This year the new veggie in my now tiny garden is the Spanish pepper Pimiento de padrone. These little peppers are a very popular ingredient in a super simple tapas dish which I made for lunch yesterday and again as an appetizer for dinner. I had to buy some plants from Amazon.com in the spring and now they are producing like crazy. Basically, your fry these in a bit of olive oil till they brown and get soft, drain, sprinkle with coarse salt and eat with bread. I dipped  the sourdough bread in the cooking oil which took on the flavor of the peppers. The fascinating things about these peppers is that genetically, they will produce mild and slight hot pepper so biting into one is always a surprise! The cherry tomatoes were just topped with some mozzarella and basil, and drizzled with olive oil and salt and peppered. Next year I'm only going to plan one cherry tomato plant.

In addition to cooking the rest of my day was spent running around town for some food and garden shopping, and a bunch of other stops including Lowe's where they just couldn't match the paint for our stucco trim, so I'm giving up on the idea of being able to just spot touch up those areas and we'll have to get professional painters in here to do all the stucco trim in our atrium. I'm hoping we can get all these house and studio jobs done by labor day; but something new like the broken garage door panel, seems to come up every week!

Some time today I have to make ratatouille since my garden has given me eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes. It will depend on when the garage door people come to replace that panel, and then I have to go pick up some more pottery supplies. That one pug of earthenware has finally arrived after a six week wait!

This week I've got to finish up some gardening. The fall veggie starts are in and I have a flat to plant at our son and daughter-in-laws house.   I was hoping this new automatic watering on my containers plants would save me a lot of time but with these 100+ degree days (it was 103 at 4pm yesterday) I've had to hand water as well, so I need to get the gardener to increase the water on those. First thing yesterday morning I got 3 more new pots planted with ferns for near our front door. A fountain for that area is on the way and that will complete that area for this year.

The handyman did not do the insulation in the studio attic space the other day, but did  finish up a few other things in the studio and the house. He's coming at 7am Wednesday to do the insulation. Let's hope he means it this time. :-(

I've decided to not wait to see if that insulation works with keeping the heat down in the studio, and I'm going to bite the bullet and get the dual heat/air conditioning installed. I've been waiting long enough to get in that studio to get to work.

The Red Menace

Another blogger yesterday was referring to his current working with earthenware as the "red Menace", which make me think I may be having an interesting time when these two different pugs of red clay arrive next week. Georgie's has a new red earthenware which has just been released for limited sales, and the other one is a Laguna body.

 I've never worked with terra cotta other than a young child digging it out of my grandparents garden during my summer stays with them in Coaldale, Pennsylvania, so I have no idea what to expect. The new Georgie's body has no Redart and has some iron bearing fireclay and is supposed to be pretty plastic for an earthenware, so we'll see.

The gardener was here yesterday and got about half of my containers set up for a drip system and will finish the others tomorrow. It only took me 20 minutes to water this morning and I'm hoping that by the time I get home mid afternoon, I'll find everything looking healthy and well watered!

Breakfast is done and time to get going to Lowe's for more buckets for the studio, then on to the clay supplier to pick up the things I ordered about 6 weeks ago, which have finally arrived from Georgies in Eugene. They didn't have the new red clay, so I'm getting that directly from the Portland store. The shipping was more than the clay, even in a priority box, but driving 5 hours each way would have cost a lot more!

Then we're off for a pub lunch and home. Tomorrow the handyman is coming to finally get the studio attic space insulated. Lowe's has not gotten their machine for blowing in insulation fixed, so he's going to hand distribute some of the bags and do the rest with the more expensive insulation. By Sunday I should know if that, and an open side door make that garage/studio cool enough to work in the heat of the day. Once that's determined I can get the heating/cooling people out here to do whatever they have to to get that space warm enough and cool enough if necessary, so I can get to work. If all goes as planned, and all workers come when promised, most of the studio and house and garden fixes and installations should be done by the first week of September.

A cooking day among other things

Here is her highness "Bonnie" on the left and his lordship  "Bodhi on the right"; and we thought we put these chairs in the bedroom for us!

 I had one set of intentions for the day but the day quickly shifted on me. Eggplants said "pick us now!", so I've got some marinating now and after grilling they'll go back in the marinade and be an appetizer on toasted garlic bread tonight. Our daughter in law gave me more peaches, so I made a peach crisp. The house smells great!

We had some strong winds last night which knocked over one of my big tomato plants which is planted in a plastic growers bag. So I had spend time cleaning that and all the messy leaves and debris that blew onto our concrete covered back yard from neighbors trees..

There were phone calls to make and some research to do and finally an antibiotic prescription have filled for this infected toe which just wasn't healing with my do it yourself remedies. I also spent time looking for a podiatrist just in case these antibiotics don't take care of it.

It's amazing how the day just flies by with all these little things. Now it's time to feed the cat before I grill the eggplant and maybe I'll have time to get an hour in the studio before dinner.

A Smorgasbord kind of day

After a busy day I managed to get a nice dinner made - mushroom ragout over polenta with home grown zucchini and cherry tomato saute with fresh herbs. I'm always looking for vegetarian recipes that Jim will more than tolerate and this was a big winner with him. If you want the recipe, just google  Mushroom ragout Lidia Bastianich, and you'll find it.

Our day started at 7:30 with the arrival of the tile guy. He has all the tile cut and laid and will do the grouting and finish tomorrow. Yeah!

After breakfast I headed to the studio and finished the cleanup from last week mess. Today mainly involved some heavy mopping and wipe down. I also emptied a couple more boxes and moves a lot of stuff around, and labeled and filled a few 2 gallon buckets with raw materials.

Jim took my wood list and got the wood for the box I want to make to hold some tools for my slab work. Lowes hardware would only make some of the cuts, so I'll either live with the 9" height of the box I want to make, or I'll have our handyman when he shows to do the insulation, to make those 4 cuts for me. My work day is done, so I'll check that out tomorrow. morning.

An old glaze group friend came by late morning with some raw materials I was buying from her, as well as some freebies. Those materials were some I sold or gave away to her 12 years ago!. So I got some old Spodumene, and some of the old blue Cornwall stone , some of my old wood ash that I gave her,  some calcined zinc and some freebie Lincoln 60 fire clay, and some talc. It was a good arrangement for both of us.

Then it was time for an hour in the garden, followed by doing some early dinner prep. Now I'm enjoying a nice, light, Kenwood red wine (good value and very good!), with the last of my peach pie.

After blogging and catching up with email, I'll be heading to the bedroom for a night with the Olympics. It's been a full, productive, good day. What more can one ask! Life is very good!

A days work

                              
Finally got a bit of studio time after breakfast and garden work. I put some things away and hung the rest of the tools near my wheel. The wedging table is cleared and I got the wire and turnbuckles installed. It wasn't too hot in there today, so I was able to complete some things and sort through a lot of stuff.

The tile man finished all the prep on the hall floor and now he's cutting and laying the back hall tile. The rest of the tile in the living areas is a mess because the original grout was thinned too much and some is popping off. On top of that the previous owners had some of the areas re-grouted but the new grout is darker than the original, so the overall effect is that it makes the floor look dirty. :-(  Hopefully by the end of the week this new tile job will be done, other than replacing and painting the baseboards, and maybe they can fit us in to dig out and replace all that old grout.

