Dang, Smivies, I had my overexcited blinders on! Somehow I totally missed the fact that the post was by greyneedle. After you pointed this out, I can answer my question of which Burlington. I was googling sequoia in Burlington the other day and came across the one at the corner of Mt Holly Rd and Rancocas Rd in Burlington, New Jersey. This is almost certainly the giant sequoia mentioned by greyneedle, as it is an impressive specimen on public property and his zone is listed as 6b NJ. Anyhow, I read that you believe giant sequoia could be good down to zone 5a if it weren’t for Cercospora blight? Is this cold-tolerreance suspected from the fact that some trees have withstood temps lower than -20F for very short periods of time? Don’t you think that going to temps below its -10F “limit” more often (as it does in an eastern NA zone 5) would do harm? And is there anything one can do to combat the blight? Thanks again.

I can not think of a single nut tree that doesn't get huge. Perhaps your best bet is to stick with the fruit trees and try and find a friend you can trade with at harvest time. The one danger of nut trees is that they often replant themselves in places where you'd just as soon they didn't grow to begin with. I've got black walnuts all over this property. Getting rid of a sapling that is growing where I don't want it can be a lesson and a half in patiences and determination.

Ok. Well, here is my two cents. And I don't really go into Buffalo all that often. Not sure what your priorities are - but the Anchor Bar is the original creator of Buffalo Wings. It's a neat little place with some memorabilia - nothing fancy. Great wings and a "historical" thing...I'd have to go if I was visiting Buffalo for the first time...unless we didn't like wings... http://www.anchorbar.com/original.php We also like Chef's - an Italian place - also not too fancy - notorious for their spaghetti parmesan - spaghetti with a thick layer of gooey melted cheese on top. It's always busy. It's near the HSBC arena where the Buffalo Sabres play and lots of concerts. http://www.ilovechefs.com/history.php Phyllis philodendron lives right up there and could probably give you more insight into the city. If you're into American History - you could go to the Wilcox mansion - the site of Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration after McKinley was shot. As far as Niagara Falls goes, you will definitely want to cross the border here to see the the falls from Canada - it is much much better and you just have to - to get the full effect. If you stay in Canada, try to get a room with a view of the Canadian Falls, and high enough up so that you can see the lights at night, and the fireworks if you're there on a Fri or Sun (I think?). Will suggests that you stay at the Hilton because he loves the pool and they have a rockin slide! :-) Once we even had a room where we sat in our jacuzzi tub which opened into the main part of our room, and we put the baby (!) to sleep and watched the fireworks from there...being such a honeymoon hot spot there are all kinds of cool rooms. Just be sure to get up high enough and be sure that it's a full view of the Canadian Falls. I can't tell you anywhere nice to eat in NF, since we never stray from the hotel slide, the arcade and all the crazy kid stuff on Clifton Hill. It's the land of glow mini golf, wax museums, ripley's believe it or not, you get the idea...So for culture - someone else will have to chime in - LOL! I'll keep thinking and will check back in to see if you have more questions. I will try to email Diane, too. Stacy

I don't know anything about Oregon, but I DO know about packing it all up(or in our case, selling it all) and just going! In our case, we moved from San Antonio, Texas to Fairbanks Alaska in Dec. 2006. We had been here before when DH was in the military, but it had been almost 13 years and it might as well have been a brand new city, it was so different (and probably being a civilian and not spending most of our time on base made it seem very different as well). We ended up renting for a while before we bought our house and it really helped us get acclimated to the area so we could understand where we wanted to live and how we wanted to live. If we would have bought when we first moved here, we would have been in a much different house than the one we ended up in, and probably wouldn't have been as happy. If you are buying right away, I'd definitely see if I could take a trip (or two) out ahead to really get a feel for the places you are considering. Our big adventure has been totally worth it and we're very happy, I hope you all have as much fun as we've had starting over and reinventing our lifestyle! ~~Veronica