The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What Is the 'Apple Dance'?

For this week's fearless foray into the culture of teens and tweens, we're talking fame. Young people have always had a different set of people they consider famous from their elders, but now it's more than just new faces that old people don't recognize; the nature of fame itself has changed forever.

Charli XCX, the apple dance, and internet fame

The case of Charli XCX, the apple dance, and the video bomber illustrates three levels of modern celebrity in one regrettable incident. It's going to take a little explaining, but that's what I'm here for.

On the top level of fame is Charli XCX. She's a pop singer who got famous partly in the old-school way. She puts out albums, tours, the whole nine. Her sixth studio album, Brat, is the pop album of the summer, has been nominated for two Grammys, and has gotten a shout out from the vice president. But she owes a good deal of her fame to maintaining a loyal social media fanbase of people like Kelley Heyer.

Heyer is a different kind of famous. She created "the apple dance," a series of moves set to "Apple," one of Charli XCX's songs. It went viral and countless people posted videos of themselves (and their cats) doing the dance. Heyer isn't only famous for being a fan, though; the success of popular music now depends, at least partly, on things like the apple dance going viral and boosting the song.

Charli XCX acknowledged this at a recent concert, where she trained cameras on Heyer while Heyer did the apple dance—an amazing moment of recognition and communication between artist and audience that looked like this from the crowd. From other angles, though, the scene looked very different.

Someone jumped into the shot and started doing the dance with Heyer, becoming instantly internet-famous in a bad way. People online reacted with immediately scorn and derision over the woman supposedly ruining Heyer's big moment. I won't link to comments because it's underserved hate, but people online were pissed in an angry-mob way. And that's the third way of being internet famous. Being famous for being seen as a jerk.

Heyer tamped everything down graciously, posting a video exhorting her fans to "soften the comments" and saying, "Do not fucking dox her... I don't want her experience of the Sweat tour to be stained or soured because of comments you guys are leaving."

Viral video of the week: "Scram, leave her alone"

Credit: Kel Cripe - TikTok

Kel Cripe is a stand-up and sketch comedian who we wouldn't ever have heard of in the before-days, but they won social media fame this week without starting an angry mob, putting out an album, or doing a dance. Their video, "Scram, leave her alone," is only 15 seconds long, but its depiction of a completely non-threatening person in a wolf shirt sending a warning to "all the guys who want to talk to my girl" really struck a chord. The original video was viewed millions of times, but the real virality came when the video became a meme format. People are replacing the background, adding text, and making scram their own. Some are about other things that try and fail to be threatening. Like Zoloft trying to fight off mental illness or your alarm trying to wake you up. Some are expressions of when we want to just say "scram," like when someone says Diet Coke is bad for you, or when your husband won't stop texting on girl's night.

Hawk Tuah Girl aims to transcend her viral fame

Going from "famous for making a viral video" to some kind of lasting fame-based career hasn't worked out for anyone yet, but Hailey Welch, aka "The Hawk Tuah Girl," is giving it a shot. She was plucked from obscurity and a minimum wage job in a factory in the South when she gave an enthusiastic description of oral sex to a YouTube street interviewer. She parlayed that into merchandising, social media channels, throwing out the first pitch at a Mets game, and a podcast through Jake Paul's media company. Whether this is the start of a long career in broadcasting for Welch, or minute 14 and a half of Andy Warhol's famous "15 minutes of fame" concept, remains to be seen. I hope it works out for her, and I hope she saved whatever money she's earned from this, in case it doesn't.

Are celebrities deleting tweets because of Diddy?

Old-school famous people might have achieved their celebrity through means other than the internet, but, like all of us, they have to deal with it. One of the things they're dealing with this week is the online rumor that singers, actors, and others of note are deleting their social media accounts because they contain incriminating evidence linked to Sean "Diddy" Combs.

The rumor began when someone noticed that singer Usher's tweets had all been taken down and others jumped to the conclusion that it was somehow connected to Diddy. Other people noticed that both P!nk and Megan Fox had deleted their tweets, leading to more breathless speculation about their involvement. People predicted a bloodbath of celebrity internet self-immolations, indictments, and prison terms for any celebrity they didn't like.

The only problem with the theory is that Megan Fox gave up social media in 2013, P!nk deleted her tweets seven months ago, and Usher's tweets are back up; he said he'd been the victim of a hacker. We don't know who, if anyone, will catch flak from the Diddy situation, but we do know that the internet is always wrong about everything.

Who is Pesto the Penguin?

Credit: Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium - Instagram

You can't talk about modern fame without talking about animal fame. While there have been famous animals in the past—Lassie, Bubbles the Chimp, Spuds Mckenzie—they were actors. Today's animal stars get famous for being freaks. Take Pesto the Penguin. This waddling little fella is going viral all over the internet just because he's a chunkster. Adult king penguins usually weigh somewhere between 31 and 37 pounds, but Pesto weighs over 50 pounds. He eats more than 25 fish a day, and he's only nine months old—he doesn't even have his tuxedo yet; he's still got his baby fluff.