The gardener was supposed to get my drip system installed today on all my container plantings; but he just called and had to cancel because someone has an emergency with a broken irrigation pipe. So I'll have to hand water a few more days.

I thought my Lowe's hardware shopping was done for a while, but the box that sat on the shelf of my slab roller went walkies in the move, so I have to build another one.  Right now the slab roller it filled with many of the things that belonged in that box.

Our daughter-in-law is trying her hand at Indian food for the first time, tonight.  I know it's going to be delicious, not only because she's a great cook, but she's using a couple of my favorite recipes. Life is very good!   

Peach pie and heating quotes

Here's the peach pie I made yesterday and along side it, the cinnamon roll ups I made from the leftover dough. This is always what my grandmother made with the leftover pie  dough - just roll it out thin, spread a thin layer of flour on it, a nice generous amount of sugar, then sprinkled with cinnamon.  Mix it on the rolled out dough with your fingers to combine, and spread it evenly. Then add lots of small pieces of butter. Roll it up the thickness you see and cut in little sections and bake till done. They're great with a cup of tea or coffee - crunchy, buttery, and cinnamon sweetness all rolled up in one little bite sized piece of heaven.

Another busy day with workmen in and out, starting at 7:30 am. The dog and cat pee saturated carpet was removed from the hall and the floor painted with a special paint to kill the odors and seal before the tile goes down. For a few hours the smell of that special paint was horrible, even with the door open. For a while there I was thinking the pee smell might have been better!

Then the handyman arrived to re-hang a repaired shade, and shortly after that the rep from the heating/cooling company came and after checking out the space and explaining the benefits of the heating/cooling system he was suggesting for the studio/garage, I asked what that would cost. I'm sure he wasn't happy with my lack of enthusiasm for his $3,500 quote! So I took a deep breath and asked if he could come up with a more reasonable alternative; and maybe let's just think about heat and forget the air conditioning. He promised to email me more information and quotes tomorrow. I need heat in there in the winter, but I'll just deal with the summer heat by adjusting my work hours and maybe get a good exhaust fan set in front of an open door. At some point the pool man came because he had to fix something he forgot to do yesterday. We are so ready to have all this work done so we can enjoy a normal day at our own pace.

By the time they all left, Jim announced that he was really hungry, so I pushed dinner time up and got to work in the kitchen. So there goes another day with no studio time. These days, once dinner is done, I'm done for the day other than computer and paper work.

I'm looking forward to the Olympic events starting at 8pm; and I will be watching from bed!

Playing is hard work

This is an area across from our sons house on the Rogue River, called Horse Shoe Falls, which is also the name of our sons ranch. This is a big salmon hole which we fished the other day. It was at the end of our fishing trip and we had other things to do later in the day otherwise we would have spent a lot more time at this spot!

Our son took me on another day fishing trip on the Rogue Friday and then Friday night he got us all great seating at the Britt Festival for the Steve Martin and band concert (which was great!). Saturday we were wiped from all the casting and fresh air on the river and all the wine and other goodies at our picnic at the concert! So we just took the day off and watched the Olympics and got bills paid and caught up with other paper work and email.

The grand kids have been coming over to use the pool and of course they want us to watch all their tricks. Our 8 year old grand daughter was watching the Olympic swimming events and announced loudly "I can do that", and proceeded to hit the pool and swim at record pace, doing the Australian crawl! We just sat there stunned at how fast she swam. She also demonstrated the breast stroke and the butterfly stroke. Amazing! Her mother is now thinking about looking at getting her into a swim program. Sounds like a very good idea to me! She's a natural. I'm starting to think she may have done this in a past life!

Needless to say I have not have any time for the studio at all over the weekend and may not for another couple of days. Dealing with making appointments and having meetings with tile/carpet people and finding that the hall carpeting can't be salvaged from the cat pee (don't ask!), heating/cooling people about getting my studio/garage done, gardener (who currently had a big, open hole in the front yard where a water line broke), pool man (who still can't figure out why some of the controls aren't working),  shopping, gardening and cooking and playing have used up all my time and energy. Moving into a new house sure brings on a whole new host of minor and some not so minor problems that need to be dealt with, apart from all the unpacking and re-decorating.

This morning I spent a lot of time in the garden. All the tomato plants and roses needed trimming and pruning and everything got a good hand watering.

The grand kids will be coming over to swim in a bit and after lunch I want to make a peach pie with the beautiful home grown peaches our lovely daughter in law brought me yesterday. Their home orchard is really producing well this year.

My own little container garden is now giving me a lot of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and my first beefsteak tomato yesterday. That will be  lunch for Jim and me today - tomato sandwich on whole wheat with a lot of mayonnaise, salt and fresh ground pepper.

I must get into the studio tomorrow or the next day and continue with the unpacking.Thursday I have more materials being delivered by an old acquaintance from our old glaze group, who I sold and gave a lot of things to when we moved east 12 years ago. I'm buying back the old, blue Cornwall stone, Spodumene, tin, zinc and a bunch of other materials that she hasn't used and she's giving me some of the free materials I gave her at that time. Good thing I bought all those new 2 gallon buckets a few days ago. Those new shelves will be filled to capacity by the end of the week.

Egads what a mess!

Jim tried to partly open the garage door to cool the garage/studio and it seems that one of the workers had moved the raw materials table and the free standing shelves on top which contained all my bags, jars and containers of oxides, stains and liquids, like Iron chloride.

When the door rose, it hit the shelf and made the most awful grinding noise, which we later found, was the steel rim on the top of the raw materials table getting bent! That jarred the free standing shelves sitting on top of the unit, tilted them and these and other jars and bottles went flying, many breaking and opening splattering stains, oxides, under glazes and chlorides all over everything nearby.What a mess!

I picked some of them up already but left the biggest mess to deal with once I finish Jim's breakfast and my watering chores.  These liquids, some of which, like the chlorides are not fun to deal with, so I'll be wearing rubber gloves to prevent absorption into my skin, and running back and forth to the sink to wash off all these jars. Some of those oxides splattered all over small, paper bags of raw materials so I am going to have to get out in the next day or two for more buckets and carefully try to get those materials out of the bags without contaminating them with the oxides, etc. covering the bags . I'll say it again "What a mess!"

Once that's done, if it's not too hot, I'll deal with other studio chores which I didn't get around to yesterday, whose time was taken up with a pottery club meeting in Jacksonville, rushing home and right back out to our sons place for dinner. 

The meeting went very well and after the business of the day was complete, one of the members, Peppi Melick gave a wonderful demo using  several layers of brushed on various colors of thick slip made from the porcelain clay body, on a thick (about 3/4"), round porcelain slab. The first layer was applied, and dried slightly with a hair dryer. Subsequent layers of other colors of the thick slip were brushed over various textures using found materials like small crocheted doilies, pieces of fabric, backing from needlepoint, etc. Each textured piece was first lightly spritzed with water, laid down on the clay and impressed using a small roller, followed by the use of the hair dryer to dry the slip enough for easy removal of the textured piece. Then a different colored slip  was applied, dried lightly, then another piece of textured material was laid on top, rolled. When all the layers of slip (I think she did about 4 altogether), she lifted the slab and slapped it down repeatedly, stretching it  until it was the size and thickness she needed to drape over her rimmed, bisqued bowl. She gently fit the slab to the bowl shape taking extra care to compress the area around the rim very well to avoid drying cracks.

