I'll share the blame with WEBlue -- we keep saying that we'll just deal with it. But I prefer to deal with it in August rather than January! I had been quite looking forward to the idea of being snowed in (I curl up and watch Dr. Zhivago!), until we got the robot call from the power company yesterday warning us to be ready for outages. So now my OH is rushing out to get fuel for the chain saw and putting the batteries back in the radio/CD player, and I'm ferreting out every blanket in the house. We are kind of remote, so always the last in line for the power company or our own snow plougher. When I went to bed last night, the forecast was for three feet of snow; happily it seems to have gone down to two feet overnight.

We have a flashlight. That's our "prep" so far (and likely to be all of it really).

The snow blower is still at our old house, so shoveling could be a PITA.

D'oh! The awesome power of procrastination!

If You’re Flying Anywhere Near The Northeast Today Or Tomorrow, Call Your Airline Now – Consumerist

It's my fault too. After our 48 hour power cut over Thanksgiving I talked a great talk about getting a generator. I'm good at that...

Husband's flight still shows as departing at 5.34pm. There's one more showing as OK after that, then they're all cancelled. Snow's supposed to arrive after 8pm.

I am glad we don't get that kind of snow around here.

Light but steady snow falling here since early this morning. I've shoveled our drive twice. A gritting truck just drove round but no snowplows have come our way yet.....

The wind is what worries me here on the coast. Possible gusts of 75 MPH predicted for tonight & tomorrow. Hoping all these nice old trees around our house stay put.....

We're not on the coast, but sharing your worries about the trees. We lost so many during Sandy that I'm going to have to change my location line if they keep coming down! We have the chain saw all ready in case we need to chop our way out. Stay safe and warm, WEBlue.

You too, Nutmegger! Hope you and your husband and the dogs make it through with no power outages or other problems....

I have been hoping for an ice storm this year, to remove the top from a leaning pine, but more than half way through our winter it is looking unlikely. ..... If Mother Nature would kindly remove the top I can deal with the trunk, but it would come down (just) too close to the house if I tried to fell it "as is".

Don't stories like this usually end up with someone saying "hold my beer"?

Many do, but I am quite comfortable taking down trees up 80ft+. I believe my tallest pines are 100-110ft, and I have my eye on some of those too.

I have felled four mature pines of 60-80ft in the past two months. I had been hoping to fell one mature pine a week throughout the winter, but I have fallen short of that goal.

Someone mention beer?

Thirsty after some Chinese...it's the fried rice.

The trouble is that when they get snapped, they don't always come down. We have had some snapped tops dangling for a few years, and some that did get separated but are hung up -- all way too high for us to get to them, and in the thousands of dollars range for the arborist to come. When it gets very windy, we have to keep the dogs away from those areas.

I have had that happen with smaller branches, but never with a pine crown. There are/ were three other mature pines within 30ft of the leaning pine I mentioned above that have had their crowns snap off in the past 12 years, and I have not a shadow of doubt that an ice storm sufficient to snap the top of the leaning one will tear it completely off. ..... This is a very "branchy" pine, and lop-sided to boot!