Our lead story this month concerns China, and its ongoing effort to reinvent itself. It may be difficult to believe, but the population giant of the world is experiencing a worker shortage.

It was a good year, not a great year, for patio furniture manufacturers, but no one is complaining.

In early August Hearth & Home faxed a survey to 2,500 specialty retailers of hearth, barbecue and patio products, asking them to compare July 2016 sales to July 2015. The accompanying charts and selected comments are from the 212 useable returns.

We speak of “outdoor living” quite a bit, but seldom do we speak of “outdoor sleeping.”