We too have State Farm and they won't cover much the costs of the damages at all. Actually, we are very unimpressed with them to say the least. Our local agent lived and grew up here, we have not heard a word from him or his office yet we called him as they have been our insurer for 10 years. We can't even put a claim in for the damages to this house. Our structural damage is "invisible" our electrical got messed up from the lightening and probably some magnetic fields in the storm. We have to cover that. We did have some structural damage, and trees fell on necessary structures and we have someone advising us on how to get things worded etc. However the estimated costs that the insurer came up with are not appropriate for Atlanta. $1,500 to fix the driveway will not even cover the cost of breaking it up and removing it here. $800 for a fence does not even cover the cost of materials, let alone labor. However, a person on another gardening forum has offered to help us. I don't even know this person and she and her husband have offered their backs to help us get things better. One of our biggest concerns now is flooding. State Farm isn't much concerned about the impact to the structural integrity of the property itself now that we have nothing: no grass, no trees, no landscaping anymore. They do not consider that "structural" even though it was all in place to save the structures from damage. The good thing is, I have 4 jobs. The bad thing is I will be leaving my volunteer job to max. one day a week now and having to reliniquish some of the other responsibilities I had at church. That is most important to me, but I have to get this stuff paid for. They offered me full-time at work recently. This afternoon I am going to tell them I'll take it. I was offered a job teaching gardening and environmental education classes at a local private school and I'll take it. My hours at the community garden can probably be increased. However that leaves little time for now to make things around here look decent, lol. But you gotta do what you gotta do, sometimes. GGG

I second and third Louis Philippe... It by far is the best and most carefree bloomer ever! I have four of them, and they are all covered right now! But my Show stopper is...a Fortuiana bush I saved from the old Giles nursery that the bulldozers had plowed down when they sold their business... It is 6 feet wide, and spreads at least 12 feet up and over my pergula...In March it is to die for!!!!! So if anyone needs cutting for grafting...please let me know...you are welcome and I have plenty to spare.... You can see it in bloom on my blog "the roosting Hen" It's the main picture....It only blooms once a year...but well worth it...and never gets black spot.....and naturally doesn't get affected by nematodes...hehehehehe.... My other own root OGR are doing really well too...I'll have to find there names...A few other hybrids are Ok...but just not show stoppers...and only thriving ones are grated on Fort...I really need to learn how to do that!!!!! janine

You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think. attributed to Dorothy Paker, who allegedly said at a 20s cocktail party that she could make a pun out of any word, and was presented with the word horticulture. Try that. she took a play on the phrase "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." her version, not truly a pun, is pretty brilliant anyway. Especially considering her life. susannah

We had our kitchen priced at a big box store. Then we called some custom places. Custom was half the price! The guy we ended up going with is so easy to work with and you don't end up with a bunch of filler pieces because they can just make the cabinet the exact size that you need (true custom places can anyway some order in the boxes and make the doors). The other great thing about our guy is that we went from melamine to solid wood and the price upcharge was only about $500. We went from 36' to 48'' uppers and it didn't add any additional cost. We went frameless and it was the same price, he said it is cheaper to make since it is less material! We had him make us a sample cabinet to get a feel for quality since it really can vary from place to place. His quality is amazing, really sturdy and feels very upper end. Pullout shelves, $25 a piece. Raised panel doors add $25 a door since it is more material. The price difference is amazing and the nice thing about finding a small company that is easy to deal with is that they don't really charge you a bunch more for the trendy stuff just the actual cost diff. in material prices and labor.