Gotta love those little sticky notes... saved my ass more times than I can count.

I mean I used to think that was crazy too but honestly it kind of clicked for me later.

Come on, "ceremonial" at least hints at something meaningful to those people.

Oh man, I gotta disagree a little. Zip ties look clean but they're a nightmare if you need to add or swap a wire later. I actually prefer velcro straps for that reason. You can just peel them off and rewrap without having to cut anything. As for managing the old mess while swapping, I just take a deep breath and clip one zip tie at a time, working from the outside in. Labeling as you go is key though, totally agree with you there. But please don't go full zip tie happy, you'll hate yourself in six months.

Only crack the lid for a second" - see I do the opposite actually. I let my jars sit for a good 10-15 seconds with the lid off to really let the CO2 out. I've been doing it for years and my kraut comes out great every time. The oxygen thing seems overblown to me as long as you've got everything submerged. I think people get too caught up in the perfect technique when most of the time the cabbage is just gonna do its thing.