brhoff,

Thanks for the tips, particularly the baker's percentages. I have some books that list baker's percentages for ingredients, so that will come in handy in the near future. I am already weighing almost everything, since my scale will display to two decimal places. This works well for small stuff like yeast. I have a large,lightweight plastic bowl that I use for flour. I have a TARE feature so I can zero out the scale with the bowl on it. It's only 4.25 oz.

I will be keeping my yeast in the 4 oz bottle that the first batch came in. It stays in the refrigerator and has a good seal on it. The balance of the 1# brick will go into a sealed mason jar in the freezer until it's time to refill the smaller jar.

I never thought about the local microbes overpopulating the transient microbes, but it just makes sense that they would. I like my overnight starters as I don't have to name my starter and worry about feeding and changing its diapers.

ohiofly,

I'm too cheap to add onto my house. I'll just use the neighbor's kitchen when they are not using it. A brick oven is a tempting idea for the patio. I wonder what Mama would thnk about that? Hmmmmmm....? NOT!

Mrs. Knepp,

I tried to make Bill feel bad, but it obviously didn't work. Just take a second mortgage on the cat and go get the KitchenAid. I just bought the KitchenAid Ultra 300 watt model for a friend on Friday for $120 at Lowes ($250 machine). It was a manufacturer's display model that did not have a box, and was dirty from sitting out on the shelf. That was a big time catch. They are rotating out old stock and getting in all new stuff. Might be worth the trip if you have one nearby.

Joe