I was outside this evening until exhaustion and mosquitoes ( I sweated off the OFF!!) drove me in...and I am amazed at what a 2 eye start of hosta will do in 2 summers. The hosta I planted in 06 are amazing! The bed I started by stuffing some stuff in the ground in a bare spot under a tree in mid summer of 05, needs the "filler hosta" removed. I am a firm believer in Alfalfa pellets and water....and lots of wood chips!! Linda C

Annie, did you ever hear the medical old saw that someone isn't dead until he's warm and dead? Meaning that life signs can be hidden by the cold? Same is true with starter. If you think it has died in the fridge, it probably hasn't if it had any legs at all. Pour off the hooch (brown alcoholic liquid) and use a spoon to remove the darkest of the gray part. Feed the rest, let it sit up to a day until you see a bubble. Feed it again. By the time it's warm and had a couple of good meals, it should start burping its thank-yous and showing rising signs of life. Feed it a couple more times in the warmth, until it doubles volume in 12 hours (8 is better) and you can put it back in the fridge to hibernate. Once a starter is established, it's really a resilient little pet. You can also dry your starter and wake it up a few days before you want to start baking...

Limestone is a very soft, porous stone. I would be very careful cleaning the stone as cleaners can be harsh. A pressure washer can do damage also. I would wait a year before sealing I'm not familiar with Harbour gray limestone, but I can tell you our experience with Indiana limestone. We have been using it for many years on coping and patios/walkways. A traditional mortar bed of typical sand and gray portland will "bleed" through the stone for about a year and then the natural coloring of the stone will be more consistent. If a white portland cement and yellow mason sand are used, you will not have any bleed. This procedure is actually stated on the Indiana Limestone site. Carefully clean and apply a sealer for this stone. Some sealers may change the stone's coloring, so be aware of that. Some efflorescence may occur along the way which is a naturally occurring event. The bucket stains may not come out-just sloppy work unfortunately.

When dough has good structure before proofing and poor/no structure after proofing, it is over proofed. The yeast has multiplied and produced gas so much that the gluten structure has broken down. Why was an overnight proof okay in the video and recipe that you used but too long for the bread you made? Several factors occur to me - biggest influence first: Your bread had a 1/2 tsp of commercial yeast, the other two had only starter. I've made rye bread and regular sour dough bread both ways: starter only or starter plus a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp commercial yeast. Even that small amount of commercial yeast decreases rising time a lot. 8 or more hours warm rise was probably too much for dough with a 1/2 tsp yeast. You started the bread in a bread machine which warmed it for two rises (an hour) while the video and recipe just did a half hour rest on the counter (possibly in a fairly cool room. So the yeastie beasties in your bread had a head start on multiplying. Possibly your kitchen and oven-light warmed oven were warmer than the environments in the video and recipe you followed. Another factor I'm not sure about. I've not made no-knead sourdough bread in the bread machine. Generally, the sourdough recipes I've used emphasize gentle handling of the dough after the initial mixing - no knock down, just stretch and fold. Possibly the knock down and second knead in the bread machine reduced it's structure. I'm not convinced of that, but it is different from the recipes. Even for sourdough starter only, 8 hours for a warm environment rise seems long. I've done counter rising that long, not rising with additional warmth. With commercial yeast added I would only do an overnight rise in the fridge. To avoid over-proofing, either find a recipe that uses starter plus yeast to use for the timings or do the rise during the day when you can check on progress to figure how long it needs or put it in the fridge to do the overnight rise in the cold. Over-proofed dough collapses very easily. When the dough is properly proofed, you will find it easier to slash without deflating. On the other hand, over-proofed dough isn't going to have oven spring so it shouldn't benefit from slashing. I slash either with a safety razor blade or with a double edged razor blade threaded onto a thin bamboo skewer to give the blade a curve like most lames. You want a thin, very sharp blade for slashing. A razor blade can be replaced when it's edge dulls.