Hey Steve, Is the pipe between the pond and settlement chamber buried in the ground, underwater, or lying on top of the ground? Wouldn't drain holes make the pipe useless in the summer when it needs to be sealed to facilitate flow between the two waters? My DH did something pretty ingenious to ours, but it hasn't seen a winter yet, so I don't know... Our 4-inch pvc siphon between big pond and little settling pond comes up and over a cement deck, so it is exposed to the elements. We intend to drain it come winter and hope for the best. Its two ends will be underwater, but the middle will be in the frigid winter air, and empty of water. Jmorris, do you foresee a problem with freezing and cracking in this situation, if that pipe is (mostly) empty of water? That pvc seems awfully brittle in winter. Anyway, DH put a 2-inch vertical T in there, and a 2-inch knife valve in that. To fill the siphon with water he sticks the shop vac hose in there, opens the valve, sucks, then closes the valve and shuts off the vac. In winter we intend to open the valve and leave it open. I'm curious about Steve's unusual circumstances, though. If the area of his pipe fluctuates between being submerged in ice/floodwater and being in the frigid air, and there is no practical way to mitigate this fluctuation, could he stuff styrofoam pieces in and around the pipe to any good effect? Would it be smarter to make the pipe sectioned so he could remove the middle part in the winter? Or could he just ensure, like we did, that any water/ice inside of it can migrate out freely? Ours can never be sitting in water because of the deck's slope, so I don't think we'll face the same challenge. I'll let you know come spring. Best of luck with your pond, Steve. -- Zinnia

Zone 4a and this will be my fifth year doing this. I start around new years, typically with hardy perennials in my zone, shurbs/trees and seeds that i don't really care about (e.g. old seeds). I typically wait until late February to start putting out a lot of my annuals, and I leave the following til the end of march or early april: zinnias sunflowers ornamental millet abutilon dolichos lablab morning glories 4 o'clocks cosmos and pretty much anyhting tropical in origin Most of these will sprout if sown earlier, but their foliage is sufficiently tender that I lose them in the cold nights we have earlier in the winter/spring. If I wait til then, they typically don't pop til mid april or later and i typically don't have to worry about the seedlings freezing then.

For a decent cutting board, I bought a 2x3 foot sheet of 1/2 inch thick food grade polypropylene plastic. Its tough and has been used over 20 years now. I even roll out pie crust on it. To clean it only needs a soapy sponge. To really dig into it to get out anything thats left on the surface. I use a big 4 inch wide flat edged metal scraper that will dig up any traces of foods that may have gotten onto the semi rough surface. I sharpen all my knives (over 30 different sizes and shapes) at the same time. I usually only use the textured steel sharpening honer that a few of the Chicago knives came with, or my ceramic honer, if I am using a single knife a lot. It helps to get rid of that burr that can happen from a grinding wheel. I know if there is a burr if I move my finger over the side of the knife where the sharp edge is and I feel a rough surface. Always WASH your knives after they are sharpened! You don't want metal filings in your mouth or elsewhere.

Thanks for the info on the All Clad - dishwasher use would be an important factor. As for the knives, I have them - I just added a couple new ones and need a block with more slots and I'd like my kitchen shears in there as well. I think I'm going to be stuck with the lighter shade as that's all that seems to be out there right now.