One thing about a generator, Jackie, is that if you have it, you need to maintain it. That means that, during the months and years when you're not using it, you need to "exercise" it periodically, and do regular mainenance on it. If you get one, it'd likely be smart to talk to the sales people about those issues. We have a generator -- in our motorhome. We do "exercise" it at regular intervals, so we know it will run well when it's needed. If we had any sort of disaster resulting in a long power-outage, we could use the generator to minimally run the refrigerator, and the freezer. It could also be used to power up rechargeable devices. Light inside at night is a different thing. We have several antique oil lamps, but nowadays, we don't have most of them filled. We would use, instead, several of those nifty battery-powered Coleman camping lamps. They're very safe, and very effective. IF the chimney were to remain sound, we could use that for heating. Fortunately for us, we are far enough away from the San Andreas that it shouldn't be really bad for us. That said, we have a couple of very local faultlines, which could possibly be affected by the San Andreas. Jeri

Hey Guys, I just ordered a few Windmill and Needle Palm trees from TyTy to plany by my pool. I live in Newfoundland, NJ and read up a lot on these palms before buying. One thing that struck me odd when I spoke to their sales rep they said they do not recommend to protect the tree at all once they are 3 feet or larger. I bought a couple that are 4 to 5 feet so now I am not sure if I should protect them in winter, I do some people online protecting even much bigger speciemen. They said in all the years only one time they had to replace a tree that size and it was due to -40 degree weather in Idaho. Also they suggested not to use any fertilizer after planting. Do you guys have any input to this? I would love to talk about the plants you have for sale elman, was thinking to plant some musa basjoo as well.

I read somewhere (Washington Post?) that the DC Housewives crew had been filming the house crasher woman for months before the White House party. They considered pulling her from the series, but that meant cutting out every event and scene between her and another cast member. They decided to keep her around. FWIW, I am almost certain the woman and her husband are going to be exposed as the ultimate liars. They say they organize a huge polo match for charity and I've heard that it didn't make money. They supposedly run bus tours of wine country, but the reviews online are horrible...buses don't show up, wineries don't know the groups are coming...it's just a wreck of a "business". I'd love to know how they get their money. If the husband is working, he must be damn good to be kept on despite the chaos that seems to swirl around him and his wife.

i keep forgetting to get some synthetic green fabric for cutting strings, like lycra or polyester. it needs to be elastic to give in the wind. cotton deteriorates very fast. green would be much less visible! cut off bottles protect leaves from bending out and breaking low quite well. my leaves even in the sun get to 3‘ : totally unmanageable in the wind. I tie up older thicker Mandevilla branches like that too: it really likes to spread wide! and tropical Hibiscus too to keep them higher rather then wider. and even tall Caladium leaves.