Interesting Stuff...thanks for the responses Here is what I am facing (in Western Oregon) Yesterday... LOW 29 HIGH 45 OK, to me neither the soil temp or the air temp would be conducive to plant growth...even a cool weather crop, such as peas. Under these conditions, it was not raining but the sun didn't appear until late afternoon so things never warmed up. I have been gardening for (only) six years so my experience is limited, but my observation is that peas planted at this time do not germinate well...therefore I went to starting them in cell trays. They are my unheated greenhouse now and are growing some there. I would say yesterday's range in there was (like) 34 to 65. I don't want to go to "analysis paralysis" ...but there might be a useful quantitative number that I might use...any other thoughts welcomed

You can always get out the blender and mix some fresh garlic, onion, hot pepper flakes, milk and a bit cooking oil and whiz it all up with water. Filter it through a coffee filter and spray it on your zinnias. Often times IME this is enough to make a plant unpalatable to whatever has been eating it. Many insects are pretty specific in what they like to eat, and changing its smell will be enough to discourage the munchers. Alternatively, I find that a wander out into the garden at dusk or early in the morning with my coffee will allow me to catch the critters responsible. Since it's cooler, the bugs are slower. I drop them into a container of soapy water to kill them, and this is enough to keep the damage to a minimum.

I just went through this whole Phosphate thing. Turns out that there is a lot of "snake oil" occurring with pool chemicals. I would suggest never using Phosfree unless you want a huge, sticky mess on your hands and you want to spend some time cleaning out your filter. Go to Trouble Free Pools and learn how to properly maintain the chemistry. I thought my Intellichlor was broken but it turn out to be an algae issue that I couldn't see. The IC was just effective enough that it was keeping the algae at bay but using 100% of my chlorine which caused me to have to increase my pump time to 12 hours and run the IC at 100%. I now have a "real" test kit, properly shocked the pool,used the overnight chlorine test to make sure all organics were dead and added the proper amount of CYA. Chlorine is now back on target and IC is back down to 50% and a pump time of 8 hours. Chlorine / CYA Chart Perhaps a cornerstone element of BBB is understanding the relationship between the chlorine in your pool and the stabilizer you put in to protect the chlorine from the sun. Generally, the more stabilizer, the more chlorine you need to maintain its effectiveness. The charts below are the recommended relationship. Non -SWG Pools CYA (Stabilizer) Minimum FC Target FC Shock FC 20 2 3 10 30 2 4 12 40 3 5 16 50 4 6 20 60 5 7 24 70 5 8 28 80 6 9 31 90 7 10 35 100 7 12 39 SWG Pools CYA (Stabilizer) Minimum FC Target FC Shock FC 60 3 4 24 70 3 5 28 80 4 6 30

Our Dacor double oven died. What brands have people had the best experience with when using at high temps. We frequently cook pizza on a pizza stone at 550 and also do a lot of baking