Hi Folks, Everything is fine, no power loss or anything. I'm just in a bad mood with all this %$#? snow piled up. I haven't driven anywhere yet but have an appointment at 10:30 so hopefully I won't have any problems getting there. I should have had DH leave me the Explorer (4WD) but didn't think of it but my van usually does alright in snow. We didn't even bother digging out the honda. lol DH tried to cheer me up by bringing me home a case of assorted hoyas. You can't get near a shopping center during normal business hours. Malls are unbelieveably packed so many are staying open 24/7 until Christmas eve. They lost so much business by being closed last weekend. Maybe I'll go shopping late tonight to cheer myself up. Such a big snowfall was a novelty for the first 2 days, now it just sucks! Oh yeah the weather service is saying that more snow or maybe rain is a possibility for Fri!

Just keep in mind that all pines are not created equal. If I had it to do over again I would have cut down all of my eastern white pines and planted different trees. I have five of them, all over 60-70 feet tall and they are dangerous to be under in any kind of storm. Not to mention the damage they cause when they drop a limb on whatever unlucky plant is below. Sheila try to see if you can figure out what kind of pines you have. Also look up at them and see if you can see any signs of snapped off broken limbs from previous damage. Weak limbed trees are a pain and make clean up a never ending problem.

Jay, and y'all.... Knowing that bermuda is e-vile in a garden, when I bought this place and had started the remodeling project on the inside and exterior, and with an eye to eventually tackling the bermuda ridden "lawn" for a future garden, I solarized a huge area with heavy duty visquane and just left it for a long long time in the summer heat. When the time came to plant garden, I had zero bermuda to deal with. Since then, I have always left a buffer zone between garden and bermuda areas. It has worked very well for me. If I see some bermuda getting into the buffer zone, I get out the tiller and go over it until it gives up, pulling out any sprouts I have loosened with the tiller. Jay, the WORST time I had with bermuda doing damage was when the DS was doing a lot of lawn work for local folks and came home with a ton of grass clippings. Instead of letting them dry thinly in the paths, I piled them high in and around my melon patch. Bad move. The depth and moisture created a fungus and I lost my entire beautiful cantaloupe crop that year just as it was ready to start being harvested. As you can well imagine, I was sick over it!!! Back to your problem, the only way I can think of to deal with the bermuda sprouts would be to relocate the pile of grass clippings into a safety zone away from the garden and your fence line, maybe into a compost pile, and then black out the sprouted area with boards, cardboard or anything to keep it from seeing the light of day. One thing bermuda needs is light to grow. Deprived of that, the end result is death and good riddance to it. Good luck with the dilemma. I feel for ya :( Barbara

We had something similar come up w SD(11) a few weeks ago in school....a little girl was being mean to her, pulled her by the arm and yanked her jacket off the wall and spit on it.....We made the decision to notify the school (SD didnt tell a teacher) and the little girl said it was "an accident" so the school gave her a warning...SD knew it wasnt an accident, and I beieve her...I realized that I couldnt change the little girl, and talking to her parents prob wouldnt do any good (i firmly believe kids act out what they learn at home etc..) The school, I didnt feel was very effective in my opion with the matter, so I and DH decided that even though all of those things were out of our hands there was one thing that was in our hands and that was to teach SD how to react to such a situation when it presents itself, we talked with her about why children sometimes act inapropriatley, how to handle the situation, and also worked with her on some self defense things (when the girl grabbed her she was terrified, and froze up) I could tell immediately that SD felt more confidant after our talk and lesson on bullies...the girl has left SD alone now that SD has shown that she will stand up for herself and not allow this girl to call her names or physically bully her any longer...