Plucking of White Pine from our Home

Since their climbers decided it wasn't safe to do otherwise, Well's Tree Service used a crane to remove the white pine from our house. At the top of the tree there were two leads. Here you see one of those leads being carried from over our home. I estimate it's less than 1/8th of the tree. However, it in itself is as large as a good sized tree!

Below is one of the last pieces being carried away from our home.

Saved By a Tree

Now that it's light out, I see that the damage to our home by the white pine would have likely been worse except that it's fall was hindered by a black locust tree on the other side of the house. If the tree people were to just cut off the top of the pine tree, the weight of the pine could move it further into the house. The tree company says their approach tomorrow will be to trim everything they can to reduce the weight before they cut the locust support.


You can see the tree guy on the roof. He's installing a tarp to provide temporary protection from the rain.

The reason that the pine tree went down is that white pines have shallow roots and the wind was able to pull the roots out:


Here's a closeup of where it was uprooted:

Rain, Wind and a 130 foot Pine Tree

This is the 130 foot pine tree that had stood 10 feet from our home. It had seemed sturdier than trees still standing around it!

Snow Blizzard in Princeton, NJ

The holly tree in the above view out of Val's second floor office window on February 10 is leaning, not because of the wind, but because of the weight of the snow on it's branches. The next day, with much of the snow removed, it looked as shown below.

KDB to Israel and Ski Slopes

This winter break, KDB joined a college trip to Israel. She really enjoyed the introduction to the country given by the tour. She also made good use of her new Canon 5 d Mark II professional camera. Here's one of the photos that she took in Israel with the new camera: Trees.

Now that she's back in New York, she's joined the ski club and, on many weekends, is skiing slopes in the Northeast US. This week she has actually skied in Manhattan's Central Park.

Japanese Maple in Princeton

I've cared for this Japanese Maple since it was about a foot tall. It started, without my help, between our driveway and our Japanese Cherry tree. For many years, the tree expert has been saying that the Japanese Cherry is ill and should be removed. However, we still enjoy its cherry blossoms every spring. I'm using it as an anchor to train the Maple away from the driveway. Presumably, because the Cherry shades the Maple, the Maple has tried to grow at a substantial angle into the space above the driveway. The Maple shows spectacular fall colors. The green and yellow just behind it are leaves on the Cherry. And, the red blotches in the upper left by the house are berries on one of our Holly trees. This photo was taken in November, Today, being December, most all leaves have fallen and I just about finished leaf raking for the year.

Are your Photos Backed Up?

Recently, our laptop hard drive had to be replaced. Luckily, we regularly back up all important data on our PCs. If you aren't, you should. We use Mozy. which is an on-line backup service offered free for 2 GB of data. For additional storage, you can pay or you can refer others as I'm doing here. This and other tips are discussed on my home page at Joe Budelis Home Page Tips & Money Saving ideas.

Diet & Weight Loss Articles

Since my last posting, Valorie's posted several interesting articles on her Gaias Pen blog, for example, Transition Diet: Nourish Earth and Weight Loss Tools That Really Work.

Protection against H1N1 Swine Flu

Valorie just published an article Ten Foods to Optimize Immunity in her Gaias Pen blog. It and other articles in her blog give useful information that can help you protect yourself for the coming flu season.

Princeton Wildflowers

A week ago Sunday, we joined Steve Hiltner, the Natural Resources Manager of Friends of Princeton Open Space. on one of his Princeton Wildflower tours. This one was along the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath. It was quite interesting to learn a bit about flowers, trees, and other plants that we have passed by often, most of the time not even noticing them. The flower in the photo is jewelweed. Steve demonstrated how, via coiled springs, the seed pods pop when touched - a great demo for kids. After the walk, I did some more reading and found the seeds are edible and the juice of the jewelweed's stem is known to be useful as a skin remedy. Rubbing it on the affected spot stops mosquito bite itching, relieves wasp and bee stings, and is also said to be good for such affections as warts, bruises, fungal skin infections, nettle stings, minor burns, cuts, eczema, acne, sores, and any skin irritations. See Jewelweed (Impatiens species) and other articles on the web for more info.