Pesto's ascension to stardom began a couple weeks ago when the Sealife Melbourne Aquarium posted a video of his gender reveal party—you have to do a blood test to determine the sex of penguin—and he's been growing more famous and more fat ever since. The aquarium's ticket sales and Instagram and TikTok followers are all skyrocketing, as are the memes and fan art starring the biggest little penguin on earth.

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The Easiest Ways to Nurse Your Garden Soil Back to Health This Winter

Winter is a time I think about being cozy and doing some restorative work on myself. Daily stretching, face masks, lots of sleep. Surprisingly, your garden desperately wants the same kind of self help, and providing that help to your soil is as easy as doing a little detective work this fall. 

It's easy to think of soil as mere dirt, but it’s so much more complicated. If you garden, both the structure and nutritional content of your soil is the most influential factor in the success of whatever you plant. You want rich soil with good drainage, but the ability to hold onto some moisture. It should be just sandy enough for great root growth, but too much sand won’t have enough nutrients for most plants. It should be rich in nutrients, but not too much of any particular nutrient or else it will send the wrong message to plants. 

Start with a layer of compost

The solution is three-fold. First, every fall you want to top-dress your beds with compost. Not all compost is created equal, so if you’re not creating your own compost, don’t just dump horse manure in your yard. Choose compost that has been tested and is well broken down. It doesn’t have to be expensive—I use city compost and am quite happy with it. 

This top dressing helps restore nutrients, but it also helps restore volume of your bed, since your soil becomes compacted over time and you lose some to erosion and as you pull out plants each year. 

You’re not using enough mulch

People simply don’t use enough mulch. Mulch is natural insulation, so it will keep your bed soil at a more moderate temperature with less fluctuations, and it helps retain moisture in the bed. That means less damage from heat domes and freezing. In fact, for years I used to take my largest outdoor potted plants and just bury them between the rows of berries under two feet of mulch, and they were fine.

Once you’ve composted, if you don’t intend to use a cover crop, mulch your beds with a few inches of chips, leaves, or straw. If you’re going to plant a fall crop, just pull away the mulch, plant, and keep the mulch away from the stem of the plant.  

If you’re not planting a fall crop, plant a cover crop

A cover crop is a seed you broadcast (similar to how you plant grass, densely) that will grow over winter. Come spring, you’ll hack the crop down and allow it to compost in place, either by tilling it in, or by flattening it and covering it with plastic. Not only does this cover crop provide rich nutrients back to the soil, but a number of cover crops can solve really specific problems with your soil.

If you have compacted soil, oil driller radish (a form of daikon) will break it up. If you have a lot of weeds in your bed, plant winter rye. If you had heavy feeder crops in the bed this summer, like corn, which needs a ton of nitrogen, plant hairy vetch or fava beans to replenish the nitrogen levels. If erosion is a problem, white clover will keep your soil safe this winter. To alleviate pests, plant mustards, and if your soil could use more humus, plant cowpeas. 

Your local nursery will have bulk cover crop seed and can help you figure out what would be best for your beds. This is an inexpensive and highly effective way to amend the nutrients and bring your soil back to health.

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Monday, September 30, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for September 30, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 30, Wordle #1,199! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

---

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They're almost all common letters from our mnemonic today. Only one isn't, and it's also fairly common.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

This is found in the sky.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There are no repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There are two vowels.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with C. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with D. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is CLOUD.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE and TOUCH, after which CLOUD was the most common word and best solution.

Wordle 1,199 3/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨🟨🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

---

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was medium difficult. The hint was "of a bike or motorcycle, for example” and the answer contained all common letters.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was RIDER.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Sunday, September 29, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for September 29, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficult; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 29, Wordle #1,198! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

---

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They're all common letters from our mnemonic today.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

Of a bike or a motorcycle, for example.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There is one repeated letter today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There are two vowels.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with R. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with R. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is RIDER.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE then tried PLANT, assuming I wasn't looking for additional vowels and wanted to eliminate possible consonants. Next I tried GAMED, which left RIDER as the best solution.

Wordle 1,198 4/6

🟩⬛🟨⬛🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

---

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was "this is an essential organ” and the answer contained four common letters and one fairly common letter.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was BRAIN.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

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Razer Is Making a Gaming Haptic Pad for Your Chair

Following Razer’s wide release of its controversial Snap Tap feature earlier this week, which arguably gives owners of its keyboards such an advantage in some games that Valve has banned it from Counter-Strike 2, the company is now announcing even more pro-level hardware. This includes the expected pro update to its Kraken V4 headset, but more interestingly, there’s also new tech like a laptop cooling stand and what I can only describe as a gaming massage pad. 

