Return of the Whole Wheat and Bran Bread

This type of loaf was called a "pain complet au son" in a previous post. It's a good tasting bread but I haven't figured out how to get the impressive oven spring on this formula. I did presoak the wheat bran for a few hours and the hydration was a little high at about 72% so I expected more. It's a work in progress.My next step will be to work with a smaller loaf to see if that makes any difference.

Soaker
28g wheat bran
56g water at room temp

Starter
150g at 100%

Main Dough
267g  bread flour
133g white whole wheat flour
270g water at 85F
10g kosher salt
all of soaker
all of starter

Most of the birds that I noted as being missing from the feeders are returning. Cardinals, goldfinches, pine siskels, starlings, titmice, and a couple of downy woodpeckers have shown up over the past few days. My neighbor's health has improved to the point that he's ready to start feeding birds as well. He has  really large feeder with nine perches full of black sunflower seeds which means that appropriate head wear is called for when working in the yard. I also saw a couple of juncos a few days ago. Usually, juncos don't show up until late November so I don't know what to make of that. I hope it doesn't mean that we're in for an early winter.

I finished cleaning up a space in my garden plot for next year's planting of garlic. My estimate is that it's about 15-18 square feet or somewhere around two square meters. I have no worries about how much garlic I can plant, just how long my lower back will tolerate being bent over. I'm also working on clearing out some overgrown areas in the flower beds. The season is too late to transplant day lilies so I'm switching to taking out blueberry plants. They really don't do well in my soil and I don't have enough desire or room to plant enough bushes to make the soil amendment work worth my time and expense. Another annual agony going on is the removal of the tree saplings, sprouts, whatever that have a nasty habit of becoming a small tree as soon as I turn my back on them. The next forecast for rain with large downfall amounts is next Saturday so I have some work to do outside.

That doesn't mean I won't be baking bread. I have to figure out a loaf or two for the election night watch party on Tuesday and I'm in for a couple loaves for the Cushing Hospital Volunteers bake sale on 15 November. It looks like my starter will be getting a workout this month.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.