Red skies in the morning........

or just duck and cover.

out the back door at 6:45 a.m.   Whoa!  

This should have been yesterdays sunrise.

by the time I got back to the door for coffee...... but still red.

Monday was shipping day:  pots off to Mobilia Gallery

and 100#'s of old Foote Spod to Blue Iris Studio in Canada

Giving me more space in the shed and making 2 potters very happy. 

At ACE in Evanston, the end of August, I realized I was weary of my glazes.  NO and Shush, shush, shush!!  These are the beginnings of little rumblings that usually send me to big changes.  Sure enough I could not stop the grumblies and was in a funk in the studio.  Talk about uninspired! 

Had a kiln go down and a really bad firing so I ran to the garden like any ostrich would do, thinking Oh this will stop as you have shows and need to get in that studio.  Alas, I stayed in the garden.  A few weeks ago I stayed up to the wee hours making porcelain bowls and mugs.  And I was happy!  

Most of the glazes used on decorative pots cannot be used on functional ware so Wednesday I blew the dust of my scales and threw together 11 tests.  All the little containers were lined up and meticulously recorded; most 500 gram batches and three 1,000 batches.  If I get one good glaze out of this batch, it will be a success.  The alchemy got me fired up to attack the kiln yesterday.

 #1.  TURN THE POWER OFF!  

#2. Wrangle together the tools needed.

#3.  Go to the hardware store to replace stripped bolts....

#4.  Walk to the hardware store as truck is dead.... grrrrr..... 

#5.  Pull old elements out and wonder where all the blood was coming from.

#6.  Back to the house to wash knuckles and find bandaids.

#7.  No bandaids, duct tape knuckles; works way better than wimpy bandaids! 

#8.  Make coffee and look for great used kilns on the internet.  

#9.  Buck up, finish the coffee and dive back into that kiln. 

#10.  Stand back and flip the power the switch.  

#11.  Happy Dance around the studio and scare the pants off the dog!           

 High Studio satisfaction!

Spaghetti...... 

new elements in....

and OMG it works!   

Loaded with three shelves of tests, now I wait.

Inspired by the spaghetti in the kiln, guess what's for dinner :) 

Gotta say I am going to miss the garden.  Long days in the studio usually leave me uninspired for dinner.  I have to walk through the garden to get to the house.  Grabbed end of the year tomatoes, a handful of basil, oregano and an onion from the braid in the studio.  A bit of feta cheese and presto, dinner, good dinner. 

Now to fix the truck........ dead battery and every idiot light on the dash board is glowing.  You can only put so much tape over those blaring lights until the whole thing is taped over.   This will keep me from cracking the lid on that kiln! 

The chicks :)

getting your ass kicked while staying centered......

After my last post thought I should post the other side of what happens when things go ca-floey. 

It's fall and I have written long about the joys of fall, see posts below.  Not winter yet but definitely a time when the introspection sparks start to kindle.  My year in review starts to rear it's ugly head and the tax season hovers.   After weeks of rolling the past months and many miles in my head, my inside voice asks........  are you tired yet?  Well, yes I am.  I have had my butt kicked on the road.  From West Palm Beach to Chicago and back.  Punching my way out of this paper bag I find myself in the garden or kitchen.  

Last night I invited friends and fellow gardeners Maggie and Justin over for dinner.  Maggie has been knee deep in farmers markets and gardens all year and I have been on the road.  We surface about the time the leaves start falling.  Maggie rolled through the door with beer, a big bowl of fresh mashed turnips, a bag of winter squash and splinted fingers.  We compare which joints are seized up while toasting over dinner. 

Prettiest apple pie ever....... gotta be that lard I rendered last month.

Cornbread, chili, and veggies!   Great night and fun to pound ideas back and forth.  

We are both trying to work smarter and not harder but boy that seems so illusive.  

Bottom line....... I am off the road.  I need to get through garden season this year and two more shows then roll my carcass to the compost pile until Spring!  We are both looking forward to winter.  

Got up this morning and needed to write letters and take a break.  Some of us go for facials while I chose to walk the beach with 30 mph winds.  Face sandblasted for free!  And the scenery was great! 