Kraken V4 Pro

Credit: Razer

The Kraken V4 Pro is the most obvious announcement here, giving the existing Kraken V4 headset an OLED control hub that puts it in closer competition with the likes of other premium headsets like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro. There’s also 9-zone RGB, as is typical of Razer, and conveniently, the option to connect via Bluetooth, USB, a 3.5mm cable, or Razer’s 2.4 GHz Hyperspeed wireless dongle. Active noise canceling is absent, and in its place are the same vibrational motors that give the headset rumble features akin to a controller. Razer makes a big deal of the immersion these provide, but at $399, that price tag is still a big ask for a headset without ANC.

Razer laptop cooling pad

Credit: Razer

Also a somewhat big ask is the new, $149 laptop cooling pad, which is essentially a laptop riser with fans built in and a USB hub included along its backside. Razer’s rendition aims to be more premium than the $30 versions you can buy from generic brands on Amazon, also coming equipped with a dust filter and three magnetic frames to ensure a tighter air seal with various sizes of laptops, plus adjustable motors with “smart cooling” that automatically changes fan speeds to balance noise with cooling.

Razer promises the cooling pad can lower temperatures by as much as 16 degrees and that noise is low thanks to a “vacuum tight” air seal, although time will tell—this type of device needs testing more than most, especially with such a premium attached to it.

Razer Freyja

Credit: Razer

Razer’s most exciting announcement, surprisingly, is more reasonably priced for what you get. Finally, Razer’s taking one of its more promising CES concepts and making it real. Originally teased earlier this year as Project Esther, the Razer Freyja bills itself as “the world’s first HD haptics gaming cushion,” and while there have been a small handful of similar products before, it does offer a lot for its $299 price point.

Rather than needing you to buy a whole haptic gaming chair, the Freyja is more like a massage pad, so you can lay it out over a chair you already own. Straps are adjustable to help it fit different chairs, and there are six haptic motors around the device, plus a control panel to adjust the intensity of the haptics.

I actually got to try the Freyja out when it was still the Esther, where I was impressed by its versatility. In Street Fighter 6, I felt hadoukens as they flew across the screen, and each punch genuinely made an impact on me. It wasn’t as simple as a binary on/off, too, as the direction and position of attacks and characters played into what I felt.

Credit: Razer

This works thanks to audio haptics, which means the pad can automatically generate vibrations based on the game’s audio, so you don’t have to worry about whether your game specifically supports the Freyja. Instead, the pad will use factors like bass intensity and which channel sound is coming out of to decide how to use its motors. It’s similar to how the vibration on the Kraken V4 Pro works, and this also means you can use the Freyja with music and movies, too. Still, Razer said it’s working with the devs of games like Hogwarts Legacy to design haptic experiences specifically for the Freyja, which is where its “HD” claims come in.

The Freyja connects over either Bluetooth or a Razer Hyperspeed 2.4 GHz wireless dongle, although it does need a cable for power. For safety, the cable is quick-release, so you won’t trip over it if you need to quickly get up.

Both the Freyja and the Kraken V4 Pro are available starting today, although a release date for the laptop cooling pad still has yet to be decided.

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My Favorite Cordless Outdoor Gear for Fall Entertaining

Fall means it’s time for fire pits, tailgating, and cozy backyard movie nights. Setting up your outdoor get-together as the temperature begins to drop means cordless power for portability and comfort. Setting yourself up with some cozy gear can extend your backyard time well into fall—here are some of my favorite cordless essentials.

Log splitters

Cutting firewood to fuel your fire pit is easier with a log splitter. If you got your wood from chip drop, chances are it needs to be split. To cut firewood without access to an outlet, you can use a cordless log splitter. There are gas-powered models as well, but the battery-powered electric ones are quieter and often lighter. The downside of a battery-powered one is just that you’ll have to recharge the battery between uses.

Powered coolers

To keep beverages cold for longer when you’re tailgating, a cordless powered cooler is the best option. You can use one that goes with tool batteries you already have, like a Ryobi iceless cooler, or you can opt for a standalone version that has a built-in rechargeable battery. A cooler that uses removable batteries has the added bonus of making the batteries interchangeable with anything else that uses that battery system, while the standalone version can only power your cooler.

Portable heaters

Battery-powered heaters are trickier than other types of electric gear because they use a lot more power. However, you can use rechargeable battery-powered hand warmers for your pockets or you can try a neck warmer for portable heat. Ryobi also makes an 18-volt hybrid propane heater that can be used outdoors. You’ll need propane as well as some charged 18-volt Ryobi batteries for the portable propane heaters to work.

Heated seats

Thanks to tailgating ingenuity, there are a variety of options for portable heated seats, from cushions to camp chairs. There are also cordless seat cushions with a back cushion for more coverage. These heated seats are just as good for a backyard movie night as they are for a tailgating party or a game, and you can outfit patio furniture with heated cushions to make them more comfortable for group activities.

