Joe: By pugging I mean to "top" it to force lateral branching at a early stage (to give a more compact, rounded plant with better horizontal branching). I would cut it where that new flush started. The nodal space is nice and tight right below it and it would most likely give you a good three initial branches. As for the mulch, the crown should not be covered (by dirt/soil or mulch) and the mulch should not be touching r that close to the trunk. They should have given you their instruction sheet which states not to cover/bury the crown (don't remember the exact language they use). If you need one I can scan it to you. Rob

You can also get an egg chart (see link) to have eggs cooked exactly the same way every time to specification, it does not matter how cold/hot/big/small the eggs are. The sous vide system can be set up to do anything which will require exact temperature control, such as making yogart, hatching eggs, pasteurize eggs (for ice cream raw eggs), pasteurize milk, proofing bread, starting seeds, ---------. The steak took me about 8 hours. I like to serve steaks as hot as possible without overcooking. The sous vide method does not require resting. This is how it works: Since you cannot overcook the meat, you can take the time to prepare every other sides, then when it's time to eat, you tell everyone to sit down and fire up the cast iron skillet. I normally get the skillet to about 520F with an IR thermometer. Sear the steak about one or two minutes each side, get the house to smell real good. Perfect timing. Served hot !!! dcarch Here is a link that might be useful:

meant to add that we both love to cook, i especially enjoy it when i can take my time. as mentioned already for us it's a special meal when we do cook together, we usually try to on fridays and sundays. during the week thou we often have other things going on in the evening so we don't have time. my dad has eaten 3 meals a day out for 17 yrs now. once my mom got cancer, they mostly went out to eat and then when she died, ten yrs ago, he had no clue in the kitchen. onetime right after her death, he called me because he could not figure out what went wrong w/ his fav soup, campbells clam chowder :-/ he used water and not milk :-( he also called me about some yellow gooo in the dishwasher LOL i was thinking along the lines of sealant or something technical but it was the soap LOL. the housekeeper partially loaded it and put soap in so he could add his coffee cups and run it. he has had the stove disconnected from the gas line for 10 yrs and bought a little wine fridge (got rid of the reg fridge) to hold the milk for his daily coffee. coffee is the only thing made at his house LOL. he only eats at non-chain restaurants, he has his set ones and they all treat him like a king LOL. shockingly he's not in the least bit overweight, infact he's a bit on the too skinny side and is 70 yrs old. he's looking for a new house to move to and amoug the requirements for the next house is that he needs to be able to walk to plenty of restaurants when he gets "old" lol ~ liz

:) i'm in a similar position ...lots of trees/mulberry/hostas/liliesetc... I haven't noticed a problem with any plant except these semps. and I think I just made it very easy for the cut worm by putting them on the ground. I was worried that the mealy eggs/bugs would come back and start attacking other succulents. but I still haven't seen any so hopefully the winter killed those. I had a lot of perlite in the mix and I think that made it really easy for it to burrow as well ... but I can't avoid that. I don't use chemicals either I've got too many birds, baby squirrels etc ..they share my yard too and I'd rather see if I can outsmart this cut worm ... if I got many i'd have to go cutworm hunting (i'm sure the robins would help). :) Thanks ewwmayo :)