Cooked!

Hmm. This is not good. Lucky for me, I've got a new kiln ordered. I fired my (only) old L&L kiln about a week ago when I did a glaze test. It worked fine. Then I did a bisque fire and it seemed to work fine, again. I loaded it up with 22 spoon bowls and it did not work fine. I'm thinking it got to around cone 4 before I shut it off. It was taking too long, and I didn't want my bowls to melt into puddles, or worse, completely fry the kiln. SO, this is what we found this morning after it had cooled off. Not good.



Lucky for me again, Brian is an above-novice electrician, and he is down there right now, hardwiring the bottom ring, as the plug is nice and cooked. The bowls look ok, but they didn't gloss like they should, so I'm going to refire them once the kiln is fixed and cross my fingers for gloss.

The new kiln should be here in the next week or two. :D

*BIG SIGH*

Harvest is done!!! ..hence the big sigh... Here are some photos from the event, in no particular order. :)

Left to right: Tyler, Allison, Danny, Gabber, and Russ.



Left to right: Tyler, Allison, Danny, Me, Gabster.



Left to right: Apple, Matt, Tyler, Gabster.



In the truck: Allison, Gabber and Russ (driving).



Russ, drivin' it like he stole it. :)



Big sleepy truck.



Big sleepy machines.



The 'right' way to unload trucks. This pile will hold 2 million bushels of corn. 2 MILLION.


Probably within the next month, they'll 'pick' this pile up and move all the corn to indoor storage, put it on a train for Mexico, or take it to the ethanol plant.



Rearview corn loading.



Loading corn at night on the road...



again, on the road. in the dark...



So, that's about it for harvest. We have our celebration dinner/party thing sometime soon. We need to wait for Kevin to come back. He's in northwest Iowa helping his Dad, who still has about 800 acres to go. A local farmer asked us a few days ago if we wanted to do custom harvesting, but in the end he decided it would be too expensive.

I'm going to call FC today and see if they need trucks. First, though, I have some planned batcave time. I'm behind, sort of, and there is a secret giraffe project that I need to finish up and get shipped. Also, I mixed a bunch of glazes a week ago that I need to get on some pieces and do a test firing. So much to do! Here I go.........................

Oh, and P.S. Here's Midgy. She has nothing to do with harvest, but I turned up the heater this morning and she found a spot on top of the heat vent.

Save a giraffe, drink chocolate milk!

So my ultra-creative friend Gary says to me "Hey, wanna do a Christmas trade?" Why yes, yes I do. He sends me an email, saying that it's gotta fit in a shoe box, and I'm a smarty pants, so I say "Who's shoe box? I wear size 9's"... well, then we made one more rule... Giraffes. I love giraffes, so the shoe-box size piece has to have a giraffe on it or a giraffe theme. I get a box in the mail day before yesterday, and I open it yesterday to find a lovely custom Gary Rith mug. Giraffe and all... here's how I saved the giraffe, who I've named Ginny. :)

Ginny and Penny posing together.


Mmm... chocolate milk.


Thank you thank you thank you thank you!




Ginny is safe. She did not drown in the chocolate milk. I saved her. Thanks, Gary!!! :)

Drywall extravaganza!

It's just about that exciting. Getting drywall in Shelby's room is as much fun for me as it was for Brian to get a concrete floor in the shop. I am SO tired of insulation dust, and we've lived here for 5 years, so it's about time. I was going to post photos last night, but I got roped into watching Dracula. Brian insisted on a scary movie for Halloween, and I wasn't watching any of those movies where some 'thing' slaughters half a town.... so I got Dracula. It wasn't bad, just cheesy at times. So, here's the drywall progress. Brian helped Elmer, because Elmer knows what he's doing. He'll be back in about an hour so they can finish putting it up, then Elmer will do the mudding/taping/spraying. Then I get to paint it. :)

Lights!








Yum. Dinner and Dracula. :)


Creeptacular. >:)


Happy Halloween!

Where would I be without a plan?

LOST! I'm not kidding. There are those people that can just mosey along, plan-less, and do just fine. I don't know what my deal is. Whatever the reason, I require a plan. Here's the breakdown of the next few months, for anyone who might be interested. :)

Today until Early December: Pottery when the time is available, get all Chrismas presents thrown/assembled and as many glazes/decorated as I can. Work when the goofy weather cooperates. Seriously, the rain is out of control. We NEED to be out in the fields, but it's raining. Again. Harvest SHOULD be over the first week or two of December.

December 9th-14th: Marti Mae comes to visit! I hope my new kiln is here, and maybe even wired up. We could do a glaze fire! We have plans to visit AKAR in Iowa City plus half a dozen other interesting places along the way. Also, we're going to work on some lunch/dinner ideas for Tuscarora next year so Mama Mixer doesn't have to do ALL the cooking.

Early December to January 9th: I don't expect to be trucking during this time. That is bad-road weather, and we have all agreed that keeping the trucks off the salt/ice roads is a good idea. This time slot, however, will be for show prep. I fully intend to do a 'big' show in February, and I have SO MUCH work to produce for a three day show. I still need to get my booth put together.. doing a show is more work than what it looks like... :)

January 9th to January 18th: Reno! I'm going to Reno to visit friends and take a little side trip to Tuscarora to play in the snow with those friends. I'm seriously considering taking Amtrak. Flying stinks, driving in winter stinks, and taking the bus is a scary scary idea. The train is fun, and affordable compared to airfare.

January 18th to February 26th: Prep for the show at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. I bought that monster kiln, now I'm going to try to get it to pay for itself. This is a Callahan Promotions craft show. It's held in the Varied Industries Building. Mom and I went to a recent craft show, held by the same promoter, and it had TWO potters. TWO! I don't know if it was a show, or if it's a regional thing, but there are just not enough potters at these shows.

February 26, 27, 28: Craft show! :)

February 29th to ???: I don't know.. that's where the plan-o-meter runs out. Any ideas? Chances are good that the weather will start to straighten up and I'll be back hauling for the co-ops.

TOMORROW: Special orders, bisque firing, and glaze mixing! F.U.N!