Power stations and inverters

Cordless power stations that work with tool batteries can allow you to charge devices and other small electronics. Larger power stations will run for about eight hours, depending on what you plug into them while smaller ones have fewer outlets and can run for about six hours, but with a smaller total output. The advantage of a smaller inverter for a tool battery is that they’re usually less expensive—about $100 each—while larger power stations can cost as much as $1,200, depending on the size and accessories.

Cordless speakers

Cordless speakers for your outdoor event are essential. There are a variety of cordless tool brands that make speakers for their battery sets, so you can try a Ryobi 18-volt speaker for those batteries, a Makita 18-volt speaker if you have a Makita set, or a DeWalt 20-volt speaker if you have a DeWalt set. These are usually referred to as “job site speakers,” but you can use them wherever you like. They operate on Bluetooth as well as phone-jack inputs.

Battery-powered projectors

Portable mini projectors are gaining popularity, as engineering breakthroughs for lenses and batteries have allowed them to get smaller and lighter. Batteries for an LED projector will also last about ten times as long as their conventional filament light bulb counterparts. A tiny battery-powered projector that can project up to a 100” display onto any surface and fits in the palm of your hand is around $180. These projectors will work better with a speaker, as the built-in speakers aren’t very large, so they don’t have a long-range sound output for outdoors.

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This Google Nest Doorbell Is $100 Right Now

If you're looking for a video doorbell that can reliably distinguish between people, animals, and other objects, the Google Nest Doorbell might be worth a look, especially with the current sale price of $99.99 (down from $179.99). This wireless model comes with a built-in rechargeable battery that reportedly lasts up to two and a half months on a single charge and stores up to an hour of recorded events if there's a power outage and your wifi goes down. That said, to hear a chime, you’ll need to pair it with a Nest Mini (sold separately, which will add to your cost)—or you have the option to wire it to your existing doorbell.

The Nest Doorbell has a 145-degree field of view and records HD video in a vertical 3:4 aspect ratio, giving you a top-to-bottom view of everything at your door—even at night, with up to 10 feet of night vision supported by four infrared LEDs, as noted in this PCMag review. You can use its two-way audio to talk to visitors or select a quick response from its preset menu. It automatically starts recording when motion is detected or the button is pressed, and these recordings are stored in the cloud for free, though only for three hours. If you want a longer video history, you'll need a Nest Aware subscription ($12/month), which also sends you Familiar Face alerts when it recognizes someone from your library.

This device doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit or other smart home systems, relying solely on the Google Home app (and Google Assistant for voice commands). If you're after broader compatibility across different platforms, the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell might be a better option, and it's also more affordable at $76.44.

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‘The Complete America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook’ Is a Seriously Reliable Recipe Resource

Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” In this series, I highlight cookbooks that are particularly unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own. 

I spend most of the year casually browsing blogs for dinner ideas, quick recipes, and inspiration, but when the holiday season approaches, I simply have no time to dilly-dally. Frankly, the internet is replete with trash cooking content, and it takes time to sift through the muck of AI and other untested recipes to find the good stuff. A girl needs a reliable resource for holiday cooking. For me, that is The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook (2001-2019). 

The name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so I’ll refer to it as The ATK Cookbook from here on. My dad got me this beast of a cookbook a few years ago. Like true ungrateful offspring, I at first brushed it off because it lacks cutesy cover art and seemingly any theme. But I am also obsessed with cookbooks (clearly), so I kept returning to it anyway. With 26 chapters and a seemingly endless supply of recipes, I soon noticed it seemingly has everything I’ve ever wanted a proper, solid recipe for, from New York Cheesecake, to sticky toffee pudding, to Philly cheesesteak, to easy handmade pasta. There's even an entire Thanksgiving section.

I decided to give the cookbook a test run. My yearly Christmas party was on the horizon, so I settled on the Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake. I followed the directions, which can be tough for me since I love to experiment. Trusting the process, I blotted the pumpkin, just like the notes advised. I filled the water bath. I even used heavy cream, though my boyfriend is lactose intolerant. After baking, the cheesecake un-molded perfectly, with nary a crack in sight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sample it—one risk of baking a new recipe for a party is that tasting it has to wait until show time. Come evening, I sliced into the cheesecake while folks were still milling about the party. If it was a fail, I figured, I could probably throw it back into the fridge before anyone noticed. 

There was no need: After tasting it, I actually started telling everyone they needed to try it immediately. I may have started parading it around on my shoulders like a little pumpkin MVP. Creamy, dense, but not globby; slightly tart and boasting real pumpkin flavor, it is, and always will be, my go-to recipe for pumpkin cheesecake. 

And that's just one of the recipes in The ATK Cookbook.

