Started great. I was able to get my pot on the stove in the kitchen by sliding the stove away from the wall a bit. So, I am thinking I can hold the temp a bit better. So, my strike water is at about 160 for a mash temp of about 154, at least that is what I thought. I add the grains, and low and behold, my strike water doesn't change much. I got it down to about 155 or so within the first 10 mins of the mash, so I am hoping all is ok. I figure if my gravity is a bit low, I can mash a bit longer and see where I end up. So now, I wait. I have another 3 gallons at the ready for my sparge in a hope to get a preboil amount of somewhere around 7.5 gallons. I hope the higher mash temp for that short period did not screw things up, but I guess I will find out in about 3 weeks. LOL. Anyway, thanks to all who helped me so far in this journey, I am still finding that I am learning a lot. RR