I assume you have the plants, not the seeds, in the fridge! I've never had good luck with fridge treatment. I don't know why. The plants I put in the ground just sit in suspended animation all season. The naturally vernalized ones on the other hand produced by August. You can push them below 30 F. Once hardened off, they can be pushed down to 27-28 degrees. A few days above 50 will not reverse or cancel vernalization. Definitely plant them out early. Plant them out once you're past the risk of getting temps. below 25 degrees. The exposure to cool nights will add to vernalization.

Well I'm planning to get my 'new' machine fixed so I can finish the Birthday Blocks I started the other night - problem with the top thread catching at the bobbin I've asked the question in another forum if anyone is planning a Syliva's Bridal Sampler - so I hope to hand piece blocks for this throughout the year (1 block hand stitched so far - after the machine failure) I want to machine quilt the round robin quilt top (but hope to get the spare room sorted out so I can leave the machine etc up each night while I'm working on this) I've a black / jewel top started - so need to finish this plus baste and quilt the harvest coloured quilt top and no doubt I'll see lots and lots of other patterns and ideas that I JUST HAVE TO DO same as everyone else Anyway I hope everyone has a great new year Ethne

Here's the follow-up to "More later." I won't go into all the details, but will explain somewhat about my lack of activity here, and why I haven't been posting much. Shortly before my 90th. birthday, when I had the awesome Harley ride, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a lumpectomy shortly after. I had already learned of a vision problem that required a second cataract surgery. Multiple follow up appointments for those and treatments for the eye still ongoing. Recently I learned that I have skin cancer (squamous cell) as a result of an ordinary wart on my left calf that had been there for years. I had been told to just leave it alone, so I did until it started to grow a cap. Now I'm getting weekly treatments for that and it is responding really well. This past summer I gave up driving and sold my car. That is a life changing decision, and I miss my "little rambling (shopping) trips" that I used to make. I am very blessed to have my DD close by. She takes me to all my appointments, and is a retired Radiology Tech, so knows what the Docs are saying, and translates it to me. So that is my tale of woe, I haven't had the time or inclination to post a lot, but things are going okay in each case and soon Spring will be here and I'm looking forward to what my young'ns will come up with for my 92nd. End of whining!

Yes...and no. Building a residence with a basement or a crawl space was a common building technique in much of North America for a very long time. Many of the wonderful houses posted in RES's thread are built this way. And, of course, in many cold climate regions basements continue to be a popular way to build. I'm guessing that the post WWII housing boom helped to usher in the use of slab on grade construction for houses in temperate climates. It is faster and cheaper construction. That said...crawl space construction has gone out of favor for many reasons, including energy efficiency, mold, rhodents and "tight houses" which are much more efficient when built slab on grade. Custom designed houses using a properly designed and prepared slab on grade construction can be as high quality, energy efficient and long lasting as any other approach. But...if you want a house built like they were a century ago...and have the resources for it...then by all means proceed. Just be aware of the various issues that go along with it and be prepared for the necessary mitigation measures.