Snow Queen

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Was it Mark Twain who said that? Oh wait, I can do a google search and find out the truth!!

**************************************be right back**************************************

And I'm back!!! Apparently it should be attributed to Charles Dudley Warner, a writer who collaborated with Twain on The Gilded Age. Well, I learn something every day!! Some of it's even true!!

But, back to my musings. I just wanted to say that I'm a leeeetle bit tired of hearing complaints about the snow. THIS IS FEBRUARY. WE LIVE IN THE MID-WEST. It's supposed to be cold and snowy. (Regardless of what the climate change fear mongers would have us believe. But that's a different rant!)

I actually have enjoyed all the snow we've gotten this year. I think it's beautiful, and if the weather's going to be cold, I'd just as soon have snow around. I don't really mind shoveling it, or driving in it, or walking through it. And now that it's the middle of February, I'm pretty sure it won't be with us too much longer. And it really hasn't been with us that long. I might be more tired of it if it had been around since last Nov. or Dec. But it's only been a few weeks. I haven't had time to get tired of it yet.

I've had a few interesting bird experiences. I've been trying to keep the bird feeder full for the local birds. The other day, during the most recent snow fall, I was out taking some pictures and as I walked up the deck steps, I scared the birds away from the feeder. Except for one little junco. I decided to walk out and get a closer look. He didn't move at all. When we lived in Ohio, I had a similar experience with a mourning dove. It turned out the bird must've just died peacefully sitting in the snow. I decided to take some pictures of the junco since I could get so close to it.

After snapping a few, I noticed that it looked like it was breathing. Then it opened its eyes! I was discussing with Steve whether or not we should try to bring it in and warm it up...when I got up from my photo shoot position, it flew off! I'm hoping it was was just resting a little and got its second wind!

A few days later, I was unloading my groceries on a sunny, but cold day. I left the hatch back on the car up while I brought some of the groceries in and spent a few minutes in the house before going out to get the rest of the groceries. When I walked up to the car, I noticed about a dozen birds flew out from underneath the car. Apparently they were cozying up to the warmth of the engine. As I shut the hatch, I thought to myself, surely no birds would have flown into the car because of the warmth of the sun shining in the windows. Right as that thought crossed my mind I noticed 2 or 3 sparrows flittering around the front seat area. I opened the driver side door and they flew out. So far I haven't found any "presents" from them in my car!!

One thing I'm not looking forward to is when all this snow starts to melt! I do hate the thaw!! All that mud and muck. Yuck!! It was my least favorite time of year when we lived on the farm in W. Milton, and had horses, goats, etc. Too much mess!

The other thing I don't like is that I can't fire the salt kiln in this weather. But it's given me opportunity to get some things done around the house.

I am beginning to think about the garden. I saw seed packets on display at one of the local stores. I need to figure out a way to build a cold frame, so I can start some seeds. That would make it seem like spring's on the way. Altho, like I said, I'm not in that big of a hurry to let go of winter. February is a short month anyways. I have no idea why winter's not bothering me much this year, but I guess I'll just enjoy it!!


Here are a couple of pictures from when I was a kid. We'd go to my cousin's house and her dad loved to tie a sled (or several) behind his VW Beetle and tow us around behind it in the snow!! They also had an awesome sledding hill (as long as you were careful not to land in the creek at the bottom of it!!) Fun winter memories!!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel....
We're in the home stretch now.....
Making some headway....
progress....
yessss!!!

Today we finished the walls and put the arch form up to see how hight the top will be and make sure it's going to be square and plumb and all dat dere! Those 2 words, "square" and "plumb" have been a thorn in our side during this project, but I'm happy to report that, it's pretty durn close to being both.

Between now and next kiln building day Steve needs to drill some holes in the channel iron and do some welding so we can tie the 4 corners together. I need to clean and scrape the mortar from the inside to get it ready to spray with ITC. We still have a lot to do, but it feels like we're getting close to the point where I'll be able to start firing it.

