>i honestly can't understand why universities etc.,. would research a mulching method?? A university will research almost anything that 1- a prof. has interest in 2- a student who gets their research approved (usually for phD project) and gets an okay for 3- whatever study might be tied to a grant they proposed/accepted 4- what surpluses/sources are available in an area which may be better utilized rather than being waste/low-income (value added production, new uses for something, etc). The use of pine bark as a soil-less medium used to be a less-used practice until it was trialed in a variety of horticulture/tree-shrub container projects. Now it's very common...with almost recipe-like nutrient/care instructions...for use in many container crops where pine bark is available in high supply. It's one thing to know you have something...it's another to know how to best use it because it's been studied extensively in order to find out the best way to use the least amount of inputs (the bark itself, whether it works better mixed with other things, water/nutrient scheduling, etc). When you're asking a farmer/nursery owner/etc to change the way they do things with 100s-1000s of plants, they like to have faith in it. Many don't have the time or space to experiment, themselves. ...it's also worth mentioning there's more than a few agriculture colleges out there with legit/strong Permaculture study programs. Some just offer a few classes and some (such as U.Oregon) have full-on programs developed to research/development. This post was edited by nc-crn on Tue, Jan 8, 13 at 16:51

Thought I'd check up on the boiling water thing - I had no idea myself. The quote is from Health, Canada, Ontario. The link is for high altitude medicine. "Treating tap water when a Boil Water Advisory has been issued When a Boil Water Advisory has been issued, or if you cannot confirm whether a Boil Water Advisory has been issued and are concerned about the safety of the water, use an alternate source of water or treat the water using one of the following methods : Bring the water to a rolling boil for at least one minute (water should be bubbling and rolling). If you are using a gas barbecue to boil water, use it only outdoors. During a power outage, never use gasoline or charcoal-burning devices, such as generators, grills, or camp stoves, inside your home, basement, or garage; or near a window. Carbon monoxide from these sources can build up in your home and poison the people and animals inside." http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/pub/watersafe/watersafe_power.html Here is a link that might be useful: boiling water

Susy, I also often add flour by hand after doing most of the kneading (or after sitting, for a no knead loaf), and don't have any trouble. I make sure that I have at least half of the flour in before kneading, so that I get enough gluten development for the bread to rise, and mix in the new flour well enough that I don't get flour pockets in the finished loaf. I think starting the recipe with all of the water and part of the flour is a helpful tool in several situations. If you're kneading by hand, it's almost impossible with a very stiff dough. You can go for 20 or 30 minutes and bruise your knuckles and the bread still won't rise. A wet dough (and wet hands!) is so much easier. If you've got sub-optimal tools, also. A cheapo hand mixer can't handle dough, but you can use it to whir up all the water mixed with half the flour and save yourself some elbow grease. As long as it's thick pancake batter consistency, you're getting some gluten development. Many stand mixers struggle with stiff dough. You can do most of your kneading with the loose dough, then knead in some extra flour toward the end. Adding different amounts of flour also allows you to use the same dough for a bunch of different uses. With my no-knead dough, I can add no flour and bake it in a loaf pan, add a little and make a free-form loaf or a pizza crust, or add a lot and make bagels. I'm not very familiar with bread makers, but I think over time you'll figure out the easiest method. If you've got a good strong motor on your bread machine and you prefer to measure your ingredients, once you iron out your recipe, putting everything in from the start may work perfectly for you. I'm more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal. I hope you'll come back and brag about your loaves, and maybe show us some pictures. We love that! :-)

Thanks for the comments. I'll try a glossier finish next time and see if I like it--don't want to mess with oil. I've always used a flat paint and had good results BUT the paint and glaze were always both Behr. Now I'm wondering if something very basic was the problem--the weather. Maybe I tried doing this in weather that was just too warm. The room was not air-conditioned, and it's hot here in the summer. Witness how melted my brain must have been if I expected to work paint in a 70-80 degree room! It's cool here today, so I'm going to see if my weather theory is the right one. I'm guessing that it is. Still haven't figured out about the color, though. It just seems to be on that one wall--elsewhere the tone of the glaze is quite nice. I did prime the other walls--getting good coverage with cream over an aqua blue is not easy. Think I'm going to stick to Behr for faux finishing, though, or maybe try BM.