8) thank you for such a warm welcome! these past two days have seen 50 degree plus days, and most of the snow is melted..now my yard and garden is a muddy mess...the squirrels devoured the seed bell in one night, so that will be the end until next winter (and they are fat too!!) saw a woodpecker this morning on whats left of my lilac bush (had a terrible ice storm in october and lost about 70 - 80% of it. will be watching to see if some of it is salvageable (was about 12 ft high and 10 ft wide) will have to wait a few weeks for things to dry up a bit b4 i can really start cleaning up. see you all later in the forums!!!!!