I'm not quite counting anyone as being down for the count quite yet. But now that spring is starting to rear, well, its at the forefront of my mind, most notably the butterfly bush since it is "half-hardy" here. Ultimately, I wont be too heartbroken if certain things don't come back (it gives a good reason to buy more!) and I don't know that I'm "worrying" or "stressing" about these but I am thinking of them. And of course, no walking on the grass/ground - just the looking at what I can see from the patio... though the dogs don't seem to mind squishing around in the mud... Did I mention all three are white? I hate this thaw! jebfarm - good to hear witch hazel is blooming! Hopefully not too long now! I'd love to get one of these, too! Woodyoak - I know what you mean about everything being sheeted in ice. We had a nice little defrost for about a day or two before it dropped back to the negatives and everything was encased in ice. We were like living in a snow globe where the snow didn't move when shook because the water itself was frozen. lacyveil - I second the gardenweed's sentiment about agastache and mint being not one to worry about. I left mine out in a metal filing cabinet we converted into a planter... I can see some little basal leaves underneath the fall leaves I put around it. I thought I killed it the year before by leaving it in full, direct sun in a very hot hot hot summer. Never bothered to pull it out of the container, which was left out all winter, and come spring had some springing up! I can't speak exactly to agasatche itself (just planted my firsts this past summer) but if its anything like its cousin... You're good :) Love the input everyone - the best part of the gardening community is you're never alone!

OK - I have to put my two cents in here - for whatever it is worth. I have been camping with Dry Ice for a couple of years now - we do an 8 to 10 day annual trip and it takes some work to keep your stuff cold. There are no stores close enough to run down and get ice. This is what I do - I have two Xtreme coolers (they are great) - I take a cheap styrofoam cooler and cut it down and place my dry ice in it and then put it in the center of the cooler. Then I pack the frozen zip-loc bags on the floor of the cooler and up the sides. The Dry Ice has to be insulated really good - wrap it in news paper then place it in the styrofoam. You can also put newspaper around the inside of the cooler for extra insulation. After every thing is packed in the cooler (the tighter the better) then cover it all with newspaper and place more fozen bags across the top. I have had the perfect refridgerator for 5 days doing this. When the dry ice is gone I get a block of ice to take it's place and it will generally get me through the trip. Words of wisdom??? - don't wrap dry ice in a platic bag - the gas makes it explode, pop the water drain on your cooler - the gas need to escape and will pop the lid on your cooler and last but not least - don't place dry ice directly on the floor of your cooler - it will crack it - I left living proof at the last campground we visited!

Follow-up: I froze it as I said above, molded, then vacuum sealed. This week was my first occasion to take out a bag/block/puck. It's been blazing hot and it would be socially irresponsible to use a cooking appliance, though we've zapped a few things. I defrosted the hollandaise puck overnight in the fridge, and used it as "hollandaise butter", Pkramer style, to make cold sandwiches seem more like dinner. Thick Italian style whole wheat bread, hollandaise butter, heaps of little wild arugla and a generous helping of smoked salmon (one of the few ways I can eat fish). Open faced and enjoyed carefully so as not to lose the leaves. A fantastic treat rather than feeling deprived eating cold. The hollandaise is perfect. It didn't deemulsify at all, and vacuum sealing protected it from getting scummy or taking on any weird odor. The real tell will be when I try to reheat some, but after observing it as I was using it cold, I think the trick is to bring up the heat very gradually to keep it from separating. Thanks again for the encouragement to freeze, and the thought to use hollandaise cold and thick!

Thanks quasifish I think that is the route I need to go! I'm going to take them to the vet to be weighed every two weeks until I can get my own baby scale. I am also a bit afraid of my mother feeding the puppies too much laurief but both Misty and Jessie had health issues complicated/resulting for obesity so I know she wants to avoid that with these puppies. We are firm with my father when he wants to give the puppies table-scraps and correct their behaviour when we eat so they will lie down near us and not pester for food. I think the two issues Mom has is knowledge, she doesn't really know how much to feed even when the vet gave us a post-it with instructions on it, and love, for her feeding Misty and Jessie was sharing in love and affection. She used to cook a huge pot of rice and take the scrap meat from whatever we were having (turkey, duck, all the fat and stuff we would throw out), as well as some nice pieces of meat and mix it all up into a large roasting pan and put it on the floor to let them wolf it down. Jessie was very food driven. They enjoyed his antics when food was around, knocking the stove/oven with his snout, talking, etc., so eating was love, social and entertainment. But I will see about getting a baby scale so we can weigh them and adjust their food accordingly. I think Punkin's behaviour is also a factor since he inhales his food and then tries to eat Peanut's food. She'll take her time, sometimes faster, but usually twice as long as him when eating. Because he eats it so fast and looks for more Mom thinks he's not eating enough. She needs to let go of that worry to be comfortable with what we are feeding them.