Ideally, what you are after is a dark space that stays between about 20 and 40F all winter. For all practical purposes, unless you have an old-fashioned root cellar, this ideal is only reached by someplace with fairly serious climate control. If it gets too cold, the relatively unprotected roots will freeze and the rose will die. This is fairly serious. In a real zone 5, where -15 isn't some theoretical temperature, but something known to exist on real thermometers, this will probably mean a heat source. The usual thing is to tap thermal leakage from the house, either in an attached garage, or in a pile next to the house foundation. My personal feeling is that foundation heat is adequate in zone 6, but becomes problematic in zone 5. Of course this depends on variables like the foundation construction. If it gets too warm for too long, the rose breaks dormancy and starts growing. The problem with this, is that the short winter days, and relative lack of light inside means that the rose is not going to get sufficient light to thrive. Depending on how large and strong the rose is in the fall, it may or may not have the energy resources to break dormancy, produce useless foliage and then refoliate when the light levels increase. Darkness can fool the rose into staying dormant a bit longer, as can some dryness, depending on the ancestry of the rose. Since fall is our rainy season, the pots tend to go into the garage quite wet. They rarely need any water before the middle of February. However, that is when they usually break dormancy for me, and when they start needing water and light. I can usually ignore the light issue for a couple of weeks, so they don't have to start going outside until early March. Then they go in and out depending on the weather forecast. Having spent the winter in zone 8, they are completely out of sync with what is happening in the normal garden.

Ooooh Cheese - my favorite topic! I have made lots of different cheeses over the years, but concentrate mostly during the summer time on soft cheeses, such as chevre (a french style cream cheese), feta, crottins, and camemberts. When I first got into cheesemaking, I stuck with soft cheeses, figuring it would be too much trouble to make the hard textured cheeses, but, I changed my mind after a couple of years. I milk my goats "through", meaning I don't breed them every year because they are big milkers (l gallon or more a day), and I milk them right through their breeding season and have milk year round. I milked one of my Oberhasli's continuously for 4 years. Milking them through is a nice contiunous supply of milk for me especially in the winter. That is when I make hard texture cheeses, such as parmesan and romano. It takes 4 gallons of milk to make one wheel of the italian cheeses. It also takes 4-6 months for them to age properly. So, I make these cheeses in the winter and age them in my basement, and then they are available in the summer. It is very satisfying to have shelves of your own cheese aging in the basement or wherever. The best source of cheesemaking information is The Cheesemaker's Manual by Margaret P. Morris. She is from Canada, and I also buy all of my cheesemaking cultures from her as well. She is a VERY nice person, Very knowledgeable, and a great resource for reasonably priced cheesemaking supplies. She has a website at: glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca. I own just about every cheesemaking manual published and hers is definitely the best. I teach cheesemaking workshops occasionally, and I tell any new cheesemakers to pick one cheese you want to make and perfect that technique before you move on to another one. It is easy to jump in and want to make all kinds of cheeses at once, but it can get complicated. I tell new people that cheesemaking isn't really hard, it is somewhat time consuming in that you have to pay attention to temperatures and cultures and try to keep ahead of mold growth if you are aging cheeses. I have also been selling my cheeses at the local farmer's market in the summer for the past 8 years. It has been a nice source of revenue for me as it helps pay the grain bill. I have also educated the northern portion of our city on the finer aspects of good goat cheese. Most people turn up their noses and tell me some horrible story about goat cheese they had that was awful. I usually tell them that most imported goat cheeses are fairly strong in taste and smell - but - fresh cheese is absolutely wonderful. I always have samples out for people to try and they love it (most of them anyway). I started out making cheese using goat's milk and vinegar to curdle the milk. It is an easy recipe, but after a while I couldn't stand the flavor. Making chevre is SOOOOOo easy and it is sooooo good and versatile that I was sold.

I laughed so hard reading this my husband woke-up in the other room and thought I went crasy(I don't laugh much) When I first started reading I thought well this must be someone who doesn't have to get up and out and gone by 6am. I don't, not because I'm a work at home or retired,but I work seasonaly.But still sorry to say I love to shovel snow.My husband says when I shovel I'm a loly-gager.I don't push my self to huffing and puffing but I do get over heated.I'II even go out at midnight if its piling-up and shovel.It's amazing at night.When I look out at 5pm and see the rest of the neibours coming home and can't get into their drive ways I smile.But I do remind my husband how good he has it.Our driveway is 400 ft and has four parking spots and a turn -around. Plus I shovel a path to the garbage can,the propane tank and a path to the barn. I make sure the out door plug-in cord is visable and easy for him to get at too.I don't want a hero cookie.But I bet the guys down the street wish I belonged to them ,at least during the winter. Thanks for the laughs.Purple

I think this is one of those cases of where one thing that works for somebody doesn't work for the other. The no dairy has made no difference to my complexion whatsoever. I also have adult acne (was spared as a teen though) for me it is very hormone related in what makes a difference in my monthly cycle. Of course the majority of all dairy I consume are of the organic hormone free kind so maybe the hormones in normal dairy is the cause there for others. Also read the label on the cheese you buy some of it has ingredients I would not expect to see such as Aluminum. Organic if you can find it also tastes so much better imo. Dairy such as milk and butter are large ingredients in many foods. My daughter is allergic to the proteins such as caseins and whey in dairy, but we don't take any chances with anything that contains milk or those proteins. Goat products still contains caseins and whey and are thus not in our household. Also our pediatric allergist recommends to not have any exposure to the allergen to hopefully allow her body to stop producing antibodies against it so maybe she can eat dairy later. I do drink milk and yoghurt (organic on both) at home and my daughter drinks rice milk enriched with Calcium. I try to avoid soy and adding extra estrogens with soy substitutes for her, but there are some things we buy pre-made that is dairy free and often there is soy in that instead. Don't want to add soy milk unless I have to in things. Coconut milk and Almond milk are both great for cooking when I need something, but I usually stay away from recipes calling for milk. I wish I could say eating dairy free for 2 years (I continued for about 8 months after stopping BF) did or didn't do anything for my weight, but dairy hasn't seem to have had an effect there either. Probably because I don't eat much different calorie wise. If I don't have dairy I need some other source of protein so the calories gets replaced one way or another. Of course I have to stick to around 1500-1800 calories a day to maintain weight. If I go above as in eating out where it can really blow up then I gain in no time - dairy or not. I'm personally of the belief that none of the natural foods (ie non-processed) foods we eat are necessarily bad for us (unless you have an allergy), but that moderation is the key and eating too much of anything your body doesn't need will cause you problems. However the question for me is how do I figure out what my body really need. I try to listen to food cravings when they don't relate to french fries or junk food, but not sure if that is really the key. I started with this when I noticed that I got cravings for salt (not just salty food) when my blood-pressure was on the low side of my already low-blood pressure. Since I have type 1 diabetes (very well controlled) I also try to limit my daily carb intake and eat less refined carbs since there really isn't much difference to your blood between a spoon of sugar or a slice of white bread. It both turns in to glucose and for me at the same rate as far as spiking my blood sugar vs. a whole grain bread with lots of fiber. I guess with all this blabbering my personal choice is try for moderation and avoid too much processed foods, get some exercise, and eat at home and I seem to feel and do better weight wise too.