Stars over Princeton

Friday night, Val and I observed stars over Princeton at the AAAP Simpson Observatory. Through the telescopes, among others, we saw Vega (the brightest star that evening), the Hercules Cluster, and several twin stars. We also saw Jupiter and a couple man made satellites move across the sky. The Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton offers public viewing through their telescopes Friday nights between April and October, weather permitting. Go to the link earlier in this paragraph for more info. Or, if you find yourself in the Princeton area and don't have this page in front of you, all you have to remember is to Google "Princeton Directory". You will find a link to the AAAP site on the Clubs and Organizations page.

Valorie started a Blog: Gaias Pen

Yesterday, Valorie started her first blog Gaias Pen. Her first entry is an article Managing Stress with Desk Pranayama. I'm sure she will be posting a lot of esoteric thought-provoking articles.

Another Presentation on "How to Do Webinars"

Again, Joe Budelis of Persimmon Telecommunications gave a presentation on Web Conferencing. This presentation was at the Brookdale Computer Users Group in Monmouth County, NJ. There were about 35 people in the conference room at Brookdale Community College and several people joined the web conference from four remote locations.

KDB Summer Plans

KDB is going to take some credits towards her bachelors degree at Barnard the latter part of this summer in Paris. Meanwhile, she has found various part time work assignments for the first part of the summer.

How To Do Webinars to be presented at Trenton Computer Festival

Joe Budelis, owner of Persimmon Telecommunications, will present "How To Do Webinars" at TCF-2009, the Trenton Computer Festival in Trenton, NJ. The PowerPoint slide presentation is available at How to Choose a Conference Service for business or personal use. If you would like to join either the Saturday morning or the Sunday morning presentation remotely, at least 30 minutes before the start time, register at "How To Do Webinars" Registration.

4 Bedroom House For Rent in Country Setting near Princeton, NJ

Four bedroom house for rent in Blawenburg, NJ. A charming 4 bedroom country house that I rent out, is becoming available in June. The current occupant, as planned, has just bought a home. If you know anyone who may be interested, send them to Princeton Area 4 bedroom Houses For Rent.

Winter Trip To Southeast India

Joe & Val visited southeast India January 31 to February 9. We had been thinking of visiting India for some time. KDB already toured India on a high school trip! Valorie had been reading the teachings of Dattatreya Siva Baba, who is known as "The YouTube Guru". When he organized an India trip around his birthday, Valorie took it as a sign since it was her birthday. So we went on what was a very special tour of India. Even though tour participants were from various countries, Siva Baba was able to obtain permission for us to visit temple areas that were physically labeled as off limits to foreigners! The tour might best be described as a religious pilgrimage but, at any rate, it gave us a unique view of India very different from what a typical visitor would see. I plan to make some of our photos available to those who are interested. For starters, I've uploaded some to Facebook. If you are not already a "friend" of mine on Facebook, request that I "friend you" to see those photos.

KDB toured Costa Rica on Winter Break

On KDB's winter break from her Barnard classes, she toured Costa Rica with a group of college students from the NYC area. She enjoyed activities like white water rafting, exploring a volcano, and flying over the forest canopy on a zip line.

Mobil NECC Reunion

Brian & Melanie Callahan & Doris Wert & Carole Umscheid organized a reunion for Mobil employees that took place on November 14 at Washington Crossing Inn, Washington Crossing, PA. It was great to see a lot of associates, some of whom we hadn't seen or been in touch with for some 8 or 9 years. Doris put together a booklet in which each of us summarized what we've been up to since we left Mobil in Princeton. In addition to the organizers, attendees were Lou Umscheid, Joe & Valorie Budelis, Mike & Kathleen Cosentino, Harry (MTC Engineering Acct Mgr) & Helen Frank (aka Leah, also worked at MTC Pennington), Steve Goldman, Sue Good, Dianne & Bill Hargraves, Bob & Gail Hinkle, Don & Sue Karp Lowing, Jerry & Linda McDermott, Roger Porto, Trish Donaldson (escorted by RMP), Bill (still @ Exxon-Mobil, 25 years now) & Lisa Radcliffe, Sallie Rochford, Frank & Marilyn Romano, Denise Schooley, Bob & Nancy Swierczek, Robin & Connie Unangst, Joe and Ruth Yencha, Ron Wolfe, and Ann Crocker.

How To Do Webinars presented at Trenton Small Business Week

Last Wednesday, Joe Budelis, as owner of Persimmon Telecommunications, presented "How To do Webinars"as a part of Trenton Small Business Week in Trenton, NJ. For details see How To Do Webinars at Trenton Small Business Week. The PowerPoint slide presentation is available at How to Choose a Conference Service for business or personal use.