Thank you Ken for the welcome! The pines in our area seem to still be up along with a number of the spruces, but the spruces were the ones we saw down. I was recently talking with someone who said that his spruces were still standing, but his tall pines broke off rather than being uprooted. He indicated it was all due to watering, hence the reason I started questioning not using spruces as a wind break. Genetics makes sense though, so I better go with what I see still standing. Dax, thank you for your help. We are in zone 5, and our elevation is 4,300. I'm not very good yet with tree names; however, some of our neighbors have planted fruit trees that are doing well and aspens. There are some Austrian pines, but I am hoping to plant something a little shorter. As far as standing water...we get standing water in the lowest part of our yard from the run off of our neighbors as well as our own. We just installed a sump pump along with some grass to alleviate the problem. Prior to this we would get a little "pond" in our yard for a few days to a week depending on how wet the spring was. The trees though are going to be planted on a ridge above the low part of our yard (about 6-7 feet up--attached is a picture). The problem is we get a nice wind tunnel that seems to affect certain homes in our neighborhood and not others. This is the second year in a row part of our shingles have blown off. We live right between Ogden, UT and Salt Lake City, UT, and we are right next to the Great Salt Lake. We live in an area that used to be farmed--not sure what kind of crops, but the soil seems to be mostly a mix of clay/sand. We've mixed in a lot of top soil and utelite though. Thank you again for all of your help! Megan

our river and lakes are low you can send some this way to canada Quebec nice pictures Anna

I purchased 2 high arc faucets for our 10" deep sinks (undermounted) 3 1/2 years ago based on functionality---it had nothing to do with aesthetics since I didn't particularly care for the look (although, because they ARE so great, I've come around to loving the look.) I would never go back to a low profile faucet again. Splash: When my faucet is in stream mode, there is less force and no more splash than any other faucet (even with items held close to the faucet.) When in spray mode there is more force and more splash but that is what sprayers are designed for. I love being able have both hands free while the water is in spray mode while I scrub veggies or pare them. I tend to squirt myself when using a separate hand held sprayer a lot more often since it has to be handled constantly rather than being fixed. Could the same model faucet have different splash factors in different houses based on the water pressure or is the differences in water pressure negated by flow restrictors within the faucet? Reading over the above responses, it seems that complaints about splash has nothing to do with the distance the water is falling but more to do with people holding things up out of the sink (where the splash can be contained.) I get wet arms once in a while. But I did with my old low profile 1960's or 70's Delta faucet too. I'll reach under a stream of water when I'm not thinking. I get a wet shirt when I do dishes but I did with the old faucet also. It has nothing to do with the faucet. It's because I get the strip of counter in front of the sink wet when I'm handling wet dishes and then I lean into that strip. I hated manipulating my large pots around my old faucet. The low faucet also made bathing my babies in the sink difficult--once in a while they got jabbed by it. So for me, the high arc faucet design makes a lot of sense. Too late for baby bathing though since my kids are now teens. And don't forget, if a faucet is making your life miserable, it's a relatively inexpensive and easy thing to change out. I realize every dollar counts and none of us want to create unnecessary waste, but you don't have to be stuck with it forever. Chances are you will love the high arc faucet when you have it (I'm assuming it has a pull down feature?)

Alisand...what a wonderful photo! Can you tell me what camera and lens you used. It's perfect! The house wrens' natural instinct is to protect their food sources, their young, and their territory from other birds. That's why they search out and destroy any eggs they can find within a certain area. It's just the way they're programmed. They're not big enough to "fight" for territory and chase off competitors. The Carolina wrens do not have this habit. I agree with you; house wrens make perfect porch companions. I had them nesting in my front yard, next to my "reading tree" last season. I'm trying to determine just how big one nesting pairs' territory is, so I'll know where to let them nest next season. I've been juggling tree swallows, chickadees, robins, nuthatches, and, of course, my beloved Purple Martins all season long. Now if I could only get Blue Birds in the mix I'd be in Heaven. I do love the little wrens; they're the comics of the yard (at least not when they're not being the axe murderers.) Still, I try to bother them just enough that they move across the street. This year they won the battle for my side yard. As always, I gave in graciously, and "legally."