Encircle it with bamboo stakes. put bails of hay on all four sides, it helps keep the heat in. Put large pots of soil inside on all four corners. Be creative. Heavy rocks on the foor will help hold it down. Tie anchors and attach to other trees, or drive your car into the yard and anchor it to the car. or take put rope on all four cornes will the rope out so the car can drive over it to anchor it down. Our Santa Ana winds have been up to at least 65 October winds can be fierce. I have 25 gal pots of rocks that I use. actually I don't mean to be flip, actually how cold does it get, what are you dealing with. how big is the pop up, and what is it made of. I have seen how England deals with these problems, including floods, that came into their houses, ruined book, and plants. It is a serious problem. I have bubble wrap to protect them from the cold. My friends from Canada use several layers of news papers and made a cuff. They set the cactus into the front of the Garage door and left it open during the day, at night it was closed to keep dry. They built a greenhouse into the rocks and sunk in half way down into the soil, double payned windows in the front only, heated floors, etc. The back and sides were made of cement block construction. The is where the orchids lived. Norma To keep warm use thick heavy size bubble wrap, make sure you have air circulation like fans, get old discarded sliding glass doors for weights. Be Creaive, Norma

Jacque, Economics and aesthetics are playing a role here as well. I've made several cheap ( as in less than $2 each) but ugly (to others!) raised beds from landscape cloth and surveyor's stakes. These also don't hold their shape quite as well as, say, cinderblock raised beds! Early in their second season view: Next I made a cinderblock raised bed, DW (is that an existing acronym?) likes the look but it was a lot more work and money (about $16) than the above. The tendency of the cloth beds to go circular made me think about the natural advantages of a round bed. With a fair amount of effort (mainly cutting the wire to size), I think you could make a round, 12 cubic foot (i.e., 1' high, 4' diameter) raised bed out of your basic utility wire fencing, and cover it with landscape cloth if needed/wanted, for about $2 - 3 per bed (assuming you'll be making enough to use the roll of wire!). I think it would have to be much sturdier than the ones pictured above.

Twitchy, What did you do about the square newel post? I am having a similar problem, but one thing that is different is that my wife wants a volute (the corkscrew curved rail) at the bottom of the stairs, but I don't know if I can do it. I wanted a box newel, but I'd like to see if a volute is even an option. (We also have the bullnose 1st tread, like yours.) My stairs are "closed stringers", meaning that you can't see the risers or "stair-step" from the side of the stairs. I believe yours is a closed stringer staircase, also. All of the other pics in this post have open stringers, where you see the sides of the risers and treads, and the balusters sit on the stair tread, itself. I have a 2x4 finished knee-wall on the side that the balusters will be resting on (similar to yours, as well). I was just wondering how yours turned out, or if anyone else has any suggestions for putting a volute on a closed stringer stairway, where the balusters will be fastened to a kneewall or the like. Thanks!

I have a pair of OXO kitchen and herb shears that will cut a thin cut of raw meat like this into the small pieces you want. I find this pair of kitchen shears invaluable in the kitchen. We don't always need to cut with a knife, and the shears does a better job on slippery meat, like chicken, or when removing the skin from chicken. The shears come apart so you can easily clean them after each use. Partially-frozen meat also cuts more easily if using a sharp knife. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: OXO Kitchen and Herb Shears