This year I'm trying a new thing - no mulch around the beans. The voles love the mulch, and they avoid open areas. So far so good, but it's hard to know what the pressure is this year. It feels very wrong not to have mulch and makes watering and weeding frustrating, but at least the plants are living. I have also used small water bottles with the bottoms cut off and slit up the side to cover over the bottom of the vines (worked reasonably well, but sometimes they would just snip off the top above the water bottle). I string natural twine for the beans to climb up and use bicycle spokes as garden stakes for them, but it doesn't seem to matter to the voles to have the stakes in the ground. I think that was because they just travelled under the mulch, above the soil. When I use traps I always catch at least one unwanted creature - even with traps right in tunnels and covered. There's a brown wren around here that really likes to go into tunnels and it makes me so sad to trap one that I have stopped trapping. Sometimes if I get the timing right, during a winter thaw the tunnels are very visible and I can trap some voles then - they are more desperate for the bait in the traps in winter, as well. But I'm not sure how much good winter trapping does, since more probably just move in during springtime. One last thing I tried - pile up deer netting all around the base of the plants, like a huge tangle. It seemed to make the voles reconsider entering the area.

I use flour first also. Try 2 different ways : Right in the flour or Pat it dry with a paper towel a little. Also try a thicker Egg Wash ( less milk ) I put a tablespoon of flour in the crumbs, besides all kinds of Spices, Parmesan Cheese , Garlic powder , Onion powder, salt , Pepper and with Pork an Italian pinch of Powdered Cloves Sometimes I add crushed Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies, for a Crunchy Crust. Lou Save me one !!!

Joel I joined Garden Web just to comment on your problem. Actually it was at my wife's suggestion, she has been an active member for some time. I loved my old Victor torch set, and it gave me incredible service until I made the mistake of lending it to a guy tearing parts off a car. He was too lazy to walk for a hammer, so he would make a bad cut, and then turn the torch over and use it for a hammer. The thrill of Victor became the agony of defeat. Popping in either welding or cutting, or even general heating for that matter occurs when the tip temperature exceeds the threshold for popping to occur. Contrary to intuitive problem solving, this condition is remedied by turning up the heat. The gas flow through the tip cools the tip body. You are aparently aware that the acetylene flame shouldn't be dancing off the end of the tip prior to introducing oxygen, however you may be being overly cautious and consequently finalizing your gas adjustments at a setting too low to prevent popping. I found that on occasion I would have a tip which would pop for no apparent reason, and I could always convince it to behave by taking the acetylene only flame out till it quit smoking (another starting reference point) going past that till the flame left the tip, backing off till it re-attached itself to the tip while noting how far you had to close the valve to go from leaving the tip and returning. This amount of valve movement will be recalled in the next step. When the acetylene flame is back in contact with the end of the tip, start to bring up the oxygen, but don't go all the way to a neutral flame just yet. When you are about half way to a neutral flame with oxygen, go back to the acetylene valve and open it about half of the amount you needed to back it off to get the flame to come back to the tip. Finish by increasing the oxygen to a neutral flame and you should have no popping. If this gives you a heat level in excess of what you need for your typical cutting jobs, consider dropping one number on the tip size. The gas savings will pay for the tip over a fairly short amount of time, and you will realize another benefit of having a more docile cutting flame which will allow more precision cuts and a narrower kerf. (I don't know if kerf is a welding term or not. I hear my wife say it when she talks about sawing wood.)

If I were cutting stainless steel I would use a 4 inch angle grinder with a (steel cutting disc )as apposed to a grinding disc, which is thicker, and used only for grinding edges or grinding down lumps or bumps on steel surfaces, or dressing off weld joints etc. You mention that you are fitting sockets within your stainless steel panel, what I would do in this case is to measure (scribe) the length by the breadth of the sockets on to the panel surface using a (black felt tip pen) and reducing by 1/8 of an inch at the four corners on the inner side and there by giving you a clean professional finish to the fitted socket when it is fitted .Now you are asking yourself how do I get nice clean cut corners? ItÂs very simple really, you use a drill with a 1/8 steel drill bit, some plasticine or putty and you create a little well at the 4 corners and fill the well with oil, engine/cooking /gear oil, you can even use water if you donÂt have the above , the reason for executing the above process is because the drill bit will heat up and melt ,the stainless steel being harder than the normal mild steel bit that we normally use. I hope my little titbit will be of some use to you in your project. Always wear eye /face protection when using the above,.