 out the door by FIXING the existing parts. That's what I would like to see more of. A much more egrarious example was a repair I had on a Mercedes 500 SEL, about 10 years old. That car has since died and is in Mercedes heaven (Junk yard). About 10 years ago it failed smog and was declared to need a new catalytic converter. The big V8 has 2 exhaust pipes, connected in 2 places which each have 3 chambers for the exhaust treatment. From the engine backwards it starts with a pre-muffler, then the muffler and last the catalytic converter. That's a total of 6 units, one of which needed to be replaced. I went to the Mercedes dealer and asked for the needed part. They told me that the entire exhaust system is sold as one unit, both pipes with their 6 chambers for $1,800 plus about $500 for labor! Again off to Alameda street where with a hack saw they cut off the catalytic converter and welded an after market unit in place for a total cost of $120. Now it was no longer a Mercedes parts only car but who cares, it passed smog and my wallet did not take a major hit. I just simply won't stand for the kind of rip off the car dealers consider 'normal business practice'. Nick

Wow, what a lot of really great ideas for me . . .and for all of us here. Thank you!!! I'm following a lot of it and have lost 12 pounds so far. Mainly by cutting out most carbs and white sugar,and as Kelly suggested, doing interval training. I'm also keeping bags of fresh, pre washed baby carrots, baby bell peppers and green beans to munch on when I get hungry. Last night we grilled out burgers and I had mine without the bun. It's getting easier to eat like this and I'm finding the cravings for sweets and cheese are becoming less with each day . . . thankfully! As I mentioned in an earlier post here, I wasn't vastly overweight, just at the tops of what my weight should be for my height and age. Now I'm 12 pounds lighter and my clothes fit so much better! I'd still like to drop another 8 pounds. We fly out this Thursday morning to Palm Beach and then on to the Tampa area 4 days later. I've already eaten dinner and lunches out several times since I started this weight loss drive and have found it pretty easy to eat out healthfully . . . as long as it's in a regular and not a fast food restaurant. Salads with grilled meats, nuts, etc. are my go-to's, with a lite salad dressing on the side; hold the croutons and bread sides (LOL). But, as always, I have to be so careful that "lite" doesn't contain any artificial sweeteners, as I'm extremely allergic to them, especially aspertame/aspartame. So many thanks for all the great, helpful ideas. I'll continue to read them, although I'm not sure if I'm taking my laptop with me to Florida yet. Lynn

Thank you all so much for the input. I really like the thought of artisan-created pieces so I think what I will do is delay purchasing any serving dishes until we go out to Santa Fe this fall. I have a feeling I'm going to find tons of things I want to bring home with me (although this is a hiking holiday, not a shopping trip), but this will give me something definite to hone in on and if I don't find anything, I can always continue the search back home.