The last step of stretching the clay created more complex patterns than those initially created with the simple found pieces of fabric she used to create the patterns. The fired samples she brought of the Tom Coleman Cone 6 porcelain were really lovely.

Party night

Tonight is party night so I'm going to pace myself with light chores today (no heavy digging in this Rogue valley's gravel and heavy clay soil). It took me an hour the other day to plant two small vines. The first 7 inches was gravel, then I hit the clay, which was holding a lot of water. I'm beginning to think that this container garden of mine was the best choice. At first I bemoaned the fact that I had almost zero planting space in the back yard. After digging in that soil, I've done a 360 degree turn around on that issue!

Not much to report on the studio front. The only thing remotely associated with that work has been to do some sketching and transferring some slip and glaze recipes into a notebook yesterday.

In the morning I arranged some flowers in one of my pitchers (a housewarming present for some friends); and got them delivered. Our sons house is next door to theirs, so we had a nice visit with the family watching him unpack all the fossils that they had dug in their family's South Dakota vacation trip. They had some very impressive finds - one of which was so rare it is going to a museum. Then we took a tour of our friends house. They were flying in in a couple of hours and the workers and decorators were madly rushing to have it all ready when they arrived.

From there we headed home with a stop to pick up a few groceries and then home to make a large batch of pineapple and black bean salsa for our son and daughter in laws big, yearly party. There are over 130 people coming this year, so my bowl of salsa is just going to be a drop in the bucket.

I'm taking my fishing pole, and my new beach chair and plan to sit by the river and enjoy the cool breezes while I cast a few.

Walking, feeding and cleaning up after animals, garden chores and making dinner (veggie yaki soba noodles), a meditation video and sleep filled out the rest of the day yesterday.

This morning I made potato salad for tomorrows dinner. Time now for some breakfast, then some garden chores followed by a studio time till the heat makes me seek the refuge of the air conditioned house. Hopefully next week I'll be able to get into the studio every morning, while it's cool and get everything finished.

Date night

Yesterday was a day of completion. The electrician and his assistant came at 6pm, worked till 9pm and got the rest of the studio and house electrical done. He still has some outside work to do, and some light installations when the dining room wall sconces arrive the end of August; but the studio electrical and plumbing work is finally done other than getting heat and possible cooling installed. Now I just have to find the time and energy to find places for everything.

The plumber was here early yesterday and got my small gas kiln hooked up with the 4 foot flex hose. He also  straightened out some of the wheels and legs that the movers had trashed.

 My third magnetic tool bar arrived yesterday, so I might try to get that up today if I can. Wall space is almost non existent at this point, so I'm going to have to find some convenient place to squeeze it in.

Now that we're done with breakfast (buckwheat pancakes this morning), I have to get out and do a bit of planting. There's a chance of thunder showers in a couple of hours, so I want to beat the rain if if decides to come this way. Then I have to call a heating company about studio heat and air before I head out for some flowers to a fill a pitcher I'm giving some friends as a house warming present.

Tonight is a date night, so I'm not going to tire myself too much today. I don't want to fall asleep during the dinner or the show at the Cabaret theater! It should be a fun night with a 60's music show "Life Could Be a Dream". They serve dinner before the show and dessert at intermission.  You can opt out of dinner or just have the dessert at intermission, which is what we usually did when we lived here before; but it's the height of the tourist season now, so parking would be problem if we opt for dinner elsewhere and this arthritic hip and knees cannot take long walks uphill right now.

Mojito and pizza

It was another Mojito night. These are great with pizza!

Yesterday I picked up part of my pottery order. It's been 3 weeks and they still haven't gotten an order into the larger supplier in Portland, so I'm still waiting for a pug of low fire clay and a few other items so I can start testing those earthenware slips and glazes. They did have all the small bottles of lug underglazes which they must have ordered through Laguna rather than Georgies. Good thing I'm still unpacking and not in a major rush for these things.

I've only gotten a bit of studio unpacking time in the past two days. At this point I'm switching back and forth from the studio to my office; but I did manage to empty a couple of boxes. Sorting through lots of small pottery and jewelry tools and finding places for everything has been a big challenge because of space limitations, so we've been putting up a lot of shelves and racks of one sort or another to hold much of this stuff.

We have shopping and other chores to do now that they've they delivered  the replacement love seat (the first one had a problem so they brought the floor model today). Unfortunately, that one has a defective seat cushion, so they have to bring back a replacement tomorrow. I think we're once again victims of mercury retrograde! LOL 

Rain is in the forecast for today and tomorrow but I still had to hand water all the potted things. The tomato plants, and eggplants in those white plastic grower bags are huge, and they need at least one very deep watering each day which takes me about a half a hour every morning. This fall or next spring I'm going to have someone build me a deep, long, permanent raised bed for those veggies, and everything is going to be on a drip system.

Well, that's the studio and garden and kitchen report for the day.  Time to head out for some lunch and a big grocery and other shopping trip.




 

Tools hung, tempura and sake night

 Since I lost a lot of wall space in the move, I came up with this idea of making a backing for my jewelry bench that would hold a magnetic tool bar. The other tool bar was installed next to the studio sink and I realize that I need just one more of these for my lapidary area. Slowly, but surely, it's coming together.

It's been another busy day starting with watering my planter garden, breakfast, trip to our son and daughter in laws house to harvest their veggies and visit a bit, then some grocery and other shopping before heading home. 

We were in Ashland yesterday and I  just couldn't resists buying a huge, expensive, Brandywine tomato and some fresh mozzarella. For lunch I made a mixed green salad with a simple vinaigrette and put tomato slices, topped with mozzarella slices,  drizzled with olive oil and and fresh basil. Jim loved it and remarked how pretty it was. I should have taken a picture! Then it was time to get all my veggies cleaned, peeled and cut and ready for tonight's miso soup, vegetable tempura and rice dinner. The sake will definitely be chilled tonight!

George the handyman showed when I was midway into this blog, so I was back in the studio for quite a while. I got my little wall area put together and George hung it for me. He also got my new extruder up and got the two of the magnetic tool holders up. After dinner I need to order another one of those as well as a bunch of 2 cup and 1 qt heavy plastic jars to replace those contaminated with a ferric chloride spill. :-(

The movers had turned one of the boxes with oxides, chlorides, etc. upside down and the ferric chloride saturated the box, got on the studio floor and made a huge mess on all the containers of oxides, bags of stain, etc.etc.. So I put on some heavy rubber gloves, mixed up some soapy water and started wiping down all the containers. I also had a little bit of time to get some small buckets labeled and filled with some raw materials.

My rice is cooking, the oil is heating and the sake is cooling. I'm really going to enjoy a do nothing relaxing, after dinner time watching some tennis and getting to bed early for a good nights sleep to recharge this old battery for another busy day tomorrow.

 

HOT HOT HOT

Yesterday I got a lot of my throwing and trim tools unpacked and hung up, and the rest of the day was spent on grocery shopping, garden chores and cooking. I'll try to continue this project right after lunch if it's not too hot in there.

We're in a major heat wave (expecting mid to high 90's all week), so studio time has been mainly limited to early morning with the garage doors partly open, which really helps.We're also leaving them open a tad at night which makes the garage nice and cool in the morning.