In addition to the progress that's been made on the kiln, Steve and I built some ware shelves and almost finished my work table last week. In the next couple weeks he will upgrade the wiring to the garage so I can start using my new electric kiln for bisque firing. We will have to figure out what we're going to do about propane, I think we'll have the local propane company install a tank on site for it. We have a small tank next to the house for a gas fireplace, but we would have to pipe it under the driveway to tap into it. That doesn't seem like a great idea. We're also going to need propane piped to the garage, my studio, so I don't freeze my li'l fingers off this winter. But that project can wait a few more weeks.

This is a shot from inside the door looking up through the arch form. Something about it makes me think of a cathedral. Or a prison cell......like where they put someone who's in solitary confinement. Remember Cool Hand Luke? But I digress.........(and I think of pottery as anything but a prison!! More like an escape!!)

In other news, the garden is producing a bumper crop. Things are a little late, due to the fact that we didn't move here until Memorial Day, but I've got veggies coming out my ears. The broccoli and lettuce is done for now. Well, I'm trying to sneak in a little more lettuce, we'll see if it survives the heat.

The tomatoes and peppers are just about ripe and I saw some cucumbers and squash making an appearance. And some late green beans should be ready soon!! It's my first garden that's been what I consider somewhat successful so I'm pretty excited (especially when my lack of knowledge and experience is taken into consideration!)

Here are some pictures I took the last couple days.

I may have planted a little too much broccoli. I ate and froze as much as I could and there were a few "heads" (?) left that are flowering. I pulled up all but one, it was kinda pretty and the bees seemed to be enjoying it. Here are a couple pictures; Broccoli Bouquet and Broccoli Landscape:

Butternut squash against a big, blue, Indiana sky.....

Some baby tomatoes at the top of my plant. I can't even count how many tomatoes are on it! I hope the vines don't break when as they get bigger, they're past the top of my cage now!

If you look closely to the left of the bloom, you can see a li'l baby cuke, all prickly and full of attitude!

And finally, I wanted to include a few pictures of my quest for baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie. During this kiln-building experience, I learned that Scott and I share a passion for said cookies. So, every couple weeks I've been baking a batch to earn some brownie points with him (and add a few more pounds to my already ample frame. The cookie dough ripples will compliment my beer gut!)

Last night (as I told Scott) I believe I came close to chocolate chip cookie nirvana. The ingredients were all at the right consistency, I got the oven temperature right, the size and thickness was perfect, the planets were aligned. So I took a few pictures of that too, 'cos #1) I have no life and #2) I have no life!

I hope your mouth waters a little and I apologize to Scott for this blog, 'cos it's basically pictures I already emailed him and stuff he already knew. Well, guess what, there ain't much else goin' on 'round here!!

Cookies cooling on the counter.......

Ultimate Cookie (I was trying to get a picture with the chip all melty and a strand of chocolate, but I let it cool a little too much. And I had to keep eating my photo subjects, so I had to give up before they were all gone!!

Just Add Milk!!!

Ancient memories

I love diggin' around in the ground. (I suppose that's why I got into pottery) There's nothing better than havin' my hands (or feet) in the dirt! Yesterday morning I hoed and raked the garden. The weather was absolutely perfect and the the dirt was too. I have romaine lettuce coming out my ears, and have unfortunately discovered that I don't really like romaine lettuce. It's a little too pungent. But it looks so pretty out there in its crooked little row, I don't mind weeding around it, and just leaving it for looks. I hope I have some broccoli soon. I saw a few little green tomatoes have made an appearance.My rows are a little too wide, but I got a late start and knew I wouldn't be able to plant everything I'd like to, so I kinda spread everything out a bit.

I like my tomato cages. I made them out of branches we had trimmed earlier. I think they look kinda "zen" and earthy.

I do lotsa thinkin' when I'm hoein' and rakin'. I was thinking about why I love working in the garden and why I love being a potter. Of course there are the obvious similarities, both involve handling dirt. But I wonder why some people enjoy the earth more than others.

When I was in high school, I enjoyed painting more than potting. I actually went to a commercial art school for about a month and I thought I would make a living drawing and painting. Well, that never transpired. (Not only did I never make a living drawing and painting, I basically never made a living, period!) But, my point is that over the years, I drifted away from the painting, but got more and more interested in the pottery.

