We’re in for a difficult ice storm event that could be dangerous, prolonged, and potentially historic. Unless we hear otherwise from you, WE WILL be pre-treating your sidewalk/parking lot areas heavily. This may not do any good, BUT you should look at it as cheap insurance. It may make the difference between being able to scrape ice away easily once we are able to get on your properties, vs. chip it away & have to spend a lot more time. WHEN we can get to any property that is not ZERO tolerance is also questionable, other then WE WILL GET THERE. If this shows up as rain before ice, then it could wash away any ice-melt effectiveness.

I’m not telling anybody what to do, but I urge you to strongly consider, if you have the option, to not travel Tuesday or Wednesday… AT ALL. You should have a back up plan for heat and light. Just assume that we will experience power loss in Indianapolis between Tuesday-Wednesday, at least for a few hours, IF NOT DAYS. I hope and will be happy if we’re wrong, but this is looking like a difficult and dangerous event, similar if not worse then the ice storm Kentucky dealt with 2 years ago. Our snow totals will likely be minimal, but the ice/freezing rain is a big problem. Don’t hesitate to contact myself (538-1616) or Carlos (828-3435) on our cell phones if you have an emergency, we’ll help as we have guys available and are able. Safety on this event is the primary concern for us over the next several days. Thank You, BE SAFE!!!

2010. The year of extremes. We started out with one of the wettest springs I can remember. This accelerated growth in plant material, which takes energy. Then July hit, and somebody ‘turned off the water’. Most of you already know, but if you don’t, Indiana experienced the longest overall dry/heat combination that the Hoosier state has seen since they began recording weather here in the late 1800′s.

Now we have a recipe for disaster, lots of plant material that has expended energy flushing out lots of new growth, and guess what? Yup, you guessed it. In August and September, we missed some critical/crucial rains. We began seeing dead lawns, trees, and shrubs (not dormant, dead) in Carmel, Greenwood, Downtown, Avon, everywhere…

And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I predict a lot more mortality to show itself in spring, especially in older plant material that barely made it through the fall and went into the winter stressed and weak, in particular in evergreens. There are dead Arborvitae, Yews, Hemlocks, and Spruce all over the place.

Then December hit… can you say SNOW? The 3rd snowiest December for Indiana in over 100 years! Yes, we were busy doing snow removal, right into and through Christmas. Global warming? I’m not sure. Climate change? Maybe. What will 2011 bring? Well, I predict… oh, wait… there’s some more snow coming, gotta go!