The electrician came at 7 o'clock last night, but only had a few minutes to spare, so we had him hang the dining room chandelier; but he promised to come next Wednesday with a helper and finish everything else.

After  morning hand watering and re-arranging  a lot of  the planters , I ordered some food items on line. No stores here sell Open Pit Barbecue sauce, which is my favorite for some recipes.  I was able to get it on Amazon.com, as well as ordering some of my Thai ingredients to replace those I gave away when we moved.

The plumber won't be able to get here until next week to hook up the small gas kiln, and the handyman can't come till Wednesday or Thursday to hang the extruder and finish the rest of the jobs. Now  I need to look up some heating/cooling companies to see if we can tap into the house system to cool and heat the garage.

I got all the dinner prep done for our Pasta Puttanesca dinner, before breakfast, so  dinner will only take me about 10-15 minutes. Our local, monthly, glaze club meeting is tonight and I'd really love to go if I'm not too wiped.

Day after fishing

                                   

                                 
I'm recuperating this morning from my 8 hour fishing trip. It was a glorious day, with 3 boats of 6 family members and a friend, on the Rogue river for a fish off. The only one who had keepers were our grand son Brandon who's in the boat photo with his Aunt Carleen.

We had walkie talkies between the boats  and had a grand time telling tall fish tales about our catches. :-) Everyone caught fish but you can't keep the wild salmon, or steel head - only the ones that have been introduced from the hatcheries; and only if they are in the right size range. They clip a fin behind the dorsal fin as means of identification for the hatchery fish.

The scenery down the river is so beautiful. The goslings that we saw in May look like adults now. This group hung around us while we fished this salmon hole. I think they sensed that we had also stopped for lunch here, so I shared a piece of my sandwich bread with them. They were not shy at all, so other river goers may do the same. 

Since my body was weary (8 hours of casting is fun, but tiring), it's been great to have some Wimbledon finals tennis to watch this morning. A big thumbs up to Serena Williams for winning her 5th Wimbledon singles title! Maybe she and Serena will take the women's doubles as well.

This morning I got the dining room chandelier and the new bench grinder unpacked . That grinder is very heavy so it may be a challenge getting it into the studio. If I can edge it on to a cart it will be doable.

I was hoping to get some planting done this morning, but these shoulders need another day or rest before I put a shovel in my hands for any length of time. So hand watering and dead heading the flowers was it for today. Since Bonnie kitty is now an indoor cat and sulking, I bought her a harness and have taken her out a bit yesterday and today. I would say we are going for walks, but it's more like 2 steps, drag kitty, who then rolls over on her back and gives me a look of "I dare you"! Progress is slow, but she has actually taken a few normal steps on her own here and there. Only time will tell if this experiment is going to work. At least on the harness and leash, she's satisfied to sit on my lap outdoors.

We've noticed that many neighbors open their garage doors about ten inches from the bottom. We thought it may be to cool things off, so we tried it last night and this morning and it works! I actually got about a half hour in the studio this morning. Usually it's even too hot on a morning like this, but I did get to hang up some tools and put others away, so I'll continue that job after the tennis. After all, Wimbledton only comes once a year!

A day of wine and roses

Our daughter in law brought me a dozen, beautiful yellow roses yesterday. They're very sweet in this Robin Hopper pitcher.

The Brent manual extruder arrived yesterday. I ordered the largest manual unit so I could use my large dies, and that is one heavy piece of equipment! Jim can't lift anything, so it was up to me to get the box in the house and unpack it. There's no way I can hang this thing myself so I will have to wait for the handyman to grace us with his presence.

Two of the grand kids came over to in the afternoon to swim. Fortunately I opened the new pool toys I bought for them early, because they required a pump which I didn't have, so good old fashioned human air did the job. I was exhausted after blowing up two big toys, but the kids had a ball with them. There are two more left and I will be buying a pump to do those!

Other than cooking and baby sitting, the only other thing I had time for yesterday,was getting my last planter planted and doing some garden watering and cleanup. After dinner and a glass of wine I was ready to relax.

Today is a family fish off on the Rogue river. Our son has booked 3 boats and guides and some of us will be cruising down the river to fish for salmon, steel head and trout. Lunch is provided, so we can just sit back and fish and enjoy the day on this beautiful river. The winner of the fish off gets gloating rights! :-)

Hoping for a salmon later today

I want one of these! This is the tour guide and our grandson Brandon with his first salmon catch. He had to throw it back because it was a wild one. The good regulations from the past several years have really brought back the wild salmon.

Yesterday was a  big grocery shopping morning, and another cooking day - my first experience with a new table stop Weber using the indirect cooking technique. The clone recipe for chicken El Pollo Loco was great, but I had to brown it under the broiler because the charcoal heated up faster than the 1/2 hr that the Weber instructions said. It was definitely worth the trouble of putting together the new barbecue and everything else that went into it. Next time will go better and quicker! In fact, I've already decided to do barbecue shrimp next time, using an Emeril Lagasse recipe which I found on the Internet this morning.

Between those activities and regular household and garden chores, there was no time to get into the studio to put more things away.

Our dining room chandelier, according to Lighting Direct is on it's way from Illinois. All I can say is "let there be light!", and soon!

Handyman hasn't been around for a couple of days. Hopefully he'll show soon to finish the few little projects in the studio and finish putting together my outdoor potting table. So much of my organizing  is being held up for these last few jobs.

We're leaving here in a bit for another Lowe's hardware run for paint samples and a bunch of other things. When we get back I should get some studio organizing time before we head to our sons for wood fired pizza. I might even leave early to get in some fishing. The salmon are running now and I have a brand new Weber Smoky Mt. smoker that I'm eager to test on either smoked trout, salmon or steel head. 

My clay and underglazes should be here in another week or so and I'm hoping that the studio will at least be ready enough to throw some test tiles and batch some earthenware slips, glazes and under glazes.

Post margaritas morning

As you can see, there was a lot of time spent in the kitchen yesterday. The rest of my time was dealing with tracking merchandise we haven't yet received, like the chandelier ordered in April, that was supposed to be here late May! Then the pool man showed up to go over the system, and what's working and what's not. At this point, I wish it were a koi pond and not a pool!

One of my readers requested the recipe for the Nutty fruity sourdough, so here it is:

Nutty-Fruity Sourdough  (makes great breakfast toast)
   
    If you don't do sourdough, just use a* poolish instead*.
   
    To make the poolish, just mix *4 ounces of KAF all purpose* flour(or GM
    Better for Bread, or other similar flour), *4 ounces of cool water*, and
    *1/16 tsp of instant yeast*. Let it sit at room temp for 8 to 12 hours or
    so(16 hrs max). Use this for the 8 ounces of sourdough starter in the recipe.
   
    If your dried fruits are really dry, you may need to add  extra water to the dough.
   
