I had an interesting price negotiation with my tree surgeon, but not the kind you might think. He phoned me and offered a price of 50% of the original price of $900. I counter offered with $700, he replied with an offer of $500. Finally we settled on $600. That's right. I had decided that 2 days without electricity was worth $200, so I decided that $700 was a fair price, and he was trying to give me a better deal. I think that we negotiated a settlement that we can both be comfortable with. Maybe some day I will need his services again and I would rather that we ended this situation amicably. _________________________________________________________________ I read Dick Eastman's blog posting this morning, where he mentioned the new family history resources available for free at FamilySearch. To read the article see: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/04/familysearch-adds-300-million-names.html I decided to make a comment that is relevant to my own blog, so I will quote it. Posted by: Bill Buchanan April 30, 2010 at 12:30 PM This is wonderful! I just tried it and can actually view the 1870 census document instead of being sent to Footnote.com's commercial site. I am also amazed at the number of new databases recently added for Canada on the Record Search pilot. There now are over 20 major Canadian databases. I spent hours yesterday checking my database against the Ontario birth records, and I am part way through the letter "B". http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start I am also checking the free 1901 Canada Census at http://automatedgenealogy.com since that particular census gives exact birthdates too (sometimes exactly 1 year "off"). I enjoy all of these new resources. The Family History Centers have free access to the US Census 1850-1930, the UK Census of England and Wales 1841-1911, and lots of other good stuff through partnerships of FamilySearch with some of the major subscription services. These are "the good old days" for genealogy! _________________________________________________________________ I spent my evening at the FHC helping to install LCD monitors and miscellaneous other minor tasks. I expect to spend more time there in the future. I couldn't believe how "dead" things were. Despite all of the new free resources, there was only one patron for most of the evening. Somehow they have to get the word out to the public.