Don't know about plastic and ice, but we always heard in Florida that plastic was mainly a problem for plants (any of them--not just roses) AFTER a storm had passed. People failed to uncover their plants right away, and they would cook/smother/rot or other vile things. Wnen a freeze was coming, we would cover up with sheets--they trap a little heat, provide a little protection, and breathe. Plus they're big enough to cover a decent sized area, and you can clip them together with clothes pins. Just don't use the good ones on the thorny roses or it can get you in serious trouble! We kept old, stained, holey sheets for just that purpose.

Diana, I'm so glad to hear from you. I was about to rent a snow cat and head up the mountains looking for you, a la "The Shining"! (Now there's a movie that scared the heck out of me.) Stay where you are and break out that secret stash of chocolate you've been saving. ;-) Glad to hear that you are safe and warm. Steven, I'm so glad you are safe, as well. I have seen some horrific video from the SF area, really frightening stuff. I'm glad that you have power and have come through this relatively unscathed. I hope that the worst is over. Edna, I hope all is well with you and your family, and that you will be able to check in soon. To all CA gardeners, no heroic garden rescues! Let it all be crushed, blown away or whatever. We can rally together here and replace everything that you lose. We can't replace YOU! Marilyn

Mary, I am sorry about your roses and I hope they rebound quickly. I just hate the sound of hail pounding on the house and vehicles. Do you know how big the hail was? We had some the other night that was about the size of half-dollars, but it was light and was mixed in with rain and there wasn't really much of it. At our house the damage was minimal (although the noise was scarey), but some people in other parts of our county had more hail and more damage. When I was 19 or 20, our house got hit by baseball to softball sized hail, and it fell with such velocity that it put holes the size of your fist through the roof AND ceiling and the outdoor siding AND interior walls. The windows were completely knocked out on one side of the house (the side the hail came from). The house looked like swiss cheese. On top of that, there was a tornado on the ground a mile or so from us. The area looked like a war zone. My sister and I were at the mall when the storm hit. We had to seek shelter in the underground side of the mall (the mall itself was cut into the side of a hill, so about half of it was actually underground). It wasn't until the storm passed and we were headed home that we learned the tornadoes we'd sought shelter from had passed just west of that mall. The trees and debris in the roadway and the total lack of electricity were our first clue, and we were in a total panic about our parents, who were home when the storm hit. (No cell phones back then.) Our vehicles that were in the driveway were totaled out, and Dad & Mom's house got a makeover (new roof, new windows, new interior ceilings and walls, paint, new carpet, repaired (but not new) exterior siding, etc.) courtesy of the insurance company. My dad joked that so much had to be repaired and replaced that year, that they got a "new house", one piece at a time. His garden, of course, was totally demolished. I hope we don't have hail in the Wed.-Thurs. storms, but it certainly is looking as if we might. Dawn

George, Thanks for the prayers. In 2005-06, so many folks here lost too many cattle....and a lot sold off bloodlines they'd spent decades developing because it was better to sell them than to watch them die. You can only spend so many $$$$ for hay and water before the $$$$ run out. It was even worse for the horse ranches. Since so many of the people who raise horses really, really love their horses, most of them hang on to a lot of "extras" that don't sell as it is. When times are hard and no one is buying horses, they end up with way more than they can feed and you see a lot of horses that look like they are starving. I don't think we are in nearly as bad of a situation at this point as we were then....but if this dry weather continues into the winter, it will be "like deja vu all over again" as Yogi Berra used to say. After all the rain we had last year, I never would have imagined we'd be so dry so soon.....but our rain really stopped in mid-July of last year and has not yet returned to normal or average levels, so in that sense, our "moderate drought" started then, even though soil moisture levels were high for a long time thanks to the rain than fell earlier in 2007. The nice thing about living here is that we sometimes get an occasional thunderstorm with torrential rainfall. When that happens, we can get 5" to 9" of rain in one day, and sometimes when that happens, you can get back to your annual "average" rainfall with one good thunderstorm. I was kind of hoping we'd have that kind of storm yesterday. The pond is so low and stagnant that the dogs don't wade in it anymore, so the afternoon "doggie playtime" no longer includes swimming. It's going to be a long, hot summer, and the chairman of our VFD's board of directors tells me he believes this year's fire conditions are very similar to 2005, based on his observations of forage height and dryness and rainfall. He thinks we're in for a bad fire season just like 2005-06 if rain doesn't start falling soon. Since he's lived here forever.....I think about 70 years, he knows what he's talking about, but I hope he's wrong. Dawn