My goodness, Âbug! Is it unusual for your first snow to be so early? At least it the good kind and should be gone for the weekend. Every single one of your pictures are just beautiful; I can visualize them as calendar photos! Lucky you(and us!)Âthe farm is loaded with photo ops throughout the seasons, isnÂt it? I do hope you enjoy cold walks with the camera because IÂm looking forward to your winter scenes PhoebeÂs snowy snout is so cute and with her black coat she is very photogenic against the snow, not that she cares a hoot! SheÂll probably run like the wind when the vet gives her the OK. Back to the privet hedge which I will finish today. So glad I came in for a quick break, thanks for sharing! Have to catch up on #460 reading when I have more time :-)

you said: I had to start a new thread because my message was rejected when I tried to add to the original thread. I forgot the most important thing, adjusting the tree to Pa. I have it on the porch, wrapped with bubble wrap ( leaves , branches)and close to brick house, I am afraid it will get less attention in the barn. The porch has a roof and awning and being brick may help a couple degrees, it's between some furniture to slow winds. Ken or anyone else chime in. I want it to be cold but not to shock it. ====>>>> again.. i have no experience with this particular oak .... nor zone pushing oaks.. etc ... OK??? ===>>>> now to repeat.. you said: I have it on the porch, wrapped with bubble wrap ( leaves , branches)and close to brick house, I am afraid it will get less attention in the barn. ++>>>> it is my GUESS.. that everything is wrong with that statement ... starting from the end .... and yelling... WHAT ATTENTION DOES A DORMANT TREE NEED??? zip.. zero.. nada ... zilch ... put it in the barn.. with a little snow or ice cube.. and walk away ... bubblewrap ... WHY???? ... my fear isnt a few degrees of cold.. its that day it zooms up.. and the bubble wrap keeps it too hot.. all night long .... and.. TREES NEED AIR.. not plastic .... if its incredible loose ... maybe.. but IN THE BARN.. i probably wont need it .... YOU HAVE TO INSURE IT STAYS DORMANT.. and the wrap can screw that up .... [carp.. its evergreen isnt it???? .... man this is stumping me ... and i am admitting that.. so you dont take everything i say as gospel ... no attached garage huh????] i have one truism in the garden.. we kill more things with too much love.. than with benign neglect.. but for water ... you are going to love this thing to death ... try to avoid that .... i have to ruminate on this further .... ken

Josh, This is from another site. I had always been just a bit skeptical of the fact that snow contains nitrogen. My research when I was first asked this question back in the late '70s -- which I don't need to remind you was pre-Internet and Google -- failed to turn up any reliable data confirming what I considered to be just another gardening wives' tale. Well, it turns out not only snow, but rain as well, contains nitrogen compounds that were suspended in air as they formed. It is estimated that 2 to 12 pounds of nitrogen are deposited per acre as a result of snow and rain. Most of this nitrogen comes from emissions as a result of burning fossil fuels and industrial manufacturing. The rest comes from lightning fixing atmospheric nitrogen, which makes up 70 percent of air, as I recall. In fact, it seems the amount of nitrogen in snow and rain has increased dramatically since industrialization and the advent of the automobile. One study I read indicated that by the 1980s the amount of nitrogen deposited in the Colorado Front Range was 30 times greater than it was before the Industrial Revolution. Another study says that this number has since doubled. Granted, to a chemical gardener, 2 to 12 pounds per acre is not that much nitrogen when one considers the suggested rate of application is 3 to 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet. (An acre has 43,560 square feet). But in more and more areas, particularly along rivers and in watersheds, the nitrogen from rain and snow, particularly when snow melts in the spring, has been enough to cause serious changes in the ecosystem. Add to this studies that show an increase in nitrogen mineralization -- uptake by microbes a la soil food web -- in tundra areas when there is snow cover and it becomes clear that snow falling in your yard can be counted for something, especially if you have not damaged your soil's microbes with harsh chemical fertilizers. No wonder the old wives' tales called snow "the poor farmer's fertilizer." Here is a link that might be useful: Poor Farmer's Fertilizer

Old step-uncle, having had three hip operations (same hip, I think) resulting in bad back, hip and leg, had been a beef farmer and, without offspring through two wives, had no need for money ... but had cattle in the barn in his mid-80s. We suggested that he should get rid of them, he said that he'd got rid of most of them, and our reply was that he still had to visit the barn daily, rain/snow of shine, whether he had 2 or 35. When his wife was alive, if he didn't return to the house within an hour or so of choring ... something would start to happen. But on her death, some family were concerned that, were he to fall into a snowbank and be unable to get himself out, which we felt somewhat improbable ... things would be difficult. So I stayed with him for a couple of months following his wife's death, until the cattle went to pasture. We had recommended that he get one of those push-button medical alert systems that work through one's phone, whether push to send a basic message or one where the user could talk to a dispatcher. He got one ... a couple of months prior to his death, a couple of years later. Now ... I rent his house and though the landlord comes and goes to his shop or machines almost daily ... were I to be lying on the floor, needing help ... he wouldn't be aware of it. Being now in my mid-80s, instead of the push-button medical alert, I've been thinking that I should get a basic cell phone to carry with me all the time ... which would allow me to call someone directly in case of need while at home, and while away, as well, and could use for occasional use while out, e.g. call a friend to ask whether they were busy or up for a short visit. ____________________________ By the way ... many seniors have a hip let go ... so are on the floor. If their only phone is on the wall, about 3 and a half feet up ... it might as well be on another planet. I suggest that they get an extension to sit on an end table, at the bedside, etc. so that, if they're confined to the floor, they could crawl to it and pull it down by the cord to be able to use it to summon assistance. Good wishes for a worry-free (well - almost so) life, everyone. ole joyful