The day before the ice storm I went out to get the mail and two things crossed my mind: 1) that Birch is getting mighty close to our power line, and 2) these two trees in the front yard are probably going to have to go this year or next. Not saying I'm psychic or anything, but danged if the storm didn't read my mind! While our power was out I put on rubber boots and used the long fiberglass pole mounted saw to cut the worst offending branch of the Birch off the power line (240v line). As for the front yard trees, another large trunk section broke off yesterday, not leaving much of the "live" parts of the tree behind. Do you think tree clearing companies charge extra to work in two feet of snow?