Hello Everyone, Mike, Im so sorry to see all of the damage to your beautiful trees. Im sure it was awful feeling like you had no control of the amount of snow building up on the trees and hearing all of the limbs breaking. That is a awful thing to hear... Last winter DH and I were outside knocking off the snow from the fronds of our palms. The heavy amounta of snow plays havoc onthe trees that still have leaves on them. Like someone else said, mother nature knows what she is doing when she sheds the leaves, this time the timing was off just a bit. Thinking of you and all of the others up north who are still without power. I hope that the other Electric companies are all coming to the rescue to help you all get the lines and power back on real soon. Take care Mike, Hi to SISSY!!! Laura in VB

Hey all, Thanks for thinking of me. Me and DH are fine but our town did get damage. Channel 5 news cast was out here taking pictures so it might be on the news this evening. Our ballpark was wiped out and they will have to rebuild it, the bridge that goes across the creek was up lifted, they were trying to repair the bridge but I don't think they're doing a good job of it. They're only taking a big backhoe thing and trying to get the cement road to go back down? I'm not willing to drive on it till it's fixed right. Some of the neighbors around have water damage to the inside of their homes. Anyone that's looking to buy a home remember to never get a home that sits lower than other homes. Our house sits up on a small hill but the homes below get all our run off and it's not good. It is very sad about the little girl, I saw it on the news this morning that she was swept out of her mothers arms. I'm sure she needs prayers to cope with the loss of her baby. Nothing else in the world can be worse than losing a loved one. Barb

Very good information, chas045. Thanks. I have always suggested everyone to get a generator. Weather problems will be with us for the next century. You need to power up your heating system in the winter. Pipes bursting in the winter can cost you thousands. You need to run your water pump if you have a well. You need to keep your refrigerator going. It's good to have lights, computer, phones and internet. I am not advocating this, because it is illegal. Back-feeding with a generator is the cheapest way to go to power up half of your house. However, I always find it difficult to understand with the main technical reason that back-feeding can kill a lineman. A professional lineman takes all kinds of precaution when he is working. If you don't turnoff your main breaker, you simply cannot start your generator. Your generator will be attempting to power up your entire neighborhood and all the street lights. Repeat: Don't do it, just use a heavy duty extension cord. It is not that painful to use an extension cord for a few days. A 1,000 watt generator is about $200. How big a generator do you need? Incandescent light about 100 watts CFL light, 25 watts Computer about 100 watts Phone charger, 1 watt Small electric fan, 50 watts Microwave, 600 to 1,250 watts Toaster oven, about 1,800 watts Refrigerator, Freezer, depending on size, from 800 watts Attic fan, 350 watts Forced air heating system fan, 500 watts Refrigerator, 20 cf, 800 watts TV, 250 watts Air conditioner, about 1 watt/BTU rating Hair dryer, up to 1,850 watts Electric oven, forget about it. Takes too much power. Electric water heater, 2,500 watts to 4,500 watts. Three other important things to keep in mind, besides capacity of a generator. 1. full-load running time 2. Noise level - quiet generators are more expensive. But you don't want your neighbors complaining. 60 dbs is very quiet. You will get lots of complains at about 80 dbs. 3. weight - A good 2,000 watt generator can be light enough to go camping with, others can be very heavy to transport. dcarch

Your pine tree will likely survive, but its appearance will be affected. If it were a spruce, it would correct its shape in 10 to 15 years. Lightening took the top 10 ft out of one my spruce trees. For the next 5 years, it developed a ring of linbs at the very top and made a nesting platform for owls. An then, one year, one of the limbs in the top tier began to turn upward and after 2 years was pointing straight up. It became the main trunk and 10 years after the hit, the tree appears normal to the casual observer, but one who is practiced in reading tree growth can make a good guess about prior damage. But for landscaping purposes, it has made the repair and needed 10 to 12 years to do it.