u/prairie-462

Not technically cold brew in the immersion sense but close enough in spirit that I figure this sub won't mind. I'd been doing the standard 12 hour steep for years, 1:8 ratio, coarse grind, fridge overnight, the usual routine. Results were fine but always a little flat and muddy tasting to me, especially with lighter roasts.

Tried the pour over onto ice method last week after reading about it and honestly it's a completely different experience. Basically you brew a normal hot pour over but with your ice already sitting in the carafe, so the coffee hits the ice and chills instantly instead of steeping cold for half a day. I used about 22g of coffee for 200g total water/ice weight, roughly 100g ice and 100g hot water at 205F poured over medium-fine grounds.

The clarity is what got me. All the floral and citrus notes that get buried in a long steep actually show up. It tastes closer to what the coffee is supposed to taste like hot, just cold. Immersion cold brew still has its place for me, especially when I want something low acid and chocolatey for a milk drink, but for single origin light roasts I don't think I'm going back to the long steep.

Only annoying part is you need decent ice, the cheap cloudy stuff from my freezer melts too fast and waters things down before the extraction finishes. Been using a big block tray now and it makes a noticeable difference.

Curious if anyone else bounces between both methods depending on the bean, or if you've settled on one and just stuck with it.

Bought this heart shaped kerrii cutting at a plant swap way back, and it just sat there with the single leaf doing absolutely nothing for eleven months. No new growth, no dieback either, just stubbornly the same one leaf staring at me from a two inch pot. I almost gave up on it twice and nearly tossed it in with my propagation bin to try starting over.

Then about three weeks ago I noticed a tiny nub forming near the base and now there's an actual new leaf unfurling. I didn't change much honestly, still south facing window with a sheer curtain, still watering when the pot feels light, still using a chunky mix with perlite and orchid bark. The only real difference is I moved it about eight inches closer to the window when I rearranged my shelf in July, so maybe it just wanted more light than I was giving it before.

Curious if other kerrii owners have dealt with this kind of long stall. My other hoyas (a carnosa and a pubicalyx) never sat still that long, they always had something happening even if it was slow. Makes me wonder if the single leaf varieties are just built different in terms of patience required, or if I got unlucky with a weak start on the cutting.

Anyway just wanted to share since I remember scrolling through old posts looking for reassurance that mine wasn't dead, and finding a decent amount of similar stories helped me not panic. If your kerrii is doing the same nothing, it might just need a bit more time and maybe a brighter spot than you think.

Spent most of last weekend stumped by a tree at the edge of a reservoir trail near me. Bark was deeply furrowed and dark, kind of ashy gray, and I was convinced it was some kind of ash until I remembered the borer situation around here has wiped most of those out already. Leaves were already down so that avenue was closed too.

What actually cracked it was flipping to bud scars and twig arrangement, something I usually skip because it feels tedious compared to just eyeballing leaf shape. Opposite branching ruled out a huge chunk of possibilities right away. Then the terminal bud shape, kind of a narrow point with overlapping scales, pointed toward a maple rather than ash. Turned out to be a black maple, which I honestly didn't know grew this far into my region until I checked a range map afterward.

I think I've been leaning on leaves as a crutch for identification and it's made me lazy about the other seasonal cues. Bark texture, twig color, pith shape when you slice a small twig open, all of that stuff is available basically year round and I've been ignoring it because it takes longer to learn.

Curious what field marks people here rely on most once the leaves are gone. I know bud arrangement and scale count get mentioned a lot in older field guides but I'm wondering if anyone actually still uses pith cross sections regularly or if that's more of a herbarium habit than a field one.

Going back out this week with a hand lens and a notebook instead of just my phone camera. Feels like I've been photographing trees for identification later rather than actually training myself to notice the details in the moment, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Started with six coturnix hens back in the spring and added two roosters a couple months ago because I wanted fertile eggs to try hatching. Now I'm second guessing that ratio. One of the roos seems to be doing most of the mating and the hens on the lower end of the pecking order are looking a little rough around the neck and back, feathers thinning out in patches.

I've read everywhere that 1 rooster to 4 or 5 hens is the standard advice, and I'm sitting closer to 1:3 right now which might explain the wear on the girls. Thinking about rehoming one of the roosters but I don't have a great setup for keeping him separate in the meantime, my brooder is already full of week old chicks from the last hatch.

Anyone run a tighter ratio successfully, or is it just going to keep getting worse the longer I wait? Also curious if saddle patches actually help much or if that's more of a bandaid than a real fix. My hens are still laying consistently, five to six eggs a day out of the six of them, so productivity isn't the issue, it's more that I don't want anyone getting hurt or overly stressed heading into the colder months.