Almost a spring day on the way

Two days of relative, post holiday rest, and continuing an herbal liver cleanse, have perked me up almost enough to want to hit the studio today. A bit of the sniffles is no excuse - I know, I know, so after breakfast I will March out the mudroom door and walk to my lovely studio and sort the tiles to be re-fired and load that small Olympic, gas, test kiln. Since Jim has doctors orders not to do any remotely, heavy lifting, I'll have to load the empty propane tanks and he can get them filled in town and I'll unload them.

When you have a titanium hip, you're warned to not lift more than 25 lbs, so my trick is to lean and put the weight on the not so good hip. Aging and dealing with a very well used body, force you into some interesting life changes!

We're in for two days of sun and a forecast high of 60 both days, so if I can't fire that small kiln tomorrow, I doubt if I'll get another chance for such warmish, sunny weather this time of year.

Yesterday was a day to do more email catch up, play some computer word games, watch TV, computer filing and some glaze chemistry - sometimes juggling all around the same time.

Dinner was easy last night - spaghetti with bolognese sauce which I had frozen. Tonight's dinner is broiled chicken breasts coated with kosher salt and slathered with a mixture of creamed butter, soy sauce, garlic, mustard, cayenne and lemon. Sides are rice and baked butternut squash with a filling of butter, brown sugar, orange juice concentrate and a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg all mixed together (the only way I could get my family to eat squash years go and it still remains one of Jim's favorites.)

Test tiles ready to load

These are the glaze batches and test tiles I've been working on the past two days, that will be going in this kiln load.

After lunch I decided to play with the bag wall some more and redid it (twice in 2 days). I also reduced the exit flues a bit. I think too much heat is going up the chimney. There's a new school of thought about flue sizes, so in the interest of fuel economy, shorter firing potential,and my need to continually experiment, I reduced the flue to about 47 sq in, about 17" less than was recommended by one source. I also removed two layers of brick from the chimney, which I had Shane raise for the last firing and lowered the bag wall. Those changes worked; but they worked too well, with the bottom now getting too hot.

I'm hoping that these current alterations will shorten the 24 hour plus firing which includes an overnight candling, and give me a more even firing. I'm also going to leave the spark arrestor cap on the chimney - hoping that removing those two layers of brick would open up the space enough to not impede the pull of the chimney. It should be an interesting firing! To be on the safe side I've unscrewed the cap in case it becomes necessary to remove it.

I got 3 shelves loaded before it was time to head in and get ready for dinner at the seafood buffet. It was after 7 when we got home. I did a quick garden check and caught some snails in the act of chewing on some veggies and on one of my climbing roses. Who knew they could crawl 4 feet up a rose bush!! It was too late and I was too tired to continue loading, so I opted instead to get caught up with email and snail mail and watch the Lakers, who won and clinched the western division. Kobi was sensational!

This morning I need to check part of my veggie garden. Jim spotted that big, fat, bunny in there last night when walking Bodhi and I have some pea seedlings in there that would be his idea of a gourmet snack! I put down some blood meal a couple of days ago. It works to keep the bunnies and deer away; but the problem is that it has to be replaced every time it rains, which lately, has been every day! :-(

Till later,
June