LITTLE GEMS
Lake Geneva’s greatest ice storm.
The ice storm of two weeks has passed but is still with most of Lake Geneva and the surrounding communities. The big trees and branches that fell are mostly not cleared away, simply because post-storm conditions would not allow for it. As the weather changes so will the lengthy cleanup, and that’s going to be expensive for a lot of homeowners who never prepared for the most devastating ice storm ever known to hit the area. Most homeowner policies do not cover trees distant from the home, or those that do not encounter and cause damage to the home.
Tree services these days want upwards of a thousand dollars simply to cut up and clear a tree, and that’s if they get to keep and process the wood. For those of you who have downed Maple trees of good size, the going rate retail for cut, trimmed and kiln dried hard maple is about ten dollars a board foot. That cutting, trimming, and processing costs about three to four dollars a board foot to have done. But the wood of a well-aged and non-diseased maple tree will go for ten dollars. Before you contract to have somebody take your trees away make sure you calculate a good hefty discount for the value of your wood…or find somebody else.
Daylight savings is here. This weekend clocks are to be moved forward an hour.
Spring forward and fall back. Some people are not happy about the loss of an hour of sleep and have a hard time adjusting to the change, but others look at it as more daylight later in the day and use it as a countdown to the first day of spring. The practice of changing clocks twice annually may not always be a part of our culture as congress has been trying to change this seemingly unnecessary practice. A year ago, the U.S. Senate voted to end the twice annual changing of the clocks, but it failed to get successful passage in the House. Lawmakers could not agree on keeping standard time or permanent daylight savings time, either one. The Senate recently reintroduced legislation to make daylight savings time permanent. Supporters of The Sunshine Protection Act (as permanent daylight savings time is called) believe it will help with preventing seasonal depression, stress, and insure that children will have more time for outdoor activities.
Critics, on the other hand, are concerned that kids will be forced to go to school in the dark for part of the year and also make it harder for them to be alert in the early morning. As of right now, things will stay the same so spring forward at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 12th, and unless something changes in the U.S. Congress, fall back later in the year on Sunday morning, November 5th.