A bit about the book

My favorite thing about this cookbook is that each recipe starts with a small but important blurb: “Why this recipe works.” Every single recipe, especially the classics, has an inherent difficulty or problem—a common something that plagues us all, from soggy schnitzel to cracked cheesecake. America’s Test Kitchen stands on a pillar of testing, and testing again. This rigorous process means that when I follow their recipes, I don’t end up with flavorless bread, or spend extra time on a technique proven to have no impact on the finished dish. 

The next best thing about The ATK Cookbook is that I don’t have to look anywhere else if I want a good recipe right now. Everything is in here—there are simple preparations for chicken breast, how-tos for the perfect omelette, and a section on roasting and carving a turkey. Some recipes also include a sidebar with pictures of a particular process, like stuffing a chicken breast.

A great cookbook for the recipe creative

Since this cookbook has every popular recipe and then some (from the classic to the lesser known) it’s ideal for a cook who doesn’t want to spend an hour online or jumping from cookbook to cookbook to find a foolproof chicken milanese. Essentially, it’s for the cook who doesn’t want a bunch of opinions, they just want to start cooking. 

It’s also great for a person interested in food science. While ATK does a good job of not getting too cerebral, the notes and “why this recipe works” sections offers thoughtful analysis and assessment of recipe problems. It’s good mental stretching for anyone who wants to start experimenting with their own originals.

The recipes you can expect

Don’t look for sweet personal anecdotes preceding each of the recipes, nor close-up glamour shots of a mystery hand sprinkling almonds on cake. This is a no-bones-about-it cooking resource. There are nice pictures, but they’re small, and sometimes in black and white. There are notes before the recipe, but they are about temperature, timing, or other practical matters. You won’t get a sneak peek into the lives of the brilliant folks in the test kitchen. Instead, you’ll get a damn good recipe that will never let you down. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The dish I chose this week

I fell down a rabbit hole trying to choose a recipe from this book. I wanted to show off something a little bit complex, but when I couldn’t decide on one, I realized I was going about it all wrong. I decided to make something I wanted to eat. So I chose the lemon pound cake. 

I’ve tried making pound cakes before and they always turn out either too dense, or too much like a regular cake in a loaf shape. The note at the top of the recipe essentially lamented the same things, and explained what they did to fix it. Instead of keeping it classic with “a pound of every ingredient” and no leavening agent, they embrace a bit of baking powder to keep the cake from feeling heavy, but not to the point where the cake loses that quintessential pound cake texture. 

I had never made this recipe before, but I will be making it again. Finally, a pound cake that met my standards: a tall rise, browned outer ring, and a melt-in-your-mouth close crumb. The cake is finished with a lemon syrup that soaks in, adding a bit of snap, but you could forgo it if you wanted just the aroma from the lemon zest in the batter. 

How to buy it

My edition is old, but now there is the updated version from 2024, while the America’s Test Kitchen 25th Anniversary Cookbook also just dropped this month. You can buy it at a brick and mortar bookshop, but know it is quite a heavy baby, so I hope you have a car or bike basket to transport it home. (It’s worth popping over to the ATK store to browse their other cookbooks too; they often offer discounted prices.)

The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001–2024: Every Recipe and Product Rating From the Most-Watched Cooking Show on Public TV

$29.57 at Amazon

$50.00 Save $20.43

$29.57 at Amazon

$50.00 Save $20.43

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How to Keep Your MacBook From Bugging You About Permissions

Apple's macOS Sequoia has a few new features to improve security, and one of them is a prompt that forces you to continually update your screen recording permissions. Up until now, you could permanently grant any app permission to record your screen and capture system audio, but Sequoia changes that to a maximum of one month. Unfortunately, lots of apps cannot function at all without these permissions. Although it's good security practice to regularly review your app permissions, it's also annoying to see a system-level reminder that can't be turned off.

Why apps need permissions to record your Mac's screen and audio

Due to the way macOS is designed, apps need to explicitly request access to capture the screen and record system audio, which in turn lets them perform several useful tasks. For example, take trusted app Cleanshot X. It needs these permissions to take screenshots and screen recordings. Without these permissions, Cleanshot X wouldn't be able to capture anything on your Mac's screen. That is an obvious example. However, plenty of apps require this permission to modify elements on your Mac's screen, even some more unexpected ones. For example, a menu bar management app could use this permission to capture images of your menu bar and hide unwanted icons.

The pros and cons of macOS Sequoia's security reminders

When a trusted app uses these security permissions, you have nothing to worry about. However, there have been cases, such as that of Bartender, where an app's management changes hands and that trust is lost. In these cases, lots of people may have stopped using the app, but forgotten or neglected to disable its screen recording permissions. For times like this, a monthly reminder to review permissions can help. This feature is especially useful on iOS, where you can quickly check if certain apps need to continue having access to your entire photo library or other permissions.

