Yana and Peter Homeshow

New Studio Space!

2012-02-01T21:25:00.000-04:00

I moved into the new studio last week, or maybe it was the week before. Anyway, it took longer than expected. There was a lot of stuff to go out to the garage from that little sun porch. Days of carting stuff across the driveway. And then I had to figure out where it all went and how it all worked in the new space. I'm still doing that, and I find that no matter what, I'm still getting up to get something on the other side of the room.
I bought a counter top at the Restore which will be the sink and glaze area on the far wall. Eventually, but for now I'm using a bucket of water from the kitchen as always. The plan is also to have ware shelves across the north wall, but for now, there is still construction material for house reno stored on the wall, and it will be there a while I think. For now I'm still using the small ware shelves that we had in the other studio.
I'm in a decorating phase right now which you may notice from the pots of paint littering the table top. I signed up for a tile making and decorating course at the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design with Suzi Cameron. I was attracted to the decoration aspect of the course in the description because I know nothing about painting (and it shows) so my pots always end up looking like a 4 year old painted them, but not in a good way like naive art or folk art, or Jackson Pollack but just in a bad way like a completely talentless hack had a go.
So I've been practicing on greenware with underglazes under Suzi's very expert direction, and in some ways I'm actually getting the hang of it, but it still looks pretty amateurish. Plus now I want to go out and spend money on better brushes because her brushes actually do what I want (sort of) and mine I bought in a package of 10 at the dollar store 4 years ago. Nuff said.

Also, we moved all the orphan pottery equipment that we have collected over the years into the studio. You may notice a large treadle wheel and a belt driven bench style wheel and a stand up cabinet style wheel in the photos. These came with various kilns we acquired on kijiji. The bench wheel was my first wheel which I used until the sweetie (and inlaws) bought me the new one a couple years ago at Christmas. All the wheels work, although the electric ones are slow and a bit jittery. The treadle wheel also came with a motor but the wiring was apart, so we just took it off and the treadle bit works amazingly well. I had a go this week for the first time. I've never done it before, and I was surprised at how much energy it took. It was like riding a stationary bike and my heart rate increased by the time I was finished centring. An art workout!

The cabinet wheel has only one speed, and I think we will turn it into a sharpening wheel because it isn't very fast and I don't think I could manage to throw a pot on it, although I thought for a while I could use it as a dedicated trimming wheel.
Oh, and the studio has a facebook page! The world must be coming to an end if I'm on facebook. Except I don't understand what I'm doing, and I can't seem to make anything work. My page doesn't have a search window or a fans or events button, so I can't do anything but post to myself and post photos on my wall. I'd like to invite you to see it but I can't. Just search facebook pages for Sun Porch Pottery and Like me (or don't) and maybe it will start working, or something.
Cheers
Jane

Happy New Year 2012 - Remember to Have Fun

2012-01-03T11:18:00.009-04:00

Yes, I know. It's been ages.
Why?
Something's gotta give.
Can't do everything.
In June, the sweetie said to me one day...."All we ever do is yard work or work on the house. I want to have fun"
Now, I was surprised at this because I love the yard work, (some of us would call that gardening.)
And I love my house, as unfinished as it is and crazy as that may seem. But I understood what he meant. We used to go hiking, camping, drinking, adventuring, exploring, whatever, and we don't do that anymore because:
1. We spend any extra money we have on the house stuff.
2. We have too many projects on the go. It can be overwelming.

It was getting him down. He's already a little stressed because of this phD project. He wanted some leisure time.
So for the past 6 months or so we have been working at having fun.
I abandoned the garden and the blog (two things which suck up a lot of time) to do other things. Fun things for both of us.
Boy, was it expensive.
In July we bought a new truck. It's blue, and still doesn't have a name. That wasn't so much fun as necessary. Casper was 11 years old and starting to really fall apart. We sold him to friends who didn't have a truck at all, and sometimes we still visit.
In August we drove the new truck to Montreal and bought a new bike. The green one to match my red one. Now we are twins.The plan of spending time riding together was foiled by the crappy summer weather we had and also that the green bike (which still doesn't have a name) was in the shop being fixed for a month. We bought it used, and it had some unknown problems which are now fixed and we are eagerly waiting for spring. Vroom.

In August we also bought kayaks. We were having so much fun with those that we forgot to take pictures. We put the kayaks on the truck and went to various lake and beaches all over, getting wet and exhausted and pretending we are 20ish rather than 40ish.

In September we built a new garden for a friend (yup, that's yard work but I managed to squeeze it in anyway). We used the new truck for that too, you can just see it in the distant background. September we decided I needed a new larger pottery studio and began renovating the upstairs of the garage. Including putting on a new roof. Thanks to our friends Peter and Gabrielle for helping with that. This is the new studio space under construction. It looks better now. The electricity is in, the lighting and the insulation and vapour barrier are in. There is a wood stove for the heater, along with a couple electric baseboards to keep it from freezing at night. We still need to put down the vinyl floor and plumb a sink before I move in. Oh, and a couple windows would be nice. It will be rudimentary, without drywall and will still be a storage space for much of our renovation and summer activities, but it is a much larger space that the sun porch I am currently in.
In October we renovated a craft fair booth we bought from a friend and went to a craft fair in November. Exhausting but fun.Over Christmas we collapsed from all the fun.

In the Boxing Day sales we bought me a new computer to replace the 8 year old antique I had been using. (for using - read swearing at and getting frustrated when it would hang up or crash)
The new one is much faster and easier to surf with, so perhaps blogging won't be such a time consuming task and I will do it a bit more in 2012.
Happy New Year to all, and remember to have fun.

The upside of crappy weather

2011-06-29T20:12:00.007-03:00

What follows two days of rain? Monday.

It has been a bit of the summer that never was so far, although it is still early days yet I keep telling myself. The last two weeks have been getting better, except for the weekends which have been rainy and cold.
The upside: I can ride my motorcycle to work during the week and relax in the pool after a long sticky day.
I'm not getting a sunburn at work.
The cool nights are wonderful for sleeping.
Have I convinced you yet? I have almost convinced myself.
This week has been sunny and warming up and the forecast for Canada Day weekend is for more of that. Ironically the garden needs water. I'm hoping for rain.
The downside: Weekend chores in the garden get left undone and laundry goes in the dryer. The second coat of paint on a garden chair is still waiting, and plants that should have been planted a month ago are not. Like these.These are the results of the sweet potato experiment I wrote about last winter here. These are only a few, I had great success with getting the sweet potatoes to overwinter in storage and then got them to grow slips which then root in water for planting. I also tried just planting the sweet potatoes, and that was slower because there wasn't much heat in the greenhouse in spring, but once they started, they really got going.
The other half I took to work and they were not as successful but are starting to come on now.

Other things to do when it rains:
I did complete a sewing project that has been sitting there since April.Friends gave us this teak chair sans cushion in February, and I finally finished the cushions. I had hoped to also cover the cushions of another teak chair we inherited but I ran out of fabric and now can't find it anymore. Bummer.

I started some pottery that a friend has commissioned me to make. And I finally glaze fired a kiln of stuff that has been sitting around since I went back to work. Most of it came out OK. Maybe pictures later.

Team Ed Ride

2011-06-12T20:46:00.005-03:00

The 50 km bike ride I did for charity was last weekend on Sunday. I would have blogged about it earlier but I had to wait until my fingers stopped hurting. This is us before the start, "While we are all still smiling" I think was the quote.
It wasn't so bad really. I had a couple things going in my favour.
Everyone else was ill, with colds or asthma or whatever and that meant that I could keep up with all the regular cyclists most of the time. Yay for viruses!
Also, I have a great bike. I will admit to stressing about my bike before the ride. My bike is so old that when Peter went to buy new tires for it, the guy in the shop told him that Cannondale hadn't made a bike with 24" rims for 20 years. My bike is an antique. And I went looking for a new bike last year and realized that there are a lot of new and improved features to modern bikes, like shock absorbers and more gears and big rims that make mine look like a Model T Ford. Happily, my group were not the up to date, hard core set I was expecting, and I am so grateful for that.
I will admit to being a little intimidated when I learned they were part of a cycling club that did this ride every Thursday evening.
We were 6 in our group and that is a good number. We cycled mostly together, or in twos chatting as the scenery went by. It gave us all a chance to learn more about each other, and I will say that those other five people were an interesting and diverse bunch. This was such a good experience.
I want to add that the best part of getting my bike on the road again is how you feel so much more connected to the scenery. I could smell the lilacs (and the chicken barns) and hear the birds and feel the road surface. When I was practising before hand, I would cycle past people and they would wave, or say hello, or nod. Other cyclist would call out too. I have driven the route we took many times, but doing it on a bicycle made it a completely different experience.

As we passed the end of our driveway, Peter and our friend Lynn were cheering us on with the Dog as Official Team Ed Dog (note the sign around her neck.) I had forgotten to mention the Cheering section to anyone else, so most of the group were wondering who those people were and how they knew we were coming.
On the way back, we stopped in for a photo op and chance to pee.
We had variable weather. It was cool in the morning, and looked very dark and foreboding as we were on our way to the start point at Clock Park in Wolfville. By the time we were at Star's Point it was clear and sunny, we all stripped off our extra clothes in Kingsport and except for the stiff wind sideways on the Port Williams dyke coming back the ride we had excellent riding weather.
The last leg of the ride across the Port Williams dyke up to Greenwich Corner and then the home stretch from Greenwich to Wolfville was the most grueling part of the ride. Besides wind and hills, I could feel my energy waning, and there were a few fleeting thoughts of just stopping and sticking out my thumb to a passing car. Beer kept me going but in my darkest thoughts, I remembered that the Port Pub was closer than Paddy's. I was trailing behind, if I stopped would anyone notice? When we rolled in to Wolfville at 12:10 we all headed for the pub, for the reward of a fry up breakfast and beer.
Between Toronto and Nova Scotia we raised around $5700 for the Princess Margaret Research Foundation. Thanks for all your support.

Rainy May, It May Rain

2011-05-23T12:50:00.005-03:00

Happy Victoria Day weekend. Three weeks have flown by. Most of the days this month were rainy. It got everyone down and the morning radio hosts were complaining that mushrooms were growing in their hair. Work was frustrating as we completed as much inside work as we could and then after two weeks we finally had to brave the wet and do some outside things anyway.
Peter has been very busy doing everything but the PhD research this month. He had an interesting day of sewer maintenance on May 3.He constructed a wood shed. It looks remarkable like a green house I know, but plastic is cheaper than almost anything else and the solar gain will dry out the wood.All three motorcycles run. This is ironic because usually we are so busy in spring that the motorcycles get pushed back and we aren't riding them until June or July. This year they are ready to go, as soon as the sun comes out. If it ever comes out.

We were unsuccessful in selling the older bikes last fall, but we relisted them on the KIJIJI site and he sold Binky last Friday. Bye Bye Binky, I will miss you. Still looking for a buyer for the Virago though.

He also sold a friend's lawn mower for her this weekend.

The weather finally cleared a little last week and we set up the pool Thursday night after our first day of sun in two weeks. Because there has been so much rain and because we no longer use the well as our main source of water, we just turned the pump on and started filling the pool on Thursday evening. We figured there is as much water in the well as there ever would be so we didn't need to worry about running it dry. Saturday Peter shocked it with chlorine and the water went orange. We weren't sure if it was brown algae or rust. After some internet research it is apparently rust. Since we have only been using the well for making tea and for the greenhouse water (and not much there because of the rain) and maybe because there is so much ground water right now that leaching is occuring, there is a lot of iron built up and when he added the chlorine shock it reacted to the iron. My research says the most effective thing is to filter it with cotton socks and batting. So we did that today and it is amazing how well it works. The water is only red tea colour now.
He also set up the solar heater and made some modifications. The temperature of the heater water Sunday afternoon when the sun finally came out was 35 degrees C while the air temperature was only 15. Wow.

Saturday I went to a fundraiser Plant Sale with my neighbour and laid out a space to make a new garden bed for all the sun plants I am unable to resist. The veg garden is growing well, and now that we squirrel proofed the greenhouse the seedlings are coming along OK too.
My bicycling is getting better. Sunday I biked to Kingsport and back from here. Kingsport is 2 kms and the first bit is all up hill and against the wind. I had to rest at the beach for 10 minutes before I could turn around. When I got home I had to rest on the couch for 20 minutes before I could move. That was only 4 kms but it nearly killed me.
This morning I went the other direction to Canning for bread, and it was mostly downhill on the way so I did an extra loop around the village before I headed back. The ride up hill wasn't as bad as I thought and I was surprised that I didn't need to rest when I got home. I may be able to go out again this afternoon for a second run. I need all the training I can get I think.

Team Ed Charity Ride

2011-05-21T17:09:00.003-03:00

Every year there is a charity bike ride to raise money for brain cancer research at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in Toronto. Team Ed, is a group of people who ride in memory of Ed Poty who died of brain cancer 9 years ago. I didn't know Ed, but I know his wife, my friend Sharon, and she does a ride here in Nova Scotia because she no longer lives in Toronto.
For the past two years, I have participated in the Team Ed Ride by showing up at the end of the ride and eating a greasy breakfast at the pub. I was good with that, but this year Sharon challenged me to do more. Now, as my normal two wheeled conveyance has an 850 cc motor to make it go, I thought this sounded so retro that I had to try it.
Today I put new tires on my bicycle because the ride is in two weeks and I need to get out and practice beforehand so I don't puke. I needed new tires because I haven't ridden my bike for 8 years and when I tried to inflate them last year they exploded. After I put on the new tires, I took it for a spin down the road to Kingsport to see if I could still remember how. It really is like riding a bike. Unfortunately I got as far as the winery (about 800 metres) and decided that was enough for the day. (I'm thinking now that may die. but it is too late to back out because I have registered and have a fund raising page and everything!)
In Nova Scotia, we are cycling from Wolfville to Kingsport and back on Sunday June 5. We are taking the scenic Wellington Dyke route and it will be about 50kms all told. Go to the website and search for my name under participants to sponsor me. If I live, I promise the blog post will be worth it.

http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=4111&mid=8

What did you do this weekend?

2011-05-01T18:51:00.005-03:00

Not so much house reno as house maintenance. After digging up the drive to install the water line, it got very mucky and rutted in the spring thaw. We first tried to use field stones in the ruts to firm it up and hoped that they would act like cobblestones, but that was a disaster. We talked about getting a man with a digger to grade it and fix up the ditch that ran along side. We talked about doing it by (gasp) hand. We even looked into renting a machine and driving it ourselves. We were waffling about the work and the price of all these options. On Saturday though, our neighbours had a digging machine in their yard to look for the septic tank which they suspected needed pumping. They had spent several hours looking for it with shovels and long poles without success and had decided to get in a professional. We took advantage of that event to ask the guy if he would do some things for us. In about an hour with no physical or organizational effort on our part required at all, it was all done.
He dug the ditch.
He graded the drive. He pulled out several tree stumps that still had massively long roots attached.
He levelled a spot for the new wood shed.
Peter was so happy he couldn't stop grinning.
It cost a $100.
Then, we considered that our septic system hadn't been pumped for several years so we decided to find our tank, and unlike the neighbours, we mostly knew where to look because it was new when we bought the house 8 years ago. I took pictured so we would remember where to look next time, because you only do this every few years. We are not sure if it needs to be pumped or not, but we will call and try to piggy back onto our neighbour's house call now that it is all dug up.
I started back to work this week, and except one particularly gruelling day I didn't feel as bad as expected. I did get a sunburn on Thursday because the weather went from cold and rainy to hot and muggy in about 3 minutes and apparently it was sunny for at least some of the time.These are a couple of gratuitous pottery photos from the last glaze kiln. I just unloaded a bisque this week and I've been working on making plaster molds for some new ideas. The plaster is a nightmare though and I've had several mishaps with it setting too quickly or oozing out of the forms and going everywhere.

The best laid plans...and a look back in history

2011-04-11T21:28:00.009-03:00

I had this plan to gently ease into gardening this year. I would go out for an hour or so and rake a bit here, tidy a bit there...
It started out OK. I pruned all the fruit trees in February.
I pruned all the shrubs in March.
Last weekend was sunny and warmish. I spent hours raking and weeding and edging and top dressing. Two days in a row. I can't move more than my fingers to type.
My small goal was to uncover the shade garden and check on the perennials there.
From there I branched out to raking up some branches in the drive and the lawn. But this is how my thought process became my undoing.
"But why rake branches until all the tree pruning is done?"
So I did that.
"And if I'm uncovering the rhubarb, shouldn't I just top dress it with fertilizer? But before I top dress, shouldn't I weed out the crab grass? But if I'm weeding crabgrass, shouldn't I give the bed a hard edge to stop the grass from re-invading the rhubarb? Since I have the edger out, shouldn't I do the same to the asparagus bed? And it has crabgrass too...."

Today I took it easy and simply loaded up the truck with branches to take to the compost site and I bought a new burn barrel. Our old burn barrel is rather rusted out and I have been meaning to replace it for two years, so one more item off the List with a capital L.
Why do we need a burn barrel? We don't much. When we were first here and doing a lot of house destruction, we burned a lot of the short and scrappy lumber we were removing from the house. This picture from 2005 illustrates how much we are talking about. This is one of my favourite pictures from that time. I went to visit a friend in Scotland, and when I came home, this is what my house looked like. The upstairs is missing, the diagonal line on the left of the picture is the upstairs bedroom wall, the lighter coloured square is where the dining room used to be.
This picture is about a month later with the shell of the new construction almost complete. We actually reclaimed a lot of the lumber you see piled here, either we saved the wood to be reused or we chopped it into short lengths and used it to heat the workshop.
We were doing so much that it would have been prohibitive to pay for dumping the mixed construction waste at the transfer station, and it is so far away that it took a lot of time to get there and back with a load on our little truck. When we started the destruction we had a dumpster for the initial debris and it was 100's of dollars. ouch.
Then I began to use the burn barrel to burn all the branches from spring clean up, but now I can take it for free to the compost site in town which is much closer than the county site.
We still have a lot of paper which I have been trying to burn in the wood stove all winter, but that creates a lot of ash that needs to be removed frequently. The paper is old bills, taxes from 1994 to 2000, files and files of stuff we don't need to hang on to any longer, boxes and boxes full. I have a shredder, but the volume would take ages to shred, just as the burning in the wood stove was taking ages, hence the new burn barrel.

The List - Part Two

2011-03-27T20:15:00.007-03:00

Technology is conspiring against me as I attempt to do more of my List with a capital L.
I tried shortening my Frenchy's jeans, and the iron stopped working. This is not a new development, about 15 months ago the iron stopped working but I liked it so much I decided to have it fixed rather than buy one new. After waiting weeks for a diagnosis from the repair shop in the city that is only open M-F, 9 -5 therefore making it very difficult to get to, I was told by the useless repair guy that it worked perfectly and to come pick it up. To be fair, it does work perfectly for the first 7 minutes, and then it shuts off and will not turn back on until it sits there for at least a few hours. As long as you can iron something in 7 minutes there is no problem, and usually I can manage to speed iron anything I need, but not today. Happily, the iron I bought to go to University 24 years ago still works, so I did get the legs of my jeans hemmed. One more item checked off.
I tried making a new work belt to replace the one stolen last year. After cleaning the sewing machine, and locating the proper thread and needle, and changing the tension to work with the heavy duty nylon I began reverse engineering from memory the Caribiner holder only to find that it was a little more complicated than I expected. The sweetie informed me that there is a portfolio of patterns somewhere for all of those things he used to make, but after searching every box in the basement for an hour I gave up. I did find the 1960's warming tray that I could have used for his birthday party last month.
Having lost interest in the work belt, I tried using a CD to write my own Legal Will (because really, this has been on the list for several years now) only to find that the desk top computer will not read a CD any more. The desktop is 8, which in computer years is like 80, and the Sweetie has been wanting a new one for about a year or maybe two. It is slow. It does have memory issues (like most Octogenarians) and let's face it, the CD drive could have been broken for months, or even years because when was the last time I wanted to use a CD anyway? Perhaps the occasional dusting could have helped. I am still holding out on buying a new one because I know there is a property tax bill coming soon to my mailbox, and I spent my income tax refund on new tires for the truck. The simplest thing to do is buy a downloadable version of this and bypass the CD thing completely. But I am too cheap to buy a second version of a thing I already bought but can't use and so I am in limbo. Perhaps the dear Sweetie will let me use his laptop. If I die before I write my will, I will spare a thought for all of you left behind suffering under probate while I'm sipping my mead in Valhalla.
A few pictures of new pots. I'm in a texture stage these days. Last week I was rejected from a juried craft fair in the city. The rejection was a form letter, which stated several criteria which I may have failed to meet. I prefer to think that I was rejected because I was not a local resident rather than my pots are not good enough. The rejection was a relief as I was worried I wouldn't have enough wares stocked up, but that had the detrimental effect of slowing my production even further and now I find I'm back to the experimental stage instead of doing more of the same to get a good selection of similar things. I am a pottery flibbertigibbet.
Also last week I was accepted to a three day Christmas show at the end of October. Unfortunately the end of October is too far away to panic me into action. I fear I might need to start setting weekly goals for production or it is all going to go badly.
Here is a gratuitous cute dog photo.

