Totally agree with @daniel_martin. Saw it happen with that weird crypto coin everyone was pushing last year. People I know dumped their savings in because some guy online said it was easy money. Coin crashed a month later and they were stuck. Social media makes everything look like a sure thing until you're the one holding the bag.

Honestly, I just keep stirring. A lot. For something like chili, you gotta commit to mixing it almost constantly as it comes up to temp and then again right before you pull it. A ladle from the middle is better than a spoon off the top, but you still might miss a pocket at the very bottom. My move is to turn the heat off and do a full fold from bottom to top a dozen times. It's the only way to be sure.

My back hurts just reading that.

So you really saw that much of a difference just by switching to rye? I always thought whole wheat was the go to for a boost, but my starter was kind of lazy last month and I tried rye on a whim. It totally woke up, like it got way more bubbly and active almost overnight. Maybe the whole wheat I had was just old or something, but now I'm sticking with rye for feedings. What brand of rye flour did you end up using?

That arrow sounds like a cruel joke. Did you notice if the paint was actually old, or just faded to look that way? Some of those "unofficial" paths around Lake Ouachita are just old logging roads that go nowhere.