Having said that, the security reminder pop-up is an interruption to your workflow, and no one wants to deal with annoying pop-ups on a regular basis. Power users may not need these reminders at all, but there's no official way to disable them at the moment. That's where this guide comes in.

How to disable macOS Sequoia's security reminders using the Terminal

The fastest way to disable these security reminders is via the Terminal, as indie app developer Jeff Johnson wrote on his blog. First, you'll need to grant some security permissions to the Terminal app for it to access the required file. To do this, click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Settings. Then, go to Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access, and click the + button. Now, add the Terminal app to grant it this permission.

Now, open Terminal and paste the following command to see which apps will show monthly security reminders:

defaults read ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.replayd/ScreenCaptureApprovals.plist 

On my Mac, at the moment, only Cleanshot X has that permission, so this is the output I saw on Terminal:

{

"/Applications/CleanShot X.app/Contents/MacOS/CleanShot X" = "2024-09-26 11:26:41 +0000";

}

Use the following command to stop the reminders for any one app, which is Cleanshot X for me:

defaults write ~/Library/Group\ Containers/group.com.apple.replayd/ScreenCaptureApprovals.plist "/Applications/Cleanshot X.app/Contents/MacOS/Cleanshot X" -date "2054-09-21 12:40:36 +0000"

The trick is to change the "end date" for the permission approval. I've changed it to 2054, by which time, I'm sure I'll have bigger things to worry about. Feel free to change the date to anything in the far future. Once this command is run, macOS will stop reminding you about permissions granted to that app. You can repeat these steps for other apps and be free of these security prompts once and for all.

Note that you don't need to disable these reminders for all apps. You can choose just a few apps that you use every single day and only disable the reminders for those. 

There's an alternative to using the Terminal for this feature. An app called Amnesia allows you to quickly disable permission reminders on your Mac. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I couldn't get it to work reliably on my Mac, but the developers appear to be releasing updates frequently to fix lingering problems. 

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This Is Your Fall Car Maintenance Checklist

The changing of the seasons is usually a good time to get some maintenance done on your vehicle. As changing temperatures can affect how a car runs, fall is a popular time to get a tune-up, but it’s also a good time of year to drag out your maintenance records and see what needs to be done.

Consider this your fall car maintenance checklist, with some things you can DIY and others you should see a professional for.

Check/replace your wiper blades

Your car's windshield wipers can be affected by temperature changes and will also simply wear out over time. Summer heat, friction from being dragged across semi-damp windshields, and dry air can all contribute to your wiper blades developing cracks or splitting. If you notice any damage to the rubber part of your windshield wipers or if you see that the rubber is beginning to separate from the arm of the wiper, it’s time to replace them. (Right now, you can find some deals on replacement wipers from Bosch and Rain-X.)

Check your coolant level

Because engine coolant needs to be able to stay liquid at colder temperatures than water, an antifreeze mixture suitable for your climate is a good idea. If you haven’t checked your coolant level in a while, it's time. Look for a screw-on cap near or on top of the coolant reservoir with a thermometer in water symbol on it, or possibly a warning to not remove the cap while it's hot. If you don’t use a premixed 50/50 coolant, you should mix your antifreeze concentrate with distilled water (not tap water) to avoid adding anything that might gum up your radiator.

Check your washer fluid

Your window washer fluid can be easy to forget when you don’t need it, but when you do, going without can quickly become a danger. In cold weather, you can also use washer fluid with de-icer to help clear snow and ice from your windshield as you’re driving. To find the reservoir, look for the cap under your hood with a picture of a windshield with drops on it. You can use a funnel to help pour in the fluid the reservoir is in an awkward spot.

Change your air filters

Your cabin air filter gets a workout in the warmer months, with pollen, dust, and smoke all getting caught in its ridges. Fall is a good time to change it. In most cars, the cabin air filter will be located behind the glove box. Some cars allow access to change the filter without removing the glove box, and some will require you to take the glove box out. You’ll need to search your vehicle’s make and model, plus the year it was manufactured, in order to determine the correct filter and installation process for your car.

Check your tire tread

Make sure that your tires are winter weather-ready by checking that they have enough tread. A tread depth of 2/32 of an inch is considered safe. To check the tread depth, use a penny with Lincoln’s head facing toward the tire. If you can see his whole head, you need new tires. If his head disappears between the treads, you’re usually good to go. If you do need new tires, you’ll need to have a pro install them, as most people don’t have the necessary tools.

Check the date on your battery

Your car battery is likely rated to last between 3 and 5 years. Check the date on your battery and, if it’s close to expiring, have it tested by a mechanic. If you need a new battery, you might be able to install one yourself if you have any experience working on cars; if you don’t, you can usually have your battery replaced by a mechanic for between $175 and $400, depending on the battery.