I think that what I like about pottery is that it involves 3 of the most basic elements, water, fire, and earth. I like that.

And I think I like gardening because I come from a long line of farmers and my mother always had good things to say about growing up on the farm. I don't believe in reincarnation, but I do think that we retain some sort of sense of remembrance from what our ancestors did. I don't know if I'm expressing myself clearly, but I think that if we can pass along things in our genes like eye color, hair color, and things like that, why can't we pass along some sort of sense of what our ancestors experienced and loved? My ancestors were farmers, they hoed and raked and planted and now I do it too. And I think that somehow they passed on their love of the earth to me and I look forward to passing it on to my grand-kids. I had Jaedon out in the garden with me the other day in his car seat. He fell asleep. But next year, I'm sure I'll be yellin' at him to quit stepping on my beans and don't pull the blooms off the tomato plants. Yeah, it'll be fun. (I think!)

I think that what got me to thinking about that is a book I'm reading. It's called Speak to the Earth, and it's by a local Indiana woman who wrote for a newspaper named Rachel Peden. She says:

"A farmer's heart leaps up when he beholds a well-tilled, fertile field in any stage of production. If a non-farmer's heart leaps up at the sight of a field of ripe wheat or a cornfield sparkling greenly in sunlight, it is because in his subconscious ancient memory he associates it with his own food. A preservationist's heart leaps up at the sight of any kind of land...farm, wilderness, jungle, tundra, prairie, or swamp just lying there with no harvest being exacted of it. For true earth lovers the most heart-upleaping sight of all is the sight of abused land showing that it can heal itself and being given the opportunity to do it."

Corn and Concrete

It's been a busy week, yet again. Today Megan and Jaedon came out and we put up freezer corn. I haven't done it for probably 10 years!! It brought back a lot of memories! It had been so long, I almost forgot the procedure!! I found my old recipe scribbled on a sheet of paper stuck in my cookbook. It called for 12 C. of corn and luckily I had written down that it would take approx. 4 dozen ears of corn. What I didn't write down is that I really only needed about 18 ears of corn to end up with 12 C. of corn kernels, but I bet I used to buy 4 dozen ears so I could make 3 batches. It's not really worth going to all the trouble if you don't make several batches!

I did remember how messy it is! So we shucked the ears and cut the kernels off the cob outside. There was silk, and corn husks everywhere and we both had to clean our glasses off because the juice from the corn tends to spray everywhere!

Putting up freezer corn is a great thing to do with a friend (or family member - or BOTH!) When Megan was a little girl, my friend, Becky would come out to the house and bring all her kids, and they would run around and play outside while we did the corn. The shucking is probably the most time consuming part, but it provides a great opportunity to have some meaningful conversation and enjoy a beautiful day!

I would imagine that when women used to can and freeze on a regular basis, it would turn into a bit of a social event with a friend or neighbor. It makes it more fun! Usually when I make freezer jam, I do it alone 'cos it's pretty quick and easy. But freezer corn is definitely a job for 2 people.

Jaedon was his usual angelic self for us and slept like (what else?) a baby!! He's really starting to get smiley and even is beginning to laugh out loud! Grampa made him happy by playing peek-a-boo.

The kiln is still progressing too. Scott came out again last Sunday and Steve used the second grinder we purchased and we ground more bricks. We've made a pretty good dent in them and should be able to finish with one more session. The weather was cloudy and cool, unfortunately it wasn't as windy as the previous week, so the dust and sand didn't blow away as easily. We all looked like tired ghosts when we were done, and I noticed a slight cloud of dust hovering behind us as we moved around the yard. It reminded me of the "Pigpen" character on Charlie Brown.

Day before yesterday Steve and I got to work preparing the area where we poured the slab for the kiln to sit on. We decided that the sandy site where the above ground pool sat would be the perfect spot for the kiln. We spent most of the morning digging the footer, a trench about 9-12 inches deep and about as wide as a shovel. We're making the slab 10'x18' in size. The kiln will be quite a bit smaller than that, but we're going to put a roof over top and will use it for a picnic area when I'm not firing.

