An end of the year eBay sale has reminded me that I have to turn my attention to emptying the front room of contents I intend to sell. This year I'll make a push to be more businesslike in how I manage eBay. It can add substantial income each month and in the US you can earn up to $40,000 before you have to declare it as income.

The item that sold was listed forever; now that they don't make you relist every seven or 10 days, things can sit there forever. Or in the case of this one, many months. I just wish the payment system was easier; now they're promoting all sorts of payment options, not just PayPal, and PayPal is the one that works and I'm accustomed to.

Jon, there is a device that I'm thinking about picking up that you might find useful (if it is for sale in the UK) for cold weather use. It's a system that detects freezing weather and keeps faucets from freezing and pipes from breaking. Freeze Miser is a device you screw onto the faucet and turn the tap on (it won't flow under non-freezing temperatures). If it gets cold, this thing starts dripping and keeps the water moving. They aren't cheap, however.

Warm days through Saturday, then I have to be sure my faucets are covered and a few things put in the greenhouse. I'm through with that museum course for now - the instructor retired as of yesterday. I'll do one more tour sometime in January and be certified (and it should be much easier once this woman is gone - the people she doesn't like have much more difficulty in getting certified, hence my doing one last demo tour. I'll finish this and do the volunteer work just to spite her. Normally she ends up facing down the folks she doesn't like and they drop the course. Must have bugged her no end that I didn't.)

Stay safe everyone!