The cause of the crystalline formations is a high level of solubles (salts from fertilizers and tap water) in the soil. The crystals form by a process called 'unassisted nucleation', Soil particles act as a place for solute molecules (dissolved fertilizer and metal salts in your tap water) to meet. A solute molecule encounters the surface of a soil particle and adsorbs to this surface. Most of the time when these solute molecules come together they will stay together for only a little while, but then other forces eventually pull them apart (water low in similar solutes). Sometimes though, the two molecules stay together long enough to meet up with a third, and then a fourth (and fifth, etc.) solute molecule - as in when water at the surface of your soil evaporates and locks them into place. Other solute molecules are attracted to and begin growing on the surface of the crystal and it keeps on getting bigger until it's large enough for you to see. Leaching the soil by proper watering technique or intentional flushing will dissolve the crystals and reduce the soil solution to below saturation levels. Al

Wow! Has the hummer been there for a long time? Is it a ruby red? I have read on the internet that some acutally freeze their sugar water to increase its shelf life. The ice crystals are coming from the water in the solution, so defrosting it will only return it to the original state, that is as long as you don't boil it to defrost it. Google the words: hummingbird, feeder and freez for ideas to keep the sugar water from freezing. Some use lights mounted close to the feeder, saw one article where someone wrapped the feeder with a heating blanket. What every you do make sure it is safe as water and electricity don't mix well. I am amazed that the hummer is still alive. With the reading I have done it states that even cool nights in the summer can strain a hummer. good luck!

My parents had popsicles (the kind on a stick wrapped in paper, not the ones in plastic "tubes") in their upright freezer. All melted, even right after running generator. I think the pork chops on the top shelf were frozen solid, don't know how warm they might have gotten in between "shots" of electricity, but I really think I should throw out the 5 lbs of hot dogs I brought home to put in my chest freezer - they were cold, but thawed, and who knows how warm they might have gotten at some point. Same with the big bag of Chicken Voila in Alfredo sauce - bag had some frozen chunks in it, but overall was pretty squishy. What's a few more things given that on Sunday we threw out all my mom's Jenny Craig meals she's just bought a few days before, and on Thursday threw out a good 40-50 lbs of veggies, chicken pot pies, chicken cordon bleu, stuffed peppers etc. that my mom had bought for my dad to eat while she was on a business trip, plus about 10 lbs of tilapia and shrimp? My dad also had a sandwich-sized bag with 3 hard hot-dog-shaped things I think might have been venison sausage - not frozen solid, I'm sure, maybe smoked? Insisted I take that to put in my freezer. I have no idea what it is, so don't know if anyone can tell me if they're safe. I have to tell him to watch his blueberries for mold, too, though I think he uses them frozen on his cereal, now they've refrozen into a solid chunk. I'd just as soon make jam out of them like I plan to do with my blackberries and strawberries. DH is looking at whole-house generators too. I'm thinking of seeing whether we can add our well pump to the 100A subpanel our HVAC, water heater and basement freezer are already on. I don't know if inspector will let us permanently change the fridge to go on the subpanel as well as the well pump, unless we put our resistive Aux Heat for the heat pump on the main panel (even in the dead of winter I think we can survive with geothermal and sweaters). Gotta think how to swap things around to balance the load and get all the necessities on that 100A panel. Then maybe an $800 generator will do.

No trudging through the snow and arctic windchills to get these. Apparently one set of storm windows on the north side of my house could be a little tighter. So, I just set up there with a macro lens. the different colors come from changing the angle to get either snow out the window as background, or blue sky.