    1 cup (about 8 ounces) fed sourdough starter
    1 cup water
    3/4 cup pumpernickel flour (can sub Hodgson all rye flour if you can’t find pumpernickel)
    2 1/2 cups (10 3/4 ounces) King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
    1 1/2 teaspoons salt
    1 teaspoon instant yeast
    1 1/2 cups Fruitcake Blend or the dried fruits of your choice ( I used golden raisins)
    1 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or almonds)
   
    Mix all of the ingredients (except the fruit and nuts) by hand, mixer, or bread machine till you've created a smooth, elastic dough. Because the consistency of sourdough starters vary, you may need to add a bit of extra flour or water; the dough should be medium-soft but not sticky. Add the dried fruit and nuts, kneading until they're evenly incorporated. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
   
    Turn the dough onto a lightly greased or floured surface, and form it into a fat log. Place the log into an Italian stoneware baker that's been greased on the bottom, or onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the loaf, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it springs back very slowly when lightly pressed.
   
If you're baking in a covered stoneware baker, place the bread into a cold oven, set the oven to 400̊F, and bake for 40 minutes. Check the bread, and bake for a bit longer, if necessary; the internal temperature should be about 190̊F when measured on an instant-read thermometer. If you're baking on a sheet pan, preheat the oven to 375̊F, and bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until the bread is brown. Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack. Yield: 1 loaf.

NOTE: I use the stoneware baker as shown in the photo. It works great for this and other breads. I use a sourdough starter which, along with the pumpernickel flour gives the bread a nice flavor. Instead of mixed fruits, I use either cranraisins or raisin. It's good either way.

Not sure how today is going to unfold other than grocery shopping which I didn't get to do yesterday because of the late visit of the pool man which was too close to our dinner time.

Right now I'm hoping this second cup of tea help me recuperate from Jim topping off my margarita glass - bad husband! :-)

The new, modified tool racks aka the command center

 It was too hot even after dinner to get on with the project of nailing up my throwing and trimming tools on this new, modified, command center (which is what Jim called my old tool unit). Because of the lack of space on that wall I had to make this design flat; but I think it should work just fine.

I need to  call the heating/cooling people and see if they can hook up the house system to the garage. If they can't then I'll have to add a separate heating and cooling unit in there. The only ventilation I can get in there is a single door to the side yard, and maybe open one of the garage doors part way. Hopefully the situation might improve a bit once we get the attic part of the garage/studio insulated.

This morning I've been busy with garden chores, email and bread making. My nutty fruity sour dough is on it's second rise and once it's baked, I need to get out and do some grocery shopping.

Since tonight's dinner is easy - nachos and margaritas, I may find some time to hang some throwing and trim tools (trying this time with some cross ventilation!)

Good night for linguini and pesto

Pesto in a sweet Brita Jepson porcelain bowl.

My little container garden is working pretty well so far. The basil is lush, so it was time to harvest some and make pesto for tonight's linguini dinner. 

The one small mint plant I put in a low wide pot about a month ago, has now filled up the pot! Mojitos can't be far away!

We've been enjoying a fairly lazy Sunday starting with a drive to our sons house to see our daughter in law and grand kids who've just come up for the summer. Wish I could have stayed and fished, but the electrician had kindly agreed to come over and fix the problem  (no power  in the back yard). It was an easy fix and while here, he also installed a couple of flood lights in the Kwan yin container corner. I can't wait to see it lit up tonight.

While I did my hand watering and dead headed all these containers flowers, Jim moved a bunch of stuff out of the garage and into our new tool shed, which will help a lot with de-cluttering the very tight garage/studio space. I thought I would get some planting in when we got back from the river, but it was way too hot out to stay out there any longer, so planting will have to wait till tomorrow morning.

Lobster one night pierogis the next

We had a great lobster/53rd anniversary dinner at our son's last night. The good host that he is, he cracked all those lobsters for everyone. We also had some lovely crab cakes and stuffed baked potatoes. To say I was a bit over served with fabulous wines is an understatement; but I'm plodding along pretty well, considering!

After breakfast this morning, I started making pierogis. The potatoes were boiling, the onions  sauteed and the dough was made and resting and so was I when I started this blog message; but George, the handyman arrived soon after I started, and I had to go over the days activities with him.

The first job of the day was to set everything up to spray insulation into the studio/garage attic space; but after hooking up and plugging in the equipment he found the unit that Lowe's loaned him was a dud, and on top of that, plugging it in caused an electrical problem and now all our outdoor lights, plugs, fountain, etc are not working; and we couldn't find the root of the problem, so hopefully the electrician will get back to us soon.

After George re-packed all the hoses, and paraphernalia for the insulation project, he put up the shelves behind my wheel, put together the  Rubbermaid tool shed and started on my outdoor potting bench.  When he was part way through, the rain came so he called it quits, but I still had to a lot more pierogis to make.

Making pierogis  took me over 6 hours but I made enough to deliver some to our son and his family for a couple of dinners and had plenty more for our freezer and tonight's dinner.

After cleanup and dinner I checked all the outlets in the studio and all is working there. I checked all the GFI's outside and none had any power. I'll let the electricians solve that problem. I shifted focus and sorted through some studio things and put others away; but that was a short, wishful, burst of energy fed only by willpower or stubbornness.

My battery needs recharging, so it's time to recline and look for something to watch on Netflix before sweet sleep.

Shopping, shopping and more shopping

I got some early studio time moving finished pots on to a bigger cart and putting a few more things away. Then it was time for breakfast and shopping! First stop was Lowe's for wood, and shelf brackets for another studio project, fire extinguisher, wire mesh for the gas burners to stop back burning, buckets, etc. etc.

Then it was on to TJ Max in hopes of finding a matching planter to finish off the trio near one corner of the pool. I didn't have much hope of them having them any more since stock like that comes and goes quickly, but I got very lucky and bought the last one. I also treated myself to a new purse. :-)

A quick, drive through, lunch and on to the next stop to buy a flexible gas hose. The propane place doesn't stock them but can order one. Those things are pricey! So I only ordered a 4 footer and will hard plumb the gas to the ground and add the flex hose so I can wheel the kiln away from the walls.

It's our anniversary (53 years) and our son is having us over for a lobster dinner. We went out to dinner with friends last night and we had the most incredible, warm salad with home made gnocchi, fava beans, tidbits of crispy pork belly and mixed greens. The gnocchi was the lightest I've ever tasted - amazing dish! The bacon wrapped quail wasn't bad either!

When we got home last night the electricians were here working on the exterior lighting and they stayed till after 9 to finish installing the exhaust for the electric kiln and moving one of the outlets, since the location would have put it under my wheel - not convenient at all.  They'll will have to come back in a week and a half to finish the rest of the electrical work outside and in the garage. By that time I should have the studio well on it's way to being done - I hope!

Finally got a sink!

Got the studio sink installed yesterday, and this new table also arrived. We're making progress  - going a bit slower than I'd like, but going nonetheless.

The electrician didn't show and that's unlike him. We called a few hours ago but haven't heard back. George the handyman may come today to just do the shelving above my wheel. If not he'll do it Saturday when he's coming to blow insulation in the space above the garage/studio.

I got most of the raw materials away yesterday, but since I gave away my biggest glaze bin (with 20 bins), which would not have fit in this smaller space, some of my materials will have to be in buckets. Today or tomorrow I need to get to Lowes for the  buckets and some wood to make a stand for one of the magnetic tools holders for my jewelry bench which is sitting in the middle of the room for lack of wall space.

My garden is watered, and it's time for lunch, then off to do some planting at our sons place, then Lowes or home to make some Indian food for dinner. The time sure flies by lately!

