Our Lake

The weather is warming up and that means trips to see our lake.  The family went one evening together and we found more beach glass in that one trip then I have collected so far living here.  Spring is awesome.  My youngest and I did not want to leave but since we have a pair of teens in the house who are not into just sifting through rocks at the beach we had to leave. So the next day I took the youngest back out just the two of us.  It was a glorious day, it was 73 when we left town but as we pulled up to the shore the temperature plummeted to 53.  The sand was warm and so were the rocks so it wasn't to bad in shorts. 

We look forward to many days out at the lake this year.

My hands

My hands a photo series about the things I do.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

In the studio

I've been playing around with an idea and really feel good about these trays.

I hope they make it through the firings. Today I had to destroy two pieces due it plaster contamination in the clay body.

I've gotten the home studio painted and now we are moving on to wheel repair. I see a trip to buy clay in our future.

Spring!

It's melting!!!

The garden spots are melted and now I need to determine whether to go ahead and plant (we are behind on the planting calendar) or if we should expand the beds. There are only three little ones. We got out the BBQ and used it twice this week. The first time I had to walk on 8 inches of snow to get out to it, slipping and sliding. We are so happy Spring is here.

Project

I think spring is finally on the way!
We have 60's forecasted for the next three days.
That means projects galore!
Plastic coming off windows. Windows flung open, even though it's hardly 50 degree's! Furniture re- arranged for summer breezes. Luckily for me it means a remodel of our upstairs kitchen into a clay studio.

I love that door, it really needs to be red though.

So since I'm not very good at before pictures here goes. There is a little work that has to be done on the actual room. So ceiling patching and painting. Besides that I need the ahem weather to cooperate so I can dig out my pottery wheel out of the shed. That is going to need some loving because it is currently in pieces. Then I will have to make the call to order clay myself and pay the astronomical shipping (ever try shipping 500 pounds of something?) or driving the six hours to pick up the order and the family having fun on the way. That would mean it would actually cost more to get the clay home but be way more fun!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Spring?

Our baby tomatoes are looking good! We just transplanted them into bigger pots and very soon I will have to raise the lights over them.  The Cabbage also looks awesome, lettuce and kale not so much. We learned not try to start seeds in toilet paper tubes.  They all looked sickly and I threw them away. I am itching to get going in the garden, which has a LOT of work left just to get it ready for planting. Like building a new raised bed and clearing rocks to make new beds.  None of which can be done because we still have over three feet of snow in the garden!  

It did melt enough that we found the peach tree!  It had be covered by snow for about a month.  It is leaning over quite a bit so my Youngest helped it out a little to stand more upright.  It already has some little buds on it.  Come on Spring!

Instead this is what we get today. More snow, giant, fluffy, pretty flakes! It snowed four more inches this weekend and so far today we have two more. Our forecast isn't promising either. Out of the 10 day forecast 5 of those include snow and not a single temperature over 40. Hard to believe my Love with be on summer break in five weeks.

Week of slow thaw

slowly...

very slowly...

It has been a slow week for everything around here. We had several doctor's appointments, some great news, some still pending. We are slowly trying to find our rhythm, as we seem out of sorts. We are all tired of the snow, but truly excited about little patches of grass and rocks that are emerging from the banks. Our indoor/outdoor cat Sokka has determined Spring should be here but there is snow to foil him every time he tries to go out.

Still winter

As much as the lingering sunlight in the evening tells us it's Spring, the feet and feet of snow on the ground remind us it's very much still winter.

We saw a patch of our actual driveway this week. This very slow gradual melting has caused us a few problems. The ground is hard enough that the dogs can now stand on the top of the snowbanks and launch themselves over the fence.

The 2 feet of snow above our mudroom roof is melting and dripping into the mudroom. This was fixed quickly by removing snow on the roof.

We are all starting to get antsy to see the sun and feel it's warmth. The thought of sitting on the porch sipping coffee in the morning fills me with so much anticipation. It will need to be at least 20 degrees warmer for that to happen.

Dogs escape

I said last week we needed to keep a path cleared in the dog yard. Well then all the snow blew around and I did dig out a little path and the dog door but I did not expect the back part of the yard to fill in overnight with blowing snow. Usually the snow is so powdery that the dogs don't venture out on top.

Who wants to walk in snow that goes over your head?  Well they must have been feeling courageous and found the six inches left of the six foot fence was not enough to hold them back.  I'm sure it helped that they were outside when the mailman was making his rounds.  We found them both moments after their escape one sitting on the front porch barking, the other on the back.

So out we went to fix the situation. I tried to get all the kids out to help but the older ones pointed out that we currently only have two shovels since one was lost months ago in the snow.