A south wind made the lake appear somewhat calm.  

I can only imagine what Ontario shores were experiencing! 

I guess it's where you're standing that matters and where you want to stand.

Loads of lucky stones on the beach this morning.  I left them on the beach as I think Lake Erie and Mother Nature need all the luck they can get.  

The beaches are full of smooth small wonderful stones; quartz, sandstone, flint, an occasional brick, glass; all worn smooth.  The waves beat the edges off, it's a constant beat down and pummeling......... I'm feeling pretty smooth myself these days. 

At the far end I ran into this guy, well past retirement on his way home with the catch of day.  He was beaming as he showed off a big walleye!  Caught it on a spinner in the early morning hours.  

My God I miss fishing......  going home to blow the dust off my equipment and hit the river, the steelhead are running.  There has not been one moment to cast a line this year....... it's time as I am crispy.  

The power of lake are footsteps away but the dunes and trees buffer the path.  

On the path it's quiet, the birds are singing in the calmness of this early morning windstorm. 

Yup, hanging on for dear life.  

Home is good, beyond is adventure.

The cottonwood greens are gone and the golds are on........ 

I need more walking this year.  

The agony of defeat.......

There are those times in life you want to crawl back into the groundhog hole of life ........ 

The dilemma of ceramics and commitments and taking orders and, and, and........ 

I was invited to participate in a teapot show, a national show.  

I love making teapots and these were teapots outside the box.  I got to play...... I love to play.  The gallery pitched a few ideas and I thought it might be a good idea and fun.  In hindsight and I am just brilliant in hindsight!  I probably would not have done this.   

The tea set below I sketched out last last year but never had time to make it. 

It made me laugh, it wasn't functional, it was a play on words; it was not what the gallery was looking for...... I made it anyway because it needed to be made.

"Spiked Drinking Leads to Fuzzy Thinking" 

The gallery had requested teapots with woven necks.  This is what I came up with.....

24 hours of weaving later, (that doesn't include making and glazing)  it was done at 3 a.m. in the morning.  I stood back bleary eyed and hated it.  I'm tired, it will be better in the morning.  The next morning it had not magically gotten better overnight. Where are those elves when you really really need them?   I walked around it for a week.  I put it on the counter in the kitchen.  I saw it everyday, I saw it at breakfast.  I saw it at dinner.  I saw it in the dark of morning running out the door.  It loomed and I lived with it.   The composition was off. The deadline came and went.  It's now in a dark corner, packed in black plastic, in a covered box buried under other boxes in the studio.  Alas, Spring will arrive, I will discover it when I clean out the studio, GASP......  and take a hammer to it.  I just can't do it now.   

The same gallery asked for two potters lunch boxes.  No problem!  Made 6 sets, chip carved and all.  The final glaze fire three cracked around the foot ring.  Never had that happen before.  The glaze was wonky too.  These got hammered immediately! 

Can't fix ugly.......  I think I have glazing angst.

and the kiln went down.........  God, I love gardening. 

Jack Frost is alive and well!

This is what October is supposed to look like! 

But alas this is what is looked like this morning! 

I hit the back door at dark-thirty this morning, on a run to let the chickens out as I had closed the coop tight, tight, tight, last night.  No more free wheel'n chickens.  I heard and felt the crunch under my feet when I hit the lawn..... is that frozen dog poop under my new blue crocs?  The stealth pooper has been at it again;  abort mission and dash over to the truck, scraping my finger nail over the window and my shoe on a rock.  

FROST!  

 Heavy enough my finger never hit the glass.  This was not supposed to happen last night.  Frost warnings were up and posted the night before but we got noth'n.  I happy danced yesterday morning and kissed my tomatoes.  So happy we lived close to the lake.

 Last night was supposed to be warmer, in fact much warmer.  I hate weather people....... they lie more than politicians!  I hear the weather guy over my shoulder as I type..... 45 degrees and the sun is coming up.  I look out my window; cloudy and frosty.  How much do they pay you, because I believe I've got change coming!