Sunny and Freezing, I tackle the LIST

2011-03-27T16:00:00.011-03:00

Almost the end of March. The spring equinox came and went without much fanfare. It has been colder this week and the mucky drive is drier and more solid, mostly because it is frozen again. Fooled by the sunshine I set out to prune the overgrown honeysuckles (Lonicera tartarica) and some other shrubs yesterday morning. The thermometer said Zero but I figured it would warm up with the sunshine. At noon I admitted defeat, half frozen from the north wind that made the day feel more like -14 'C. The rest of the garden work will have to wait for a milder day.
This is day two of fierce wind, and we are burning our way through the wood we bought last fall for next winter. This winter we easily burned 3 1/2 cords, almost double what we burned last year. This winter though it was cold in early October and it is still cold now. Where as last winter it was still warm in November and spring in February. Having said that, we burned 100 L less of oil in the furnace. A result of both of us being home much of the time and the wood stove being lit more than last year.
Last night we remembered to turn off the lights for Earth Hour. It was really dark and all we could to was sit by the fire and talk about the Federal Election. The sweetie is a political junky and is very excited about the election. I am already bored with the idea, especially knowing that for the next 36 days, I will have to endure him yelling sarcastic comments at the TV whenever Stephen Harper appears. We cancelled cable two weeks ago, and he is really missing the all news channels. We still have internet though, so he can watch much of what is going on that way. I have a friend who, when she gets exasperated at her DH for one of his many quirks, his response is to say "How can you complain? I could be an alcoholic, gambling wife beater?" With this in mind I try to remind myself that my situation could be worse, the Sweetie could watch sports.
The thought of being called back to work soon has spurred me to do some of those things on my List with a capital L, only to be thwarted by technology at every turn. You know the List, those things that take a back seat when you are busy, and when you have time you are so used to them that you forget they need attention.
Like the pepper grinder that probably hasn't worked well for two or three years now. Last week in an effort to get something out of it I tightened the top knob too much and cracked the top completely into two pieces. It went on the grocery list for two weeks before I remembered to pick one up.
Snazzy yes? It is a ceramic grinder and so far we are still over peppering as one small twist equals about 15 twists from the old grinder. Small victories.
The alarm clock was another victory. Shortly after we bought it 10 years ago I dropped it and the face plate came off and the radio didn't tune quite right so that when the radio alarm went off you could hear the beeping alarm in the back ground. Annoying yes, but only until you get up and then you promptly forgot about it (for a decade) Last week I dropped it again (it was a clumsy week last week) and the digital numbers stopped displaying properly. At one point the dear sweetie asked what time it was and I replied, "L 1 L." In my defence of this decade long apathy I will say that I tried to replace it last Christmas time, but when I got to the store I was overwhelmed at the choices and left after 15 minutes without purchasing anything. Did I want one alarm or two? Did I want it to project the time? Automatically update? Have a choice of noises? Have an ipod charger? What colour? This time I took the DS with me and he helped me through it, crisis averted.
And the thermometer. We have one outside the kitchen window to tell us what to wear in the morning. Except it is on the east side of the house and while it is very accurate after 10am, in the early morning while the sun is rising and while we are getting dressed, it lies. It increases the real temperature by several degrees. Note the jaunty angle from having fallen off the bracket every time there is an east wind. How can you trust such a thing? There have been many days I set out with only a t shirt when I should have been wearing a sweater and hat. So I purchased a new one, with the proper numbers larger than the others, and the DS put it outside the living room window on the north side for more accurate morning temperatures. The picture tells the the flaw in this plan. Take only 1 minute after the last picture, the temperature is 5 degrees higher on the north side of the house at supper time when the sun is setting and hits this spot! It amazes me that the sun comes that far around the house only a few days after the vernal equinox.
While not exactly on the List, last week I picked a dear friend up at the airport and as a thank you (or perhaps as a late birthday pressie) she gave me this beautifully quilted tea cosy. What a hoot!
And finally, gratuitous cute cat photo.

We Have Water - Finally

2011-03-18T14:45:00.005-03:00

On Monday, we hooked the water from the municipal curb stop into our house plumbing and disconnected the well. It took a mere two hours, and at the end, two men from the county inspected the job and turned on the valve at the end of the driveway.It was all so painless, one wonders why we take so long to do these things.
We immediately noticed chlorine when we ran the tap in the kitchen. The dog and cat both looked askance at their water bowls before trying the new supply. I did two loads of laundry and maybe it is just my imagination but I think it smells cleaner. We did have high iron content in the well and the fabric felt softer straight out of the washer. Washing dishes (not that I do that often) also feels better on the hands and the dishwasher dishes seem cleaner too. It makes sense because laundry and dish detergent is formulated for a standard type of chlorinated water, so if they are working better I can understand why.
We noticed that tea tasted different, for me it was flat and burnt tasting. We always meant to keep the well for the greenhouse and garden, so we plumbed a bar tap in the kitchen sink from the well, and we use that for tea.Now that spring is here, the driveway we dug up for the water line is mucky and deeply rutted. We have spent some days adding field stone and levelling off the drive, but it will be a long process to repair the damage.Our only remaining question is what will this cost? We have a meter on the water now, so we will have a good idea of our consumption and will have to pay accordingly. Every three months a truck will come by and electronically read the meter which has a little wire that transmits signals to a little device they carry for that purpose.
So far, so good.

Snow Day

2011-02-02T13:50:00.005-04:00

I think the weather network has made us all into weenies. We are getting another snow day today. Our last snow day was... yesterday, except it was a non-event with all of 2 cm falling in a 12 hour period. The one before that was also a non-event but still they keep putting up that RED SCREEN OF DEATH! on the weather network. Today we are meant to get 45 cm, which in weather network math conversion works out to be probably 4-5cms.
Still I find myself planning my day around the RED SCREEN OF DEATH! Yesterday I did the errands early to avoid Armageddon Shopping in New Mindless and I always have a pot of water on the counter for tea in case we lose power . I find myself thinking, 'Oh, we might lose power, better
1.have a shower
2. do the dishes
3. bring in extra wood
4. check my email

I know, the last one doesn't make much sense.
One wonders what our increasing weenie population would do if faced by a really extreme event like the floods or cyclone in Australia.
It's just snow, find a good book and wait 12 hours.

Chili Bottles and Pottery Molds

2011-01-29T20:25:00.009-04:00

Last week I went to make chili, and about half way through that process I went to the pantry to get the chili powder, and it wasn't there. It was at that moment I remembered watching the Sweetie drop and break the chili bottle, spilling the contents mixed with broken glass all over the floor about a month or so earlier. I had never replaced the chili powder.
For years we had a lot of bags and packages of various spices thrown into a box in a cupboard, because invariably when you buy a bag or package of spice it won't all go into the tiny spice bottles that come in the standard spice rack. Then one day I discovered little flip lid bottles at the Dollarama. They are perfect size to hold an entire spice package, which means I can eliminate the box of extra stuff in the cupboard. I bought about 30 of them, 2 for $1. Once I bought emergency chili powder for the chili I was making, I realized I didn't have any extra bottles in the pantry. Off I went this week to the Dollarama for more bottles.
Anyone who has visited a dollar store or similar establishment will understand when I say that I cannot leave there without buying more than I planned. I'm sure they rearrange the store so you always have to hunt for what you came to buy. While you are hunting, you invariably find loads of things you didn't know you needed. While I was hunting for spice bottles, several items leapt into my arms. (I never take a basket because I'm only there for one thing, which of course results in me dropping the arm load of stuff I'm carrying around the store while still looking for the thing I came for.)
Dollar stores are great places to find pottery stuff, because the best pottery stuff is cheap kitchen supplies. This week, in addition to spice bottles (this time 3 for $1) I bought several plastic and glass serving platters to use as molds in the studio. So far I have tried four of these with varied success.
One small square plate worked perfectly the first time. One larger square plate cracked as it dried too much before I took it off the mould. Twice. One round plate worked OK but it was pretty boring to look at. One oval platter got stuck on when I forgot to dust the clay with cornstarch beforehand, and then the same oval platter stuck again even though I remembered the cornstarch the second time. I still have two more bowls and two more platters I haven't yet attempted, but I think I will stop trying to use any of them directly and make plaster molds first.
Still, where else can you get a weekend of fun for under $20?

The Joys of Winter - Seriously

2011-01-23T11:33:00.008-04:00

Winter finally came. After rain and wind for the autumn straight through Christmas, January finally started looking and feeling like winter. I never used to like winter but I have discovered the joy of the season in the past few years.
1. No working. As a horticulturist snow and ice = time off.
2. New wardrobe. Long wool coats with matching or contrasting accessories, short jackets, a variety of sweaters, boots of every colour and height. By the time warm weather comes around I have forgotten what my summer wardrobe looks like and it is all new again too.
3. Shoe shoeing. I stay on top of the snow, the dog sinks giving her an extra workout without taxing my energy.
4. Storm days. I don't really need the excuse to stay home but I'll take an excuse anyway. This pine in our neighbours field cracked in a wind storm before Christmas, it got hung up on another pine, and they both came down Friday, our most recent windy, snowy day.
5. Sunny days. The sun on snow makes the house bright.
6. Curling. It's really just an excuse for different clothes, see item 2. But it also gives me some exercise and gets me out of the house except when item 4 gives me the excuse to stay home.
7. Books. Sadly the other three seasons keep me too busy to read for pleasure much, and I no longer can use public transit to go to work, so winter is reading time. I've been catching up, it's heavenly.
8. Birthday! It was last week, I got good loot and the sweetie made me gingerbread cake with whipped cream.
9. Pottery. I've been experimenting with form and technique again, and while that is producing another batch of mishmash without any coherence (again) I don't care, I'm having fun.
10. Garden Reading. Mostly magazines and websites and seed catalogues allowing me to plan and dream what I could do next year without the hassle of actually remembering how much work it all is.

How Gardeners Get Their Jollies

2011-01-03T21:28:00.008-04:00

Happy New Year. We survived the season of Madness. It was good. Saw lots of friends, some from away, some from here but living away. Didn't over eat too much. Didn't get too much excessive stuff that we didn't need or want. The other one has been off since early December, and we have done some useful but mundane chores around the house over the past few weeks. Tonight, while tidying up my photos in the computer, I found some pictures of a gardening project I did last October and meant to write about but never had the time due to: work, craft fair madness, pre-Madness madness and just general all round madness.
It is still an experiment in progress, and finding the pictures made me go check on the actual experiment to see how it was getting along.So far so good, which is gratifying as I put a lot of work into this one.
Last October, I started taking apart the planters that the Town uses on the street in summer. One plant we always like to use for the planter boxes is ornamental sweet potato vine. They don't usually flower in Nova Scotia, but add interesting and full foliage to the planters. They come in lime green, bronze, and tricolour. I like the lime green ones the best, they really set off purple or blue flowered plants like heliotrope or verbena, and they are tough as nails for drought and wind and drunks. All of which we get on Main Street.
The down side is their price. A four inch plant retails for $4.99. I know we bought at least 54 last spring, that is $250+ just for one type of plant. They are expensive because they are grown by cuttings and our local nurseries can only buy plugs and pot them up because they are patented and you must pay a royalty to propagate them.
Last spring I put two lime green plants in each planter, and by fall they were huge trailing vines over the side of the boxes. As their name suggests, they make sweet potatoes. The lime green plants make pink ones. I'm not sure if they are edible, they are a cultivated variety selected as ornamentals and I imagine they are probably more starchy than tasty. But plants that produce storage organs like tuberous roots (as these are), true tubers, rhizomes, bulbs and corms do so as a method for surviving a season when growing conditions are not favourable for the plant. So it would stand to reason that I should be able to store the sweet potatoes and use them to grow plants again next spring. Last year, I saved some in my basement as an experiment. I treated them just like I treat Canna rhizomes. I brushed the soil off them, let them dry a bit and then stuck them in a box in the basement and forgot about them. This worked for the Cannas, but come spring, the sweet potatoes were wizened up and not one grew when I potted them up.
This year, I got scientific. I started researching how to save ornamental sweet potato vine on the Internet, and what I found was that it was all but impossible to do. Every gardening forum and website suggested that the tubers were useless but you could take a cutting in fall, root it in water and grow the plant as a house plant. A colleague at work tried this and it worked. Sweet potato vine roots easily just by sticking it in a jar of water. The problem with this, is that I want to save lots and lots. More than I have room to grow in my living room certainly.
And then there is my dirty little secret...I kill house plants. I am useless with plants indoors. I am aware of the irony. I cannot seem to keep a plant alive inside over the winter. Mostly because I forget to water it, and unlike the dog and cat, (and the sweetie for that matter) who will tell you that they are hungry, a plant will go to its death quite uncomplainingly.
Logically, and biologically, a plant would not put so much effort into producing a storage structure unless it was able to use it for survival. So I concluded that someone had figured out how to do this for the edible type of sweet potatoes, because after all we eat those in Nova Scotia all year round. I surmised that if I could duplicate the storage method for edible sweet potatoes, it would work for the ornamental ones as well.
I began by looking at agricultural websites and university research papers on sweet potatoes. I found a really good research paper by Paul Sumner at the University of Georgia (where else would you expect research on sweet potatoes?) It went into a lot of detail of how they commercially harvest and store sweet potatoes. I learned that I did everything wrong. Sweet potatoes need a warm humid curing environment for several days, followed by a cool moist storage environment. The paper is very specific about the temperatures and humidity and duration if you care to read about it at the link above. The problem is that it describes the commercial methods, with big specially built facilities with computer controlled environments. I needed to devise something that would do the same thing, for cheap on a small scale.
First, how to cure them at 28 degrees Celsius and 94% humidity? The humidity would come from putting them in a large plastic garbage bag. Their own moisture would keep the humidity high. The temperature was more of a problem, our house is a comfortable 18 degrees in summer most days because we are heavily shaded on the south and the house is super insulated with the windows shut. By October it is getting cooler outside but not so cool we want to light a fire or turn on the heat. At first I thought I should get an electric heating pad and cover them. The sweetie wasn't too keen on running a heating pad for 10 days continuous just for a crazy plant experiment. He came up with using the warm space on top of the fridge.
If you have room on top of the fridge it is good for all sorts. I have a friend that uses it to thaw frozen dinner rolls quickly. It is useful for rising bread dough, and I myself have used it to hasten germination of seedlings in spring. The compressor that cools the fridge has to expel heat somewhere, and usually it is out the back and rises to the ceiling. Even if the top of your fridge is not open, an enclosed cupboard above will be a few degrees warmer than the rest of the room.
The sweetie made a box out of 5 pieces of Styrofoam, 2 inches thick. We had this just lying around in the barn because we are in constant renovation mode and you never know when you night need some off cuts of Styrofoam. The bottom piece was square, roughly the size of the fridge top. The sides were 8 inches high, and hung out over the back of the fridge all the way to the wall. The top covered the sides to the wall also, and this way the heat got trapped into the insulated box. The front was cut to slot neatly into the rim made by the bottom top and sides, with a finger slot for opening. I was amazed to find that the temperature got up to 26 degrees Celsius in the box. The research paper suggested that a lower temperature would need a longer curing time, so I placed the sweet potatoes in the box and left them there for a two weeks instead of 10 days.
The curing is meant to produce a thicker skin on the sweet potato so it can be stored. When you dig them, sweet potatoes are easily bruised or damaged by the shovel, so treat them gently, more like a peach than a potato because any bumps or cuts will wound them and they will start to rot in the curing stage. One bad sweet potato can spoil the whole lot, so check them frequently and take out any that are going soft or mouldy.
Once I was sure they were cured, my basement is a constantly cool 15 degrees, at 60% rH, perfect for storage. The paper suggests that storing them in crates covered with barely moist sand will help stop the dessication I experienced last year. We still have half a yard of sand left over from the electrical trench we dug to the garage last February, so I used that and occasionally remember to mist the top of the sand lightly to keep it moist.
It has been two months since I put them in the basement, and so far they look the same as the day they went in. If all goes well in spring, I will pot them up in the green house and have lots of reclaimed plants for the street planters next year.

Kingsport Water Project

2010-12-16T20:00:00.008-04:00

A long long time ago, in a province far far away...
Well OK. It was 2007, and we were temporarily in Newfoundland.
We received notice from the county here at home in Nova Scotia, that they were considering installing municipal water along our road and requesting permission to a well water test as the first stage of a process to determine whether the area needed municipal water supplied.
Sure, of course we thought, and notified our tenants that someone would be around to take a water sample.
As a result we got a free water test in February 2008, something you should do every so often anyway, if you have a well. The results of the test for us were OK. We got a report that indicated nothing harmful in our well, but did note that we have higher iron than is considered aesthetically pleasing.
I already knew that because of the rust stains on my tub and shower and toilet.
In June that year, there was a public information meeting about a water project which we couldn't go to because we were in Newfoundland. They did send out the overall results of the area water tests, which I found shocking. Of 80 tested samples, 17 had higher than acceptable levels of something that would affect peoples health. In other words, about 22% of households in my neighbourhood had unsafe drinking water. Mostly it was bromine from the sea water infiltration, but some houses had coliform or selenium too. 13 houses like ours had high iron counts and 15 had high sodium counts.
What followed next was a number of meetings to decided if we wanted to fork out the bucks to pay for a water line installation and how much we would be willing to pay. The first proposal didn't include the whole area, and some residents felt left out. These meetings had a distinct "Gilmore Girls' quality about them.
The next proposal six months later in 2009, doubled the cost per household to about $10,000 and we all balked at that.
The third proposal changed some of the engineering to reduce the cost and the price came out to $6000. Then we were asked to commit to the project or not. To get funding from various forms of government, the project needed 40% of residents committed to paying the $6 grand. We had to commit by a certain date, just before Christmas. We didn't get the 40% because who has time to look at this stuff just before Christmas?
The deadline was extended, and eventually in early 2010, we got the 40%.
Then the proposal went to county council for approval, and to the various levels of government for infrastructure funding, some of it only available this year, as economy booster funds, from the feds. If we didn't start actually doing something this year we wouldn't get that funding and the cost per household would go back up to $10,000.
Then came the long process of the main pipe installation which lasted all spring, summer and into the fall this year. The project was supposed to be completed in September, and in August there was another public meeting to tell us that it would probably be October, but we could pay our money now.
We paid up, and started wondering when we would find time to get the lateral pipe to the house installed this fall. Then came another public meeting to explain to residents how that was supposed to work. Apparently everyone else hadn't done anything either.
Finally, on Dec 1, we had the lateral installed to the house. That looked like this.

And This.And This.
On the up side, Peter got to rent a really big tool and drill through the foundation (3 times until we got it right.)
We still have only well water though. The Village is refusing to take ownership of the project from the county until a few engineering kinks are worked out. To complicate the process, some residents who had committed to paying are summer cottagers who got tired of waiting around and left for the season. Until they pay, the village doesn't want to take on the maintenance because they don't have enough houses connected to make that pay.
On Monday we had a wicked wind storm that knocked out power for 24 hours. With a well, when we lose power we lose water. So close and yet so far.Three years and counting.

December off to a bad start.

2010-12-09T16:33:00.004-04:00

The first week of December seems to be cursed.
I was thinking this on Tuesday as I drove home from visiting Parrsboro, the town where I grew up and where my parents still live. I went for a funeral of a friend's grandfather. Listening to the radio in the car, I realized that it was the anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal 21 years ago, where 14 women were deliberately killed and others wounded as they attended classes.
It was also December 6th that the Halifax Explosion occurred in 1917 killing 2000 people, wounding about 9000 more and devastating much of the city.
Last week, before I left for the funeral, I got an email from a friend who had had a very bad day where she ran out of heating oil, had to give away some ruined produce, lost some cash, had a car accident and needed to wallow.
Just last night another friend recounted her first week of December saying Monday she had a flat tire, Tuesday she hit a deer on the road, Wednesday her computer hard drive died and she lost everything, Friday her sink backed up and her vacuum blew up just before dinner guests arrived.
Today I opened my email to find two obituaries.
I'm sure there are good things going on somewhere, but it does appear that the first week of December is a rough time.

Acadia Christmas Craft Expo

2010-11-23T08:23:00.007-04:00

Last weekend I attended the Acadia Christmas Craft Expo. I remembered to take a picture of the booth before the hoards arrived. Doing a craft show is a bit like doing theatre. The booth is the set (which in my case was a bunch of found objects, including a plant stand I picked out of big garbage this summer and some wooden boxes that normally hold our firewood) I have future plans for a professional looking shelves that my personal carpenter can design. He also doubles as a system engineer in planning the efficient packing and transportation of pots. I was amused to see that other exhibitors who do this all the time don't seem to have a system other than cramming various sized boxes haphazardly into the back of a minivan.
There is also lighting considerations and prop placement and presentation.

