And... I just checked the weather, looks like we're expecting a wintery mix again tomorrow and a return to freezing temps until next Thursday. Should I hold off on planting the strawberries until Thursday? I know strawberries can overwinter here without a problem, but I can't imagine it would be a very good start to bare root plants. Is there any special way I should be storing these?

Nope. They will benefit from the rain and the cold will do them no harm at all. Only if it gets really low would i worry at all. The plants would be ok even then- it's only the developing berries if there are any yet that would be affected. Since you don't usually let first year plants bear that shouldn't be an issue. Strawberries are hardy critters.

You should be ok. If you would like, put a light mulch around the plants anyway. Do you have something simple like crunched leaves? Or, you could put a light layer of peat moss down around the plants. But, strawberries should take the cold and some frost.

Visited your blog, nice little setup. glad you added some t-5's as those LED's were insufficient. Looks like you got your start down pretty well, if you have any questions feel free to post them. I do not use NFT currently but have in the past and am currently helping getting one running correctly. As far as strawberrys go, low PH and low ppm till production is best to get roots established and vegative growth. They dont like very wet feet so make sure to keep flow up and water lvl low. How hard is your water (ppm wise) and quality? You can usually find a free water report for your water free from a micro brewer in your area. Lots of brewers post their water reports online, and if the hardness is mostly calcium then RO is unnessesary as calcium is needed in pretty good quantitys in hydroponics. No need to remove it then add it back lol. ID reccomend pulling #7 and covering its hole. If it does have an issue with bacteria then it can be spread to the whole system. In NFT you always want to eliminate any problem plants as it can cause a whole crop failure. 16/8 light cycle is perfect, you should be harvesting strawberrys about 45-60 days from start. I usually clip the first few blossoms to promote plant growth but if you are in competition than feel free to let them go as they will be fine but smallish. Never clip vegative growth unless dead as it is needed for photosynthesis to produce root growth and berries.