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Making Stuffed French Toast Was Easier Than I Thought

While you don’t need an excuse to make French toast, I have one for you anyway. It's a day that ends in "y," so I’d like to invite you to make a French toast worthy of a school day, weekend, or "well I'm already late" day. It’s not your average French toast; it’s stuffed French toast. 

What is stuffed French toast?

Regular French toast is nothing to sneeze at. You dunk thick slices of bread into a creamy, sweet custard (or ice cream), and fry the enriched bread in a buttery frying pan. The result is a decadent, caramelized treat that's akin to an express serving of bread pudding. 

Stuffed French toast keeps the crucial anchor point of custard-soaked bread but invites you to make it twice as thick, and with a surprise filling in the center. All you need is: an unsliced loaf of bread, an egg, some milk or cream, and some fillings. Cookie dough turned out to be my favorite filling, but you're only limited by your imagination.

How to make stuffed French toast

1. Cut a double-wide slice of bread

The reason you need an unsliced loaf of bread is because you need to cut an extra large slice. Instead of smashing two separate slices of bread together (which could possibly slide apart, especially if you have melty fillings), you'll cut a pocket into an extra wide slice. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I used EuroClassic's braided brioche loaf that I got from my local ShopRite. You can use a loaf of milk bread, challah, or any bread that has some integrity, a soft crust, and a relatively tight crumb texture (not too many big holes). Trim off the butt end to expose the crumb, then cut a thick slice, about 1.5 to 2 inches wide.

2. Slice a pocket

Using a thin knife, preferably serrated, cut into the center. Try to get close to the three other sides without cutting through. You want space for the fillings to cover as much real estate as possible without oozing out into the pan. 

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

3. Stuff the bread

You can use any combination of fillings you like. Go sweet or savory and have some fun. The only word of caution I have is don’t overdo it. Whether you’re stuffing dumplings, rolling sushi, or stuffing French toast, adding too much is sure to lead to a mess.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I had been aging cookie dough this week, so I happen to be cookie-dough-rich at the moment. I tried using a knife but I ended up just using my finger to poke the raw cookie dough into one of my French toasts. I filled the other with peanut butter and sliced strawberries, but you could use other fruits and jams instead. Make raspberry-jam-filled French toast, try sliced bananas and Nutella, cherry jam and slivered almonds, a sweetened cream cheese, or go savory with ham and cheese.

4. Dunk the stuffed bread

Make a custard by whisking together one whole egg, a couple tablespoons of heavy cream (or vegan cream), and a couple tablespoons of sugar together in a wide bowl. If you’re making a savory toast, skip the sugar and add a quarter-teaspoon of salt. 

Dunk the stuffed breads into the custard briefly on all six sides. You don’t want to over-soak the bread, or it could start to break apart. Just a couple seconds on each side will do.

5. Pan-fry the filled French toast

Heat a frying pan over medium-low and add a chip of salted butter, enough to coat the bottom once melted. When the butter starts bubbling, add the stuffed French toast. Put a lid on the pan. If you don’t have a lid that fits, try an upside-down metal bowl. The bread is thicker than usual, so putting a lid on the pan will help cook the custard and warm the fillings through with the help of the trapped steam.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

You want to cook the toast for about three minutes on each side, so check to see if you need to reduce the heat to prevent burning. When you flip the toast, you may need to add more butter. When it’s finished, cool the stuffed French toast on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes before serving. 

This recipe is extremely versatile. I’m convinced any stuffing will deliver great results, but I have to tell you that the cookie dough-stuffed French toast was simply breathtaking. If you enjoy the ooziness of questionably cooked cookie dough, then you must try this. The surrounding custard-soaked bread gave it the texture of what I imagine a slice of cookie dough cake would be like. (If you're worried about raw ingredient safety, use a thermometer to test for 160°F, or some packaged brands make "edible cookie dough.")

This stuffed French toast can be a simple pleasure any day, but I especially enjoy making it on rainy weekend mornings.  

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 extra-thick slices of bread

• 2-4 tablespoons chunky strawberry jam (substitute cheese, deli meats, cookie dough, or nut butters)

• 1 egg

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream 

• 2 tablespoons sugar (or ¼ teaspoon salt for savory toast)

• Salted butter for the pan 

1. Slice a center cut into both pieces of bread to form a pocket. Try not to poke through the other three sides.

2. Fill the bread pockets with strawberry jam (the amount will depend on the size of the bread and pocket.

3. Set a frying pan over medium-low heat and add enough butter to coat the bottom.

4. Whisk together the egg, cream, and sugar (or a pinch of salt if leaning savory) in a wide bowl. Dunk the stuffed breads into the custard to coat all the sides.

5. Fry the French toast in the buttery pan with a cover or lid on top. Cook the toast for about 3 minutes per side. Cool briefly on a wire rack before serving. 