Notice the new sign. I had a graphic artist friend design the logo which I used on business cards too.We got lots of positive comments about it, and I'm pretty sure it helped to fool people into believing I was a real potter. My friend also does website design under the name Wingspan.
This was my first big craft show, it was three days long, and I was pretty nervous about the cost and the duration of the show. In the end, I took in more money than it cost me to be there so I was happy.
I was also worried that I didn't have enough stuff to exhibit. My attempts to make pots were disappointing because things kept cracking as they dried. I fired only one kiln before the show, and it over fired because the kiln sitter didn't shut off and I just kept waiting for it to drop instead of manually doing it myself. I chalk that one up to being overtired. Once I realized what was going on, I had visions of all my pots stuck to the shelves, but the glaze behaved very well despite my idiocy and only two pots suffered damage.This chip plate cracked on the edge of the bottom. I'm not sure that is a firing problem or a construction problem. It looked fine after the bisque fire, but the extra heat work in the over firing glaze kiln may have put too much stress on the bottom.This vase looked fine out of the kiln, but on day two of the fair the glaze started to flake off the shoulder, as if the pot contracted more than the glaze. Luckily, it was the only pot with that particular glaze.My fear about not having enough stuff to sell proved to be true. I sold lots on Friday and Saturday, but by Sunday the table was looking a little thin. We sold mostly butter dishes and mugs and vases the first two days. No bowls. By Sunday, those items were mostly gone and we sold four bowls. I observed the interesting phenomenon that no one wants to buy the last of something. As long as we had lots of a style of mug, we could sell them, but once there was only one of each style left, no one wanted the last one. Always have at least two of something so they can choose which one they want.
The other observation was that only other exhibitors appreciate coil built pots. The general public passes by them without a glance, but other exhibitors understand how much more work they are. I traded the red coil pitcher for some leather work at the end of the show. This is one of the benefits of going to a craft fair, you get to trade your stuff for other stuff which is gratifying because it means other people want your stuff. But also, in a lull, you can get your Christmas shopping done.
In all, it was a good experience.

Laundry List of Fun and Exciting Things

2010-11-14T20:02:00.005-04:00

Wow, I have a whole laundry list of fun and exciting things to write about. I've been so busy doing all these fun and exciting things that blogging was impossible. It is a real time commitment to do this regularly and I admire people who do, but I don't know where they find the time. Perhaps it is just me struggling to find the perfect phrase instead of just dashing off whatever comes out that makes it more time consuming that it should be.
Enough naval gazing. On with the list.

Just before my first craft show I attended an awesome workshop put on by the Nova Scotia Potter's Guild. They had Joan Bruneau of Nova Terra Cotta Pottery in Lunenburg do a 1 day workshop on how she alters and decorates her pots. I love the idea of altering thrown pots, but when ever I try it my pots just look lumpy and sad. Now I understand that when she alters her pots, she has a plan before she starts. Go figure. Lots of other potters were there including some potters that I didn't think needed to see any workshop, namely Ray Mackie from Lucky Rabbit Pottery, and Jim Smith from Chester. Yes, I'm name dropping. Going to a workshop like this is like watching the Brier on TV. You can see how it is done, you understand the process and you get really jazzed up to try it; and then you plunge into the depths of dispair when you realize that knowing and doing are different. I just don't have those skills yet.

Speaking of the Brier, October came and that means curling season again. You would think that after 7 months of professional gardening (not to mention the unprofessional hours put in at home); months spent bending and stretching and lifting and shovelling and pushing and carrying and raking, that the little matter of sliding around on ice and doing a bit of sweeping would be no problem. It is not like I spent the summer drinking beer (well yes OK I did that too.) I am a pretty active person. But apparently for all the muscle groups I use in the summer, gardening and swimming and well, drinking beer, I did not use the muscle groups required to slide out of the hack 16 times and sweep 48 rocks in two hours. My work colleagues got some amusement watching me groan about the first week. For some reason, climbing in and out of a truck seem to be the worst, and I only do that about 50 thousand time a day. Life was complete madness on those overlapping weeks when I was starting to curl twice a week, preparing for and going to craft shows and still working. Happily I stopped work and now all is fine.

The parks department finished work last Friday, one day before my second craft fair. I sold the same number of pots as the first show: three, but as Peter wasn't with me to buy things and lunch was catered, I came out $19 ahead. Whoo Hoo! I am, however still learning who buys pottery. I can tell you that women with small children DO NOT buy pottery, because they cannot justify spending money on a beautiful object that will get broken when Walmart sell those object in plastic or metal for less. This is as good a reason for not having children as I have ever heard.

That show was also in the middle of a terrible rain storm that went on for 5 days, flooding south west Nova Scotia and washing out roads and bridges in many communities. It was not a hurricane although the winds on Friday were higher than during those so called hurricanes we had this year. We were untouched, but I was constantly amazed at how full the rivers were last weekend. Our Habitant River, normally a ditch with barely a trickle of water, was 25 feet wide and probably as deep. Even in the spring melt I have never seen it so high.

This was also the weekend my dear parent- in-laws came for a visit. They had been attending a reunion in Fredericton at the University of New Brunswick and popped over here before heading back to British Columbia. At this time of year, we could have easily been under snow or at least experiencing freezing weather, so 5 days of rain is not so bad. Except the wind and rain cancelled all flights into the airport and they were delayed 24 hours before they arrived. Had they known, they could have driven the distance in a mere 6 hours. It was dismal and gloomy for their visit throughout, I don't think they miss this coast at all.

My next hurtle is the 3 day craft fair at the end of this week. Since the parent-in-laws left I am potting full time, in a crazy push to get things through the entire process so I have some fresh new things for the show. Typically perhaps, the full time push has meant that my pots are drying much more quickly as I am leaving them uncovered to hurry them along. Consequently my pots are developing stress cracks in the bottoms. I had to recycle two vases yesterday and one chip and dip plate today. I suspect a large bowl and a small casserole will be next. At this rate I may have nothing at all to fire which will certainly free up some time. It's frustrating because stress cracks are not usually a problem for me, but I've been going through a phase and some of my bowls came out of the last glaze kiln with cracks too. I have had to bag up the remaining pots to prevent them drying too fast and therefore I have nothing to do, so today, instead of pottery I mowed up the leaves on the driveway and watched a movie. It was like a forced day off. The forced slow down may mean nothing gets finished before the weekend.

Goods and Bads of the Craft Fair Circuit

2010-10-23T19:17:00.006-03:00

The last few weeks I've been stressing about my first official craft show which was today. I've been pushing stuff through the kiln, hoping I had enough to actually make a display. Pulling my hair out when the glaze results were disappointing and getting really frustrated when many of my large bowls developed cracks.
No matter how unprepared I was though, the show came anyway, and today we went. That is not the royal We, Peter went too.

It was a small show in a local school that was a fund raiser for the football team. There were a number of crafters there, two gymnasiums full. (is that meant to be gymnasia? yes I think so but the spell checker doesn't agree) I was the only potter, which was good and bad. Good because anyone who was desperate for pottery had to come to me, and good because there was no real potter's pottery that people could look at and then realize that mine is pretty rudimentary. Bad because apparently not that many people were desperate for pottery today. Bad because I was hoping to snoop other booths before the show to decide out what sort of prices would be reasonable. There was nothing comparable, except a glass slumping artist who used recycled liquor bottles to make trays and I didn't see her until after lunch. Bad because much of the craft was someone's Granny who has nothing else to do and so sells extremely elaborate and time consuming items for less than what it would take to buy the materials. Bad also because what with buying Blackberry Jam, Chicken Bones* and coffees and lunches at the school cafeteria I think we took in $2 less than we spent.

This purple butter dish was much admired and handled, but no one bought it.

More Bads than Goods.
It was a very slow day, everyone said so. And this was a Good. We got to chat to a lot of the regulars that do the craft fair circuit, and they are all very friendly and welcoming and supportive of each other and us. If we hadn't talked to anyone, I think I would have come home completely demoralized and just packed it all in right then and there. But it was apparent that no one was selling much at all. Even the stuff that was cheaper than dirt wasn't moving.

This new Spiderweb bowl was much admired and handled, but no one bought it.

On second thought, as pottery is comprised mainly of dirt I think I will retire that expression, because my dirt wasn't that cheap. After agonizing over pricing, I don't think that I would have sold any more pots if my prices were lower, but I do know I would have been much less satisfied to sell more pots at lower prices. At the end of the day, I think the people who come out to support a Football Club fundraiser in a rural high school are simply not the people who want a One-of-a Kind, handcrafted butter dish. I realized this when one woman asked if I had a margarine holder instead, something she could slot a Becel tub directly into. My first thought was, "Why would anyone want to eat Becel?"

I have heard other potters say that everyone wants blue, and it is true,
many people admired this mug with the blue rim, but no one bought it.

The next fair is in two weeks. Hopefully it will be better. I am no longer stressed about having enough stuff for a display, at this rate I could do 10 more Fairs without stepping into the studio. But I will keep at it instead, because pottery must be like gardening; you only do it if deep down you are an optimist.

*Chicken Bones are a candy, often seen around Christmas, that are long pink hard candies with chocolate stripes up the centre.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-10-11T19:40:00.003-03:00

We went to the folks for turkey day this weekend. Managed to steal extra turkey to bring home for a leftovers meal tonight. Yum.
The weatherman is calling for frost tonight so I harvested the last of the tomatoes and the cukes in the garden this afternoon. The cukes were numerous, huge and probably a bit tough. I am getting a little tired of Greek salad for lunch so I put them out at the end of the driveway with a sign that said Free. Hopefully someone making pickles will rescue them. I just don't have the time or the inclination. The tomatoes were washed and sorted into three piles. The ripe and ready had the bad bits cut off and went directly into the freezer. The green ones went into a box and got covered with newspaper. The in-betweens got put on top of the box and will be eaten or frozen as they ripen. By the time I'm through those, the green ones should be ripe too.
I dried a bunch of herbs a few weeks ago, but not many. I tried to get back out tonight before it go dark to grab some more to dry but it didn't happen. So I went out with the flashlight and grabbed the basil at least. While this sounds funny, the farmer growing cow corn in the field next door is out there in his harvester as we speak. So if I'm not in good company, I'm in professional company. The rest of the herbs are perennial, but it is such a shame to waste basil, especially when it dries so well. Now the house smells so much like fresh cut basil that it is giving me a headache.
No pictures with this post because the battery in the camera is dead. Maybe tomorrow.

Canning in Canning

2010-10-03T20:21:00.008-03:00

How can it be October already?
Not so much blogging going on right now because autumn is one of those insanely busy times. Who knew?
After Earl blew through, our summer evaporated into fall overnight, and my activities were based around figuring out what to do with all the food in the garden and at the farmers markets. I attempted to make crab apple jelly, from some free crab apples I picked off a tree at work. It didn't gel. I have never done jelly before because it is so much bother to drip it through a cheese cloth and who has a cheese cloth anyway? I used an old pillowcase. After I bottled it up and realized it wasn't going to set, I read the directions more closely and figured it must be because I did everything wrong. Boiled it too slowly, made a double (actually triple) batch, didn't stir much, used too large bottles. Now I have bottles of crab apple syrup in the pantry. Will it gel if I try again and add commercial pectin?
On to the next adventure: Salsa.
This is something I do every year because I like salsa but I hate the stuff you buy in the grocery store. To me it tastes like they add liquid smoke to it. For years I would run out in April and have to make due or swear off Mexican food until August. Now I have it down to a science, and I know if I can make a bottle for every month we will probably be ok. As usual, I attempted to grow everything I needed in the garden this year, and as usual, I didn't succeed. The garlic was great, the onions are still too small, the tomatoes suffered from the cooler weather and many split on the vine, I got two hot peppers off my hot pepper plants (all four of them) and they weren't hot, the green peppers I gave up on after the squirrels ate my seedlings in May. So once again I bought everything at a local farmers market (except the cilantro, which farmers in Nova Scotia apparently don't grow because I went to 4 farm markets looking for it and ended up at the Stuperstore for some grown in Mexico, no doubt.
Study Boy re-emerged the last few months, and he travelled to Newfoundland to present his research proposal for approval in September. He got approval, with some added suggestions from the peanut gallery which he is madly working into it so it can go to ethics approval and he can start some research. He's also teaching this term, so suddenly life chores like groceries get a little more difficult.
While he was away, I had some house guests. A very good school friend of mine (like I'm talking Elementary school here) and her family came for a short visit because they had a wedding to attend. It was unfortunately cold and wet that weekend, so we just hung out and it was really nice to have them here. They are all great friends and it is nice to see how much they love each other. The girls tried their hands at making pots one afternoon.
Kaleigh's is the taller slightly wonky one, she is 11. Kennedy who is 15, made the short fat one. She pointed out it was just like one of the family. They are both excellent attempts for first bowls, and my other local potter friend have all been impressed. I promised to have them glazed for Thanksgiving weekend when I went home to Parrsboro. They picked the colours and they are in the kiln now as I type. I hope they like the results.
Fall is also the time to stack winter wood, and ours was delivered and stacked one weekend. It felt so good to have that chore all done. We only ordered two cords, because we have most of two cords left from our last order and we think that will be all we burn this year. At this rate we will always be burning two year old wood.
Then the weather changed again last week and all of a sudden it was summer again. Yay from me, but everyone seems grumpy about this. It was even warm at night, I think we were getting the tropical winds blowing up from the south. The rain storms that caused flooding in the States seemed to be pushing their air up here. I convinced the pool boy to get the heater running again, and by Thursday our pool water was up to 22 degrees again. On Friday Oct 1 the water was 24 degrees. Yesterday started out warm, but we had a rain storm and that cleared the air and the temps started dropping, we went for a swim anyway. The water was still 24 with the help of the furnace, it was actually warmer than the air temperature so it felt really nice. This picture was our second attempt, the first had Peter trying to race the camera timer down the ladder, so for this one he did a barrel roll over the side and popped up wet into view just as the camera went click. Today it was cooler, and as the over night temps were only 6 degrees, we knew it was our last hurrah. You can see the arctic smoke on the water this morning and the trees changing colour lit up by the morning sun. After the swim we drained the pool and hopefully this week of cool sun will dry it enough to roll up and put in the barn for winter.
I still hope for days warm and dry enough to ride the new bike to work. I've decided to name him Bahn, Otto Bahn.
Fall is also the time of craft fair madness, and I signed up for three this year. The first is Oct 23 so I've been trying to get some new pieces finished for that. I don't expect sales to be stellar, but I'm going to each of these fairs hoping to learn what best sells and what prices people will pay. I've been making bowls and mugs and butter dishes, and have come to the conclusion that mugs are terribly finicky and my best bet is probably larger bowls and casseroles and pitchers. I'm getting ever so business like and have ordered shopping bags and asked an artist friend to design me a logo. I won't have any fancy display, but it will build as I go along I think.

Earl Just a Big Blowhard

2010-09-06T20:42:00.005-03:00

Last Thursday I finished the butter dishes I started the week before. I threw the knobs on Sunday, and promptly knocked them all over so they all had a flat side. Instead of trying to fix them, or throwing new ones, the sweetie suggested I accentuate the flat side. So this group all have knobs with at least one side shaved flat. I liked the idea so much I thought I might try it on other bits of other pots in the future.
I'm also in a chattering phase. I like that I can add some interesting detail to the pot without making it too fussy or ruining it in the glazing stage by trying to be clever. Chattering is something I can reproduce so my pots are actually starting to look like I have a 'style.' I think in the next week I should have enough for a kiln load. Gotta keep pushing along.

Hurricane Earl was forecast to make landfall in Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, and then blow up the Bay of Fundy, directly over us, and on into Moncton in New Brunswick. As is often the case, when a hurricane hits Nova Scotia, it veered east, and ran up the south shore instead, making landfall in Lunenburg county and doing most of it's damage in Halifax instead of in the Annapolis Valley before winds quickly dropped to tropical storm strength. Halifax did lose power for 24 hours because it is a very old city with lots of mature trees overhanging power lines. I don't mean to belittle this storm or the damage it caused, but while it was happening I was listening to a TV news reporter in Halifax tell me how strong the winds were, and in the background of the shot, I was watching a guy go by on a unicycle. Nuff said.
We went to Parrsboro on Friday night, and my dad has a weather station which clocks the wind speed. (Because that's the kind of guy he is.) I think the fastest gusts of wind were around 60km/h.
We battened down everything we could before we left on Friday and hoped it would all be OK. We had just one casualty, the dead American elm at the north west corner of the lot had blown down. This is all that is left standing. It has been dead since we moved in 7 years ago. It isn't ours, it was just on the neighbour's side of the line, and it has been towering over our roof like the Sword of Damocles the whole time.
Our neighbour hasn't wanted to take it down, which would require an arborist and be very costly I suppose, but every year it got a little smaller as the top branches would break off and land in our yard. The sweetie secretly hoped it would fall on the house so the neighbour would have to pay for repairs, but I am not that silly. The wind on Saturday was from the south east, so happily it blew away from the house and didn't even land on our property for clean up.
We went to Moncton on Sunday and came back to the valley through the Cobequid Pass, a very high road through the centre of northern Nova Scotia. I was driving the truck and I thought the wind gusts felt about the same as the day before, so Earl turned out to be a pretty dull event.

Sunday was not a dull event though. We went to Moncton specifically to buy this. A shiny red 850 R series BMW. Typical of us, instead of waiting until we sell our current motorcycles to buy a new one, we now have three. I haven't decided on a name yet, it has to be something German obviously, and I have a tendency to think of bikes as a 'he' so that should narrow it down. I'll take suggestions.
We spent the afternoon riding it around the local school yard to get a feel for the brakes and clutch and throttle. The sweetie has always wanted a BMW bike, and I'll admit that I've wanted one since I realized they sound more like a sewing machine than a machine gun. Sadly, it is supposed to rain all week, so I can't take it to work and show off.

Chapter and Prose

2010-08-31T20:59:00.009-03:00

Lots to talk about, so longish post. Here goes with titles so those of you skiving at work can skim.

Pottery

Last weekend my friend Natalie came over for a pottery session. Natalie is a pinch potter that I met in Newfoundland at the Craft Council Studio. She is spending the next year going back to school to get an M.Ed, and so she is going to get her clay fix with me. The bonus to having her here is that she motivates me to do things too. So while she continued working on a pinch pot that she started the week before, I actually made some butter dishes and got the studio a little more organized. Here is a lovely little pinch pot she made in a mere 6 or 8 hours. And I thought coiling was slow.

Studio Upgrade

My tiny studio is feeling a little small lately. The first week Nat came, we potted outside on the patio until it got dark, but this week it got dark just that little earlier. With Natalie being here, and my friend Susann occasionally too, and Colleen across the street waiting to fire some things I was getting short on shelf space. So carpenter man built me some cubby holes into a space that will eventually be a window when the studio is eventually a sun porch. If the spaces seem small understand that each shelf is removable to make a taller space as needed, and each shelf is just the right size to double as a bat on my wheel. Clever.

Bye Bye Binky

We have decided that we are not motorcycle tinkerers. Both our motorcycles are 30 years old and need constant tinkering to run well (or at all) I like riding a bike, not repairing one, and between gardening and swimming and PhD ing they just doesn't get the tinkering time they really need. Therefore we have listed both our motorcycles on KIJIJI to sell this fall with the plan that we will buy one newer more reliable and less problematic (hopefully) motorcycle to share between us. It is sad to see Binky go, he was a good first bike, I think a person becomes attached to these things like their first car or teddy bear. Peter is not so find of the Cherry Red Virago, but it has always been a problem child.

R-U-N-N-O-F-T

While I am left alone to reply to motorcycle inquiries, Study Boy has flown to Ottawa for a Canadian Association of University Teachers Conference until Friday. In my head I pictured getting lots of stuff done while he was away, but tonight is my first day without him and I am realizing just how much stuff he does that I now have to do by myself. Like walking the dog, feeding the dog, shocking the pool, making dinner and watering the greenhouse. So much for getting other stuff done, it is now 23 minutes past my bedtime and I still have to put gas in my bike for tomorrow and water the greenhouse.

Speaking of Water

The long wait is nearly over, last week we signed up to get the new municipal water service coming through our community. We still haven't booked a contractor to dig the hole and lay the pipe to the house, but we are at least started. We have until December to hook up, but hopefully we can get to it sooner than that. Knowing that we dug a trench last February though, I'm not holding my breath or anything. The county has organized a loan to people wishing to sign up because the cost of installing the line and service is $6000 for each homeowner, but this means you will get an $850 bill every year for the next 10 years. We have great water but we are at the mercy of power outages so we decided to do it now rather than later when the cost would be even more after December. I met one man who said his water was good too, but all his neighbours' wells had gone bad from seawater infiltration and he figured that his will eventually go too. Two years ago they tested all wells and found that 25% were unacceptable because of seawater or farm contamination. Water security is a big issue, so I think we are being prudent in spending this kind of cash.

Robbery in the Park

Sad news. Yesterday while I was working in Waterfront Park I was robbed. Truly. I left the park to get a rake from my truck, I was gone only three minutes but when I came back my tool belt was gone. Admittedly, I left it on the grass, because it didn't occur to me that anyone would want to take it. My tool belt has very sentimental value to me, my Sweetie made it for me in 1995 for my birthday in Vancouver when I was still a sound technician. Over the years it was adapted to be a gardener's tool belt. Off came the flashlight and pliers holders and on went the pruners and digging knife. Most of the tools were issued at work, but the belt and the original gak bag were mine. So was the Gerber multi tool, another Sweetie birthday present, from about 1998 I think. I looked everywhere for it, including the garbage cans and the mud flat bottom of the harbour but it is gone. The Mounties don't expect it to turn up, but I spent a half hour today with a nice constable who took my formal statement for the file.

