Thanks Joe. There is one in an area that held water for a while when we had LOTS of rain. The top 3 leaves are tan now, so I am going to switch it with a Hybrid Overcup oak X white oak, that can take the soggy soil. I will be putting the LO. late drop up in a well drained area, once they are dormant . I should have done it that way to begin with anyway. I have updated L.O photos on my most successful Live oak thread from a while ago, I had nobody to hold up a background against the trees , but I think you can see the trees anyway, the first picture is hard to see but I took 2 pics of the first tree.

KHoene- You can do this!!! We are building our third house now and I can honestly say it is not rocket science. If you are well organized and have good communication skills, there is no reason you can't save yourself a big chunk of money by being your own general contractor. There are lots of great resources complete with sample contracts available on line to help you. http://www.buildahouseyourself.com/ is one that I've used myself. Don't get me wrong, contractors do make things easier for the builder. We have many friends who are contractors and my husband has worked with contractors for over 20 years with his work. But most just follow a step by step process and stay on top of things. One just this week was saying how people can save themselves a lot of money just by doing what he does for themselves. A friend of mine who is a stay at home mom was the general contractor for their home two years ago and they saved a lot of money and had NO problems. Their home is beautiful and she had never done anything like that before. She was just extremely organized and on top of things. You know what your skills are better than any of us. Time to oversee the project and make sure that everything is completed appropriately and timely will be the most difficult aspect of the process. Good luck on your adventure!!!

Turn off the water , drain the pipes and water heater. Every. Single. Time. Its the best way. Having a gnerator come on while you are not there to monitor it is dangerous. At best, it's wasteful of resources and finances. And have your computers and TVs and othe energy hogs on a switch or power strip where you can also easily turn them off when you leave home for an extended period. Use a NEST or other smart integrated interface if you want to be abe to do it all by remote and spend a lot more money than just doing it manually.

OMG,That is sooooooooooo funny,caught me completely off guard and literally had me LOL. Thanks Kathi