 

Early to bed early to rise

Here's a nice throwing demo by Phil Rogers.                                                                            

Phil Rogers 'Throwing Demonstration' from goldmarkart.com on Vimeo.



Yesterday I got the wood for the shelving set up  behind my wheel. It took forever going through all that wood, trying to find un-warped boards with knots not in the wrong places, and then waiting a long time for someone to come and cut one of the boards.I don't have the right clamps to glue the boards, so handyman George took them home to do the job.

It's been a busy day starting with taking Bodhi to the groomers right after breakfast, grocery and  garden shopping, picked up Bodhi, then back home for a bit of other chores.  Mid afternoon we were off to the pottery supply store to pick up my order which they didn't have time to finish Saturday, then back home to make a pasta casserole, and finally getting some relaxation time catching up with correspondence.

The local pottery supply is somewhat limited in stock they carry on a regular basis, but they can get things from Georgies in Portland. The earthenware I wanted to try is going to take 2-3 weeks to get here, since that's about the next time the local supplier will be getting their next order. They also don't carry Amaco velvet or lug under glazes. Fortunately I still have a lot of work to do in the studio before I'll be ready to get started on that project and hopefully by the time the rest of the raw materials and clay arrive,  the studio will be ready to go. In the future I'll have to make sure that I order things way ahead of time if I want to support our local supplier and avoid heavy shipping costs.

Meantime, there's  still a lot of studio work to be done -  rest of the outlets installed (promised for tomorrow night), insulation blown into the crawl space above the studio/garage and more shelving, both of which George promises to do on Saturday, getting a heater installed,  getting the gas kiln hooked up and last, but not least, a sink, which is getting installed early tomorrow morning.

Out and about

George the handyman actually showed up two days ago and finished the last couple of shelves and put together another end table for the patio furniture and the fire pit. Now the grand kids can roast marshmallows after swimming.

Having those extra shelves up was a huge help. I've gotten a lot of things put away and emptied several more boxes.  When my hip and knees gave out, I used my rest time to order some things for the house and studio - a couple of magnetic tool holders, a new Bailey hand extruder (sold my pneumatic one since I had no space to spare for the large compressor, nor did I think the neighbors would appreciate the noise), and another small, sturdy table to put between the sink and wheel.  The extruder was on sale which was a nice surprise!

Since the plumber didn't show as promised, nor call, I'll just guess at the sink width since most of those single laundry tubs are pretty much the same width. I've measured the area around my wheel and just have to get to Lowe's in the next few days and get the wood for shelves and background to store and hang throwing, trimming and some other tools.

Now that the shelves are up in the glazing area, it's time to restock the raw materials that I'll need for testing low fire slips and glazes. I'll be doing that right after lunch. I also need to look at the available clays. Hopefully they'll have the new earthenware from Georgie's that I want to test. It looks like one that I may be able take up to at least cone 1.

The horror of moving

This is what the studio/garage looked like a week or so ago, and I can't honestly say that it looks much better now. There are a lot less boxes but so much of the unpacked stuff is on tables waiting to find homes on shelving. Getting a few shelves up two days ago has helped a bit. I was able to unpack enough boxes to open more pathways through this mess.

Right now I'm taking a short break to soak that still, unhappy, infected big toe and then I'm heading to the studio to continue putting things away and unpacking.

The electrician came at 6 o'clock last night and left at 9. He and an assistant got the electric kiln hard wired, another fluorescent light and several outlets installed. He'll has to come back Tuesday to finish the rest of the outlets,vent the kiln and do some electrical work in and around the house.

I moved some carts around in the studio this morning and it looks like I have enough wall space for a manual extruder, and a much needed, extra small table for some of my lapidary machinery.  It's going slowly, but going.
  
While it was still cool this morning, I headed to the back yard and planted several more planters, a coreopsis and did my first hand watering. The east facing side of the house seems to get enough sun for lilies, so I may go out again after dinner to plant a few herbs in the little bit of space that's left to plant. Jim and I very happy with how that mass of pool and concrete called our back yard, is coming along.

George the handyman said he was coming today. As usual, I won't hold my breath. Meantime, it's time for me to bandage this toe and get on with some studio unpacking and organizing.

Earth box

It's been a couple of busy days digging out heavy clay and planting. I bought this new earth box and got it planted with an eggplant and some peppers. These boxes got good reviews but for some reason it's not drawing the water up from the well at the base. When I add water in the tube it's coming out the bottom, which is a sign that there's enough water there but it doesn't seem to be wicking up into the plants. Hmmm???? Anyone have one of these and having the same problem?

George the handyman called Monday to tell us that he was going to grace us with his presence Tuesday.  And joy of joys, he actually showed. He got a few shelves up but didn't bring the right sized boards or enough of them. Somehow he thought he would get two 11'4" boards out of one 20' board. So he promises to come back Thursday with the wood to finish the shelving. I had the brackets on hand, and he got those all up, so the shelving should go fast when he returns. When that will be is anyone's guess. :-)

We moved my small Olympic kiln outdoors and Jim and got it covered with a tarp and secured with some bungee cords. And he removed an existing shelf and cabinet and re-installed them elsewhere since they were blocking the spot where my ware cart is going to sit.

The electrician had to cancel but promises to come after work today. 

The past couple of days have been spent gardening and some unpacking and even managing a little bit of time for some play.

I even found time this week to bake some bread, so I guess we're really settling in.

Today Jim decided I needed a day off since my back and hip were raging with pain even two days after several hours of  heavy digging through heavy clay and planting, as well as too much time on my feet on the garage/studio concrete floor, so we took a lovely drive up to Fish Lake in the mountains and had lunch among the pines, a couple of stops home on the way to pick up a couple more tomato stakes and  more screws to install shelves tomorrow (that is, if George shows).

The potted plants have had their second watering, dinner is done and I'm just waiting for the electrician to arrive and go over the "to do" list and get him started.





 

No handyman no new shelves

This corner is a work in progress. Most of the pots for this area are planted and I just have to get them arranged a bit better.

Another no show day yesterday, for George, the handyman. I figure he has a pattern of showing up 1 out of 3 promised days, so I'll have to re-arrange my thinking here! I asked him to at least drop off the wood for the shelving, figuring I'd be able to get some of the smaller shelves up myself this weekend; but he didn't show for that either, so it looks like there won't be much more studio unpacking till he decides to grace us with his presence once again.

We spent yesterday morning running around shopping for brackets and screws for the shelves which never got installed, and a few other shopping stops  and then I spent several hours in the afternoon  gardening. I got a couple of clematis planted, filled and planted 4 window boxes which will sit on a narrow ledge near one of the side fences, as well as a couple more herbs and perennials. Then it was time to cook a simple steak and salad dinner, and call it a day.

The universe has a warped sense of humor. Wherever I have lived, it's always been a struggle with the soil - rocks, adobe clay, etc.. So we buy a retirement house with a backyard that's 99% concrete and pool with one narrow strip near the back shelves with about 7" of soil and that little strip is filled with rocks and gray clay. The clay is sticky stuff, sitting about  5-6" down. A coil cracks when bending, so I'm think this may be fire clay. This Rogue Valley is filled with clay. I don't know if it's a leftover from ancient volcanic activity from nearby Mt. McLaughlin or native metamorphic rock aging over the millennium. When I have the studio set up I should try to throw and fire a little test cup with it.

