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If a wrist is painful, swollen, and won’t bear weight after a fall, treat it as a fracture until you can get her to a clinic. Here’s how to splint it safely:

How to splint a wrist

1. Don’t straighten it. Splint the wrist in whatever position you find it. Forcing it straight can make things worse.
2. Pad the area with rolled cloth, foam, or a folded sweatshirt.
3. Use something rigid as the splint — a rolled magazine, a flat board, two sticks. It should reach from past the elbow to past the fingertips.
4. Wrap snugly with cloth strips or bandages. Tight enough to immobilize, loose enough that fingers stay pink and warm.
5. Check circulation every 15 minutes. If fingers go pale, blue, or numb, loosen the wrap.

Then sling the arm against the chest with the hand slightly above the elbow. Get her to a clinic as soon as possible — splinting is a stop-gap, not a treatment.

A pilot light that won’t catch is almost always one of three things. Let’s eliminate them in order:

1. Thermocouple failed or dirty. The most common cause. The thermocouple senses heat from the pilot and tells the gas valve to stay open. If it’s coated in soot or worn out, it won’t keep the valve open after you release the button.
2. Pilot tube clogged. Dust and lint can block the small opening. A puff of compressed air or a careful poke with a thin wire usually clears it.
3. Gas supply issue. Check the gas valve handle is parallel to the pipe (open) and that other gas appliances in the house are working.

When relighting, hold the pilot button down for a full 30–60 seconds after the flame catches. The thermocouple needs that long to heat up enough to trigger the gas valve. Release too early and the pilot dies.

If the pilot lights but always goes out the moment you release the button, replace the thermocouple. It’s a $5–15 part and a 15-minute job.

A sourdough starter is wild yeast and lactobacillus you cultivate from nothing more than flour and water. The whole process takes about a week.

Day by day

1. Day 1. Mix 50 g whole wheat or rye flour with 50 g water in a clean jar. Stir, cover loosely with a cloth or paper towel — never airtight. Leave at room temperature.
2. Day 2–3. Discard half. Add another 50 g flour and 50 g water. Stir. You may see a few bubbles starting.
3. Day 4–7. Discard and feed every 12 hours. By day 5–7 you should see consistent doubling between feedings, a tangy smell, and a network of bubbles. That means the wild yeast has taken hold.

To test if it’s ready: drop a spoonful into a glass of water. If it floats, your starter is strong enough to bake with.

Once established, switch to all-purpose flour and store in the fridge. Feed it once a week — that’s the entire ongoing maintenance.

Sounds like blight. There are two kinds — early and late — and they need very different responses. Here’s how to tell which one you have:

Identifying the blight

• Early blight. Brown spots with concentric rings (a bullseye pattern), starting on the lower, oldest leaves. Spreads slowly. Common, manageable.
• Late blight. Greasy-looking dark patches on leaves and stems. Whitish fuzz on the underside of leaves in damp weather. Spreads in days. This is the disease that caused the Irish potato famine.

What to do

For early blight: remove affected leaves, mulch around the base of the plants to stop soil splashing onto the leaves, and water at the base instead of from above. Continue harvesting normally.

For late blight: pull up infected plants immediately and destroy them. Do not compost — burn or bag for the trash. The spores travel on wind and can wipe out a whole field within a week.

Both are fungal. Copper-based fungicides slow the spread but won’t cure it. Resistant tomato varieties (Iron Lady, Defiant, Mountain Magic) are your best long-term defense.