Perilously Close to the End

2010-08-21T21:05:00.005-03:00

Long time no post I know. I haven't been doing much except enjoying the weather and hoping it won't end. Last week I realized the days were getting shorter, so I decided that it was time to have a summer party and invite round all the people I have been meaning to invite round all summer but hadn't. I called it the Perilously Close to the End of Summer Barbecue and Pool Party Party. It served two purposes: the first was the obvious social purpose, the second was a cunning plan to get the house and yard clean for the annual Mother In Law visit this weekend. It worked a treat. The pool boy cut the lawn and tidied the yard which left me several hours on Saturday to clean the house without his disapproving eye rolling, and the house stayed mostly clean for when his mum arrived this morning. The party was successful in that we ate lots, drank lots, had many bodies in the pool and ate leftovers for three days.
In fact some of the guests didn't leave until Wednesday, so it made for what seemed like a very long weekend even though I went back to work as usual on Monday, a little bleary eyed. I couldn't quite believe it yesterday when it turned out to be Friday already. In between, we all went to see Valley Summer Theatre's Woman in Black on Tuesday night. As we were all theatre or former theatre professionals I won't give you a review because I suspect we are all a bit harsh in our criticism for various reasons. I never like the sound for anything, the costumer thought the clothes didn't indicate the time period and the actor thought the accents were all over the map. We didn't pay for the tickets so I think it was definitely worth the price.
On Thursday evening a potter friend came to pot which was lovely because it got me out of my lazy lapse and made me organize the studio and get moving on making some things. October is the beginning of Christmas craft fair madness and I must get moving on making some items for that. Not this weekend though because as already mentioned, Betty is here for a visit. Today, we visited Kingsport and ate ice cream. Being the bad correspondent I am, I didn't take photos of any of this, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Home for the Holiday

2010-08-04T20:17:00.004-03:00

Last weekend we went to Parrsboro to visit the folks. This is a picture of Cape Split from the other side of the bay. It was my mother's birthday; she still continues to amaze by being two years younger than her youngest daughter. I'm not saying that the province declared a holiday on Monday in her honour, but it is called Natal Day so you figure it out.
The weekend ending July and beginning August created sobering thoughts. It is now or never for all those tasks that we said we would do this summer. Even though summer officially ends on the Autumnal equinox, everyone really knows it ends on Labour Day. EEEK! Only 4 more weeks.
Even the weather has changed to remind us that it will not always be warm. And this morning at 6am it was actually still dark because the rain clouds were blocking out my sun.
Shorter days, cooler temperatures, time to start cramming.
The must do's are wood, water, clay and tar. That is to say: order wood for winter, install water to the house, make pots for fall sales and shingle the roof of the garage.
The wanna do's are visit friends and see some theatre before it is all gone.
The would be good to do's are finish clapboarding the house and finally plant the vineyard.
Why am I still writing?

Playing with Clay Again

2010-07-25T15:33:00.006-03:00

After a 6 week hiatus, (really has it been that long?) I went back into the studio this week spurred on partly by some frustrations at work. Pottery as therapy. I threw a couple pitchers, or maybe they are jugs, on Thursday. One was OK the other not great both in shape and proportion. Frankly after several weeks of not doing anything, I expected to get nothing at all so 50% is not so bad. With the fugly one I experimented with pulling a handle with the clay already attached. I have never done this before, but as I am never happy with the shape and attachments of my handles I figured it couldn't hurt to try something new, especially on a piece that was already doomed. I am not any more happy with the result as with my usual method. I can never seem to get the shape symmetrical on both sides, or straight on the piece or the attachments as artless as other potters seem to be.
On Saturday we went to Halifax to see the summer craft show of the Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council. It is a smaller show than the Christmas one, but it was still fun to see. It was a recon mission to scope how others sent up their booths and to steal ideas for making things. Everyone has a different way to deal with displaying their wares, my favourite was using drum stands as tiny tables for a jewelry display. Too small for pots, but I did see some modular shelves that were infinitely adaptable to different sized wares depending on what kind of show.
It was also good because I came back jazzed up to make some new things. I began almost right away with some slump molding. I tried this once in Newfoundland, and it was good but the piece cracked before it finished drying so I didn't try it again. It is good to get away from the cult of round and just make fun things for the joy of it. I'm trying a looser approach, at least this week.

My Morning Routine

2010-07-21T20:48:00.008-03:00

This morning, as usual, after my 30 minute sleep in and my first cup of coffee, I wandered out to the berry patch to gather some fresh gooseberries for my yogurt and muslix breakfast.

Then after dawdling around some more, I finally realized (as usual) that I had about 10 minutes before I needed to go to work and proceeded to rush around (as usual) getting dressed, making lunch, finding keys and shoes and sun screen and remembering that I should water the greenhouse and turn on the drip line in the berry patch.

Yup. That's pretty much my morning routine.

Except this morning was anything but routine. When I finally went to hook up the drip line (now 5 minutes late leaving for work, as usual) I noticed there was something wrong with the pool. It was only an inch deep.

It had collapsed sometime between 9'0clock last night and 7:35 this morning. The weird thing is, I can't tell you if it was like that at 6:30 when I went to pick gooseberries or if it happened this morning in that 65 minutes. At any rate I had just enough time to tell the pool boy the news before I had to rush off to work, unhappy in the knowledge that for the first time in weeks, I would not be swimming tonight after a long hot stinky day in the sun.
We suspected this might happen but we were hoping it wouldn't. Once we set up the pool and had it filled we realized what we thought was a level piece of ground was only sort of level. It was in fact about 4 inches out which translated over an 18 foot diameter, 4 feet deep is quite a bit of water pushing on one side of the pool just waiting for an excuse to tip. Of course, once the pool is full of 20,000 litres of water there isn't much you can do about that. Now that the pool is no longer full of 20,000 L of water we decided that this was an opportunity to fix the underlying problem.
Pool Boy went to work and ordered a load of top soil to level out the pad. We were hoping it would be delivered today but it hasn't arrived. He did prepare for it by using small stakes you see in the picture to find out what level is. Hopefully, we can get the topsoil tomorrow and begin refilling the pool by tomorrow night.
Unfortunately, we invited friends for a Brunch/Pool party on Sunday morning. I don't think there will be much chance of it being filled by then.

Pools and Pots

2010-07-12T20:40:00.003-03:00

If there has ever been a good summer to get a pool, this is it. Hot, Hot, Hot. Which I'm not complaining about because I love it when it is hot, especially if I know I can just cool off in a pool at 4 o'clock quitting time. Which I do, every day. The pool boy and I both notice that we wake up stiff like we have been exercising a lot, and it took us while to figure out that an hour of paddling and splashing is actually a lot more exercise that we would normally get. The pool boy now wants to gear the pool up to be an indoor heated winter pool by erecting a heated poly tunnel around it and putting a wood stove in it. I put my foot down at that one, but as I was standing in the pool at the time I worry that he didn't notice. He did eventually get a timer for the solar heater operation so I lost that battle too.
Recently it has also been muggy, which I'm not so fond of. We had massive rain on the weekend but it didn't help with the humidity and everything was soggy including the washing I tried to dry by hanging up in the house on a retractable clothes line strung diagonally from the living room to the kitchen. It took all day Sunday to dry, 12 hours from 10am to 10pm. And the stuff closest to the kitchen smelled faintly of bacon and eggs after Sunday morning brunch.
Between pool and gardening and getting the bike on the road (yikes! in July, that is just pathetic yes?) I haven't had anything really interesting to blog about.
Sunday, during the monsoon, I fired a glaze kiln for my friend and neighbour Colleen who is also an aspiring potter. I used the medium sized kiln, which had a problem with the top coils the last time I used it. They didn't heat up. It took hours to get up to temperature, but I figured that as Colleen didn't have a full kiln load, I could just put ware below the top shelf and everything would be fine. But disaster! This time the top two elements didn't come on, and all but the very bottom shelf were under fired. Not really a huge disaster, but I did spend all day Sunday watching it and now I have to re-fire the majority of what was inside. I guess I also have to solve the problem of why the elements are not coming on. I am hoping it is a flaky switch and not bad elements. When I bought the kiln I was told it had recently been refurbished so I figured the elements would be OK. Just another thing to put on the ever growing list.

How to Heat a Pool

2010-06-28T20:58:00.006-03:00

Not content with merely having a pool, almost as soon as it was obvious that it was going to fill up with water, the pool boy set about inventing a solar heater for it. He has wanted to play with passive solar for a while, but I won't let him do crazy things like this inside the house with the hot water heater. I know, I know, I'm such a kill joy.
His theory has always been, that a black hose filled with water will heat up in the sun, and if you could use a circulator pump to take cool water out of the pool and put the warm hose water into the pool, it would help heat up the pool. His first version was 200 feet of 1/2 inch poly pipe coiled onto a piece of plywood pointing at the sun. When the circulator pump was turned on, it added warm water to the pool for about 90 seconds and then the water coming out of the hose was pool temperature again. The pump pumped too fast. So about every 1/2 hour, you could add a few gallons of warm water for a few seconds. Promising but not perfect.
Then he remembered that we had lots of copper and aluminum finned base board radiators kicking around from when we renovated the house and replaced the baseboard with in-floor radiant. So he soldered them all together, spray painted them black and mounted them on another piece of plywood. The extra pipe added more water to the heating loop which adds extra heat. The aluminum fins collect more solar and transfer it to the copper pipe, and the copper pipe heats up more than the poly pipe. A lot more. The water coming out of the return hose is too hot to hold your hand under, and the water is warm for a lot longer, about ten minutes in fact. The cool water from the pool continues to steal heat from the hot copper pipe until it is the same temperature as the water, so it is not just the extra volume of pipe that adds heated water, but several minutes of heat transfer after the initial water has gone through the loop.
The next design stage saw the two pieces of plywood attached together and mounted on a pivoting bolt so the solar collector can be swivelled to always face the sun. It all works really well on sunny days. We have had the pool water up to 26 degrees Celsius on sunny warm days. On overcast days though the temperature is only 22 degrees Celsius, which is what is would probably be without a solar heater. On breezy days the aluminum fins actually act as a cooling device, and the wind will steal heat away from the pipe as the water goes through.
He has talked about enclosing the whole system under a clear sheet of plastic or glass to protect it from wind. I don't dare suggest that the pump operation could be put on a timer or that the swivel bolt be hooked up to a motorized cart. Perhaps that will be next year's pool adventure.
I'm told that some people use their pools to swim in.

How to Steal A Pool

2010-06-23T20:59:00.005-03:00

Long before dumpster diving was fashionable, and consignment stores were chic, foraging was a way of life in Nova Scotia. We are an economically depressed people, and for generations we have traditionally relied on re-cycling and used items, DIY projects, and the barter system to get stuff which otherwise would be beyond our reach.
When big garbage day rolls around, you can pick up some pretty cool stuff, and it's not like stealing because those people were just going to throw it out anyway. In fact people deliberately put out stuff early to give other people a chance to pick through it. This spring we put out a broken gas whipper snipper and it didn't last a day before someone came along and decided they could use it or fix it or whatever and took it away. As long as it is obvious that the item is no longer wanted by the previous owner, it is fair game. This is how we came to steal a pool.
It was just sitting there.
No one was using it.
Honest.
Last Monday we decided to go get it. It is one of those easy set up** above ground vinyl ones from Cambodian Tire. It was mostly empty as it had been sitting there on the ground in the neighbour's yard since last summer. It sat there all winter too, empty and forlorn. The neighbour's moved out last February and no one lives in the house. The house, in real estate terms is a century old fixer upper with character (read filthy condemned dump.) The lot is now being used as a place to store materials for the water main construction coming through to Kingsport. Dump trucks and loaders trundle by endlessly. You can understand why we removed the pool from the overgrown back yard. It was a rescue mission.
It had about 4 inches of water in it from the rain storms the previous week so we knew it held water. With much effort, and without waiting to don some more appropriate clothing, we hauled on the sides grunting and slipping on the algae until it emptied, getting soaked and extremely dirty in the process. It's pretty big, so I squished home to get the pickup while the other one searched for the rest of the bits in the long grass. It was at this point that it occurred to me that this was the sort of story my parents used to tell about their pre-children days.
We hauled it into the truck, along with the plastic ground sheet beneath it. The ground sheet looked and smelled like it used to cover a pile of manure, so now we were really dirty. Once at home, we hosed down the plastic sheet (and ourselves) and set about seeing if the the slimy bits would come off the pool. They did.
I must tell you that I have never really wanted a pool. Last year when our friends Andrew and Christine got a pool the other one asked me if I wanted one, and my rely was "No, I want friends with a pool, the same way I want friends with a cottage by the ocean and friends with a sail boat, and friends with and apartment in Manhattan and a town house in London. That way you get the benefits without the hassles."
One Tuesday we set it in place and started filling it up to clean it. That was when I remembered what I thought about pools and hassles.
On Wednesday we filled it.
On Thursday we were still filling it and starting to wonder about the water volume in our well.
It was looking good so we decided to buy a filter pump at The Tire. That's when the math stopped making sense. A new pool just like ours cost $299 and includes a pump, and a ladder. After paying for a new pump and ladder (which we couldn't find in the neighbour's yard) and buying the necessary filters and chemicals, we ended up forking out about $200. So much for the free pool.
On Friday we were still cautiously filling it and we started to filter the water and scrub the pool. The pool boy invented a DIY pool vacuum from a Central VAC unit he scavenged from Big Garbage last fall. Here he is demonstrating the invention.
On Saturday we filtered and scrubbed.
On Sunday we filtered and scrubbed.
On Monday we filtered and scrubbed.
Today the water is clear and the pool is clean, and it was 15 degrees and rain so we had no inclination to go for a dip.

We didn't want Willow to feel left out, so we set her up a pool too.

** Easy, yeah right.

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

2010-06-20T20:52:00.006-03:00

So last Tuesday while I was running around putting out fires (literally) I was meant to be planting a garden. Last year I had the great idea that it would be fun to plant a carpet bed at the Welcome to Wolfville signs. It turned out that my immediate boss liked the idea, and even had a design of the iconic Cape Blomidon already to use for a project from a few years back. So last fall we went on a workshop about making carpet bedding that I blogged about and we figured out what plants to use and how many we needed and we enquired at out local nursery if they could grow them.
This spring, when we were getting ready to buy some plants for the town signs I wondered why we weren't doing the carpet bedding design. My boss said that his boss had nixed the idea as too expensive for the maintenance so we just did the usual thing and bought a lot of annual flowers to make the signs look nice. Then last week our nursery called and asked when we were planning to pick up the plants we ordered. Oops. Apparently they considered our inquiry about whether they could grow them as an order. As we had already planted the signs, and part of the plant material was to be supplied by colleagues at the Halifax Public Gardens, we couldn't actually use them for their original intended purpose, but we did have to use them.
On Wednesday we found a spot in town and had a go at a spur of the moment design. I drew upon my years of watching my mother draw out lines to make patterns on the borders of her quilts. I think when it fills in, you will be able to see the double helix better, but I took a photo now because it may get vandalized before it fills in. There are some gaps that, had we planned this, would be planted, but as we really didn't want them anyway, we didn't want to spend any more money on this snafu. Plus they were a special order (sort of) from the nursery, so there were no more to be had in any case. If you look at it from the long side, it looks like 5 cats eyes staring back at you.

Only YOU Can Prevent Fires

2010-06-20T20:24:00.006-03:00

Life is what happens when you aren't blogging. OK. Quicky post on how I became a volunteer firefighter.
Ummm, no not really. But I know some volunteer firefighters, does that count?
Last Tuesday it was hot and dry here and windy too. Even though the week before it was torrential rain, the mulch at the new town centre garden was completely dry. This spring the irrigation drip line was heaved up and visible so we put a lot more bark mulch on top trying to hide it, but this means that when it is hot and dry, even though the soil beneath is wet from the irrigation, the mulch stays dry. The town centre square is right next to a bus stop, where people smoke cigarettes until the last possible moment before they board the bus. Are you getting the picture yet? Last Tuesday we got called twice about the garden being on fire. The first time we just used a small bucket of water to put out the smoldering bits and had a laugh with the commissionaire who managed the parking at the centre.
The second time we came equipped with an actual fire hose and hooked up to the fire hydrant and hosed it down for an hour. Do I have a great job or what? How many people other than firefighters can say that they regularly open a fire hydrant for work? Anyhoo, I always think an episode like this is just another piece of street theatre. I treat such public displays like I'm on stage, because you know people are watching. People on the street at open air cafes, at the bus stop, getting in and out of their cars in the parking lot are the audience. I make a production everything from getting out the hose and finding the pipe wrench to carefully avoiding spraying people waiting for the bus and rolling the hose up and putting it all away. Just my little performance to educate the public on the hazards of smoking and not properly butting out their cancer sticks. Do you think they get it? Nope, we had another fire Wednesday night, which the actual Volunteer Fire Brigade had to answer. There were flames. Smokey the Gardener says, "Only You can Prevent Garden Fires."

Pictures for my Adoring Fans

2010-06-16T21:54:00.006-03:00

Might I just point out that if I'm too busy to blog, I'm probably too busy to take pictures of what I am doing and post them on the internet?
None the less, here are the requested photos of Garden Stakes and KFROGS mugs. The garden stakes are 1" wide and about 12" long and I didn't sell a single one on Sunday, go figure. I guess the crowd that runs charity marathons doesn't garden.
This is a photo of the KFROGS mugs before the glaze kiln. The shape is inspired by a Hannah McAndrew mug that I recently acquired (Although her's are much nicer.) They are about 4" tall and 3" wide at the top. This is after the glaze, which was disappointing. Some were clearer that others but none remained as crisp as they look in the first picture. Still, we sold 8 and I donated 4 to their Chinese Auction as well as half the proceeds of those sold so KFROGS got at least an extra $60 for my efforts.
I did also sell 5 bowls and a coil pitcher, which somewhere I might have pictures of, but you will have to wait for those because life still appears to be as busy as ever. Stay tuned, because next time I'll tell you about how I became a volunteer firefighter, an accidental garden designer and I will also tell you why stealing a 15 foot swimming pool out of your neighbour's backyard is probably not a good idea.

Madly Dogpaddling to Stay Afloat

2010-06-09T20:57:00.004-03:00

No, I'm not dead. Just busy, busy, busy.
Almost there. My first craft show outing as part of the KFROGS Day for Global Change is this Sunday June 13th from 9-6 at the Look Off. I threw mugs specific to this fundraising event. They were bisque fired today while I went to work; thanks to my personal kiln technician AKA The Sweetie. They will be glazed tomorrow and fired Friday (we hope.)
I don't have as much stuff as I would like to take. Much of what I hoped would be great from the last glaze kiln turned out crappy instead. The main two ideas for this show, the plant stakes and the mugs seem OK.
The weather forecast waffles between Sun and Rain for Sunday. I'm not made of sugar (or that other substance that starts with an Ess) and rain won't hurt my pots, but I did buy a beach umbrella today which I figure will be useful for both possibilities.
Meanwhile, the garden is growing without me, but all the seedlings in my greenhouse which should have been planted weeks ago, are being eaten by squirrels. I have no basil or tomatoes left. They even ate the marigolds and cannas if you can believe it. The fruit trees are doing well, except the peach that always gets peach leaf curl, but I managed to spray it with seaweed extract between rain storms this week so we will see how that works. We have a plan to plant grape vines and kiwis this year, but that will wait for a few weeks yet, because after this craft fair is over I'm going to get my motorcycle out of storage and go for a ride.

Still Too Much to Do

2010-05-24T15:51:00.003-03:00

Still desperately trying to get it all done for the June 13 craft fair. It's not going to happen, but I can dream and give it a little extra push.
This long weekend is very sunny and hot, perfect for taking the dog to the beach or something, but I'm firing a glaze kiln instead. The first of the plant stakes are in it, I did a few just to see if it really will work the way I think. They came out of the bisque kiln mostly straight and flat, so I think it will be OK.
I bought a new kiln a couple weekends ago off Kijiji. Yes, that makes 4 if you are counting. It is the same size and make as my large kiln, but in much better shape and it has a working kiln sitter and came with shelves. It was the shelves that interested me. I needed more for the large kiln, and to buy them new would have cost more than what I paid for the used kiln. I thought at first I would sell the other one, if I can, but since it is the same size I could try adding a section from the old one into the new one as a dummy to make a taller kiln. Do I need a taller kiln? Not really, but maybe in the future I will.
Might as well face it I'm addicted to kilns.

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

2010-05-06T20:59:00.004-03:00

If a candle had three ends I'd be burning all three. Hmmmm, I guess a candle with three ends would look like a tricorn hat. At any rate, these days my blog posting has been a bit thin because in addition to working days now in the Parks Department, I still have my own garden to tend and I'm still taking a glaze course in Halifax one a night a week after work.
On top of this I decided to sign up for my first ever craft show which happens June 13. It is the KFROG Day for Global Change fundraiser, a local charity that raises money for youth initiatives world wide. I figure it is only a one day event, so I can probably generate enough stuff to sell by then. I also hope that it will be low key enough that I won't look too stupid next to the other craft tables.
In preparation for this I am making plant markers at night after I come home from work and do my chores in the greenhouse and around the garden. I figure plant markers are quick, easy, something that might have a mass appeal (let's hope) and I can sell them for pocket change which everyone should have if they go to a craft fundraiser. I'm focusing on herb plants for now, but we'll see how many I get done, I may try some common perennials too. Herb plants have the advantage that many of their names don't have repeating letters, which makes it easier to use my letter stamps altogether instead of trying to line them up individually. Hence I have made markers for sage, thyme and basil but not yet oregano because it has two O's. I may also cheat and just make blanks that people write on in pencil.
If June 13 sounds like loads of time, it isn't really. I'm getting maybe 15 made a night, and I still have to soften the edges once they are dry, fire and glaze them. Firing only happens on weekends so they pretty much have to be finished on the weekend before. I figure I need at least 100 of various herbs, and then there is breakage, warping and glaze disasters to account for. If my bathroom tiles are anything to go by, I will need to do at least 130 to end up with 100.

