Feeding the birds is a good use of bricks, too, especially when they're surprised by early Winter weather. :) Here (SoCal), we've had a couple of brief entries into Autumn weather, but always quick rebounds into general Summer. It's very confusing since it still gets dark when it feels like it should be light until a couple of hours later. If KAF actually put the recipe on the back of the bag, it's probably foolproof. That is, it's probably meant to be successful even with variations in temperature, humidity and oven climate. Edie, I just tell the truth as I see it--I'm happy to be supportive, but won't mislead you to do so. Baking bread is a normal kind of thing. Everyone with ordinary physical and mental acuity can bake bread, can dance, can sing. Perhaps there will be differing levels of natural giftedness, but all can learn to a level of competency, no matter the age. The homely arts belong to all of us. Not everyone can engineer a skyscraper that won't topple in an earthquake. Even among those well trained to do so, there's a level of magic, that is, intuitive synthesis of massive knowledge, that is necessary as well. I read once that a German master baker, who grew up in the trade, said that there was no way to learn what he knew without dedicating decades starting from puberty. I'm sure that's true. But if you're not in the business of making loaves by the dozens daily, and requiring a level of perfection that comes from professionalism, you can still bake bread. Same as someone who only has middling control over productive pitch can still learn to sing a song that won't make listeners put their fingers in their ears. Practice and familiarity with one bread, or one song, and from there to a repertoire, substitute for the lifetime of study of all breads or all vocalizations. Going wrong sometimes helps. I would never have landed on WTF Bread if I hadn't been out of it on baking day. :) And WTF is the closest I've come yet to what I've been aiming for. :) I'm not far behind you in age, or far in front in experience out of my comfortable recipes. I've learned scads in the last six months, and have learned far more from my "failures" than my roaring successes. At a certain age we have the time and head space for contemplation and a more interesting kind of learning. And we can have, oh, so much fun!

high pH locks up certain nutrients in forms that are unavailable to plants. Having them present on a soil test report does you no good unless you know how much of what form is present. Start simple. Whenever the presentation is chlorosis, and especially when coupled with a soil test that returns an elevated pH, the first check is always mineral deficiency. Simple check, apply iron. if you see improvement, you know this is the right track. Is it the complete answer? Nope. Do you really want the dissertation? No more than I want to type it on a mobile device. Honestly, I'd start with liquid iron. It's simple, readily available, and the down sides are low...the biggest down side with liquid iron is how often you need to reapply it...think of it like a shot in the arm, a quick boost, not necessarily a long term treatment. Granular forms...especially the chelated forms, will give you longer effects, and the chelated generally also has what i'll call the banana bag...chlorosis is rarely the result of a single nutrient, and usually involves the m's...Mg, Mn. Long term results are where sulfur comes in. Adding sulfur will help lower the pH. None of these are one time treatments. Liquid iron is pretty often, granular chelated is significantly less, and sulfur is a time or two a year...other factors are in play, such as how much rainfall do you usually see? Less rainfall, more likely nutrient unavailability. More rainfall, more frequent treatments. this is the simple version. Not the idiot version, just the simple version. 2 Questions: 1. Do you see good new growth each year? or minimal? 2. Did your soil test results come with any particular recommendations?

There are different ways to check for different kinds of bread. I do a no knead whole grain bread when I want to limit my clean up water. It is wet, starts with a soaker and a preferment, and after mixing it rises for at least twelve hours. It's a long process without kneading. The volume only increases by about a third. There are a lot of seeds and other things mixed in which also help impede the rise, though the biggest culprit is the bran. I get my best rise by putting the mixed dough right into a terracotta banneton I can bake it in. It's not pretty but it is delicious. One checks by volume. On the other end of the spectrum, my very yeasty, sticky but not wet, double rise challah dough is guaranteed to double in volume in a short time. Usually about 80 minutes. The challah could do the windowpane test, but the whole grain won't stretch that much without breaking. I use the spring back test for whether cakes are fully baked, but not breads. Both of the above would fail. The challah would deflate. The whole grain would look insouciant and say, "Huh?" Linda is right, btw, about the gluten developing over time. Working the glop and stretching and folding is done to develop the gluten, according to the bakers who started this trend, and the sciency ones as well, but if you leave it to ferment long enough, it'll happen without. That's the point of "no knead bread". But it also takes days to make. Re the whole wheat love of your starter, that's some magic flour! Generally, they like white because it's a sugar high. Don't be scared of a happy starter! Next time you decide to change the feed, give it some of each and put it in a bigger bowl so if it grows that fast, it's contained.

James- hi! I did a remodel and the original builder (since fired )paid no attention to the fact that we wanted to paint the windows black with mullions even though we spent a fortune on rounded sheetrock returns and he knew it. Our windows were ordered with the jamb too short (and not thin enough to be pretty painted black- like an in between 3” jamb on a 5” wall) so a jamb extension was done by the trim carpenter that didn’t quite line up well and now I have NO idea what to do. It is such a mess! Also, didn’t you find it hard… I want to do white dove wall with simply white base molding, but I’m not sure if I need to then paint the wood that joins the windows white dove or simply white.. with the mullions black! It’s almost like I might be forced to do a white dove base molding. How did you handle that??