Man, warm flowers as party favors - I love it. My backup plan is basically just crying in the van while my crew watches.

Does that cairn have the same problem where people keep adding rocks to it and making it huge? I always see those things turn into towers that look nothing like the original trail marker.

Feeling you on that, it's always hard to switch up what works.

Coal's heat control is all about paying attention to the fire color and the wind, not just cranking a knob. One trick I learned the hard way is to burry the billet a little deeper in the coal than you'd think, letting the coking coal do the work around it. The real killer is pulling it out too early, waiting until it's a full, even orange glow across the whole bar has saved me a ton of cold shuts. Fresh coal on top of the fire will steal your heat quick, so I always keep a separate low fire next to it for billets that need to soak a bit longer. Gas is definitely easier to set and forget, but coal gives you that direct feel for the steel's temperature in your hands.

Oh man, I totally fell for one of those too. Ended up with a jar that had a little thermometer strip on it and everything. What actually worked for me was just dumping a cup of whole wheat flour and a cup of water in an old pasta sauce jar and leaving it on the counter. Fed it the same amount of regular flour and water every day and it was bubbling like crazy in about a week. My first few loaves were still kind of flat and gummy though. Took me a solid month of feeding it twice a day and learning to trust my eyes over recipes before I got that nice open crumb.