Tonight we have our first porch sitting with old friends - nachos and margaritas by the pool. The morning will be spent out and about doing more shopping. I've decided to plant the climbing rose in a big pot because there's no way I can dig out enough of that clay  in such a narrow strip and get this big climbing rose transplanted.  So, after breakfast out at our local greasy spoon (they have a very good breakfast), we'll head to Costco (another perk of living here) and pick up one of their big pots, then off for some more plant and food shopping, home again for some porch sitting prep, and ending the day poolside.

Slow going, but going

I'm still waiting to get enough shelving up in my new studio space so I can make more headway with unpacking and organizing the area. It's all going slower than I'd like, but maybe it's a good thing that I'm getting some time to ease the pace of the last several months, which has been crazy. At least I'm  making some progress with the container gardening. Here are a few new ones. I'm looking forward to seeing them when they fill out more in the next month or so.

The electrician was here a couple of days ago to install a new power box. He comes after work and could only stay a few hours, so the kiln hookup and finishing the box and getting more lighting installed and extra outlets will have to wait till he can come again; but he has promised to finish it all next Tuesday.

The handyman finally showed and got two ten foot shelves put up in the studio and a few other jobs around the house. Hopefully he'll show tomorrow as promised and I can get some more shelves installed.

The plumber hasn't been in touch, so I guess my studio sink that he ordered hasn't arrived and neither has the clay trap I ordered.

Today I made good headway in my office/meditation room, and the back yard is really starting to take shape. If I could get two or three days just for the garden, I would have it finished.

I unpacked in the office till around 3 and then we headed to Ashland for an early dinner which was fabulous - freshly made linguini with morels, bacon, smoked chicken and a creamy gorgonzola sauce and fresh basil. We're really enjoying having all these great dining choices and good and varied shopping nearby. I had forgotten how much we missed all these conveniences.

We now have a small area for porch sitting or for watching the grand kids on their swimming visits. It took a while to find a set with a love seat and chairs that rocked a bit for comfort. That area is small and wouldn't take a full sized sofa. 

Feeling wiped after 4 hrs sleep and a very busy, on my feet all day kind of day yesterday; but I got a lot done. George the handyman showed up, two hours later then promised, which seems to be his norm,  and together we put together 3 metal shelving units and a metal cart. It would have been 4 shelving units, but seems the movers lost or helped themselves to four poles and 3 shelves from one of my heavy, chrome, shelving units. So now I have a couple of extra shelves and no poles, so I'll have to check the manufacturer and see if I can buy some replacements.

We also got another hanging shelf installed in the studio. I'm not thrilled with it hovering over my head when I'm wedging and throwing, but that was the last place in garage/studio where it would fit. Since every inch of the new, smaller studio space is so precious, I'm having to go upward for more household storage and save the floor shelving for studio storage as much as possible.

It was also a gardening day, starting at first light, getting a couple more planters filled with soil and planted, potted and staked another tomato, swept the whole back yard (concrete is a lot more care than grass!), and got the hand watering done.

Several deliveries came yesterday so I was unpacking some larger planters, an outdoor end table which will have to be put together today and new, copper hose bowl, which came with a dent in one side and since the box wasn't damaged it make me think they sent me a flawed product.

If George the handyman shows today with replacement boards (yesterdays 20 ft board had a crack down the center), we'll be putting up a couple of heavy wood shelves to hold smaller buckets of raw materials. Since the morning rain has cooled things down, it should be another good day to do some more studio unpacking and put more things away.

If it clears by late afternoon as forecast, I'll get soil in the two larger planter that arrived yesterday, and get them planted. I'm hoping to have all the planters on hand planted and in place by the end of the weekend or at the latest, early in the week.


Before I start working I need to find out how to treat a big toe infection (have no idea how this happened!.) Maybe google will have the answers.

Day of rest - sort of

Yesterday was a busy gardening day and working with George, the handyman who was able to get three trellises installed, hang some shelves in the laundry room and put together a couple of shelving units in the garage/studio. I planted several herbs,filled and planted a couple more planters and staked some of the tomatoes which I'm growing in plastic growers bags. Here my first effort to cover some of the well worn wood fencing in our back yard. These will hopefully get fuller in the weeks to come.

When you halve your living and working spaces, and have to make do with about 1/10th of your former gardening space, you have to find storage above and do some vertical planting  which also helps a bit to soften the old wood fencing.

Now that I have some shelving I'll be able to start unpacking some of those studio boxes and doing a bit of organizing in the garage tomorrow. A colder, rainy spell is on the way so the garage will be a more comfortable working environment for a couple of days.

After dinner I did a google search looking for some possible new information on cone 3 and found that in 2006 Joseph Conrad published a Cone 3 book of slip, clay bodies and glazes, so I ordered a copy from Axners.

After breakfast we'll head to Lowe's  to pick up a third hanging storage shelf for the garage. Then we're going to treat ourselves to a half a day off and drive to the mountains toward Crater Lake. Mid way you reach the pines which Jim loves, and a nice little, rustic  lunch place with great home made pies, and hopefully a burger for Jim. The rain isn't expected till later in the day, so it should be a lovely drive.

If I'm not too tired when we get back and weather permits, there's more garden work or unpacking waiting. I'd be happy if I could just get the 2 clematis planted that I didn't get to yesterday.

Musing about future choices

We finally reached the handyman who again, promises to show up this morning. It was raining earlier, so that ends the possibility of him finishing up the decking area near one corner of the pool so I can set up my container garden. So, instead, if and when he shows, I'm going to have him put together all the garage and studio metal shelving units which the movers took apart but didn't re-assemble. Once that's done I'll be able to start organizing the garage and studio.

Even though I still haven't unpacked the studio and still have my office to unpack, I'm starting to think about the direction my work is going to go, since my only viable choice which this huge, recent change of location and lifestyle that fate has forced upon us, is electric firing.

Living in a community with codes and covenants means no smelly gas firing and no working at home, even part time! So now, I will be a hobby potter, still working hard at whatever choice I make once I can get my hands on clay again. What that clay will be is still up in the air; but at this point, I'm thinking it might be fun to go in a totally different direction from the cone 10-11 soda/salt work I've been doing for the past ten years or more. The idea of earthenware and playing with all those colorful under glazes ware is appealing; and I must say that the thought of just setting the kiln on automatic instead of dealing with 30 hour soda/salt firing is a big plus at the age of 72!

I'm going to get some earthenware samples when the time comes and see if I can fire them  up to cone 3 for a stronger finished product. I've been thinking about this for a while but I still have a lot of unpacking and gardening to do so it will be another six weeks or so before I can even re-supply the studio (gave 90% of my raw materials away) and get it organized. Before we left North Carolina I had started a notebook with collected information on earthenware slips and glazes. Most of those are in the traditional earthenware temperatures, so I'll be spending some evenings playing with my glaze software to tweak some of those up to cone 3 limits.

Life has hit us with some lemons in the past few months and it's time to make some lemonade!

Well, we've been in Oregon since April 23rd, and in our new home a week and I just got Internet yesterday! We've been surrounded by hundreds of moving boxes and our life for the past week has been a tiring, but focused journey of activity.