The chickens were not moving very fast this morning.  They tumbled down the gang plank, each waiting her turn.  Quiet chicken noises to start the day, love that!  I beat a hasty retreat to the house, abandoning my shoes at the edge of the patio and praying the coffee would be done.  

Hot coffee in hand, wool socks on bare cold feet, time to weave.......

Today; pots to trim, pots to weave, chicken coop to clean as rain starts tomorrow (hope that's a fairytale too!).  Recover any and all tomatoes, ripping the vines out and feeding the chickens all the leftover maters.  Compost pile is going to get a workout today....... and the gardener! 

Last night's dinner........  Stuffed Sugar Pumpkins!  

Here's the recipe......... 

1 part rice (cooked in chicken broth)
1 part black beans
1 part fresh corn kernels off the cob
1 part happy pig sausage sauté
 3 shallots sauté with sausage
 2 eggs
 1/2 cup 2% milk
2 teaspoons, 21 Seasonings Salute, trader joe's
 A good handful trader joe's Quattro Formaggio (Parmesan, asiago, fontina and mild provolone)

 Tossed it in bowl, mix. Stuff the pumpkins. Bake in a bain marie, (otherwise known as a pan of water, God I miss Julia) in a 400 degree oven for an hour or so depending on the size of your pumpkins

I served this with homemade chili sauce and it was delicious!   Oh and it tastes better on handmade plates thrown by your local potter    :) 

Next time I think I will try quiche' in a pumpkin or maybe chorizo sausage instead of breakfast sausage and salsa on the side.  My head could explode with all the combinations!

processing....... life

ALERT!

If you are a bit squeamish this might not be the post for you.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go back to Facebook.  

Saturday was an action packed day!  Woke up to grey rainy skies and blustery winds.  A day not for wimps and it was chicken processing day at Blue Pike Farm.  

Blue Pike Farm is at E.72nd and Sinclair in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  Carl, the chief gardener and chicken wrangler kicked off processing day at 7:30 a.m.  I rolled in around 8 a.m. and to my surprise there was a good group of intrepid souls ready to take responsibility for their food.  Processing had started and I found my place on the plucking table quickly.  

Other people trickled in throughout the morning.  I was very curious how this would be viewed by this pack of omnivores.  My experience over the past several weeks after sharing what I would be doing this Saturday was shock and horror.  I had one or two positive comments but the majority of my meat eating friends were just disgusted.  I worked diligently to take responsibility for my food over the last few years and if you're going to eat meat this is part of it.  We are still not eating beef....... 

I quickly found these young educated, intelligent, passionate people were on the same journey I was on.  Looking around at this group while waiting for the first chicken to bleed out I had to ask;  Has anybody killed a chicken before?  One hand shot up, Dawn!  So the rest of you guys are virgins?  Yup....  and I asked each one why they were there.  The answers were refreshing!  One kid said;  I live in the suburbs, I eat chicken and where else could I experience this; my parents think I am nuts". 

 I found myself laughing as two girls on the evisceration table had been through anatomy class and this was hands on.  "Oh look this is the gizzard!"  It was dissected and determined this particular bird had a very good life with very healthy internal organs and a nice layer of fat.  All harvested to be used later, even feet were saved for soup.  Every part of these 58 birds would be put to use in one way or another, nothing was wasted. 

The other part of the process that made this a bit easier, other chickens looked on.  All morning we had birds around our feet, sitting on the table, clucking, carrying feathers off.  They were unperturbed by the entire process.  We talked about that, a lot!  Well if they aren't upset Fred just bit dust I guess we should be ok with it.  Right?  

Carl has managed to raise 120 chickens on his 2 acre urban lot.  He supplies 40+ CSA's fresh fruit and veggies, eggs and honey from this urban plot.  The chickens fertilize, scratch up the soil, consume massive amounts of bugs and dropped produce, and they make a lot of chicken music.  Carl also maintains bee hives to pollinate the fields.  

The first part of the process.   

This is the most humane way to kill the chickens.  If you want to read more about why, I would suggest this website;  Razor Family Farms.  