Wolfville Arbor Day

2010-04-28T18:01:00.003-03:00

Almost the end of April, and that means deadlines are looming. One for taxes, which are mostly finished. The other one needs to update his banking info with Rev Can before we can e file and get the whopping $26 return. The other deadline is snow tires need to be swapped before the end of the month because we have studded ones on the truck. I went to see my friendly neighbourhood garage mechanic today after work and gave him a hug to ensure that he would be able to do that for me tomorrow.
Time does speed by when you are forced to spend all day at work. I am into week two now, and I am still holding up OK. Today was Wolfville Arbor Day. A local businessman donated 85 trees to the town to be planted on public and private land. We organised 8 volunteers from the local Katimavik group, 6 second year Horticulture Students from Kingstec and some town gardener volunteers (who we affectionately call the Gorilla Gardeners) to do the work this morning. I think we got about 50 planted, with still another 35 to go into a local park space later on. This is definitely a fun part of the job, we get to talk to homeowners in town that are thrilled to be getting a new tree for free, and we get to have a celebratory barbecue to say thank you to our volunteers after the hard work is done.

Homework

2010-04-16T07:38:00.006-03:00

School work is coming to an end. The students are finished their part of the deal and now I have marking to do. I brought it home with me yesterday. It's homework.

I started taking a class last week at the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design. I'm not fond of glazing so I enrolled in a glaze class hoping to pick up some tips or at least become more comfortable with the process. My last glaze kiln was a complete disaster. Of 9 pieces, only 1 is semi passable, and the rest exhibit every problem there is. The most disappointing was a bowl that would have been beautiful except two bits of ceramic stuff cracked off my pyrometer in the kiln and fell into the bowl while it was firing. Bugger.
The glaze class is mostly focused on making and testing glazes, but I figure it can't hurt to force myself to glaze more. It's all practice. I have to make at least 36 test tiles for next class which I did yesterday. It's homework.
I was called back to work at the Town of Wolfville parks dept. starting Monday. That's a week earlier than I thought and now I'm scrambling to find my work clothes and water proof my boots. There were some other things I was hoping to get accomplished before I went back, like rototilling the vegetable garden and getting a new back tire on my motorcycle, but these will have to be relegated to weekends now. They're homework.

Best Laid Plans

2010-04-07T11:32:00.003-03:00

I planned to glaze fire another kiln today, and worked hard to get it all ready this morning. Packing a kiln can be tricky, and even more so because the pots I had left to fire were wide and so didn't fit well between the shelf support posts. But after an hour of futzing around, I got it all in, and tried to turn it on. It didn't want to turn on. I wondered if somehow I had tripped a breaker in the panel so I went to check, and that is when I realized that we only had one 50 amp breaker, and it was connected to the other kiln that I used on Friday.
I knew I couldn't use both kilns at once, but I thought it was because there was insufficient power to do this. I was unaware that it was because we can't wire both up at the same time. Ooops. My electrical specialist (aka the Sweetie) is in marking Hell right now trying to get his papers back to his students by last class tomorrow. I considered using the other kiln, but at this point I think I'll just garden instead.

Lots and Lots of Pots

2010-04-06T20:10:00.005-03:00

We fired up the large kiln for the first time last week on Friday. I figured I had enough pots lying around waiting to be glazed that I could fill it. It was a bit scary. We we got it out of storage to have a good look, and the electrical wiring seemed a bit dodgy to me. Old, and the insulation looked cracked in places. The other one spent a few days sourcing proper sized wire and a socket to make it alright to use. The plug that came on it was undersized. Some of the kiln brick is a bit crumbly where it had been previously patched and the two lower prongs on the kiln sitter were broken off. Before we put a lot of time and effort to fix it up, I decided we should see if the elements were OK first. They all seemed to work in a test when I candled the kiln for a few hours to drive the damp out, so I loaded it up and had a go. In fact, I had more than enough pots to fill it because as you can see, I have a shortage of proper sized shelves, and so I still have some for another go which I will try to get into the mid sized kiln tomorrow.

All went well. (Read: Nothing blew up or caught fire.) The top part of the kiln was a little hotter than the bottom, and I turned the top elements off and waited an extra 20 minutes for the cone on the bottom shelf to drop before I turned the other switches off completely. With the top element off, the kiln seemed to stay at 2160 F nicely (according to the analog pyrometer) without moving up or down.

On Sunday, I tried to photograph my new pots, but I was unhappy with the results and so spent two days researching how to photograph ceramics. Here are two of the not too terrible photography attempts.
There is just so much to know isn't there? So now I'm off to make a light box, find a gradated (graduated?) background and figure out the white balance on my camera...

Psanky

2010-04-04T16:48:00.003-03:00

I learned a new word this weekend, and also a new skill. Did you know that those Ukrainian (and other Easter eggs) were called Psanky? Me neither but now I do. Sounds more naughty when you put it that way doesn't it?
And I learned how to do it, which I always wanted to try. I got the chance this weekend when friend mentioned last week that her family do it as a tradition each Easter, even though they are not Ukrainian or even that religious.
I went at 10 am and 4 and a half hours later this is what I had. I was at least smart enough to decorate the front and back side with different colours so it looks like I made two. This is a craft that takes a long time.

Telegram! Telegram!

2010-03-25T13:15:00.007-03:00

Ever send a telegram? I have. It was in 1993, and I was travelling in Europe. It was a pre Internet cafe, pre cell phone, pre text message era. Just a few years later, a friend doing the same adventure kept in touch world wide with email. The world has changed a lot.

At the time though, I was sending postcards home to my family, but after three weeks or so I realized they were probably just starting to get my postcards from three weeks ago and might want to know that I'm still OK in a more immediate way. That's the kind of considerate daughter I am. But I was in Romania, and in that post wall transition time, the country was still caught between the closed Soviet regime and the newer open western free for all. Regular people didn't have telephones, and the phones available in the officially sanctioned western style hotels set up by the previous government to fleece wealthy businessman were out of my price range and had notoriously bad international connections anyway, according to my guide book.

The Lonely Planet guide recommended a telegram, and I loved that idea. It just seemed so World War Two and romantic somehow. As if I was a character in a Humphrey Bogart movie. So I went to the post office and sent my mother a telegram. It said:

In Romania [stop] No phones here [stop] Having a wonderful time [stop] Go Hungary tonight. [end]

On second reading, I decided to change Hungary to Budapest, because I didn't want my mother to think I was starving in Romania like all those one-armed orphans she was seeing on TV at the time. That's the kind of considerate daughter I am.

She told me later that she received it by phone at first, and then got a paper copy in her mailbox the next day. I was disappointed by this because I had pictured her answering the door to a messenger on a bicycle wearing a bell boy hat.

I think telegrams have a romantic appeal that other forms of communication don't. I'm sure it comes from watching too many black and white Warner Bros movies when I was a teenager. And when I worked in theatre, I was always little disappointed on opening nights that well wishes from friends came over the FAX machine instead of by telegram, as they had in those movies. So when my friend Sharon got a part in a play at the Fredericton Playhouse, I thought it would be a hoot to send her a telegram on opening night.

Can you even still send a telegram anymore?
It turns out you can. Telegrams Canada will send a telegram for you anywhere in Canada. They use the Western Union network. I can't imagine they are very busy. The base price for a telegram is about $15 plus $1 for every word. When I filled out the form, I realized that the address was part of the word count. A simple break a leg message to my friend was 25 words long, making the cost for this little joke $40 plus tax. Ouch.That's when I decided I would FAX my friend instead. Sorry Sharon. Break a Leg.

Incidentally, if anyone is in the Fredericton area tonight through Saturday afternoon, check out Theatre New Brunswick's production of Skin Flick.

Proof

2010-03-22T11:20:00.005-03:00

Spring officially arrived on the weekend. It is the first time I can remember that my spring bulbs were up and blooming before spring. Usually my bulbs are late because they are in the shade, but they are so early this year that there isn't any shade yet.
The snowdrops were blooming last weekend when we were cutting down trees.
The crocuses bloomed Wednesday. We saw a red winged blackbird on our walk yesterday and these birds, were hanging around this morning. Not being a birder, I have to guess they are robins. Living in the country has turned me into nature girl. Sort of.
Weird.

Celestial Miracle

2010-03-18T10:28:00.006-03:00

When the moon is in the seventh house,
And the electrician aligns with Nova Scotia Power,
Then peace will guide the planets,
And the Yana and Peter Homeshow will get a service upgrade.

I guess we just needed to wait for the right celestial event. I had given up hoping that I would be able to fire a larger kiln before I went back to work this spring. But yesterday, on St. Patrick's Day, I had the luck of the Irish and it actually happened!

It all happened.
Power upgraded to 200 amps. Check
Power to garage upgraded to 100 amps. Check
Final Electrical Inspection on the house complete. Check. (That took only 3 years)
New 60 amp plug added to the garage. Check
Filled in the hole in the driveway.
Figure out if kiln we bought off Kijiji last year actually works. It does!

I'm doing a bisque firing today, and we will see if the automatic kiln sitter will shut it off at the right time. It took me an hour to load the kiln this morning. It held everything on the shelves waiting to be fired and is still only 2/3 full. I only have 1 1/2 shelves for it, so I was improvising with using the shelves for the small kiln too. It was like solving a spacial geometry problem trying to get the right combination of posts and pots to be able to fit it all in and still see the witness cone through the peep hole. I guess I need to order some proper shelves.

Chainsaw Massacre

2010-03-15T09:41:00.006-03:00

In Spring, a young man's thoughts turn to chainsaws. The other one celebrated sending in his (hopefully final) draft of his proposal by cutting down some trees in the back yard. Mostly they were poplar and butternut that were shading my berry patch and fruit trees. Every year we plan to get rid of them, and every year we don't and then wonder why the peach tree keeps dying and the raspberries don't ripen. This is the first home reno work we have done since the dreaded ditch. (Which is still waiting for the electrical inspector coming on Wednesday, yeah right) We both are feeling the effects of work this Monday morning.
In addition to electricity, we are getting water in Habitant. Soon, we will have all the mod cons. These diggers have been working their way along the highway for two weeks and they are in front of our house this morning. This is the first stage of getting municipal water. They are putting the main line in first and then will come back and connect all the laterals to the houses. It should be finished by August, so we have a whole summer of dust and delays to look forward to, all so we can have water when the power goes off.

Fix an Error on Google Maps

2010-03-11T18:26:00.003-04:00

The Other One discovered Google Streets today. Last summer the Google van came through our area and now it is posted so all can see the lovely Town of Wolfville if they so choose. (But sadly, not our Village of Canning, I just checked.)
While talking about this over supper tonight, we lamented that sometimes Google gets it wrong. Like our local intersection just down the road, which Google maps has listed as being named Pereau Bridge. I can understand how this happened. Locally the Pereau Branch Road would be written as Pereau Br.
Br. would certainly seem to suggest that this is a bridge to someone somewhere who isn't familiar with the idea of branch roads. Branch roads are traditional short cuts between two main roads, and almost certainly has the same name as one of those main roads. Hence, the Pereau Branch Road connects the Pereau Road (that runs through the settlement of Pereau) with the Habitant Road (that runs through the settlement of Habitant.) It could have just as easily been named Habitant Branch Road, but I digress. Branch roads are usually dirt, and probably were made by a farmer though his own farm instead of going round the long way. As our Branch Road is not very long, it could look like a bridge to someone far away in a mapping centre.
But ever sticklers for accuracy, we decided that Google must have some way of editing the information on their maps, because this is the information age isn't it? Turns out there is an easy way to do this, although it may take some time for the changes to come into effect. Under maps help there is a hyperlink called Fix an Error on Google Maps. Cool. I did it, and got a notice that it was in the works. I can't help feeling my friends Reny, JaySee and Mark, all map makers in their own way, would be proud.

Curling Mash Up

2010-03-11T15:09:00.004-04:00

So I had this brilliant idea the other day. I like classic novels, particularly the Miss Jane Austen kind, but I'm also rather fond of the Brontes. I also like ironic post modern fiction, so I'm not above reading those (mostly) dreadful fan fic mash ups that are on the book store shelves recently. I admit to buying Pride and Prejudice and Zombies simply for the cover art, but I was utterly disappointed by the completely bad writing. Not Jane's obviously, but that other fellow who inserted the Zombies. Unlike (I think) most P&P fans, I found P&P&Z annoying not because there were zombies, but because the zombie parts were crap. I mean, if you're going to put your stuff right next to Jane's, it better be good right? Otherwise you run the risk that you just look really really bad. Like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Man In the Iron Mask along side real actors like John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons. (Who thought that was a good idea?)
No, the really annoying thing about P&P&Z is that I could have done it better. If only someone had suggested to me first. So here comes my big idea. Given that mashups are big, and right now Curling is big. I know Curling. I know Classics. I know mashups. It's perfect. I am going to write a Classic/Curling mashup. At first I thought I should just insert some curling mayhem into the Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Then I thought, I'll put a Canadian spin on it (because that's what is missing from all these other mashups isn't it?) and I'll mashup a classic Canadian play with a classic English novel and call it The Black Bonspiel of Wildfell Hall.
This is going to be Awesome.

Is It Spring?

2010-03-07T17:20:00.002-04:00

I know that simply by asking that question I am doomed to make the snow come back. We are experiencing a very early thaw here. Bright clear sunny days, temperatures above freezing, and tiny green bulbs beginning to poke up through the garden beds.
I was sad the snow went because my snowshoes are still hanging by the door in hopes of a good snowfall, but today I spend the whole day outside gardening. Now I'm hoping this weather just keeps up.
Last spring we had cold wet weather all the way to the end of April. I remember because I didn't get a chance to spring clean in my own yard before I had to go to work and clean up other gardens. I played catch up with myself all summer. This year the fruit trees are already pruned, and today I picked up garbage that has blowing in from somewhere. I also started raking out the beds and turned the compost pile, and fixed the door on the garden shed where the wind blew it off the hinges. Ironically I am going back to work late this year, because last spring was so crappy. I may have everything at home done and dusted before April.

Disaster Averted

2010-03-05T10:57:00.005-04:00

Had my first kiln disaster this week. Almost. I'm still waiting for power (still, yes still) to fire the larger kiln so I have become adept at packing the small one as full as possible. And I guess I got a little cocky.
Lots of bad things can happen when firing a kiln.
Things can stick to the shelves or each other.
Things can explode.
Things can crack.
Things can get stuck inside another and this is what happened to me.
I placed a smaller bowl inside a large one and then decided to put a trimming chuck inside the smaller bowl. This can be dangerous because pots shrink in the kiln, but at a certain temperature they also got through an expansion stage, and if stacked pots expand and shrink different amounts they can get stuck together. My trimming chuck got stuck in the bottom of the bowl. At first, I was uncertain if it was because of the shrinking or because I had slipped the bowl with the dark colour and they got fused. I'd never made slip before (new skill for me, yay) and I was perhaps overconfident when I packed the kiln. I tired to pull them apart but no go. I wondered if I should just say it was a chip and dip bowl, or fill the centre with wax and say it was a very large table centre piece. I figured at the very least I could break the bowl and keep the chuck, but my Knight in Ceramic Armour managed to twist them apart and they released with out breaking. Crisis averted. Whew.

February Blahs

2010-02-28T13:18:00.003-04:00

It happened a little late, but I think I have the February Blahs. It didn't happen when we had lots of snow and cold weather, it happened when we got the February thaw. All the snow melted and the muck got me down. I take full responsibility for the rain storm and melting snow. We bought snowshoes two weeks ago which pretty much guaranteed no snow for the rest for the year. We did get 10 days in before the big melt. Now they hang sadly by the door in hopes that the winter will come back.
When you have a dog, spring muck is not your friend, and Willow has learned the routine of paw cleaning for treats every time she comes in. Between the rain and trench we dug in the drive she can't help but be a dingy retriever.
Attempting to banish the February blahs today, I gave up on trying to decorate pottery which has defeated me for a week now, and I began spring garden clean up instead. I pruned the fruit trees and tried to start a fire of the dead wood that didn't get burned last fall. The fire didn't light, which is just as well because the pruning didn't take that long and I came in much earlier than expected.

We Have Good Friends

2010-02-17T09:34:00.006-04:00

Today is Wednesday, which means it is weekly cancel the power upgrade day. (Oh, and Ash Wednesday as it turns out.) The first three times our electrician couldn't book off his regular job to come on a week day. Last week it was cancelled because the inspector couldn't come. Today Nova Scotia power cancelled because we got snow last night and they are busy reconnecting power to customers in Windsor.
But in anticipation that it might really happen this time (ha) we dug a trench last weekend to bury the new service from the house to the garage. Most people would not attempt to dig a 40 foot trench by hand. Most people would not attempt to do it in winter either, but I think we all agree that we are not like most people.
We must be OK people though, because we managed to coerce 5 friends to help us dig. We began Saturday morning at 8:30, and paused long enough to give the boys an egg and bacon burrito for breakfast.
Then we paused long enough to rent a demolition hammer once we realized that picks were not going to make it through the foot of frozen ground on top. Then more pausing as they excavated a 500 lb rock from the trench. I kept thinking this was an excellent history and archaeology experience and we should have organized students to come help. History because this must be what it was like to dig trenches for World War 1. Archaeology because excavating that rock without large machinery must be what it was like to build the pyramids. Fulcrums and levers.
We also found a layer of thick ash about two feet down all the way along. I wondered if this was a brush clearing fire when the land was originally cleared for farming or from when the Acadians were deported in 1755. We also found a layer of burned glass and what looked like cinemoid in one spot about a foot down. Did the New England Planters have cinemoid?
They dug all morning while I made fish chowder to feed them lunch. After lunch I joined them and we accomplished 3/4 of the required length by beer o'clock. Now I know what the phrase "Colder than a well diggers ass" means.
Sunday morning Peter and I finished off the digging and buried the conduit.

Lessons learned:
1. Dig trenches in summer.
2. Hire a back hoe.

Thank you to Andrew, Peter, Peter, Tony and George.

Happy Birthday Peter

2010-02-10T13:45:00.003-04:00

It is a beautiful sunny day, and it is my sweeties birthday. Which we both forgot until we were up a few hours and he looked at the date on the computer.
So, as tradition dictates, I am making an Angel Food cake. I don't much like Angel Food cake, and I used to think it was because it came out of a box, so one year I tried making it from scratch just to see if it was better. It was exactly the same, so now I just make it out of the box. It takes 5 minutes, and that is only because I always have to wash the dust out of the bundt pan and the mixer bowl.
You know how the directions say immediately invert the pan on the neck of a bottle to cool? My bundt pan has too narrow a neck to do this, there is no bottle narrow enough to fit. Every year I forget this until I take the cake out of the oven, and then I have to hunt around for various objects in my kitchen that might work. This year it was the knob on the butter dish that worked.

Peter got three tonnes of sand for his birthday. Not terribly romantic, but it will help to bury the power cable that runs to the garage when we get the power upgrade. Which, yet again was postponed until next Wednesday. That makes the fifth time it has been postponed by our electrician, if anyone is counting. If anyone ever wonders why it takes us so long to renovate the house, this would be one example of a delay that is not our fault.
The delay has not been all bad. The temperature has warmed up to freezing, which will make digging easier. Sometimes we are very lucky.

Like last weekend for example, we went and got a new snow blower. Notice I didn't say buy. We stole it out of my father's shed as he can't use it anymore so he decided this year to get the local plow operator to clear his drive instead. Our last snow blower died during the last snowstorm, and we were lucky enough to get the new one the day before the next snowfall. Lucky. Thanks Dad.

Some days are like that.

2010-02-02T20:07:00.007-04:00

Went back to coiling a pot this past weekend. Mostly because I was struggling to centre on the wheel. Some days are like that.
I like to coil on the days when I don't want to be messy, or don't have time to clean up the mess, or when I don't have any ideas about what I want to make. Coiling is slow enough, that by the time the pot starts to take shape, I know what I'm making. Which is a bass ackwards way of going about it, but some days are like that.
This shape emerged from the coil. It reminded me of a traditional Greek pot shape, except the handles which remind me of that singing demon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Some days are like that.
But the pot shape got me interested in finding real ancient Greek pot shapes that I could try to make. One of the classes I took a few years ago had us make composite shapes based on traditional Greek designs. Remembering this put me onto a new idea of what I could make as a series. Which lead me on a merry Internet search for several hours. Some days are like that.
The usual way to go about these things is to think about the shape first, draw it and then execute. But last weekend I executed, then researched and drew, and now I'm ready to begin, if you see what I mean. Some days are like that.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will try to throw some bits that go together to make a Greek-like looking thing. I can do it tomorrow because our electrician called to say the new power upgrade scheduled for tomorrow is postponed, again. Some days are like that.

Snowblower - R.I.P.