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This Viofo Dashcam Is $100 Off Right Now

If you’re in the market for a dashcam that delivers sharp, clear video (during the day or the night) and comes loaded with features, the Viofo A229 Pro might be a good option at $299.99 (down from $399.90)—especially if you’re after something that covers you from all angles. Its front camera records in 4K and has a wide 140° viewing angle, and the rear camera isn’t too shabby either, offering 2K resolution and a 160° view. That’s a lot of ground covered. The interior camera is reportedly decent, too, with 1080P resolution and night vision supported by infrared LEDs.

You can tweak the camera angles, access GPS, toggle audio or HDR recording, set loop intervals, and more through its companion app. If apps are not your thing, you can manage all the settings directly from its 2.4" LCD. Videos are stored on a microSD card (up to 512GB), though you’ll need to buy that separately. As for the wifi connection, while it’s useful for firmware updates and downloading footage to your phone, it’s reportedly slow, which could be a bit frustrating.

It has a promising voice control feature, but users have mentioned you might need to speak up or repeat commands a few times for it to work, which isn’t great when you're trying to stay focused on the road. It also offers 24-hour parking monitoring with three different modes, but to use it, you’ll need to purchase the Viofo HK4 hardwire kit, adding to the overall cost. On the upside, it uses a supercapacitor, which is said to handle heat and high temperatures better than the lithium-ion batteries you usually find in dashcams—perfect if you live somewhere warm and need your gear to stay cool.

The Vantrue N5 is another option at $307.99, down from $399.99.

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How to Get Your Soil Tested for Free (and Why You Should)

If you’re having trouble with undersized vegetables, a poor showing of flowers, and/or trees that aren't flourishing, there are only two likely culprits: soil and water. These are going to have the greatest effect on your plants, and yet most people never get their soil tested. 

For years, I didn't test, convinced I could compost my way to good soil. The thing is, soil tests yield vital information about the pH balance of your soil, its physical composition, and the nutrient base. The data you receive from a soil test can help you understand what specific nutrients to feed your soil, and also what content is needed to break it up, be it more sand, more clay, or more organic matter. And if you live in the right states, you can get soil testing for free.

Most states have some qualifications for the free testing. For instance, New York opened up applications for free soil testing earlier this year for people who either have a community garden or grow food for communities.  Even if your state doesn’t offer free testing, your county or city might. The best way to find out is to search for “[your county/city/state], free soil testing.” A number of these programs are seasonal or for a limited time, usually through the summer and fall, so it’s always worth checking year to year. 

If you can’t get your soil tested for free, I highly recommend paying to get it tested, even if it’s just once. Tests run from $20-60; if you consider how much you’ll spend on soil amendments, it's well worth the price. 

States that offer free or low-cost soil testing

Arkansas

In Arkansas, routine soil testing is free, provided the soil is from Arkansas and the person submitting the sample is an Arkansas resident. 

Connecticut

Connecticut state offers free soil tests to state residents. 

Florida

University of Florida Extension Office provides free soil pH tests. 

Idaho

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare offers free soil lead testing to residents. 

Illinois

Free soil lead testing is provided by the Illinois Department of Health. 

Kansas

Johnson County residents can obtain free soil tests through Kansas State University. 

Kentucky

Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service offices provide soil testing services for a reasonable fee or it may be free, depending on the county.

Louisiana

Lafayette residents can obtain free soil testing through University of Louisiana. 

Maine

No free testing, but low-cost ($20) tests available through University of Maine.

Massachusetts

Barnstable residents can obtain free soil testing through Cape Cod Extension.

Montana

Seasonal free testing is provided by RiverStone Health.

Nebraska

Low-cost tests ($15) are available through AgSource.

New Jersey

Low-cost ($9) tests are offered through Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Lab.

New York

Urban Soil Insti­tute offers free soil heavy metal testing. 

North Carolina

North Carolina offers free soil testing when submitted between April 1 and the end of November. 

Oklahoma

Low-cost ($10) tests are available through Cleveland County Extension.

Oregon

Soil Screening, Health, Outreach, and Partnership provides free soil lead testing. 

Pennsylvania

Primex Garden Center provides free soil pH testing. 

Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island Master Gardener Program offers free soil testing. 

South Carolina

Carolina Fresh Farms provides free soil testing for lawns. 

Tennessee

No free testing, but low cost ($15) provided by UT. 

Utah

You can request a free soil health assessment from Utah Department of Agriculture and Food

Vermont

UVM offers seasonal free soil testing. 

Virginia

Virginia Green, a private company, offers free soil testing for lawns. 

Washington

UCD offers free soil testing each spring. 

West Virginia

West Virginia University offers free soil analysis to residents.

Wisconsin

The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), University of Wisconsin–Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are collaborating to offer a series of free soil testing and soil health workshops.

Wyoming

Unita County provides basic soil test kits that analyze soil pH, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus levels. Bring in your soil samples anytime during the year to have them tested; the first test is free.

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