My buddy tried that salt trick once and it went about as well as you'd expect. He chucked a pinch into his forge and it just fizzed and popped like crazy, scared the crap out of him. Then he tried it again with less salt and still got this weird green flash that made him think he'd messed something up. Took him forever to realize his bellows technique was just wrong and he wasn't getting enough air flow. Now he just sticks to watching the color and swears by the old "cherry red for this, orange for that" method his grandpa taught him.

OH MAN congrats. You basically traded a screaming toddler for a quiet adult who pays you. That's a HUGE win. Nothing beats the feeling of hitting "archive" on that one cheap client's millionth email while your retainer check clears. It's amazing how much easier life gets when you're not nickel-and-dimed to death.

Right there with you man, switching to 7018 on anything rusty is a game changer. That slag just falling off makes cleanup so much less of a headache.

Hold up, I gotta jump in here. That red lava rock is a real thing, but your friend might have it mixed up. It's not so much for keeping moisture in the soil, it's more for stopping weeds and keeping the soil from washing away. The rocks get hot in the sun, but they actually slow down evaporation from the soil underneath by blocking direct sunlight, even if the top feels dry. If the soil underneath was bone dry, sounds like they might not be watering deep enough or the rocks are too thick, like more than a couple inches. I've seen folks use it on succulents and cacti too, where you actually want the soil to dry out fast. So it works in the right setup, but it ain't some magic fix for keeping things wet.

Does that $5k actually cover three months of expenses in Phoenix?