After the bird is dead it is scalded in a pot of water at 145 F. to loosen all the feathers.

Brought over to the plucking table it took more than a few minutes to pluck a bird.

After plucking, the still warm bird was taken to the evisceration table. 

The weather was cold and windy and one girl said;  I can't believe I am going to look forward to sticking my hand in this warm bird but I am as she pulled the entrails from the carcass.  The liver, gizzard, neck and heart were separated and saved.   Lungs, intestines and others stuff was put in another bucket. 

Notice the book with step by step instructions.  

Hosing down and cleaning off the tables after each bird was processed.

Dawn bagged and popped them in the fridge.  Done! 

One woman from the neighborhood was so happy with Blue Pike Farm she stopped by to purchase two fresh chickens and left her change!  Another woman stopped by to see the process, although fascinated, was not ready to jump in.  She too was very supportive of the process and Blue Pike Farm.  

I had to be home by noon and said good bye to new friends and Carl.  Carl gave me a wonderful jar of wildflower honey for my trip.  It was wonderful on hot cornbread.  I ran home showered and changed but still smelled wet feathers...... an aroma that isn't unpleasant but not sure I want to go to Don Drumm's opening smelling like wet dead chicken.  Back in the shower and scrub again.  Second trip through I passed the smell test.  In the car by 1:00 pm and off to Akron.  

FANTASTIC!  The show is a wonderful marriage of work.  When I dropped worked off I really questioned how all these mediums would go together, but they do!  The show is named perfectly; "Out of Our Minds".  It fits!  Butch and I wandered the nooks and crannies of Drumm's gallery.  It was my second trip through and it still felt like a treasure hunt.  The place is really worth the trip!  

Back in the car, stop at the house to check on the dog, throw a fruit and cheese plate together and run down to the sailing club for the end of the year clam bake.  I passed on the chicken....... 

What a day!  

Breakfast.... two aspirin please!

In an effort to sort things out, as my brain seems to be on overload these days, I decided I needed to get out of the studio.  Well not completely, managed to load a bisque kiln and have it going up by 9 a.m.  Mop up the studio and walk the garden deciding what needed yanked first.  Last year I let things go to over winter........ big mistake!  With the mild winter I had more bad bugs than I have ever seen and they seemed to like everything I planted.  Flea beetles were crazy this year!  This fall everything is gone!  Off to the compost pile, soil turned and compost added.  

Pulled up the miles of soaker hose and pins, now safely put away with the other garden hoses.  All the straw and paper mulch (which saved the garden in the heat this year)  was dumped in the way back next to the compost.  Today I will go over it with the mulching mower, chopping fine then tossing it in the pile to be magically changed to dirt by microbes and time.  Chopping really speeds things up and one never has enough compost! 

The past two days have been down right balmy.  All that fresh amended dirt, I tossed radish and lettuce seeds in.  It's really late but thought if I can get them to germinate a lovely poly tunnel will go over the top.  My winter experiment to see if we can have fresh salads this winter.

Dug this garden out by the light of the moon.... Nasturisums are finally looking perky.  

Compost pile is getting smaller........  Since the chickens have arrived this stuff is nuclear!  I made a sifter that fits over my wheel barrow.  Sifting every couple shovels full the wheel barrow fills fast.  

Half of the tomatoes that are not going to ripen ...... green tomato relish for some, others will be wrapped in newspaper and tucked away in a straw bed to ripen slowly.  Hoping to eat the last tomato for Christmas dinner.

Finally sitting down at the end of the day, I look down and realize it's been a good day.  This is a good tired.  A dog by my feet, dirty jeans with mud and clay, my belly full of tomato sandwiches on homemade bread.  The cranky's of yesterday are gone and high garden satisfaction has set in.  Too much time in the studio makes me go off the rails.  Too much anything makes me go off the rails. 

Once again........ balance.  

And the geese are flying!  

We are on the Mississippi Flyway, the sky is like Grand Central station at rush hour this time of the year.  I leave the windows open at night as they say good bye...... safe travels I breath out as I fall asleep....... yup, been a good day.