Thanks, muffin1358, I wasn't aware of this organization - it sounds like it has some very worthwhile programs. Claire

Michelle, It is 3:35 p.m. and I am watching The Weather Channel and it sounds like Arkansas is really getting it already and conditions are supposed to worsen, so I guess the Fort Smith forecasters may "ignore" ya'll even more if you're not having the ice too. Yes, we can hope we're wrong, but "in my bones" I feel like it is going to be a bad one. I can tell by the number of birds coming to feed, and we have huge numbers today. I just refilled the feeders and put out deer corn an hour ago, and the birds are having a big old pre-storm feeding frenzy right now. Randy and I both use the Weather Underground a lot and I love their forecasts. If you've never used it, you can access it via www.wunderground.com. Randy, I agree about the internet accuracy, but I have to say that our local TV forecast (Channel 12, KXII, the local CBS affiliate) has improved a lot since Steve LaNore became their chief meterologist. Still, I take it with a grain of salt and merge together their forecast, various online sources, the NWS and my own "intuition" to arrive at my own idea about what I think "will" or "might" happen. I bet the Eskies had fun. If it snows, and they get to go out and play in it, I hope you'll take a photo of them to share with us. Ada, Uh-oh. That's not good news. Y'all be careful. I think the perennials will be OK as long as their roots weren't bone dry. If they were bone-dry, you might have some root death. After all my bragging about what a fine job our local electric co-op does keeping the power up, I saw we're now forecast to get about 1/2 inch of ice here. Well, if that happens, the trees won't even have to bring down the poles and power lines, because the ice on the power lines will bring everything down all by itself. Oh, I dread the power being out. Our house is all-electric, so if we lose power, we're gonna be cold. Moni, I'm glad you're hubby is going to be able to make it home safely before the icing gets worse and the roads are even more dangerous. We went out and did all our errands early. Now we're just waiting for the fire pagers to go off, because as soon as the temps hit 32, the accidents start popping up on the Interstate like dandelions pop up in our pastures in spring. I don't really understand the sudden ice storm trend the last 5 or 6 years. Our first few years here, we had some gorgeous snowstorms and that was so much fun for someone like me who grew up in snow-deprived Fort Worth. These last few years, though, it is all ice and no snow. I'd rather have snow. Well, if I had a choice, I'd rather have 6" of rain and nothing frozen, but that's not gonna happen! Dawn

Susan, I didn't take my allergy medicine last night, but I sure did remember to take it this morning! Ilene, I've been losing baby plums to every hard wind for about 2 weeks now. The tree in the more exposed location has just about lost them all, and the more protected one has lost about half. Until today, though, I hadn't had any peaches blow off. Well, now the peaches are coming down too. (sigh) Where were these winds last year when the trees were terribly overloaded and I had to hand-thin for days and days and days? I watered my seedlings twice, also, and some of them still had some winburn on the leaf tips and edges, so today I moved them to a part of the yard that is a tiny bit more sheltered. Carol, I've been keeping one eye on the skies and one ear on the weather radio, although I think that if anything happens here in far southcentral OK, it won't be until evening. Out local TV metereologist doesn't seem to think we have a really big chance here--maybe 20%? That's too bad--we could sure use some rain to rehydrate all the dry, wind-beaten plants. I have the water hose turned on now, running very slowly, to create a wildlife drinking puddle or two for the birds, turtles, butterflies, etc. Usually in the spring we have enough rain that there's little puddles here and there, but this wind and the lack of recent rain has dried them up. The butterflies love the mud puddles. And, I guess these winds are fueling some fires. I heard one of the western Love County VFDs paged out to go help with a fire west of Ringling in Jefferson County. I guess it is going to be one of those days. Y'all, I'm watching the noon news and he says the storms will likely stay north of us. And, by the way, our wind is gusting to 30 m.p.h., which is not quite as strong as yesterday's winds. I'm ready for the wind to stop blowing, but I don't think it is ging to stop any time soon. Dawn

Too bad they never mentioned all the importing of homeless dogs from other countries that many of the big name shelters are very much involved with. Now if we could stop that from happening we'd see an even bigger drop. And if anyone thinks that doesn't happen check out the link below which is just one of many out there to help enlighten people. Here is a link that might be useful: the importation of dogs