Stephanie, first thing, don't get frustrated or give up. I lost nearly half the roses I planted the first year. Sometimes it's nothing you do, it's the plant. You didn't specify if you had potted or bare root roses. Or where you bought them. If you bought bare root in bags in Home Depot or Costo, then forget it, it's the roses, not you. They are notoriously bad news. I succumbed this year and bought two and they are goners already. These usually come with canker already so they are pretty much DOA when you buy them. If they were bare roots from a reputable vendor, then soaking will help tremendously. Also keeping the newly planted rose well watered and misting the canes helps as well. I don't mound my roses, because I'm in a warmer zone, but some people say it helps. Also, some sun protection may help if they are in all full sun. Basically a bare root rose is asleep and then gets shocked to life by being thawed out, shipped across the country, then plunked into the ground and has hot sun beating on it all day long. That doesn't sound like fun to me! So they are usually slow to start and some don't make it. That's why I like to soak them in a bucket for at least a week. They can wake up in nice warm water (in the shade) and many of them 'break dormancy' and begin to leaf out in the bucket. That means when they are planted, they are somewhat awake and have a lot of moisture in their canes to hopefully help them make it through the first few weeks while they are building their root system in their new home. Roses are hardy, brand new roses need some babying.

Annie, you might try this recipe for lamb. It's one of my favorites. It's a great cold weather dish. (And I apologize to anyone who's tired of me posting it, but it really is easy, delicious, and the long slow braising does dissipate a lot of the slight gaminess that lamb sometimes has). FWIW, my dog goes absolutely crazy when I cook it. There is a French bistro dish called "Gigot de sept heures"--yes, that's "Seven hour leg of lamb". I first ran across this in Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles Cookbook". The first time I fixed it there were two teenagers in my house who claimed they didn't like lamb. Suffice it to say there were no leftovers. Bourdain makes the comment that when it's done, you should be able to cut it with a spoon. Like all common recipes, there are variations: but it's basically a braise in a heavy casserole dish. I used a deep cast iron Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid, and it worked great. Season the lamb with slivers of garlic, sear it, add liquid and vegetables, cover the pot, put it in a slow oven and DON'T PEEK for seven hours. Omigod, is it good--and easy!! This is a perfect dish for a day when you have a lot of laundry or housework to do. You gotta be in the house anyway, so may as well have a no-stress supper cooking while you're doing other work. You put it in the oven after brunch, then do whatever you need to do, and after seven hours you have some juicy and scrumptious lamb. A half hour before serving, cook up some noodles or something to catch the juices. Here's Bourdain's version. The only liberties I take with it is to brown the meat prior to putting in the other goodies, and since I have a very tight fitting casserole I don't bother with the flour seal. You can also use a little more wine if you want. The garlic cooks down so its not overpowering; do use at least the amount it calls for. GIGOT DE SEPT HEURES 1 leg of lamb, about 6# 4 garlic cloves, sliced, plus 20 whole garlic cloves 1/4 cup olive oil salt & pepper 2 small onions, thinly sliced 4 carrots, peeled 1 bouquet garni 1 cup dry white wine 1 cup flour, 1 cup water Preheat oven to 300 F. Make many small incisions in lamb, place slivers of garlic in each incision. Rub lamb well with olive oil, season with salt & pepper. (At this point I would brown the lamb on all sidesÂbut thatÂs not necessary.) Place it in Dutch oven and add onions, carrots, bouquet garni, garlic, wine. Put lid on Dutch oven. Combine flour and water, make a 'caulk' and use it to seal the lid to the dutch oven. Place it in the 300 degree oven and cook for 7 hours. Yes, 7 hours. NO PEEKING--leave it alone. Remove the Dutch oven and break the seal. You don't eat the cooked flour paste. That's it. About a half hour to an hour of prep, then you leave it the heck alone for 7 hours. It's nearly foolproof. Serve it with whatever else you want, and a medium bodied red wine goes quite well with this (say, a nice Zinfandel) but a dry white (such as the remainder of the bottle you opened to get the cup of wine in the recipe) is fine as well if that's your preference. Bon appetit!

A new memory card to be used in a camera should always be formatted in the camera before its first use. However, unlike IowaGirl's standard practice, you shouldn't reformat it every time you reinsert the card into the same camera. You will only shorten its life that way. A card, generally speaking, can only be reformatted a certain number of times. The better quality card can be reformatted more times than a lesser quality card, but, nonetheless, it will reach the end of its "formattable life" sooner or later -- sooner if you reformat a lot. And there's really no reason to reformat it unless it's acting up. Many memory cards intended for use in cameras come with free image recovery software. When you delete a picture (or a data file), it is still recoverable as long as it hasn't become corrupted. When you delete something, it's not really removed from the card/disk/hard drive. All that happens is that a command is given that the area of the media that was used to store that image/file is now available to be used for something else to be saved. And there is more sophisticated software available that can recover images/data files even after something new has been saved over it -- that's what happens, for example, when forensic teams work with hard drives when crimes are committed.

Elizabeth, that's so cool you have some echie sprouts growing! I mean, I got pretty excited a few years ago when I sprouted some lettuce successfully, but some echeveria seeds? You must be chuffed as chips! Do you have plans for the multiples you grow? I also read echeveria seeds germinate at around 68 -70 degrees. Maybe that's ideal but a little higher of temps can work? Perhaps it's a trade off of faster germination rates but lower overall germination? Some experiments need to be done. I volunteer. Lol I havent planted mine yet. =/ Got a few more touches on the foam swamp cooler I made with my guy that involve soldering and I'm waiting on all of that from Amazon. This weekend though! Start of his vacation week, sowing lots of seeds, second grow box for the 90 degree lithop germination, and installing succulent shelves! Good luck on the lighting! It's a confusing topic, but a simple T5 or T8 fixture and a metal storage rack, like the kind they use in kitchens, should be a good place to start!