Even the raccoons are mad at the cold.

As I sat down to write this, I heard the strangest sound outside my window. It would have been a glorious sound effect for my first podcast episode, but alas, by the time I got my recorder and 12 layer parka on, it had ended. It was a raccoon fight. Something, it seems, is up in RaccoonLand. First, they’re wandering through my yard, and now they’re having screaming fights in the trees. Why? I suspect that it has something to do with a) how cold it is, and b) that the young males are starting to feel their hormones coursing through their veins.

Meanwhile, I’ve failed to report on the progress with the sourdough. I aim to make that right. I made a loaf tonight that turned out well, as my British friends might say, “cracking good.”

That’s just the outside. I’d intended to get some pictures of the nice, light, irregularly holey crumb, but it seems that just after cutting the loaf open the panivores descended and consumed the thing before I could get my camera. You’ll just have to take my word for it. It was good.

This time, I used a cup of activated starter, kneaded the dough (bread flour) for only about 5 minutes, and then fermented overnight. In the morning, I took the (fairly slack) dough out to a floured board, did something like the French fold on it, and proofed it for another 5 hours in parchment. Baked the result using a Dutch oven with 5 minute mists while it was covered (20 minutes or so covered, 25 or so uncovered) at 450F.

The starter is definitely maturing. It’s losing the “cheesy” aroma and developing a more standard sourdough flavor. This is as good as I’d ever care to get my white bread sourdough (though I expect the starter to continue to improve), and now I need to apply myself to a decent sourdough whole wheat version.

Finally, I have to report that I’m loading up yet another 20 yard dumpster with the carcasses of some cherry laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) that I’m finally cutting to the ground. If you’re not familiar with these trees, you don’t live in Portland. They seem to be everywhere. There must be something good to say about them– though I can’t think of it– but they are brutes. They self-seed everywhere, root where they touch the ground, grow like weeds, and won’t die without a serious exorcism. I’ve been removing them for the past couple of years, and these are some of the last in my yard.

Currently, I’m planning to just cut them to the ground and watch what happens. If the roots sprout (they will), I may just try to manage the resulting new growth as a smaller hedge if I get lazy. Otherwise, I’ll go after them with a stump grinder. In the meantime, removing them has really changed the very nature of that part of the yard. A place that I’d considered inherently “shady” isn’t anymore. These laurels are just huge, invasive lightsucks.

Oh, they’re trees. The birds like them. There. I knew I had something nice to say about them. Now, where’s that chainsaw?