Living in western PA my whole life, the worst weather that I had to deal with was a bad thunderstorm or a lot of snow. When I moved out here to Philadelphia 4 years ago I never thought in a million years I would be sitting smack dab in the middle of a hurricane. When I left work on Friday Oct 26th we had an email to all employees that due to the coming storm we might have to close on Monday Oct 29th. Well sure enough on Sunday night they updated the email and advised that the stock market will be closed. So Monday I sat at home all day watching what would be the worst storm I have ever seen in my life. I am only 27 years old, so I have not seen a lot of what life can offer yet, but I will tell you this storm is something I never want to have to live through again. It was horrifying to listen to 80+ mile an hour winds smack against the house. Everything outside was blowing around like we were in the chamber of a vacuum cleaner. BF and I live in a heavily suburban area elven miles north of the city proper. It is a lovely place with old architecture and lots of trees. But those trees ended up being our downfall. Our bedroom is on the third floor so I was almost in the canopy watching the tops bend almost in half to then stand straight back up and be blown the other direction. It truly is amazing how strong trees are and how much they can take before they give out. But sure enough we did have one give out. A piece of the neighbor's spruce tree snapped in half and fell flat in our front yard taking with it the power and cable lines. By the grace of God it missed the house. Amazingly we had enough slack (according to BF) so that the power wasn't knocked out. But now we had a downed tree with live wires under it to contend with when we went outside the next day. Scary stuff :( Now we are almost a week past the storm and the streets around here are still a mess. A lot of roads are blocked off due to either power lines being down or just whole trees lying in the middle of the street. Some people are just now getting their electricity back after almost a full week. We were fortunate enough not to loose power but I was without internet for almost the whole week. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We are safe and slowly coming “back to life”. This truly was one for the history books and something I sure as hell never want to have to deal with again. Here are some of the pics I took for home owner's insurance. Not as pretty as a hosta but testament that mother nature is not to be trifled with. Thank you again everyone, your thoughts and prayers made the difference. Ludi Elegans did sustain some “smashing” damage but she was on her way to sleep for the winter so I'm pretty sure she didn't mind :p

This may not be for everybody but Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro, NC has a sustainable agriculture degree program. One of the teachers, Harvey Harman has a permaculture based farm and is an awesome teacher. He teaches the class every spring (entire semester course) and then in the fall there is a companion class which is a practicum type class. When you finish both courses successfully you get a Permaculture design certificate. Lots of folks actually relocate here for the sustainable ag program (2 year assoc. degree or certificate program) and we have taken lots of courses there. The wealth of permaculture and organic knowledge in this area is absolutely incredible. This semester there is a sustainable farms course, sust. livestock management course, spring organic gardening course (market scale), grey water landscaping design course, and on and on. There is a 'land lab' where they maintain an organic garden, have a greenhouse, start seedlings, compost, work on biodiesel with the biodiesel folks who have a huge program and teach class. If anybody is ready for a change, even temporary, and wants this incredible opportunity, check out CCCC. We also have an arts incubator with a degree program in sculpture- amazing program as well. Tuition is really cheap too! I think I paid $110 or so for the semester permaculture course. Here is a link that might be useful: Central Carolina Community College

I certainly hope everyone else is having as much fun with this project as I am. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the fine photos and I must confess, on a couple occasions I have struggled to come up with photo. Without question, so far "U" has proved to be the most difficult for me, but after looking through my files I think I have found a couple shots that meet the criteria. "U" is for United States Coast Guard; These two shots were taken Aug.29, 2010 from atop a bluff that overlooks the USCG Academy docks at Groton, Conn. The tallship in the background is the USCG Cutter Eagle, which is still actively commissioned as a training vessel for the academy.

Ipe or Cumaru. Coast Guard occasionally uses Cumaru for some of their decks on their buoy tenders. We've supplied Ipe to ship rebuilds on the West Coast and have worked with the State of Massachusetts on the rebuild of their tallship. We just started carrying a new product "Vault Decking" that is a composite and we really like. Question is.... is this a house boat or a floating home? If a boat then I will side with your husband and the purist in me will say wood. If not, the right composite might be a good choice...., but wood could still work.... We have beautiful Fijian Mahogany that would be perfect and is a lot less expensive than Ipe or Cumaru.