Let me first, just say, that I NEVER want to move again! The dog and cat are still showing signs of being traumatized - first from their first plane flight, then by living in our son and daughter in laws home for a week, then into their new home filled with moving boxes and dealing with a never ending stream of strangers coming in and out. Poor Bonnie kitty is finally coming out of hiding a couple of times a day, and Bodhi has finally decided it's okay to go in our back yard with that dangerous looking pool. Hearing a dog next door probably helped him overcome his fear of the "pool monster".

Our daughter Erin arrives from Munich late tomorrow night and she's here for about two weeks to help us while we try to get all our household stuff put away. Going from five thousand square feet of home and studio two thousand four hundred presents some challenges. We gave away so much before we left, replaced some things like our living room TV, with a new plasma one which sits proudly on our living room mantle after having a electrician squirm through out very narrow attic crawl space to wire it through the walls.  Between unpacking we've been shopping for new outdoor furniture, washer and dryer (they normally don't come with the house purchase here in Southern Oregon), new fans, chandelier (which won't be here for another couple of weeks),pots for the new container gardening I'll be doing since our back yard is 99.9% concrete, pool and a Jacuzzi, and food shopping to restock the larder. 

I can't even begin to think about organizing the studio. The movers took all my shelving apart and didn't put it back together (United Van lines policy), so yesterday we hired a handyman to put those things together, as well as the new outdoor furniture together, fix the leaks in the sprinklers, install the new laundry tub sink in garage (half of which will be my new studio), and a long list of other things that he will be doing next week. 

We should have purchased stock in Lowes hardware and Home Depot and Best Buy before this move! Most of our non unpacking time seems to be spent at those places as well as a couple of local nurseries. Two days ago I finally gave myself some planting time and got a couple of veggies planted in some new plastic, nursery growing bags which I had ordered on the Internet. We have a wood fence closing in the back yard, so I'm hoping to do a lot of vertical planting in the future and getting the existing drip system that the previous owners had for their potter plants back work and add to it.

One of the great perks of living close to a small city (Medford) is all the nearby shopping and dining choices. Within 5 minutes of our house we have good local Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants, as well as a new found, very good breakfast place, a super Walmart and large hardware store. Within 15 minutes there's Costo, Lowe's, Best Buy, Michael's, Pet Smart, large supermarkets (Safeway, Fred Meyers), etc. etc., and about 400 other restaurants and other great shopping choices.

It feels good to be able to touch base on the blog again; but now it's time for me to have my first cup of tea. I've been up since 3 am, got one big box unpacked, put away some other things, read some of the approximately 1700 emails that need attention, sent out some change of address emails and made my day's "to do" list.  The day's plan is to head back to Home Depot for extra studio shelving, after the Direct TV man leaves, and make a couple of nursery stops for some more big pots, some perennials for the pots I've already placed and filled with potting soil, and maybe an outdoor bench for our atrium. There's an Olive Garden in town, so we might try it out for lunch (haven't been to one in years).

We've arrived

The movers worked like mad men to get the house and studio loaded. It was 9 pm when the last shuttle truck left to take the last load to the giant moving truck that had to park about ten minutes away from our house at our friends property Because of the late hour, they drove both the shuttle and the van back to Arden and planned to unload the shuttle truck this morning. Just when we thought the biggest present from our son's friend (the loan of his private jet to take us and our dog nd cat to Oregon), we got a call from our son telling us that he had planned another surprise for us, but was afraid we'd have a heart attack with the surprise, so he decided to tell us. The surprise was two fold. First, he was going to fy out to Charlotte Monday and meet us at the airport and fly back to Oregon with us; but the other part of the surprise,was that he had arranged for our best friends, Jim and Laura to fly back with us and stay with us a week, at Seans house in Oregon. So here we all are after a wonderful flight of being wined and dined in a private 10 seater jet (I originally thought it was 8 seats. I took a little video and we all took pictures; but I have no idea how to get those here on the blog using an ipad. The computers are no longer connected to modems and my router which are packed and on the truck, so all my email and blogging are going to have to be done on this ipad. The animals fared very well on the trip. Bonnie kitty did especially well, but Bodhi fussed a bit and probably more than he would have had I not been talking to him and feeding him cheese and some of the other goodies we were served. Laura and I decided we were going to start buying lottery tickets and if either one of us wins one of those half a billion dollar lotteries, we're going to buy one of those thirty five million dollar private jets to share with friends and family. It's the least we could do. :-) Well, Sean and our friend Jim have arrived with the ribs and other goodies. Time to leave the quiet of this bedroom, plug in the ipad for recharging and join the rest of the crew. It's been a tiring but great day so far.

Busy post going away party day

Lisa Clague gave us this fabulous going away party last night. It was so hard to say goodbye, yet so wonderful to see everyone. Everyone brought great food and Jim brought lots of wine. Needless to say I didn't have much trouble sleeping last night.

Today has been another frenzy of packing and purging. I thought it was going to be a slow day and then realized I still had some kiln furniture and shelves in the Olympic gas kiln and Skutt electric kiln which had to be packed. I also decided to insulate the lids of both kilns with about at least 8 layers of packing paper to keep the bricks from rubbing together during moving. There were also a lot of boxes and studio racks, etc. to number, and two last advancers to wrap heavily. I managed to slide two of them into two big clothing boxes which would give them extra  protection from the clothes.

There were a few more unexpected boxes to pack and as soon as I get through this little break, I have a few boxes to top off and close. The rest of the packing (mainly last minute mugs, Jim's coffee pot and my desktop computer) will wait till morning. My wi-fi is tied to that computer and I'm not sure if it will work if I just plug it into my big laptop, so I'm leaving it to the very last.

The movers will be arriving between 8:30 and 9, and since I'm such an early riser, I should be able to get the last bit of packing done before they arrive - I hope!

Checking in

All the boxes are packed with a few still open for the last minute items. We actually have a little breathing time in between the last pre-moving chores in the next 3 days.

One freezer/fridge is empty and cleaned yesterday and the house fridge has been pretty cleared except for the few items we need for the next 3 days.

Yesterday I packed the last of our dishes and most cutlery and we are now down to paper plates, cups, bowls and plastic cutlery.

We actually had time for a lovely dinner out at the Knife and Fork last night with our friend Kelly, so my mad packing and purging pace is paying off these last 3 days with a more relaxed pace.  Time now to make my last minute to do lists and packing list for the plane ride to Oregon.

We are very fortunate to have been loaned a private jet from a dear friend of our son's, so our dog won't have to fit into one of those tiny carriers and be shoved under a seat. The jet sits 8 very comfortably, from what I can see by the photos, and we're the only passengers so there will be plenty of room for our carry on luggage, and animals. The stewardesses husband is a gourmet chef and will send along a lovely lunch. The universe has definitely been giving us many blessings with this move and we are so very grateful!

Rainy day in the mountains

We got a good, much needed rain this afternoon. With a couple of warm days and nights, there may be some morels showing up by the weekend. I doubt if I'll have time, nor will my aching hip allow me much looking, but I may just try to do, at least, a bit of foraging around the house proper.

Today was something of a rest day after doing way too much yesterday; but I did pack a few things and get things like cable and other services set up for the new house.

The studio and garage are now filled with just the things I'm taking to Oregon. Will Baker got the rest loaded and out today. Thanks Will and Joy for such a great job over the past couple of weeks!