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.

dcarch, my first thought was "how arrogant to charge $625 (MSRP) for a cookbook." But, then I started reading the reviews on amazon. I especially liked the review by the guy from egullet.com. Here are his pros and cons: Pros: ---- * Level of detail is incredible * Covers the "how" and the "why" of every detail of the cooking process * Depth and breadth of coverage is... well, worthy of 2400 pages * Stunning photography, graphic design, and even printing Cons: ---- * Many of the recipes are very challenging * Coverage of hyper-expensive equipment can be off-putting * Too tall to fit on any normal bookcase Regardless of how fabulous the book is, even the Amazon discounted price of $450 is simply out of the reach of most home cooks. The soon-to-be published home version at $150 is still out of the reach of many. Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon link to Myhrvold books

Thanks guys. It was taken just after sun up Saturday morning. I got in the car and the early morning sun was reflecting off the driver side mirror just lighting up those crystals like a bunch of little diamonds. So, of course, I said I gotta get a pic of this. I'm still not a good enough photogapher to capture the brilliance of sun sparkling on ice. Oh well, maybe by next winter. Or better yet, some one will take pity on a weekend hack and send me a camera with a "sun shining on ice" auto mode. :)