hey dan.. your link failed .. for me anyway .... i figured view blocking was the issue ... but what often happens.. when they all grow up together... then tend to age the same.. and all start having the same problems ... e.g. .. how do you know the one on either side of the affected one.. now doesnt have root issues for the next storm????? ergo ... by removing this one.. and having just a bit of a view of the neighbor.. you can get a something else going so that in 3 to 5 years.. when the next fails... the new one will be doing its job .. i have no personal experience with these plants.. but i have read at least 100 times.. how they fail .. they seem to be planted because they are fast growing.. but all ... all ... fast growing trees and conifers.. eventually fail.. simple because they are fast growing ... it may be time to think long and hard.. about where you are going to be... screen-wise.. 5 .. 10.. 15 years down the line... and perhaps plant some new stock... while the old is still there... so removal and replacement is not so extraordinary ... a picture might sure help delineate the issues for us.. good luck have fun whatever you decide ... ken

Ah Avalon, love them all. I really feel for you. the same thing happened here with the April storms last year. It almost two of my big bushes out of the ground and they still require support that wasn't necessary before. Those poppies are fabulous! I adore the bight red colors. I told DH earlier today that our little Blush Noisette was covered with buds and blooms. I got it because it was such an old bush, but mine is only a year old. My Maggie went into the ground last fall. It is blooming well for a baby, but I look forward to it being more like yours and Jeans. The rambler is gorgeous, ad Belinds's Dream is one. I hop you escape major damage with the storms. kay

Susan, I heard the Snowklahoma jokes on the WC this morning and was thinking it isn't funny if you're in Oklahoma, or for that matter Arkansas, because whatever OK gets, parts of AR will get as well. From what I heard, the computer models aren't agreeing at all on this storm either, so the meteorologists have to choose the model they believe is most accurate....or just give their best forecast based on all the models combined. Someone on Weather Underground said that some models vary as much as 200 miles in terms of where they think the storm will hit hardest, so there still exists a lot of uncertainty. Then, you add in all the uncertainty about the different layers of air and which layer will be where....and you certainly can see why the forecast is all over the place. Jesska, We looked at generators this fall and discussed buying one, but since our longest power outage since we moved here in 1999 was only for an hour or two, we decided against it. I guess if we lose power and spend a couple of days hanging around in a cold house wearing 6 layers of clothing and sitting under a pile of blankets, then we'll surely buy a generator after that. LOL Our house is well-insulated so I'm not terribly worried, but I don't like being cold either. I'm a cold-weather wimp. I have battery-operated socks that I sometimes wear to winter fires to keep my toes warm while I'm serving food and drinks to the firefighters, so at least I'll be able to keep my toes warm....at least until the batteries go dead. We have lots of water and food, cat food and dog food, rawhide chewy bones for the dogs, because the dogs get too bored when they stay in the garage and in the house on very cold days. We have catnip (clipped from the garden) for the cats. We have food and water for the firefighters, candles, matches, flashlights and extra batteries, those little Hot Hands hand-warmer things, propane for the grill, De-Icer for windshields and doorlocks, and two new gardening magazines. We bought an extra bag of hen scratch and an extra bag of deer corn, and we have a brand new 50-lb. bag of BOSS, so the birdies will be well-fed. All the fire radios (we have four) are fully charged, and we can make them last a couple of days just on battery power. Truthfully, though, if the power goes out, the radio repeater tower probably won't work because it is digital. (sigh) Still, even if we can't hear emergency traffic on the radio, we ought to be able to pick up the NWS weather broadcasts. What more do we need? DH and DS are likely to either be (a) stranded at DFW Airport at work for a couple of days because the trip home will be too treacherous or (b) stranded at home in Love County because the trip to work will be too trecherous. Techically, as a police officer and a firefighter, they are considered 'essential personnel' and are not supposed to stay home "just because" the roads are bad. Realistically though, their bosses don't want them driving over 80 miles on unsafe roads, so they cut them some slack. They work different days, so they both shouldn't be stranded down there at the same time I think. We do have a 4WD vehicle too if we absolutely, positively must leave our place to go to the fire station or something, then at least we'll have the 4WD. Oh, and I have two pair of Off-Road Heavy Duty Crocs like Ilene's but I don't think I'll wear them out into the snow. LOL I hope none of y'all get the 12 to 20" they're forecasting for parts of Snowklahoma. I hope none of us get the ice, although I expect we will. I noticed the Winter Weather Advisory has been added to a few more counties south/southwest of us in Texas which makes it less likely the snow and/or ice will completely miss southern OK. (sigh) I guess it is just the waiting game today...waiting and watching to see when the storm's path firms up and becomes more certain and also watching to see when the 'closings' start. Dawn

I know about the septic tank thing. Ours needs electricity to pump it out into the field. When we had our generator going, DH had to go "lift the lid" every once in a while to see if it needed to run. You really don't want that backing up into your house! Also we have a Buck stove which needs electricity to run the fan. If the electricity goes off, we have to shut the stove down. Our first experience with the stove and a power outage, we opened the stove doors thinking we'd get some heat anyhow - but instead the stove got too hot and we almost had a chimney fire. A neighbor came and told us our chimney was glowing red. Thankfully we have a generator now. It came in very handy last winter when we were without power for 4 days. Even then it is a royal pain stepping over electric cords and having to refuel the generator every 6 to 8 hours. It's not a good idea to run the computer on the generator, but I got sooo bored that I did anyhow!