Wild, Wild Life

The kids reminded me of our other snake encounters up here. Last summer, Allison made the shocking discovery of a grater snake in her water shoe. We loading up to go to Granny's Beach and she dropped the water shoes she was carrying on the floor of the van. When she dropped the shoe, the snake stuck its head out. Ben and I heard a shriek, and Allison flew out of the van like a shot! Luckily, Allison was able to herd it towards the back of the van, and we scooted it out into a bucket.

We also found a dozen or so baby ring-necked snakes in the house over the course of last summer. No idea how they got in or what they were looking for. Ben tried to keep one as a pet but set it after realizing we couldn't possibly catch crickets small enough for it to eat. Did I say "we"?

From here on out pets are the kids' responsibility. I gave Allison permission to buy 2 hermit crabs this weekend after making sure she understood that I was in no way going to take care of these things. Jay just rolled his eyes. We have already decided that our next "pets" will be chickens.

This one's for my sister

Around our house when any of us run into the house yelling enthusiastically for everyone to "come see", it's generally a creature of some kind. Yesterday, Jay came upon a large black snake sunning itself on the driveway. As we're all responding to Jay's calls, the snake was headed for the trees next to the garage. We're all looking round the base of the trees when all of a sudden we see its head sticking out of the branches about 5' up.

The snake stuck around for at least 15-20 minutes checking us out. Although the pictures wouldn't turn out, you could see its body on the other side of the tree along the trunk.

As a child, a snake sighting meant a rush for a shovel or hoe and the subsequent horror show as my Mom or Dad chopped up the offensive reptile, no matter how small or what kind of snake it was. To this day, my younger sister is terrified of snakes. It's no wonder. This guy was pretty cool though.

Earth First

I am an environmentalist. My husband is too. We bought this house knowing there was/were improvements to be made. It is more environmentally friendly to remodel an existing home rather than building from the ground up. Okay, I can't afford the PV panels for the roof or the wind turbine yet, but we make every effort to conserve energy, from fussing at the kids to turn off the lights to simply being cognizant of the energy we are consuming.

And while I love my red wine in bottles, I sometimes drink boxed wine. While I don't necessarily want to believe I am a non-bottled wine drinker, I embrace the idea of the greening of the wine industry. Since boxed wine uses significantly less energy to bottle, I wanted a way to imbibe without the stigma of being a cheap-o. Introducing the carafe. They hold an inexact amount of wine, but look delightful on your table. They can be disreetly refilled in the kitchen without disrupting the wine connoisseur atmosphere.


Anyway, like I need to justify my wine drinking. Here are some carafes. Maybe they'll come in handy sometime and make me feel more sophisticated while I'm lowering my platelets.

Feng Shui

Since we started remodelling the basement, my studio and kiln room have become the dumping grounds for all the extra stuff we have. This is all personal stuff with little monetary value whatsoever. I don't want to attract any thieves with pictures of the inside of my house and my priceless belongings.

There are open, rifled-through boxes, tubs of outgrown kids' clothes and let's not forget the doors that will eventually get delivered to the Habitat Store.

The lawn chair is supposed to be there. It's my thinking chair.



I suggested a small storage unit down the road, but since we actually relocated a small family of mice into our house the last time we used such a place, Jay wants to find another solution. His is to move everything back into the still unfinished basement area, so that we can move it somewhere else when we decide to erect the stud walls. The electric slab roller (so kindly left behind by the last owners) is piled with books and magazines and is jammed up against one side of my work table. I'm looking forward to using that slab roller some day.


It might be easier to move the kiln than to find a home for all the other stuff. Notice the large appliance in the foreground, delivered this Monday and due to be installed next Monday, replacing a non-working one. I sure hope they take the old one away when they go.

I'm not much for cleaning so I guess I'll just keep on making pots like nothing's in the way. Now where am I going to put them?

See, I told you I've been in the studio

Here is some of what I've been working on. I'm using cone 6 clays: Desert Buff and Little Loafer's. I've said before that my garden pots are Riverside Grit, and I could fire multiples in the gas kiln rather than just one per electric firing. So I'm gong to attempt a full cone 6 reduction firing next weekend. I got the link to John Britt's CM article on cone 6 reduction and am intrigued at the idea. I like the idea of saving fuel, time and wear-and-tear on the kiln. I really like my cone 6 glazes and could be very happy firing most of my work to that temperature. I can always throw in a couple of cone 10 firings a year for my beloved shinos. Jay thinks I should stick with one temperature and master it before moving on to something else. I told him I was an accomplished multitasker.



A wareboard of heart bowls drying on the Lockerbie.




Wine bottle coasters and baskets.

More baskets.


I'm excited about the baskets. I've started pulling the handles instead of using cut cylinders. It gives me more options and opens up the creative possibilities. I'm also excited since we have a compressor now and I can spray glaze on these. Harbor Freight has a spray gun on sale, but I'm not sure it will work for glazes. One more research project.


On a happy note, I found my cone 6 glaze notebook which had been misplaced during last year's move. I was much relieved and slept well last night.

Taking a little break

As deadlines loom, I've been breaking my back in the studio, working most of the weekend. I'll post pictures later today unless I'm still working until 9 or so like last night. I'm having a good time, but since it's been raining so much, the work just isn't drying as fast as I'd like. When the humidity reached 81%, I was forced to turn on the dreaded dehumidifier. I have little panic attacks when it's on because if it dries the air too fast, I run the risk of my seams cracking. So I was up at 4:45 this morning checking on the pieces.

Over the weekend I took a little break from work to play with the kids. I was feeling guilty since this was our first weekend without Scout to snuggle with, and Jay was busy fixing the truck (a side note: it actually is fixed this time! Thanks to Lamar's diagnosis and an O2 sensor! Yippee!). But the kids did not desire my presence, so I headed out to the perennial garden. The weeds always require my presence.

And look what I found hiding in the weeds...

Lupines

Columbine

Bleeding Heart

Spiderwort

And of course, Poison Ivy. I thought I was being very careful, but still managed to get some on my arm. Check out the Celo Photo blog. Perhaps I should have tried the folk remedy?

In the Shadow of the Giant

I just fired another bisque in my little Evenheat. Besides last fall's gas firing in the Bailey, this is the only kiln I've used since college.

I bought it in extremely used condition in 2000 for $175. Jay has replaced some switches, and the extra ring was beat to hell a couple of moves ago, so I no longer use it. It looks like a well-worn time capsule, and since I have to remove the lid completely when loading or unloading, I expect the lid to fall apart in my hands anytime now. The handles have rusted off, as has the screw to keep open one of the spies. The only time it failed to reach temperature was when a screw holding the control panel on rusted and caused a short. That scares me a little, but I really love this kiln.

I'm banking on it being secure enough in our relationship not to be intimidated by the Bailey.