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.

Hmmm, now that you mention it, I do recall this stuff did stink. Course, we had so many "smells" going on in the renovation of our old 1952 lake house...this was just one more. It's been many months since ours went up and now we've finished painting it. I do not detect any odor and had forgotten that it once did smell. BTW, read about what types of paint to use or not use with this product. As I recall, they did not recommend any kind of gloss paint. Anyway, be sure you check on that. pup

Primer: Pre-ferment is a method by which a small dough is made of yeast, flour and water, to develop the activity and flavor of the yeast, usually overnight. "Ferment" refers to the yeast activity in the final bread dough. Biga (Italian) and levain (French) are pre-ferments. Usually, however not exclusively, bigas are made with commercial yeast, and levains are made with sourdough starter or saved levain starter. Those distinctions refer to the origins of the words. Many bakers use the words interchangeably. If you're not sure, just say "pre-ferment" and you're covered. Similarly, banneton, a woven basket, usually lined with cloth (French) and brotform, a coiled basket, less often lined with cloth (German) are used interchangeably for both types. In English, you can say "bread form" or "dough basket". Many people say "proofing basket", but I don't care for the word "proof" as a synonym for "rise". I'm not old, but I remember proving cake yeast before dry yeast was stable, but fresh yeast could have died. The yeast was proven (i.e., "proofed"), when the biga rose. The rises of the main dough were a given unless something really bad happened. Nowadays, people just toss in dried yeast and expect it to rise, and it does, so they proof in the baskets. This is a persnickety quibble that has no real meaning to anyone but me. :) Hydration refers to the weight of water in the dough based on the amount of flour, and is usually expressed as a percentage. The flour is always 100%. If there are different flours in the dough, then they have partial percentages, e.g., 95% unbleached white flour and 5% whole wheat (a substitute for European style bread flour). Add them up and they equal 100% because the flour is always 100%. This allows one to discuss, clearly, the amount of water in the dough, which can be more useful than adjectives such as loose, wet, sticky, tight, tacky, etc. If you have 1000g total of flour in your dough, and your recipe calls for 68% hydration, you would use 680g of water. If you have 650g of white flour, 120g of whole wheat, and 30g of rye flour, for a total of 800g flour, 68% hydration would mean 544g of water. These percentages really only apply to what's in the bowl. When you do your stretch and folds on additional flour, you're changing the percentage. When you wet your hands to do them, you're also changing the percentage. So they make it easier to talk about baking, but every baker is still going to have slightly different results. Factor in environment--flour absorbs humidity from the air, and also releases it and dries out. It also has a fat component, though much less with white flour, especially bleached. (Put your white flour in a half full, air tight container for a year (i.e., trapping in some air so oxidation will take place), and even the bleached stuff will smell rancid when you open it up (personal experience talking).) If you oil your surfaces, hands, etc., a trace of oil can also be added, mostly negligible, but sometimes a few drops can make a big difference. With all of those factors, as well, the percentages refer to the basic recipe, and the rest is whatever works for you. Like S&P to taste. Experience is king. Repetition is important. Getting a feel for it is crucial.

My one year old english bulldog has weekly puppy play dates with another Eng. Bully.They bark at each other all the time. Tootsie likes to run up onto chairs or tables and Lulu sits on the ground barking at her to come play. they're talking. They actually get quite vocal. And their playing looks rough to me with all the biting but you can see they are enjoying themselves. They run around the yard chasing each other. Lulu goes and gets tootsies toys and drop them in front of her to get her attention. They were even playing tug of war today with the rope. I think as a dog owner you can recognize when your dog is playing or when she is getting mad.