Honestly, the texture is the biggest thing for me. Those frozen pre-chopped ones always turn to mush when you cook them, they have no bite left. Doing it yourself, even after freezing, you get pieces that actually hold their shape in a stew or frittata. Did you notice a difference when you cooked with your own batch?

Been there, @oscarthompson. Started doing video call tours before signing anything. Lets you see how they keep their current place. Also, asking for a past landlord reference, not just their current one, can show a pattern. A friend of mine got burned by a guy who only gave the landlord he was leaving.

My buddy tried one of those drill augers in his yard and it just welded itself into the ground like concrete. He ended up using a digging bar to break up the clay first, then a narrow trenching shovel to pull the chunks out. It was slow going but it worked without breaking any more tools.

Honestly, my grandma used to say the same thing about overworking dough, she called it "giving it a nervous breakdown." Tbh I had the opposite problem with biscuits, I was too scared to mix them at all and they'd just crumble apart. Ngl it took me forever to find that middle ground where things actually hold together but stay soft. Funny how those little tips from older cooks just fix everything.

Consider the slag might have been wet from the pit liner failing, @the_eric. I've seen that cause a slow leak that builds up over time.