2010-01-29T19:48:00.004-04:00

We got a real blizzard today. Not just the typical over-reported panic inducing few flurries that we usually get, but a cold, blustery snow storm that hit fast and hard. At 6:30am it was calm. There had been a light snowfall overnight and the trees looked pretty. By 7:15 the wind had picked up to 60km/h, snow was falling and being driven into drifts a foot deep. We couldn't see to the end of the drive. But we are hardy Canadian folk, and the other one went off to work, crossing three exposed dykes in white out conditions while I took the truck to get the MVI as planned.
It is a strange human phenomenon that if you are faced with treacherous driving, you automatically turn on the radio to listen to the road report/school closure announcements just to make sure it really is as bad as it seems. It was.
It pretty much kept up all day, and when the other one got home from work, he couldn't get the car up the drive because there was a 3 foot high snowdrift running down the middle of it. Dutifully he started up the snowblower. The snowblower is old, and cranky. It stalls repeatedly and needs gentle coaxing with the throttle to keep it running. Anytime I have tried to use it I make it half way down the drive, it stalls and I end up lugging it back uphill to the garage, or just leaving it there to rot until the other one gets home.
There is a division of labour in this house that is drawn along gender lines and snowblowing is definitely on his side of that line.
He did manage to remove most of the drift impeding the car before the machine conked out. At first he thought it was gunk in the fuel line. Once that was removed he discovered a different problem; the drive wasn't driving. The wheels would go round, but they didn't have enough umph to propel the machine forward. He took it all apart and found that squirrels had made a nest inside it. He also found that the bits that drive it* were so worn they were unrepairable. We knew this day would come, but like the grasshoppers we are, we hoped it wouldn't be during the one true blizzard of winter. Tomorrow we need to call the snowplow guy and hope he can fit us into his schedule before Monday.

*I don't pretend to know what they all are, I just nodded and smiled while he talked: it's better that way.

I've Got the Power

2010-01-27T12:54:00.003-04:00

Well, actually I don't.
For the second time, our electrician cancelled our power upgrade, and for the second time the power company came anyway. Instead of new power, they straightened the pole at the end of the drive. I'm a little concerned that it was only the leaning pole protecting my mailbox from the snowplow. I'll have to wait and see on that.
We are in a thaw right now, it was +12 here yesterday, which is ideal for digging a trench to the garage for the new cable to power a bigger kiln. By the time we actually get the power upgrade (rescheduled again for next Wednesday, 3 times the charm do you think?) I'm sure it will be -10 again and several feet of snow.
We better get it soon, the pots are piling up.

Nature Girl Takes a Walk

2010-01-22T12:10:00.008-04:00

We got a bit of new fallen snow on Wednesday, so I took the camera when Willow and I went for our afternoon walk on Thursday to document what fresh tracks we could see. We saw mouse tracks.
And more mouse tracks.
And Willow tracks.
Not to be confused with coyote tracks. We saw lots of those. These side by side tracks were the first sign that we had more than one though. There have been a couple media reports about coyote attacks recently, so we carry a large stick on our walks and I never let Willow get too far away. I'm not sure if this is for my protection or hers.
We also saw pheasant tracks.
And a pretty nice view.

More Birthday Loot

2010-01-20T13:12:00.004-04:00

I was so excited about the Muppets and the gingerbread that I forgot I bought myself a present last November. Today at lunch I poured my first cup of tea into this mug by Ghita Levin. It looks like a soft slab constructed pot, but it has no seam. She told me she used dowels of increasing diameters to roll a donut of clay from the inside. The glaze and clay texture makes me think of fish scale leather. Which is nicer than it sounds. The mug has finger and thumb divots that make it very comfortable to hold.

Happy Birthday to Me

2010-01-19T19:49:00.004-04:00

My sweetie is making me a cake as I type. Gingerbread. MMMMMM
With whipped cream. MMMMMMM

When anyone asks I tell them I'm 39, the same age as my mother. I've been using that line for a few years now.

I saw a T-shirt last weekend that said:

Looks 30
Acts 20
Feels Like 60
I must be 40

For my younger friends who reach that milestone this year, I'll be sending that along presently.

And, I got this. Anyone of a certain age in Canada should recognize the Muppet Frog Prince, which Jim Henson produced for the CBC in the early 70's (or maybe late 60's). It is tough to find because they haven't re-issued it since the early 90's. This pre-loved copy came from my friend Susann, who always knows what I really want.

Finding my Voice

2010-01-14T21:37:00.006-04:00

I've been working on finding my style, my voice, a 'look' to my pots that could be considered a line maybe, perhaps. Sort of. The idea is that I should try to do something similar in shape and decoration style, over and over, to get good at it. My problem is that I see so much that I want to try, that I try everything so I get no practice at anything.

These are some recent attempt at a style. I think I like them, but I need to continue with different sizes, these are all candy bowl sized. I should try mugs like this and larger bowls too. And figure out a way to make a plate or platter with the same feel. Just typing this helps me think these things through better, and also helps me feel less in a rut. The one above has a ladybug on the sprig. The one below is a local geographic landmark, Cape Blomidon.

This is my favourite mug, which gave me the idea to try the sprigging. I don't know who the potter is, I bought it in the Whithorn Dig gift shop in Scotland. I used to have 4, now sadly I'm down to two.

These are some candlesticks I tried. The big idea was that they would be Christmas presents, that was until I realized I was unable to make two the same shape and size. Definitely need to practice that one more.

New Year's House Reno

2010-01-13T15:35:00.005-04:00

Today we were scheduled to get the power upgrade from 100 to 200 amp service. But yesterday we got a message from our electrician's wife saying it had been postponed for two weeks. Professor Boy went to work at the University as usual this morning, and I was beginning to think about what I should be doing in the studio. I looked out the front window and there were two cars in the drive of our front neighbour, which for a Wednesday is not unusual as the land lord of that rental house usually comes by on Wednesdays to make a nuisance of himself. I continued to putter around when the dog started to bark. So I looked out the window again and there was a NS Power boom truck in the drive and a man climbing up a ladder outside my living room window. "Oh," I thought, "I'll go put some clothes on then."

Once I was dressed I wandered out to find out how this mix up happened. The foreman said he had a work order to do this, and I explained that my electrician wouldn't be coming. He called the electrician while I called Professor Boy. We all decided they would do what they could, and then come back in two weeks to finish off the job of switching the power to the new service. So, in -7 degree weather, three linesmen changed out the old power cable for a newer, bigger one, while two safety flagmen sat in their cars sipping coffee. I guess it is standard procedure to have flagmen with this sort of call, but as our drive is 100 feet long, they weren't needed to direct traffic until the very end of a two hour job when the linesmen were restringing the cable and connecting it to the main line along the road. Please forgive my gender biased language. If there had been any women on the crew I might have used linesperson or flagperson, but all these guys were guys. My power was off for about an hour and a half, but I didn't miss it, it was sunny today I didn't need lights and I have a battery powered radio for just such emergencies. I divided my time between making sprigs for some bowls and taking pictures of the Men Working. When the power was reconnected, I trimmed the bowls on the wheel, which is electric, and put the sprigs on. Sprigs are decorative medalions or other shapes that get added to pots, I like the style and thought it would be an easy way to tart up some bowls, but they are harder to make than they look, and I suck at this.
While the power was off I found myself thinking two things. First I wondered how all the potters whose blogs I follow are doing with the cold weather. Many are in England and Scotland and others are in the southern U.S., and they are not used to the winter weather and snow that has been happening in those places lately. Some blogs have posted about freezing their clay and breaking their pug mill, others simply haven't been able to get to their studios at all. I am rather lucky that we are prepared for cold ice and snow and my biggest problem with this weather is that the wood stove dries my pots faster that I can get back to trim them. My other thoughts were what it must have been like to work in a pottery before electricity was used. Not all the that long ago really, I have an old kick wheel in the barn, and many potters fire clay with wood and gas.

New Year's Lists

2010-01-07T13:35:00.006-04:00

New Year is an artificial time when everyone tried to renew themselves with resolutions. I don't make resolutions but I find I make lists of things I should be doing, in hopes I will be better at getting those things done. I have a tendency to let things slide. I also seem to think better at night than in the morning, because it is usually just before bedtime that I remember what I had decided to accomplish that day, only to realize I had only 30 minutes left to do it all before bed. But the next morning, those items go right out of my head and I continue to accomplish nothing. So night time is for lists, and then my memory is there on paper in front of me, spurring me on to get those things done.
January 4 was New Year this year. It was the first Monday after the New Year, and so became the back to school, back to work norm for all. This is the list I made on Monday, only 4 days ago. In only 24 hours this was the long list of TO DO's for me to try and accomplish soon. Some are small, like water proof my new winter boots. But if I didn't write it down, it wouldn't get done, and then my new winter boots would look like hell by February. Most items should be done by the end of the first week or two, certainly they should be done before the end of the month. Two of these things, the sewing machine and the fix jewelry items, have been on the list for years. The problem with lists is that they get longer and can go on for ever so there is a finite amount of time that the momentum can be maintained before the system fall apart and I go back to accomplishing nothing. As you can see from the crossed off items, I have made a start. (yay me) But since taking this picture, I have added two more items to the list. (Woe is me)

It is important to note that this list does not include any of the regular To Do items that I have to accomplish all the time. There is no laundry, groceries, meal prep, dishes, house work, renovation work, school work, work work or pottery on this list. This is the list of stuff that needs doing outside all the normal daily stuff. It is no wonder the system falls apart by the third week of January.

On another topic, it occurs to me that New New Cat has aquired apermanent name, Fleur, which was not on the previous list of possible monikers. For those of you wondering how she and Willow are getting along I submit this:
Willow and Fleur in their favourite spots by the fire. Willow in the prime spot that Atticus vacated, and Fleur on the dog blanket. To prove that I didn't just snap the photo while she was stretching, I submit the others from various angles. I doesn't look comfortable, but it must have been because she stayed that way for a long time.

Such a Great Christmas I Forgot to Blog

2010-01-02T13:33:00.009-04:00

Merry Little Christmas. Tonight, on 12th Night, we will take down the tree. This seems a little late to people who decorate in November, but we put the tree up on the 24th, so it is not all that long.
This is the tree before the carnage of opening gifts. I like the picture because it shows off the corner of silver vapour barrier and strapping so well. Notice the paintings hanging on the strapping. When we finally get dry wall I will miss this look. I may have to paint the walls silver with brown horizontal stripes.
We survived the holidays. In fact we had a rather good one this year. The other one's parents visited from Victoria, and I took to heart what my M-I-L said on the phone before they arrived "Don't do anything special..." So I did the bare minimum, ie. cleaned the toilet, vacuumed the pet hair and thought about meals in advance. That is stellar housekeeping for me. Normally we would have travelled to my parents for a few days over the holiday, but we decided beforehand that an extra four plus dog and cat would be a strain on my mother's house so we only went for one day, sans cat. This was the first meeting of the four parents. Some people have expressed surprise that in 15 years of co-habitation our parents have never met. I guess this is unusual. But not really because his parents live 6000 km away and my parents don't travel any farther than a day trip.
One of the things that made this a good holiday was that I got a big surprise! Think about it, when was the last time you were truly surprised at Christmas? I cannot remember the last time. I'm sure I was under 10. Often I already know what I'm getting. Often I've picked it out to ensure that I like it. Little surprises are common. The type that makes you pleased someone thought about a gift that was perfect for you. A big surprise means that there is planning and subterfuge and it leaves you speechless for several minutes. Which is what happened to me on Christmas morning.
I got this.
Which was a complete surprise. It's a new-to-me pottery wheel. It was a complete surprise because I already had a wheel, which worked OK, but was a little slow, and a little small and it shuddered a little making it hard to throw tall things. In our over zealous kijiji adventures last spring we acquired 4 wheels in various states of repair. I really didn't need a wheel, which is what made the new fast, quiet, big, smooth running one so great. It's like having a Pinto and getting Porche.
The hardest thing was that I had to leave it for a whole day and go visit my parents before I got to try it out. But I did try it out on Boxing Day.
This is me and the First Pot with my F-I-L looking on. I offered to teach him to throw, but he declined getting dirty. (That's my favourite part) We reorganized the studio space so I had more shelf space for storing works in progress, and I have been working at finding my style ever since. More on that in another post.

Holiday Cooking Failures

2009-12-23T08:06:00.004-04:00

On the weekend, I actually mustered enough spirit to do some Christmas cooking. There are some standards that must be made every year, but the problem is of course that there are two of us, so the standards are different. (The nice thing about standards is there are so many of them.)
My favourite is frying pan cookies, his favourite is fruit balls. The good thing about Christmas cooking is that for everything the ingredients are pretty much the same but the method is different. Ingredients for dark fruit cake, (or war cake as we call it in this house) frying pan cookies and fruit balls are all the same, only in different amounts which make the trip to the bulk barn easier. Sugar, fat, eggs, dates, nuts, coconut, candied cherries and candied fruit are all you need to make anything at Christmas.
War cake is pretty easy, and I posted about it two years ago here. This year, I forgot to cover the outside of my breakaway bunt pan with tin foil, so the cake got mushy on the bottom inch as it sat cooking in water to keep it moist. Moist, yeah I'll say. The fix for that is I have a slightly shorter bunt cake than usual because I cut off the bottom and threw it in the compost.
Frying Pan cookies are also easy, because they don't get baked, just cooked in the pan and rolled in coconut. Yum.
Fruit balls are trickier apparently. This year was my first attempt. He usually makes them, as they are his mother's recipe. They have always turned out for him in the past so I was not forewarned. On Monday, while he went to Digby to pick up his parents from the Saint John Ferry, I got to work to make fruit balls as a surprise for them all. You mix all the stuff together in a bowl, add eggs and sugar, and drop them on a cookie sheet and into the oven. Easy right? The sugar and eggs are supposed to keep the chopped fruit and nuts together and they turn into sticky chewy blobs. It didn't work. They looked fine until I tried to remove them from the cookie sheet, and they fell apart into crumbled sticky fruit and nuts, they wouldn't stay as balls at all. It was at this time they all arrived home to witness my complete failure. That's when his mum told me she couldn't get them to work either most times. She blamed the egg being too runny, I blamed the dates being too hard.
I thought I could salvage the failure by taking the crumbs and using it as topping for a holiday pear crisp. Good idea, but bad execution. I had some already sliced pears in the freezer that we harvested from our tree out back this fall. I threw them in a pan, threw the topping on top and popped it all in the oven. I think, it would have worked better if the pears weren't frozen. What we got was a very watery, mushy pear soup on the bottom with sticky chewy nuts and fruit on top. It tasted Ok once it was drained with a slotted spoon, but there were a lot of leftovers that went into the compost bin.

Flashback Fridays

2009-12-18T12:27:00.002-04:00

Tis the season to have flashbacks to all those holiday and special events related trauma. Last weekend I went to the city for some shopping and lunch to celebrate Jane Austen's 234 birthday. I was in a well known shoe store buying my mother's Christmas present to me (thanks Mom, they're beautiful, how did you know?) The salesman turned out to be a fellow sufferer of the dreaded Piano Recital from way back. He wasn't exactly a friend, as he is between my sister's age and mine, but he was a constant for those years.
The very next day, I received a video of a friends son's first piano recital in my email box. Suddenly, as I listened to his unique tempo of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star I had the vivid recollection of buying a new dress especially for the piano recital. I hated wearing dresses as a child and it was probably very difficult to get me to try one one, let alone be excited about it. Usually this item was a hand-me-down, hand-me-down from my sister via our cousin, but apparently this year were were going to splash out. Or perhaps I finally caught up to my cousin and by the time her hand-me-downs were ready I had already outgrown them. At any rate I remember it as the most uncomfortable piece of clothing I have ever worn, it was a stone coloured pinafore I think, although it was probably called a jumper, or maybe a tunic. I remember it made it extremely difficult to slide down the banister of the church hall while I was waiting for the audience to be seated before the show. I don't remember anything about any of the pieces I ever played at any of the recitals, but I do remember practising my curtsy. Similarly, I don't remember how to play the piano anymore, but I'm a kick ass curtsier.

But wait, there's more:
After that wave of neurotic nostalgia, a friend posted on her blog about her children's Christmas concert that was held last week. (Yes, they still call them Christmas concerts here in monocultural Nova Scotia.) This brought on another wave of Christmas concert flashbacks for me to endure. Unlike the piano performances, I can remember a lot about the concerts from my elementary school days. I remember one year I was a Raggedy Ann doll, along with 4 other identical Raggedy Ann Dolls (but I was the one in the middle, and so therefore the most important.) Raggedy Ann was the Uber popular doll that year in the Sears Catalogue. We sang a song and did a Raggedy dance that consisted of lurching back and forth from foot to foot while letting your arms swing about all flopsie like to the tempo of the song. I designed the movement in rehearsal and it stuck, my first stab at choreography. On the night, I got off on the wrong foot, literally. I must have started on the left while the others started on the right, meaning I lurched one way while they all lurched the other. I was concentrating so hard that I failed to notice, but the laughter of the audience spurred me on to lurch wider and wider, thinking that they were really enjoying our performance. (unlike poor JaySee Gee 's traumatic laughter comment on the blog post link above) My exuberant lurching made my shoulders bump the poor girls shoulders on either side and send them flying back off balance the other way. I was completely oblivious to anything but the positive response we were getting until we were off stage and they all told me off.
I can imagine the next week or so will have it's share of flashback joy as we get closer to the tree trimming holiday.

Coil pitchers

2009-12-11T20:14:00.004-04:00

Last spring I made three coil pitchers for fun and then the summer pottery hiatus meant they languished on the shelf until last week, when I finally finished them. That is to say I finished two of the three, the smallest one was knocked off the shelf by a cat and plunged to its death in August or September. No great loss really. I decided to play around with under-glaze to finish the other two, so the red and green tops are painted on the bisque, and then clear glaze applied to the whole thing inside and out. Even though I put two layers of clear glaze on the inside and outside, I find that water still leaches through the bottom where there is no glaze on the outside. It may be because they are coil constructed pots, but I think it is more likely the result of under firing the glaze. I made other water tight pots by the coil method before, I have two functional tea pots made this way, and I don't actually coil the bottom, but I use a slab bottom so it should be leak proof. I know I under fired these pots, because I couldn't see the witness cone very well inside the kiln as it was firing, and as I had over fired the previous kiln, when the temperature reached 2160, I left it for 10 minutes and then shut it down. I thought I could see that the cone had dropped, but I was mistaken, the cone 5 was just starting to bend. These are made of my speckled clay, but they are not as speckled as some other things I have, and this may be another result of under firing too.
The seeping water is really very little, and I wouldn't notice it except I left the green pitcher full of water on the studio table that is covered in canvas and when I went to move it is was damp underneath. The red pitcher is on the wood stove to add moisture to air. Last year we used a crock pot from China Town for this, and it eventually marked the stove with rust where it leached too. Eventually I may get around to re-glazing and re-firing these pots to see if that makes the difference.

Glaze Test Results

2009-12-06T09:39:00.006-04:00

Today we got the first snow. It is wet and was preceded by much rain and I don't think it will be here long, but it was a shock to the system after the long mild fall to realize that winter is really here now. How is it that every year I get caught out by it? I saw the leaves falling off the trees. I have had to scrape frost off the car windows a couple mornings. The heat came on last week during the night. Northern New Brunswick and Alberta have already had snow. Still, I refused to believe the weather network when they announced we would get a nor'easter today. Hmmm. It might be time to see if the snowblower will start.
Last week I did some glaze tests to see how I should glaze the plant pot for my friend David. It was very exciting to open that kiln and see what I got. Friday I glazed the pot itself. It's funny but test tiles never really seem to tell the whole story. It is like the paint chip never really shows what the room will look like. These are a couple samples of what I got when I tested some colours. The middle colour of the three is what I used for the pot, and the second tile picture is that glaze over some other colours. My test tiles are relief tiles that we made for the shower, and the relief creates breaks in the glaze colours, which can be quite interesting, but if the surface being glazed is smooth, the colours can be quite different. The glaze didn't break up as much on the pot itself, so the finished surface is quite a bit darker than I expected. You can see how the rim coils make the glaze break, but the leaf imprints weren't enough to affect it. It still interesting because there is a rich sheen to the mat finish under bright light, but in a dark room that gets lost and it is just a dark pot and rather dull. If this were a plate or a mug, I'd run it though the dishwasher two dozen times and know it would get more interesting as the surface wears a bit, but I don't imagine it will be subjected to that sort of daily abuse as a plant pot.
Today I'm firing another glaze kiln with some butter dishes I made last spring. I started making some Christmas presents this week, (nothing like getting started early!) and those butter dishes were just taking up room on the shelf. The bonus of pushing work through is that I may actually have a functional butter dish to use when Peter's parents arrive for their visit.

No Comment

2009-12-04T20:54:00.003-04:00

I am experiencing a technology hiccough (this is how to spell hiccup apparently). All your comments seem to have disappeared. It's not that I don't love you. I love you all. All three of you. But today my blog got a spam comment and in trying to erase it, I think I erased everything. Blogger tells me this isn't the case, but the comments are gone. Sorry.
Now you will find that you have to type in a wiggly word from the box in order to post, you know the drill, so that should get rid of the spammers.

Almost there

2009-12-04T16:05:00.004-04:00

Last week, (was it just last week?) we finished tiling the 4th shower wall around the door. It took hours because there was only 1 full tile per row, and all the others had to be cut.
We also laid the floor, which went super fast because the hex tiles are in 2 ft square sheets all connected together, and we only had to cut out the hole for the drain and cut the sheets to fit the space.
Today we grouted the walls. That took about an hour to put it all on, and another half hour to take it all off. It was a lot of hard work too, and while I sweep at lot in curling so my arms are at least used to the abuse, the Other One is getting a little soft while he spends most days only exercising his brain. I'm thinking tomorrow he will be pretty sore when we have to grout the floor. We decide to use bright white grout between the tiles hoping that white on white would hide all the imperfections of the tile job, and I think it worked. The corners on the edge of the first wall we tiled gapped 3/8th of an inch because we really didn't know what we were doing. And the blue tile didn't cut so well on the stone saw, so there were nicks and chips in the glaze edge. The grout really did fill a lot of that in, so it looks pretty spiffy I think.
After a few days of letting it set up we will seal it all. We are not going to install the door or window yet, we plan to cover them with a shower curtain because our goal was to be able to have a shower before Christmas while the parents are visiting.

