Curing concrete takes 28 days no matter what you do. Even after that, the concrete will continue to harden throughout its life. For regular concrete: as soon as you can't dent it with your fingernail, you can immerse it in water. Two weeks isn't too long. Forget about it & let it go a month? No problem. Since you live in such a cold area, there are two things in particular that you can do to make your concrete more frost resistant. The first is to make your mix with as little water as you can. It has to be completely moistened, but not wet. Mix the concrete VERY well -- using gloved hands is best. If you can form a ball of it in your hand and it doesn't slump too much, that's about right. This will make the air pockets in the mix very small; it is the water that works into these air pockets and freezes that causes the concrete to crack, & eventually break. The second way is to add a latex polymer mix to the water. If you have a commercial brick/mortar place nearby, they may help. Some people use Elmer's Carpenters Glue. Mix 1 part glue to 4 parts water. Always mix well before adding to your dry components, & don't let the glue or the mix freeze. Be careful about adding this to the dry mix, as it tends to change from not-wet-enough to too wet VERY EASILY. I pour about half of what I think I'll need into the dry mix and mix it well with my gloved hands until all is uniformly damp. Then I start adding more liquid mix slowly, maybe only 2 tablespoons at a time. When I'm close, I drop down to just one tablespoon at a time. Latex polymer additives seal the air spaces in the concrete so water can't move from one area to another, thus helping elminate water traveling through, and freezing inside, your work. Be prepared to wash your hands & mixing utensils frequently when using this material. NOTE: keeping your pieces moist for 2 days with this method is good. DO NOT keep wet or immerse for longer than 2 days or the moisture will WEAKEN your concrete. One thing I am wondering about is the thickness of your pieces. Would increasing the thickness to 1/2" for added strength make them too clunky looking? 'Pup

If you averaged your winters lows over a 15-30 year period, which is what the USDA does, I think your area would be a solid 7b, but nowhere near an 8b or 9a. Not even Virginia Beach gets a solid 8b and is consequently still a zone 8a on the USDA zone map. Microclimates aside, you could possibly have to deal with 7a and even the ever more rare 6b temp in that period of time. Atlanta has even had zone 6a temps in a 30 year period. Milorganite is fine for the Trachy too and I use it in addition to palm fertilizer. I would up pot the bananas in a month or so and fertilize again. Musa Basjoo is corm hardy in our area and even futher north, so it can be planted in the ground and left out for the winter. It will grow much larger in the ground than in a pot anyday.

Cloud Swift - I think your bread looks great! It may be what you are using to score the tops (or how deep), but there looks to be really excellent ovenspring as well. Scoring is another huge debate item. Angeled (30°) cut, use a lame or a blade, using scissors or a knife - the experts spend a lot of time on the subject... I also think the "poke test" for dough should go the way of wearing hats and gloves in church! I might also add thumping the bread to test it for doneness should also get a second look. I prefer to actually KNOW if it's done by using an instant read thermometer. Some breads really need that extra 5-10°F to BE done, and a "thump" doesn't give that information. It's brown, doesn't cut it either. I use agave nectar, and honey gives the same false "brown enough to be done" look. Both contribute to early browning - much sooner than the loaf is actually done. A dough rising bucket will help new/infrequent/hesitant bread bakers make better bread because they can actually tell when the dough has doubled - NO GUESSING. An important part of successful breadmaking. I also set a timer to check the dough in the dough rising bucket. When I bake I WEAR a Polder Timer around my neck (I've been known to wander outside and get distracted while waiting for dough to rise...;-) These may seem like piddly details for the experienced bread bakers, but there are more questions about "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BREAD - AND HOW CAN I FIX IT" than details about successes on this site. If an inexpensive plastic tub with a lid can make a failed breadmaker a successful breadmaker, WOOO HOOO! As far as the final proofing goes (panned or free-formed) - it takes all five senses to make good bread and our eyes have to be our guide at this point. Over- or Under-Proofing Panned Breads: 1. An incorrect amount of dough placed in the pan to begin with is a prime suspect for over- or under-proofing panned breads. It's the fear-of-the-scale problem. A standard loaf pan (1-1.5# dough) and a 9x5-inch loaf pan (designed for quick breads) are not the same volume. If you put 1-1.5 pounds in a 9x5-inch loaf pan (which can accomodate 2#+), you may allow it to rise way OVER double to fill the space. If you put 2# of dough in a standard size bread pan it will be easy to under-proof it, or you can end with a mushroom and a lot of shredding on the sides. If I place more than 1# of dough in my Pullman pan, as soon as the dough hits the oven and I get a good amount of ovenspring, the additional dough will quickly seep out any crack in the Pullman pan lid. This is a "MUST SCALE THE DOUGH" loaf. I also scale dough amounts so that I have equal amounts in each pan that bake in approximately the same amount of time to nearly the same size. I scale the dough for hot dog buns, hamburger buns, dinner rolls, etc. The scale is my friend! 2. The next mistake comes when people think they need to allow the dough to rise to the size of the finished loaf - this is over-proofing. The little rule-of-thumb: The dough log is approx. 1/3 the size of the finished loaf. You allow that amount of dough to rise until it's approximately "double" the dough log size - which accounts for 2/3 the size of the finished loaf. The ovenspring (the amount the dough continues to rise after it's in the oven) accounts for the last 1/3 of the size of the finished loaf. After you are familiar with a certain recipe, you'll know when the dome of the rising dough is about 1-inch over the edge of the pan, it's doubled. You'll use little signs like that to guide you, but that doesn't work all the time on all recipes.... With formed loaves it's a little trickier - hydration and human error play into this, as well as the type of bread. Many aren't supposed to "double". -Grainlady

Well, I don't have much to say about beds but laughed a lot about the stories. My wheatie (18 mos) is happy to tear up his bed, it's lasted longer than his cutesie chew toys. He grabs it and hops onto the bed. Throws it down on the ground. leaps on it. grabs it. dashes to the living room. hops onto the sofa, bed in mouth, plops self on my down filled pillows in my lovely pillow covers and mouths the bed. He can get the plastic cap off of a 2 liter bottle in about 45 seconds (fear not, we watch and he doesn't swallow them although he gives them the chewing of their life!). The kong does endure but he doesn't enjoy it as much. He has chewed the nyla bone nub down to a straightaway. He's chewed up 3 pairs of reading glasses (DH finally puts them out of the way), a couple remote controls, a couple tervis cup lids, every outside corner baseboard, 2 pairs of sunglasses (my son now puts them away), furniture feet, legs, arms, a set of ear phones, 2 sets of ear phone silicon buds (okay, I finally put them up high), rug corners, 2 bath mats, six ornaments this year that won't be adorning any more christmas trees, any plastic storage container that is within reach, his leash, his harness (while it was on.... too loose I suppose), sandles, shoes (of course only ONE of each pair), work tote, a bag of black kow, (at least he dragged it around the yard and spread the wealth), bags of mulch, bag of potting soil, garden knee pad, trowel handles, gloves, buckets, moisturizer containers, mouth wash bottle (fortunately it developed a noticeable leak and we caught him), the lap desk on which this computer sits.... you get the idea. He's a puppy so I hope he'll settle down as he reaches 2 years +. We're very fond of him but this chewing is getting to us.