Steve probably dug 3/4 of it and I helped with one corner and the short side. He thought it would be funny to hold his "achin' back" when I took the picture. It turned out to be a prophetic pose because the next morning when he bent over to tie his shoes, he threw his back out!! I had tried to talk him into renting a little back-hoe but he insisted he could do it. I told him that I had no doubts about his abilities, I was just concerned about his back. So, I must've had a premonition (or wifely intuition or whatever "ition" you want to call it!) I knew exactly what had happened when he walked into the bedroom to put his shoes on and a minute later I heard him say (through clenched teeth) "D - &*%$# -!! Son-of-a-b&*%$!!!"

"Did you throw your back out?" I hollered. He answered with a disgusted sounding yes and I walked into the room to find him lying on his stomach on the floor arching his back and groaning. Uh-oh, the concrete is supposed to arrive in a few hours!!

Luckily he wasn't rendered completely immobile, and my trusty friend, Scott, had offered to come out and help us get the job done! He also told us we'd need to rent a "bull float" for the initial smoothing (after screeding.) I've learned a lot about concrete in the last couple of days! Steve's using the bull float in one of the photos below.

With 2 male perfectionists on the job, not only did I feel like I wasn't needed, I'm pretty sure that the general assumption was that anything I could contribute to the process would be woefully inadequate. So, I weeded the garden, filled drink containers, and generally piddled around. The boys screeded and floated and troweled and watered, and after a few hours, they called it a day! And my beautiful slab is ready and waiting for us to start building the kiln upon it!

I'm not sure if we'll start building the kiln first or try to get the 4x4s and the roof put up so we can work on the kiln in some shade. As usual, we'll fly by the seat of our pants and see what happens. It's worked for me so far, why change now?!

I'm somewhat surprised at how quickly we're getting things accomplished. (Or maybe my goals aren't lofty enough!!) Not having to work full-time is definitely helpful. Hopefully we'll get most of our major projects done over the summer and fall, and then with a little luck, I'll sell some pots throughout fall and the holiday season. Once we get into heavy winter, we'll have to assess our situation and decide if Steve's going to continue his "life of leisure." (I'm sure he would argue with that description right now!) But eventually we will get a handle on things here, and I think even he will get bored with sitting around the house all day! I suppose if the pottery does start selling, he could take over the household chores and give me even more time to spend in the studio!

Worst case scenario: pots don't sell at all and not only does Steve become a WalMart greeter, but I have to find work based on MY experience, which would mean waiting tables, cleaning houses, or working in a daycare facility! Not my idea of fun career choices! But hopefully the lucky penny that Scott said we should lay in the concrete will get the potting career off to a good start!! (Nobody would leave a hand print in the cement to commemorate the occasion so the penny had to suffice.)

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens! I'm just trying to enjoy the present, and so far, I would say I'm succeeding!

Odds 'n Ends

We are now officially "moved in." We finally have a mattress in the house so we don't have to sleep in the camper anymore!! And we even got a couple LazyBoys, but who has time to sit on their butt? Well, we do have a little down time!

Let's see, since my last blog we've made a little progress. The room we're going to use as our closet has carpet and storage shelves now. Here are the before and after pictures:

We put down some cheap berber, the cheapest we could find. The room was just a little too big to find a remnant. We were going to put it down ourselves, but the guy at the carpet store offered to install it for 65 bucks (first it was $75, when we hesitated he said $65, I talked Steve into letting them do it. He had some idea for coming up with a makeshift stretcher, sounded scary to me. Now, it's done!)

We got the shelf kit and corner piece at Lowe's. We're going to put a few more shelves in on the right, a storage bench under the window, and a make-up table to the right of the window.