I live in a cathouse...that can't be right.

2009-11-26T16:56:00.004-04:00

It has been a house of revolving cats. Poor Willow is confused about who really lives here I think.

After Atticus died, my sister visited for her birthday and brought Lester. (He didn't know how to play nice and frightened poor Willow so such she peed on the floor.)

After he left, our friend Claude came for a visit. (He' s very well behaved)

After he left, we picked New Cat 2 up at the shelter on Monday. We haven't settled on a name yet. The last one took several months. She is so obese I've taken to calling her Beach Ball. We may make it Bea or Beatrice permanently (it has the bonus of being a Shakespearean character)
We've also tried Jupiter (for her mass)
Hooty (for the yellow eyes)
Lydia (the eyes make her look stunned)
Cordelia (to go with Willow; also Shakespearean)
Many other trees, both English and Latin.
I asked Willow what she thought, and she suggested Yum Yum.
Nothing so far has stuck.
Now Claude is back for the weekend. (And sitting on my lap as I type)

Any suggestions will be considered.

Test Tiles

2009-11-24T20:48:00.004-04:00

This is a picture of my hard working little kiln. The inside dimensions are about 2 cubic feet. It is sold as a test kiln or jewelry kiln for doing pewter or glass. 2 cubic feet doesn't hold a lot, on this day it was holding 1 pot. The thing I like about this picture is that you can see the front wheel of my motorcycle reflected in the side.The bisque firing of the plant pot turned out well on Sunday, by well I mean the pot didn't crack.

My temperature gauge ( the box hanging off the side there) wasn't working properly for the first three hours. The Other One fixed it by cleaning the contacts on the wires. And I couldn't see the cone in the kiln because the pot was behind it and was glowing at the same temperature (of course). I usually try to leave a clear space behind the cone, so that the elements on the other side of the kiln outline it, and I can see it bend. The pot itself just fits inside the kiln with only and inch around the circumference so it completely blocked the brighter glow of the elements. Consequently I over-fired the kiln a bit. The (now working) temperature gauge read about 15 degrees hotter than 1860 for about 30 minutes. Not sure how this will affect the final result.
Today I made test tiles of various glazes I mixed up. I don't custom make my own glazes because I don't have enough room in my teeny studio to keep all the chemical ingredients that go into glazes. And let's face it I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time and this is one bit of the process I can experiment with later. So mixing up glazes for me means opening the pre-mixed bag of ingredients from the supplier and adding water. It does take a long time though because I have to sieve it through a very fine mesh to get the lumps out. I mixed up a mossy green, a speckled cinnamon that looks more like oatmeal to me, and a clear glaze today. The dark blue I already had mixed earlier for the bathroom tiles. The reason there are so many more tiles in the picture, is that you can combine different colours in layers for different effects, and blue on green will look different than green on blue. You may notice that none of these tiles look like they are green or blue, but after they are fired they go a completely different colour. All with the magic of chemistry I don't begin to understand. Also, I have 2 different clay bodies that I use, and the glazes will look different on them, so essentially 4 colours turns into many possible combinations. I also have some underglaze paint like they use at those paint your own pottery places, so some of the glazes are used with them underneath, just in case it turns out interesting. I suck at underglazing, but if you want to see a delicious version, check out Lucky Rabbit Pottery from Annapolis Royal.
Here is a close up of the plant pot as it came out of the bisque firing. You can just barely see the fine imprint of leaves on the surface. They may not show up at all when it is finished.

Slow Sunday

2009-11-22T08:57:00.004-04:00

Firing the kiln today for the first time since May. How many potters need to move two motorcycles and a golf cart to fire their kiln I wonder?
We are moving forward, though, with getting larger kilns operational. Yesterday the electrician was here to prepare for getting a new 200 amp service to the house. Currently (no pun intended) we have a 100 amp service with 60 amps going to the garage/barn/workshop/kiln room. Good enough to fire the small test kiln but not quite enough for the other two.
I went to the designer craft show in Halifax yesterday while the other one stayed at home with the electrician. Lots of potters there, ...and glass makers, jewelry artists, knitters, felters, silk makers and wood workers. One potter I spoke to did wood firing. Her 30 hour marathon of stoking a wood kiln makes my 12 hour -check it occasionally- electric one seem so easy. We have loads of room in the back yard to build a brick kiln and give it a try, but I think I will stick with the electric for a while yet.
Last weekend we began working on the shower again, because both the Other Ones parents are visiting for Christmas. We had to put drywall on the outside wall of the door to be able to bring the tile around the door opening, and that required us also drywalling the ceiling. That required that we strap the ceiling to hang the drywall on. That required that we take the temporary shower curtain down. There always seems to be three steps back to one step forward. We should be working on the tiling again today, but I have a test to make for my class tomorrow.
It is harder and takes longer to make a test than it does to take one. Given the choice I think I would rather have to clean up the mess of tiling than make a test about irrigation and lighting in a greenhouse. I'm sure that would be my students choice too, but these things must be done.

Just Potty

2009-11-17T21:14:00.005-04:00

Today. I finally got back into the studio after a too long absence. The lovely weather conspired against me. It has been a beautiful fall here for the last two weeks or more, the temperatures were 12-16 degrees and usually sunny with very little breeze. Beautiful gardening weather in fact, and that was what I was concentrating on. The garlic is planted, the asparagus weeded and mulched. I even managed to re putty the windows in the greenhouse. All the leaves were mulched with the mower and piled onto the compost heap to rot, and the butternuts are in piles waiting for more room in the green bin. If I put those in the compost pile they germinate and I have dozens of trees to weed out in the spring.
Today the weather began to be more Novemberish and we made a fire for the first time in days. The new insulated back door and porch really help to keep the heat in and the draughts out, so lately there wasn't even a need for a fire in the evenings. As I type, I'm roasting at 25 degrees!
I woke up this morning knowing I really needed to get going on a pottery project that has been on the back burner for about 5 weeks. I had one day, two weeks ago when the weather was cold and damp that I started to make a plant pot for a friend. He requested it ages ago, to give to his wife for Christmas. At the time I thought, 'no problem', but after 8 months of no pottery, I'm a little rusty.
Because it it quite large, and I haven't thrown anything since March, I thought I would make a coil pot. (Plus I love making coil pots, they are fun and easy to clean up.) My first attempt two weeks ago, started out well, but at about the half way mark I realized it had become so wide that it wouldn't fit in my little kiln. Oops. This is a picture of it before it was smooshed. The plant sitting in it is for scale, it is a standard 8" wide plant pot.
Also, I felt the walls were a little thin for the size of pot I was making. I thought I was using a 1/2 inch hole to extrude the coils, so I found a 3/4 inch drill bit and made a new template. The second attempt with the larger coil made the walls too thick. That was when I realised the first hole was only a 3/8th inch, so I found a 1/2 inch drill bit and made yet another template. Truly, I think 5/8th would be best, but by this time I'm a little annoyed at myself and just want to get on with making the d@r* pot! I managed to get 3/4 of the work done on the next attempt, and then stopped for the day.
That was two weeks ago. Today I finished constructing the pot and decorated it by imprinting some leaves that I picked up while walking the dog. Some of the leaves were dried up after laying around on a shelf for so long. I soaked them in water and put them in the microwave to make them more pliable so they would stick better as I pressed them into the surface. The idea, is that the leaves will burn up in the kiln, but their vein imprint will remain in the clay. The imprint will hopefully catch some of the glaze and give the pot some texture.
I also made some extruded test tiles of the same clay body to use for glaze tests to see which colours look good on this clay. If all goes well, my friend will have his Christmas pressie in time. Fingers crossed.
Just for the fun of it, I also tried throwing today. It is not really like riding a bike, you do forget. I found I was making all the old mistakes I thought I had corrected, and I had to relearn all the techniques that I once knew before my attempts at cylinders started to take shape again.
If I keep at it, I may have something made for my own Christmas presents. Here's hoping the weather stays cold and damp!

Atticat

2009-11-09T15:26:00.005-04:00

If you tuned in for a bit of a laugh today, sorry.

I've been avoiding posting for the last week, because last Monday Nov 2, Atticus was hit by a car at the end of the driveway and died. Even a week later, I can't believe how hard that is to type.

I am also surprised at how much we miss him. He was mostly just small, and quiet, and there. (Unless you were a small animal, in which case he was a terrorist. But even terrorists have people that love them.) We buried him in the back yard under a walnut tree with his catnip mouse in his paws. He was a most excellent creature.

Maybe tomorrow I can be funnier.

Psst. Wanna Buya Golf Cart?

2009-11-01T11:12:00.010-04:00

For reasons too complex to explain, I am selling a golf cart. It is a 1986 Columbia model gas powered engine with oil injection (no mixing gas). One cylinder, 243 c.c. Columbia is a subsidiary of Harley Davidson, so my golf cart is a Hog.
It Runs well, has a new battery and spark plug and a hard shell canopy. I would like $800, but will consider trades, such as:

Antique Wingback Armchairs
Rain Barrels with lids
Antique kitchen hutch
Maple Hardwood suitable for cabinets
Slate flagstone suitable for patios
Cedar Hedging suitable for blocking annoying neighbours
Any reasonable combination of the above.

I Blame Jane (AISSBH)

2009-10-31T18:10:00.005-03:00

Last Thursday evening I attended my first Jane Austen Society meeting. The Jane Austen Society of North America is a society of people that love to get together and discuss all things Jane Austen. Her books, her biography and any academic nuance that someone can think of and research. I was the recipient of a membership because my DS bought one this summer. It was a pleasant surprise when I received my handwritten membership letter from the society secretary and she told me the local chapter would be in touch. Mostly, the local chapter is comprised of English profs and retired English profs. The meeting was at a member's house on the NW Arm off Purcell's Cove and just finding it was an adventure, but we arrived in good time despite traffic delays and a useless google map.
Some of the regular members had just returned from the national AGM in Philadelphia, and they reported on what they saw before we listened to a paper that one of them had presented there. It was research on a brother of Jane Austen who as a Captain in the Royal Navy was stationed here in Halifax. She drew parallels between his life and his wife and the characters of Capt. Wentworth and Mrs Croft in Pursuasion.
It was an interesting evening, with great food to boot, and I'm looking forward to December 16, when we all meet again for Jane's Birthday lunch. (She probably won't be there, unless she's a Zombie.)
I Blame Jane (AISSBH)

Fun Field Day

2009-10-27T18:59:00.006-03:00

I spent the day in Halifax today at a workshop information session about carpet bedding. The HRM gardeners were nice enough to invite us to attend when we expressed an interest in trying some out next year in Wolfville. Carpet bedding is something I have never had the opportunity to try, but I love the idea of creating pictures in plants and the folks at the Halifax Public Gardens and the Halifax Bridge Commission are pretty good at it.
Carpet bedding fell out of favour decades ago when the more natural looking (and way less time consuming) styles became popular but it was still all the rage when the public gardens were first designed, and they have stuck with the Victorian/Edwardian style throughout. Larger cities have often done carpet bedding designs but recently the Montreal Mosaiculture festival began in 2000, has really given this old fashioned style a popularity boost, not to mention a third dimention. I think we will start much smaller and more simple if we are to attempt this next season, but it is fun to look at the pictures for inspiration anyway.

And About Time

2009-10-24T12:43:00.003-03:00

That back door installation that we started the weekend before Thanksgiving is nearly complete. I guess my subtle hints about the cold draughts coming from the huge holes around the temporary plywood cover finally spurred the Other One into action yesterday. We removed the plywood and rebuilt the wall properly where the old door frame had been. So now there is actual structure holding up the roof of the porch (wow, what a concept) and also insulation stopping those draughts.
Renovating an old house sometimes means you have to go with the flow when meshing the old with the new, and we had put down the second layer of sub floor to put the new door on long before we built the wall that replaced the old door. (We have a double layer of sub floor so that the height of the finished floor will match the original floors in the adjoining room.) We left a space to put the sill plate for the new wall on the first layer of sub floor, but the porch isn't exactly square and the space we left was too narrow for the 2 x 4. We ended up cutting a groove in the sill plate to accommodate the edge of the second layer of sub floor at one corner. In years to come, when the next renovators tear that wall out (probably to put a door there) they will wonder what those idiots were thinking when they built this wall.
This is something that I think about a lot. We constantly roll our eyes at the stupid things we find hidden in the walls of our old house. Scary electrical, holes drilled through support beams for plumbing, rotting sills just covered over instead of replaced, the list is endless. But I have no doubt that future owners will do the same with our attempts. I'm thinking about this today because my Dear Sister sent me a link to Yarn Harlot who is having renovation nightmares of her own.
Just a little foil vapour barrier and strapping and the porch will resemble the rest of the house. It's important to have a overall interior design concept that flows. Our only negative to new porch wall is poor Atticus can't figure out what happened to that door that used to be right there. This morning he was pondering the new wall and seemed to want to attack the fibreglass blocking his egress when the Other One demonstrated the new door. I wonder if his cat brain equates the moving doors in this house withthe moving staircases at Hogwarts.

The Truth About Cats and Dogs

2009-10-22T10:01:00.004-03:00

Day 6 of unemployment. Well sort of. The Community College did not go on strike so I still have classes to prep for and teach. Which means that today seems to be the first free time day in nearly a week where I get to do what I want.
As always I have a list of things to do that include cleaning up and organizing the studio and the greenhouse after months of ignoring those chores. There are still garden remains to deal with too. I'm not even going to think about the disaster zone in the garage.
Willow is settling in nicely, she is still a little reserved and we are trying hard to make her more out going and silly. Unlike Jake, she is very difficult to wind up, almost impossible in the house. Which I know is a good thing but we like our dog to be the zany entertainment and so far she continues to be a calm well mannered young lady. WTF?
We were warned that she didn't get along with the other dog at her other home, but she has met three friend's dogs so far and acted very well. We did a Sunday walk with friends and their dog, and we all got along fine until the end. They got into a scuffle but it was probably more traumatizing for the people than it was for the dogs who seemed fine moments later. We were also warned she can sometimes be incontinent as a result of her being spayed. She did have an accident yesterday and seemed mortified when she realized, so we are researching ways to help this.
Atticus has the tendency to eat too quickly and then barf up his food. So we have a barfing cat and a peeing dog. (Atticus, however, never appears embarrassed by his accidents, and the problem is mostly solved by putting a ping pong ball in his food to stop him gobbling it so fast.)
Perversely I like Willow more for this flaw than when I though she was a perfect well behaved dog. Let's face it, a well behaved Golden Retriever is just too suburban middle class for me. It also appears I am allergic to her, so this of course adds to her appeal.

Meet Willow

2009-10-16T18:49:00.006-03:00

This is Willow, our newest family member. She is a lovely three year old Golden retriever that we adopted this week from a family on the south shore, who happily for us could not keep her anymore.
She is very well behaved but I'm sure after a week or so with us she will learn many bad habits.
Atticus is not completely sure about this new addition, but so far they each seem ok with the other.

Have Tools, Will Travel

2009-10-09T09:26:00.003-03:00

We are off to the parents abode this weekend for excessive turkey and cranberries. We are going early to be able to build a set of outside steps for them. The old steps were decommissioned early this spring as they were deemed unsafe I guess, due to their rotten nature. They were replaced by and old kitchen step stool, because a small, steep, tippy step stool is much better for a pair of 85 year olds to walk on than rotting steps. We tried to build steps in August when we were home but were not allowed because there was a handyman coming to do it. Or something. But the handyman never arrived, or something, so now we are allowed to build proper steps.
Not getting much of an early start today as a result of the excessive eating and drinking last night with friends. Looks like it is shaping up to be an excessive Thanksgiving.
Well, thank the gods for that.

Back Door Bonanza

2009-10-04T21:37:00.003-03:00

We are both exhausted after a marathon weekend project. One task on our to do list for quite some time was to replace the back door, which has been rotting out the floor beneath for at least as long as we have been living here.
We suspected that once we had a look at the floor, we would have a big job to replace anything rotten. We had no idea of what was below the floor, but evidence from outside suggested it was once a squirrels nest. In addition, we wanted to move the location of the door from the south wall of the porch to the east wall. The south wall is directly below the roof valley, and the ice builds up on the step making it really treacherous in winter. This was also why the door would leak when it rained.

We began Saturday morning, tearing up several layers of linoleum, chip board, 50's era tile and oil cloth to get to the real sub floor. Once we tore out the door we could see the rot extended back a foot or so from the door and also affected the sill. We decided to take out both layers of floor. The top was 1x4 tongue and groove, below that was a dogs breakfast of boards scavenged from what looked like the chicken coop.
Happily the joists were good, and the other sills were still good so we replaced the sill under the old door, and used plywood to cover the hole in the wall where the old door came out. That wall will eventually be the coat closet.
This morning we dug out the rubble under the construction. In the midst of this, we found an old green bottle, similar to a 70's era 7up bottle but without any writing on it, and a child's shoe. We levelled out the dirt and put vapour barrier over it to help seal out the damp. Then we insulated between the joists with styrofoam and fibreglass and laid plywood on top for the sub floor.
Next came the task of making a new hole for the new door. Once we opened up the east wall and exposed the studs we could see that the original door was probably there to begin with. The gable wall of the porch is constructed with a double top plate so we can use that as a header for the new door. When we insulated the porch walls a few years ago, we added studs in the right place for the door opening that we knew would eventually be there. After measuring to make sure we knew what size we wanted we went out to buy the door. By this time it was raining, so we put a plastic tent over the outside and continued to plug away. A skill saw and a reciprocating saw makes short work of several layers of sheathing and shingles.
Finally, we slotted the new door into place. It is a temporary measure so the squirrels don't come in tonight. The rough opening is a bit tight, and needs a slight adjustment before we fix it there permanently.
There is still a lot to do on this project. We need to add a bottom plate and studs in the old door opening, and replace the outside house wrap and shingles to make it weather proof. We need to finish laying the sub floor and build a set of steps up to the new door. Oh yeah, and the door needs a doorknob too.

Canning is the New Knitting

2009-09-27T11:18:00.005-03:00

Last week, I heard on the radio that canning was the new knitting. The idea is that people can continue to eat locally during the winter if they preserve the harvest now. My mother would say everything old is new again.
Being a country girl, I've always been into canning because I was spoiled as a child with home made everything and the store bought versions were never as good. So years ago I started with jam and sweet fruit preserves. The other one loves pickles, so pickles were my next attempt. I used to spend weeks in the fall preserving everything I could get mt hands on that I could do in a hot water canner. My intentions were good but invariably we never ate all of it, and after a few years of dusting jars full of suspect stuff that eventually got thrown away, I gave up most of it and just stayed with the staples.
I'm not so fond of pickles and making them is a lot of work, so I don't do as many of those as he would like. The picture above is a small batch of green tomato chow, because we have a lot of green tomatoes and both the O.O and his father like them.
Salsa is one of those things that I can't stand if bought in a store. It just tastes like chemicals to me, but we eat a lot of Mexican food, and homemade salsa is a staple now. For a couple of years I've attempted to plant everything in the vegetable garden that one needs to make Salsa, but no matter how much I plan, the plants don't seem to co-operate. This year I got enough green peppers, about 2 weeks earlier than any tomatoes ripened. We got cold weather in early September which threatened frost, so I picked the bulk of my tomatoes while they were still green and packed them up in boxes to ripen later. None of my hot peppers grew at all. I couldn't find cilantro to plant at all this spring and my onions are just about ready to be picked now, although they are very small. So once again I went to the farm market and bought the ingredients I needed to make salsa and spent all day yesterday in the kitchen.
The other one, meanwhile finished off roofing the garden shed with the help of our neighbour Dan. This will keep the floor from rotting out again, and will also keep the new lawn mower dry in the winter.

Today he is working on replacing the sheathing on one end of the garage in a vain attempt to keep the critters out. Again, we are doing this a cheaply as possible because we want to tear the ugly garage down someday, so instead of using something proper, we are slapping up something call super roof, which seems to be half inch chip board, but not chip board.

Homely Renovations R Us

2009-09-20T08:25:00.004-03:00

Now that Study Boy has emerged from writing the first draft of his research proposal, we spent some time doing house reno stuff yesterday. The never ending process of putting the actual house back together was temporarily suspended though because regular maintenance was required on the garage. It is disheartening to spend money and time on such an ugly building. We have future plans to tear the existing garage down and build a new one because it is:
1 ugly
2 in the view
3 falling down anyway
4 badly designed for our needs

But until we build a new one that corrects all these faults, we still need a place to store tools, motorcycles, kilns and building materials. Oh, and the car in winter. The roof has leaked for a while, and we tried to ignore it but it started leaking on things like the table saw and the chop saw and it really wasn't going to survive another winter. We thought that maybe we would just cover it in a tarp, but realistically, this building will be standing for at least another 3 years, but probably more like 5 or 6. Sigh.
So Study Boy morphed into Good Ol' Boy and visited the local hardware store to see if he could strike a deal on some cheap, roofing shingles. The staff at the local Timbermart know us by name, so when we appear and ask if they have any open or leftover bits and pieces they want to get rid of, they are usually pretty happy to sell it to us at a good price just to get rid of it.
Compared to the shingles we put on the house a couple of years ago, these are really thin and seem to lose a lot of asphalt while you are handling them. They are meant to be 15 year shingles, but they won't last 10. Fine for a building that (hopefully) will be gone in half that time.
With all the money he saved on shingles, Tool Boy bought a roofing gun on Ebay. When we shingled the house roof, we borrowed one from a neighbour who has since moved away, so we justified the expense by saying that we have friends that need roofing projects done this fall. What goes around, comes around.