 

  So my youngest helped as always.  Between the two of us we got the perimeter cleared in an hour.  He loves any chance he can get to work on the roof of the shed.  He was practicing his action movie stunts by jumping off the roof into a roll onto the snow below.  He's getting quite good.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Clay Studio

I have been spending my mornings in such a creative whirlwind lately.  Most of it is just in my mind as I watch the snow outside.  I feel like I need to be up and  making before the kids are awake.  Since I am using the Clay Co-Op for my studio that is not going to happen.  So instead there is planning, lots of planning going on.

 

I love this layout, very simple, small and efficient. This would fit in our upstairs kitchen perfectly.

This is totally how we are going to fix up the sink because you don't want pounds of liquid clay running down your sink.

Now for the roadblocks. We live in the middle of nowhere.  It takes a lot of money to have clay shipped to me.  It doubles the price of it because let's face it, clay is heavy and it usually has to come by big truck.  So that means driving somewhere to pick it up (6 hours away) or finding someone locally who is buying clay and becoming their bestest buddy. 

The next issue is that while I do own a wheel and a kiln both are in my shed which is snowed in to the roof. Plus they are both in pieces. The wheel I took apart a few years ago to "fix" and it's still in pieces. The kiln didn't make the move well and has a cracked lid and some broken elements. Both can be fixed. Then I need some power to the kiln and it won't be living in the house so that needs to be wired in our mudroom.

So this is what I do instead, plan, and wait for spring.

Ski school

 

This year our kids participated in ski school at the local ski hill. The boys both chose to snowboard. Our daughter chose to learn how to ski. I chose to knit.

It was a great program that lasted eight weeks and by the end of it they were all skiing and snowboarding much better than my husband and I ever have.

Most importantly all three of them have developed a passion for it. I see lots of knitting in my future next year.

Lesson learned

This week we learned that we need to keep the path dug out to the shed OR we need to build a door from the house to the shed. My love and I both want things out of the shed. I want my pottery wheel which lay in pieces to fix and my Love wants his chop saw to cut trim. My man even tried to dig out the shed the other day. He made some steps up in the snow because it is 3 or more feet up from the walk to the snowpack top. Then he pounded down a path for the saw to travel once freed. Then he started digging. The shed is buried. There is about six feet in front of it. Some is from drifts from a recent blizzard, some from the roof of the shed being shoveled off. He got about 3 feet down but alas he still had 3 feet to go. So we will just have to wait for spring to melt the snow away. Of coarse the forecast for the next two days? Snow. Up to two feet more.

First Snow

We have been waiting for it.  The first snow.  The leaves have all been shed or at least are brown now and we have been waiting for the next big thing.  Around here that is snow, snow, snow.


It snowed pretty hard while my daughter and I were running errands. Then it melted.  Then it snowed again. Now it's melted.



At least the cat has prepared.

He has went from being the non stop outside cat, to the laying around on the couch all day cat in a matter of days.
Winter is almost here.  We are all ready.

Clay

We have a wonderful Community Arts Center and they have a clay studio that is open to members to use in a co-op capacity.  After spending that last month, rearranging, test firing a kiln and other housekeeping things, I finally got to make pots. Bowls.  My stock at home has been broken.


 So while the children were sleeping this weekend I slipped up to the studio to start a glaze fire in the kiln and after struggling with our clay all week I finally got some bowls made. 



Since the room was so warm from firing the kiln I was able to trim them the same day.  Always a bonus.  My favorite days as an undergraduate were those warm Kansas Spring Days when I could throw, put the pot out in the sunshine and a few hours later trim them.



My partner in clay.  He comes with me whenever he can. I am teaching him everything I know.  He helps load the kilns, unload the kilns, checks the cone pads, how to throw, slab build.  If there is one thing I can imprint upon my children it is everything I know about clay, and while it's not that much, it's enough to get them started if they choose.

Getting lost...

I have a favorite passion.  I have had this since I was late teen and early twenties.  I love dirt roads.  I want to know where they go and often drive down them just to find out.  When we heard there was a dirt road close to home that has amazing trees we had to go.  It did not disappoint.  One of the best roads I've headed down, although later on our trip we headed down many other dirt roads and were lost, but we also "found" some great places we didn't know existed.

Autumn

Our Autumns are beautiful.  I have only lived one other place with beautiful autumns and that place had mountains and aspens.  I think this little piece of earth puts on a better show.

We filed into the car and went driving.  Our goal was to capture the fall and see our big lake.  I can not explain my love for the big lake but the moment I see it, all in my soul is set right.


 
















Mission accomplished.