We also found a nice old 8N tractor with a finish mower! We had been looking on Craig's List and we found this guy in Alexandria who had about 10 old tractors in various stages of restoration. His name's Clyde and he apparently loves anything with a gas engine, 'cos besides the tractors, he had 3 motorcycles, 3 late 60s model Camaros (one for each of his daughters and his own) a '70-something corvette, and countless lawnmowers, both riding and walk-behind. Everything was in pristine shape, including his garage, and he kept meticulous records on everything he owned. He gave us the logbook he kept on the tractor and he recorded every part he replaced, the date, and the cost, and everytime he started it up he would write the date and the outside temperature!! Talk about anal! But that means we got a tractor in really good shape. It was a little more than we planned on spending on an old 8N, but like Steve said, if we take care of it, it will easily retain its value, if not increase in value! So, we christened the tractor Clyde Jr. and Steve spent a few hours on Tuesday getting the yard mowed.

Here's Clyde on Jr. You can see one of his camaros in the garage, and if you look closely, you'll see the corvette is actually stored above it on this crazy hydraulic lift thing!!



And here's a shot of Steve and the long, long trail which is our driveway! That's our house looking teeny-tiny to the left of his head!! (click on the photo for a bigger view.)

Here's a close-up of him:

While Steve was picking up the tractor, Megan and Jaedon and I made freezer jam. Megan noticed a sign up the road for strawberries, so I went and picked some Tuesday morning. At first the guy who owned the place didn't seem to think I'd be able to find enough berries, it is getting to be a little late in the season. But he saw my dissappointment and told me I could try to find enough. There were actually plenty. And after I started picking, about half a dozen more people came out and picked too. The owner of the farm used to be the football coach at the high school in New Castle and this is what he's doing as his "retirement." One of the people picking tod me he had heart surgery at the beginning of the strawberry season, but it didn't appear to have slowed him down. No wonder he wasn't really in the mood to pick though!!

We made 2 batches of freezer jam, I had forgotten how easy it is to make (and how delicious!!) Between the jam and the new tractor and getting our chairs and mattress delivered, it was great day!!

Wednesday we went to the Optimist Breakfast, we're thinking about joining the group as a way to get to know people in the community. They're a really nice bunch of people. The Optimist is an organization that does things for kids. This was our 3rd meeting, so when they mentioned a volunteer opportunity I thought we should probably offer to help. So that's why we found ourselves waking up at the butt-crack o' dawn (as one of the optimists called it, which was actually 4:30 a.m.) so we could make pancakes to serve at a youth camp for "at-risk" kids that was sponsored by the Henry Co. Sheriff's Dept. It was fun, Steve and I both made pancakes, so of course it got a little competitive, to see who could make the best ones. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the batter, seriously! so the pancakes didn't brown very well and looked pretty anemic. But they tasted fine!!

We met our neighbor who lives at the other corner of our road. He stopped in to say hi. It looks like we've got 2 pretty good neighbors!! He talked to us for about an hour, filled us in on the local gossip that our other neighbor, Jeff, hadn't already told us about! He also gave us his phone number and said that since we're all kinda out in the middle of nowhere we watch out for each other and if we see anything strange, like a car going real slow, or someone we don't know pulls in, he said just give him a call. He said if I'm ever here alone and think someone's messing around, just call him, 'cos he "carries." (as in weaponry! Gotta love these Indiana boys.)

I got another definition of a Hoosier from one of the guys in the Optimist Club. He told me that a Hoosier's someone from Kentucky who didn't make it to Michigan!! (Wow, I think we have Hoosiers in Ohio too!!)

Tomorrow we're having a cook-out with Steve's family for Father's Day. We thought everybody was going to make it (except Danny's girlfriend, Ainsley, who had a wedding to attend.) But we were informed today that my neice in Cincinnait was injured in a softball game. She was pitching and got nailed in the face by a line drive! Several stitches and a swollon lip mean she's just going to take it easy at home tomorrow. The ironic part is she had almost exactly the same thing happen a couple years ago when she was playing intramural at Asbury. That time, the batter was her boyfriend (now husband.) He's swearing that he was playing short stop when today's incident occurred. But he does have a propensity to nail members of our family with softballs! A few years ago he hit a line drive at a game our son was pitching in, and shattered Danny's pinky. He had to have major surgery done in Louisville, and wore a strange contraption on it for several weeks hoping that he'd retain some mobility. I suggested they just lop it off, his dad told him that it would be cooler than a tattoo, but no one agreed with us.