Death and Literature

2009-09-16T20:21:00.005-03:00

This is the Death of Rats. He (she?) is one of my favourite literary characters from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

On the disc, Death is a character that shows up wherever there is, well, death. Which, like in our world, is pretty much everywhere, all the time. He is the standard Anthropomorphic Personification of death, which is to say, he looks like a skeleton, wearing a black robe and carrying a scythe.

Since he is so busy, it stands to reason that he needs an assistant. So the Death of Rats takes care of ushering smaller souls into the afterlife. Not just rats, but mice, small mammals, insects, you get the idea. And like the bigger Death, he is a rat skeleton wearing a robe and carrying a scythe. Because standards are important.

This is Atticus, named for a literary character. When we named him after the protagonist in "To Kill Mockingbird" we didn't expect he would take the title so literally.
Like the Death of Rats, he has decided it is his job to help usher smaller souls into the afterlife. At first it was a few house mice, then field mice, then several squirrels, a vole, a chipmunk, a bat, countless crickets and spiders and just today, 2 birds.
I love my cat, but he is starting to scare me.

Because I Don't Have Enough to Do...

2009-09-15T21:34:00.005-03:00

Yeah right. Honestly I've been looking forward to getting laid off in October for about a month now; I want to do more pottery, rearrange elements of the garden before winter, do some smallish home reno projects and start curling. That was my plan for the fall. But Robbie Burns knew about the best laid plans. Today I agreed to teach a course at the community college. Just 1, and only 4 hours a week. It starts tomorrow. Actually it started Monday. Last minute and under the gun, just how I like to work.
I don't have a course outline or a semester schedule. I probably won't have access to a computer account or email tomorrow, and I haven't done any paperwork about being paid yet either. I have taught the course before, so I've decided to wing it tomorrow. I figure I can probably muster a 2 hour introduction to Horticulture Structures and Environment off the top of my head.
When I say wing it, I mean I have typed up 3 pages of outline stuff I may talk about. Or maybe not.
I expect something of my fall plans will suffer, most likely the garden.
Oh yeah, and I'm still working. What was I thinking?

Catching Up

2009-09-10T19:51:00.007-03:00

Seems like the end of summer is coming whether we want it to or not. Everybody has been commenting on the shorter evenings and later mornings.

This morning the temperature said 3 degrees Celsius when I was getting dressed to ride the bike to work. I had to dig out the wind breaker pants, and as always, I wondered just what 3 degrees with a 80km/h wind actually makes the wind chill. I think the non technical answer is Brrrr. But now I need wonder no more, because this is a website that can calculate that. The technical answer is -14.7 degrees, way colder than I thought!

Tonight there is a large frost warning for most of the province. So I was out tonight covering the tomatoes and basil with bedsheets just in case. One can never have too many bedsheets. These ones came from Frenchies (my favourite store) and they are used as drop sheets when we do messy work in the house, and have also taken the place of walls when visitors need privacy for stuff like showering and peeing. (Oh those crazy visitors!) Tonight bedsheets are frost protection.
Before I covered everything I picked what was ripe. I never seem to remember that I don't need that many tomato plants. This year I thought I did well to keep it to a mere 10, or 2 each of 5 varieties. But as you can see, even just two, is too many for the cherry types. I remember one year in Vancouver I resorted to making green chow with cherry tomatoes, I may need to do this again.

Last Monday I went to the city to see a play at the Fringe Fest. It was called Audacious Babe and Glow Girl and it was written and performed by a friend and student in Acadia's Theatre programme. I thought it was awesome. That is my completely unbiased opinion. The theatre review in today's Chronically Horrid wasn't as positive as my completely unbiased opinion, but happily they didn't post it on the website so you don't have to read that trash.

For those of you wondering what the O.O. is up to, he is still chained to the computer trying to get his research proposal ready to send to his advisers, and consequently is still not allowed to have any fun at all until he finishes his homework. On a positive side, Atticus has decided to help.

And Finally, a long while back I mentioned to a potter friend that I follow a number of Pottery Blogs as a poor substitute for the feedback and ideas you get from being part of a community studio. She asked that I list them on my blog, so here they are added to the left pane. Each of these also have more potter's blogs listed on their site so I can pretty much get lost in virtual clay all evening.

We're Jammin'

2009-08-29T19:13:00.005-03:00

This weekend I found myself with the unusual circumstance of not having anything to do. No social commitments, no house reno planned, no plans already made at all. And with the tail end of a tropical storm bearing down on us, I knew I wouldn't be gardening or going for a spin on the bike.
I may have mentioned that strawberry season is my favourite time of year. My love of strawberries is easily surpassed by how much the Other One adores blackberries.
With the O.O. locked in his room until his school work is done, I decided to reward his efforts by making him some blackberry jam. Off I went this morning to my not so secret spot down by the railroad tracks, just as the rain began to fall. It has been three years since I was last there. Last year and the year before, we were in Newfoundland. (AKA no berries to be found land.)
The berries were still there but they were smaller than I remembered, and pretty picked over already in most spots. Since I was last there, a proper walking trail has been put in beside the tracks, and I think more people walk there now. CN used to be pretty unhappy when people would use the train tracks as a trail, so they gave people a place to walk, just about a year before the last train stopped running. It took me nearly three hours to pick a scant five pints. It rained lightly, but I got soaked through, wading deep into the thickets looking for bigger berries. Finally I figured I had enough for a batch.
The bad thing about blackberries, aside from the thorns and the wasps, is that you have to sieve out the seeds and so you need to pick a lot more of them than say, strawberries. (Mmmmm, strawberries.) Happily, the O.O. likes jam more than jelly, (or at least so he tells me) and I don't have to get rid of all the seeds, which would be too tedious. When I was a teenager with braces, my Aunt Erica use to make me blackberry jelly. Now I know that there is just nothing I can do to make it up to her.
The jam making took most of the afternoon. Usually I double or quadruple a batch to save time. The directions on the pectin packaging warn against this, but I like to live on the edge. Except this year, none of my strawberry jams set up properly. I was blaming watery berries from all the early rain we got, but to be on the safe side I decided to follow directions this time. I forgot to put in the pectin in the first batch before I started to bottle it. Then I had to reboil the jam and re wash and sterilize the jars so I could add it. This slowed the process down a bit.
Then I had the brilliant idea to try and save the seeds I had sieved out so I could plant them and have my own berry patch. The O.O. was really excited by this idea and so we began. We washed and we washed and we washed and we washed. And lots of pulpy gunk came off the seeds, but at the end of 20 minutes, they were still pretty pulpy. I was concerned that they would go moldy before they germinated, so we tried a different tactic. We smooshed them out onto newspaper to dry them. My theory is that the pulp will brush off easier if it is dry. Once the seed is clean, we can stratify it in the fridge and sow it in a cold frame to germinate in spring. All in all, I had about 4 cups of pulp, which probably translates into thousands of seeds, so even if the germination rate is really low, I should get a few plants growing in the spring to plant out. It's a start.

A Play 's the Thing

2009-08-28T19:18:00.003-03:00

What thing, though, I am not exactly sure. Last weekend we went over to the other side, to visit the parental units and see a play at the Ship's Co. This year was the 25th Anniversary of Ship's Co, and as the other one and I met there (everybody go awwwwwe) we should have attended all the events ( or at least some of the events) during the season, but we didn't. We do remember the 10th anniversary though; I think we worked it in fact.
Guilt finally caught up with me and we did arrange to see the second mainstage production aptly named Ferry Tales. It was commissioned to celebrate this year's anniversary, and was a collection of stories around and about the Minas Basin as told by passengers aboard the MV Kipawo when she was still a ferry travelling between Kingsport, Parrsboro and Wolfville and long before she was a theatre dry docked in Parrsboro. Most of the stories I had heard before, growing up on the Minas Basin. How Glooscap made the Five Islands. The story of a Bishop from Greenwich who hopped across the ice cakes one winter to ask his Parrsboro girl to marry him. The ghost story about the cave at Black Rock where you can still hear the woman abandoned by pirates, crying for help as the tide comes in and drowns her. (everybody go oooooh!)
It was fun, but a little disjointed, and I wonder if a tourist would be able to follow the narrative as it was just loosely strung together with a little music and comedy. The acting was very good. The set design worked well, although, there was a time when the MV Kipawo could have, (and would have) been used to play herself. Alas she is reduced to being a lobby for a black box stage. The costumes were confusing, and seemed to say 70's Britain more than 1930's Nova Scotia. They had that distinct low budget Frenchy's feel. Not the best offering from Ship's Company, let's hope their other mainstage productions were more interesting.

A Tale of Two Plays

2009-08-10T20:31:00.003-03:00

I should have posted this ages ago, but life got too fun to blog for a while.
We went to the opening night of The Gin Game in Wolfville on Thursday July 30. It is the newest attempt to bring live theatre to Wolfville in the summer, a town that already has too much going on. A new production company named Wolfville Summer Theatre (imaginative, yes?) is presenting two plays this summer at the Al Whittle Theatre.
The Gin Game is a two act play with two actors, which in the biz is referred to as a Two Hander; but really should be called a four hander unless it is done by a couple of war amps. Two Handers are often picked by small and fledgling companies to keep the costs to a minimum because along with a small cast, they usually have only one or two sets. This explains why WST's second production, Love Letters, is also a Two Hander.
The Gin Game had very good production values. By this I mean, the set was fun to look at, the lighting adequately set the mood, and the sound didn't annoy me too much. (Which is the best praise as I can usually give to sound.)
The acting was very good, in fact Carolyn Hetherington is always very impressive although we thought perhaps Lee J Campbell was miscast for his role.
If this sounds like faint praise, remember that I, my honey and my best friend are a hard audience to impress. We usually completely deconstruct the whole performance on the car ride home and some of our nitpicking included:
The costumes were not broken down and old looking.
The sound cues were too abrupt.
The second act suffered from bad direction.
Ms Hetherington seemed to be channeling Jessica Tandy, who originated the role.
The worst of the whole, is that the Gin Game is a boring play. I actually fell asleep in the second act, and I don't think I missed anything.
Contrast all this with Two Planks and a Passion's new production of Rockbound. Only 3 nights after Gin Game put me to sleep, Rockbound made me want to stand and cheer, even after 2 1/2 hours of bum numbing bleachers at Ross Creek's Centre for the Performing Arts. Rockbound is a new two act play by Allen Cole, and is based on the 1928 novel of the same name by Frank Parker Day, which won the CBC Canada Reads contest in 2005. Funny, poignant, use all the adjectives you want, this is a great piece of theatre, if you missed it at Ross Creek, go see it at the Chester Playhouse Aug 13-16. The music is complex, but while it wasn't catchy like trite musicals tend to be, I find that I can still hum two of the themes a week later. All the actors made me believe that they were their characters, even as some doubled up roles. The precise staging and use of simple scenic elements to advance the story is what good theatre always strives for. No bells and whistles just real emotion, it was the best play I've seen for years. Go see it if you have the chance.

What Else I Did on my Summer Vacation

2009-08-10T19:53:00.006-03:00

I spent last weekend on the South Shore showing off yet another bit of beautiful coastal Nova Scotia to my friend who has the misfortune not to live here. We visited the LaHave Frenchies where we both scored new to us treasures.
Then we drove down the LaHave River and on to Lunenburg; which was crazy busy due to the Folk Fest happening that weekend. Neither of us being fond of anything associated with acoustic guitars we ate a picnic lunch overlooking the harbour and moved on to Mahone Bay where a liquid afternoon spend in the Crown and Anchor prepared us for nice supper at the Cheesecake Cafe.
Sunday we went to Chester hoping to meet a millionaire who wanted to sweep us off our feet. Alas it was not to be, but we did ogle some nice houses and sailboats before driving to Bayswater Beach, where the sand was too hot for sitting and the water too cold for swimming. I got a sunburn on my feet because who can ever remember to put sunscreen there?
Cleveland Beach was another stop, where the water was warmer. Lastly, of course Peggy's Cove was a must before ending in Halifax for her to start the last leg of the trip with another friend.
Just to prove it, here are the pics. (Lori)
Hanging baskets are so declasse. Lunenburg decorates their light poles with seafood instead.

Mahone Bay's Three Churches. If you want a better shot, buy a postcard. That iconic picture doesn't exist unless you go tromping through someone's backyard.

And Peggy's Cove as it should be. No Tourists. No Car Park.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

2009-08-06T20:24:00.002-03:00

Summer has finally arrived. Both meteorologically with the heat, and metaphorically in that I've been having some fun. I count a successful summer by the number of times I have to dig around in the camping equipment box. Because summer fun cannot be had without needing something out of that box. Bug spray, beach booties, picnic supplies. So far I've been in there three times, and Peter once. There have been summers (the last one for example) where I didn't need to go in there at all. Score one for Nova Scotia.
I fully give credit to this being the summer of visitors. A friend is visiting from Vancouver right now and so we are doing all the summer fun things that I never do unless trying to convince a CFA that this really is a good place to live. Like visiting the sandy beach only 2 minutes down the road, or going for ice cream at a place that has a great view of 4 counties. Like walking the dykes, throwing a back yard neighbourhood barbecue or hiking to Cape Split.
Yes. that's right. Hiking. Me. I've been known to hike before. But the trek to Cape Split was a new one for me. I'm from the other side of the Minas Channel, so Cape Split was always a place that you looked at while sipping a beer at a friends cottage in Diligent Harbour. Where I come from no one would be crazy enough to want to walk there. It is completely inaccessible. Except here, where people seem to think it is a right of passage to take life in limb and wander off into the woods on a badly marked and treacherous "Not a trail" just for the reward of getting really close to those spires.
We were lead to believe that it wasn't really a hike so much as a walk. We were also lead to believe that it was a 3 hour tour. Maybe for someone with the legs of a giraffe, but it took us two hours to walk in, two hours to drink a bottle of wine to recuperate and two hours to walk out. When I say walk I mean climb over and under trees, scramble over rocky paths, hop over the muck holes and inevitably slip slide into them when you lost your footing.
Once we got there I had the strange experience of seeing something completely familiar from photos yet knowing I had never been there. It was like going to Stonehenge. And experienced hiker that I am, I remembered the cork screw but forgot the camera. You'll just have to take my word for it.

And Another Thing...

2009-07-24T19:14:00.003-03:00

Today I arrived at work to find a list of 'suggestions' of what we should plant in the new Town Centre Bed. My comment yesterday about spirea was a joke, but it was on the list this morning. I swear, I'm not making this up.
Also on the list was privet (oh yeah, that's original) and a clarification that the Euonymus should be the yellow and green one (sorry Lori) called Emerald n' Gold (yes, the 'N apostrophe' is really part of the name.)
So now I'm really starting to get into the idea of making the absolute ugliest garden possible to plant in the centre of Main St., and I'm taking suggestions for other over used, banal and uninteresting specimens. Remember they have to be under 4 feet high for shrubs please, and the trees should also be small because the planters are not that big.
Already on the list are daylilies and crabapple trees. I'm thinking of adding gold pfitzer juniper.
Anyone else with plants we love to hate?

Venting

2009-07-23T20:43:00.004-03:00

Sometimes it seems I only use this page to vent. Like today, when I found that 4 bureaucrats with no plant knowledge have vetoed my landscape design for the new Town Centre and asked that I make it:
"Less prickly"
"Shorter" and
"More Shade"
Translation: "We don't want evergreens. We want deciduous trees, and make the shrubs dwarfs so we can still see the cars in the parking lot behind."

These were the criteria which I had used to select plants:
Hardy to wind, drought, full sun, pollution and road salt.
Multi season interest.
Must be plants not already in use in a Town green space, with the idea that it will help inform the public on a wider variety of plant material available.
Must be available in a local nursery. Buy local.

One of the bureaucrats, who fancies himself a bit of a gardener, also suggested both Euonymus and Crimson King Maple instead of the choice and rare evergreens I had selected.
Note: Being known as an avid gardener is not the same as knowing anything about plants, and shouldn't be thought synonymous with taste either.
Crimson Kings are a selection of Norway maple, those are the ones responsible for spreading the black tar spot fungus blotting the landscape every summer. The also have a tendency to generate thousands of seedlings which grow anywhere and everywhere. They should be banned from sale.
The only thing wrong with Euonymus is that it is an obvious choice. And by obvious I mean common. And by common I mean banal and pedestrian. Familiarity breeds contempt. And I do find euonymus contemptible. In my opinion, if a plant has to be variegated to be interesting, then it really isn't interesting, is it?

A number of thoughts went through my head at their plant suggestions.
One was that, if I added some daylilies and some spirea it would look as good as a Walmart parking lot.
Another was that it was a little like telling Degas that "the Ballerinas are nice, but had he ever thought of painting dogs playing poker?"
I cannot get autocad to export the landscape plan to a jpeg or bitmap file for your viewing pleasure, so here is the elevation sketch I submitted. I am posting it here because no one will ever see it otherwise. Try picturing it without evergreens and with shorter shrubs in the centre. And while you are at it, change the sign to one that says "Mud View Trailer Park - The folks that live here are homely."

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes

2009-06-28T19:28:00.007-03:00

When we began the shower adventure, the plan was to have it completed for Peter's mum to be able to use it when she visits this year.
She arrives Thursday, and here is our progress so far:
1. Tile sun porch floor to use it as a clay studio -check
2. Make clay extruder for accent tiles - check
3. Make accent tiles - check
4. Build shower stall - check
5. Tile shower stall - ummmm...

Well, we got close didn't we? This is how close. Note, one wall is 3/4 tiled, another is 1/2 tiled. The other two walls are still untiled. No door, no floor, no glass block window either.

Even if we tiled tomorrow night and Tuesday night, and all day Canada Day, I doubt the tiles would be all finished, and then it takes a couple days to set before you can grout it. We are not moving too fast. What you see is the result of 8 hours work. Four hours yesterday morning and 4 more today. And frankly we're pooped. Tile setters earn their money.

So If we worked really hard and ignored Betty altogether during her visit, it might be ready by the time she leaves.

Valiant effort, but still a failing grade I'm afraid. Poor Betty will just have to have a bath.

The holes you see in the corners will be shelves. And the blue tiles (that look quite black in the picture) are going to interfere with the escutcheon on the tap so we still have to figure out how to cut them elegantly around that. Our tile cutter won't cut circles, and the wet saw seems to chip them quite a bit. We think we will just grind them down a little.
I have to say though, I do like the look.

Happy Summer Solstice

2009-06-21T16:52:00.002-03:00

I have come to realize that I eat my way through the year.
First it is fiddle heads. This is a favourite of the other one, being from New Brunswick originally. Fiddle heads are eaten by the pound with every meal for about 10 days until they disappear from the roadside farm markets.
Fiddle heads are followed closely by asparagus and rhubarb. Creamed asparagus on puff pastry. Asparagus quiche, asparagus steamed, asparagus raw and direct from the garden patch when i'm weeding.
Rhubarb custard pie, rhubarb crisp, stewed rhubarb and ice cream.
Last week I gorged myself on foreign cherries while waiting for the cherries on my tree to ripen enough for the birds to cheat me again (for the 6th year in a row)
This weekend I indulged and bought the first strawberries on offer to make shortcake. That will keep me happy for the next 14 days until new veggies for hodgepodge come along, followed by raspberries, blackberries and peaches, tomatoes, peppers and squash.
All these things I have in my own garden, but mostly I buy to supplement what is never enough.
We spent the weekend with friends at Milford House down by Annapolis this weekend. We hiked in the rain and ate. Kayaked in the rain and ate. Read books by the fireplace and ate. Knitted by the fireplace and ate. And one clever spouse was observant that we are all fortunate to live in such a place.
Indeed. Happy Solstice.

Suffering for my Art

2009-06-11T21:02:00.005-03:00

On Tuesday evening Patsy and Edwina crashed the NSCC graduation ceremony at the Middleton Campus. A friend had the misfortune to be Valedictorian for the COGS campus so we went to hear his speech (and freak him out a little).
In fact his girlfriend (not shown here) made the crowned crusaders a trio. Her pale lavender gown complimented our lime green and pastel pink ones perfectly. When we stood together we looked like moon mist ice cream.
We were a hit with every little girl in the room. And truth be told, people were taking our picture while we were taking his as he crossed the stage.
It was a memorable evening, but the junk jewelry have given me a painful rash on my neck and ears.
And before anyone comments, fur is a renewable resource.

Shower Power

2009-06-11T20:51:00.002-03:00

Last weekend we added a layer to the shower system. This is the kerdi membrane that makes the layer of already water proof concrete board more waterproof. We did this Saturday and then had to let the mortar set for at least 48 hours before the tiles could go on, so Sunday instead of shower building we built a back step outside the sunporch door, because some people find a 15 inch drop to the ground a little uncomfortable. Go figure.