I'm thrilled to be able to say that my simple bleach-soak of the seed-starting flats seems to have been sufficient to eliminate damping off.  Just about every seed sprouted, and many of the seedlings are starting to put out their first new leaves.  They're a bit leggy, though, so I had Mark build the youngsters a new shelf near the bottom of the south-facing windows for more constant lighting over the next month or so before they hit the garden.

That left my warm shelf near the wood stove open and ready for the next round of seedlings --- broccoli and cabbage.  Since I didn't plan ahead and preheat my stump dirt this time around, I sifted out the frozen chunks, filled the trays, and heated the potting soil the quick way on top of two firebricks on a damped-down stove.  I'll let the chunks of soil I removed thaw and then will sift again to remove the nutshells and pieces of wood, which seem to be more numerous in this stump dirt than the debris has been in previous years.  Then the rest of the stump dirt will go toward the next set of seedlings --- tomatoes and peppers.

I try not to start too much indoors, so most of the plants we're sprouting here are backups for others that will soon be started under quick hoops.  But after a cold winter, the ground will stay cold for quite a while, which means it's worth giving extra attention to our indoors starts so we can have a normal first harvest.  Our winter stores are getting a bit slim and we're looking forward to the first new lettuce and other food from the 2014 garden.