So, anyways, we've been trying to get the house somewhat organized and I've been on a cleaning binge, 'cos the place has literally years of grime and filth!! I've been doing lots of vacuuming, mopping, and washing. It's a little better,
but still needs work.

Here's a picture of the stairway that I took from a weird angle. I kinda like how it looks......

Danny came up today and is spending the night tonight. We took him to the Wilbur Wright Birthplace Festival. We got there just as the skydivers (both of 'em) were jumping out of the plane, that was probably the most exciting event of the day. It was a little too breezy for the R/C guys to risk wrecking their 1/4 scale WWII replica model planes. One guy flew a helicoptor, but he hadn't been flying long, so it it was kinda boring. Then another guy flew a little "park model" corsair. It was fun to watch. And one of them flew an acrobatic kite.

Came home, had spaghetti and Danny and I played a little frisbee golf out in the field. It was my first time, but I did ok! Later this evening we saw a huge buck out in the field by the woods!!

So, now I do b'lieve I've caught my blog up for the week, and I'm going to hit the sack!!

Starting a new chapter!

I'm starting a new blog to commemorate the newest chapter of our life. It appears that our nomadic lifestyle has been put on hold and we're once again property owners. I've decided to blog about life as a wanna be potter and the adventures I'm sure we'll have on 18 acres living in a hundred year old house.

At the moment, we're living a kind of a double life. We have minimal furniture in the house while we make a few changes and updates, so we're sleeping in the camper. But we are using the kitchen and bathrooms in the house, so I've spent a lot of time carrying necessities from one place to the other!

We're living in a state of complete disarray for the moment and I've decided to just embrace it. I think I'm truly a slob at heart but mother-hood forced me to actually become somewhat organized! Now I'm just happy to delude myself into believing that I've achieved some level of organization.

The first day we were here, we both kinda walked around in a daze. We didn't know where to start or what to do first! Steve's not good at prioritizing or planning and I felt too overwhelmed to start! Now I'm starting to get a handle on things and I keep telling myself that we have all summer to get a lot of stuff done, so we need to pace ourselves.

The first project we tackled was tearing up the carpet in 3 downstairs rooms. The people we bought the house from had 2 dogs and they either didn't own a vacuum cleaner, or didn't know how to operate it!! The house reeked of old, dirty dogs!!! When we tore up the first room, it was disgusting the amount of stains and the piles of dirt and dust that had accumulated between the padding and the floor!! Here's what it looked like!! I wish it was possible to upload the smell, but I would hate to make my loyal readers gag!!!




After removing the carpet and padding, and vacuuming and mopping up the filth, we started removing the staples and the tacking that's used to hold the edges under the molding. That took several hours!! I'm not used to sitting on the floor for that long!! I wish we could figure out how to get the hot tub chemically balanced so we could use it without fear of slow cooking ourselves in a warm pool of bacteria!

I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment today though!! And we're relatively happy with the condition of the flooring underneath the carpet, at least in two of the rooms. It's painted a somewhat "poopie" shade of brown, but it actually goes rather well with the molding and the character of the house. (Not that the character of the house is "poopie," I'm mostly referring to color and style.) I think we're going to freshen the paint, and maybe do a contrasting border. I hope that once we get a large area rug and move our furniture in, it will be quite cozy and we will have saved thousands of dollars by not putting down new carpet or hardwood floors. I would LOVE to lay some gorgeous hardwood, but I'd rather live with this for now and see what transpires with our finances, the pottery business, and Steve's job search.

The house is actually in pretty decent shape and even though we could put endless amounts of money and sweat equity into it and make it quite a showcase, we're hoping to keep the costs down and make it livable and just a little more cohesive than it is right now.

And hopefully we'll leave ourselves enough time and money to be able to just enjoy the setting. Seems like we try to find this idyllic life and then we end up making it so complicated that we never have time to relax and enjoy it. So that's my goal, keep it simple!!

We'll see how it goes!