New Tractor in the Woods

Today the implement company delivered our new to us 2004 New Holland tractor - we will try it out for a few days and make sure it will do the tasks we need it to do. Darling hubby is so excited, he is going to take tomorrow off so he can get some things done. :-) The old Oliver was just getting too fragile, and whatever is the matter with it now seemed like it was going to require a major overhaul, so we are experimenting with moving the farm into the 21st century.... Having a tractor payment makes it even more important to make the farm self-supporting and sustainable. One possibility is growing more fruit - the blueberries and raspberry crops this year have been great, due to the lack of a hard late frost and all the moisture. The apple trees are doing well too. I've been looking at various schemes for intensive fruit management but if it worked so well, how come more people don't do it?

Wholeness Unfolding in the World

Here's an except from an interview the mystic architect, Christopher Alexander, did with Tricycle Magazine a while ago.... "In the grass there were a very small number of flowers, rather sparse. I think there was one blue flower and a few white flowers, but mainly it was grass. I was lying there looking at this, and the perfection of it gradually began to impress itself on me. There was a faint sense of light in each of the bits of grass. It wasn’t a revelation in any literal sense, and yet as I was looking through these grass stems, myself almost part of the grass, suddenly the thought came to me, So this is what you’re trying to do! What the grass does: it is effortlessly creating a beautiful and complex environment. And it isn’t just capable of it, but it is doing it, everywhere, and every day, and so easily. I was comforted, because the grass found it so easy. So there’s nothing for me to worry about at all. Even if I fail in my lifetime, it is so obvious. Surely people will understand it sooner or later. Alexander's 15 Universal Design Properties 01 Levels of Scale (a range of sizes) 02 Strong Centers 03 Boundaries 04 Alternating Repetition 05 Positive Space (no leftover bits) 06 Good Shape (e.g., well-proportioned fans, circles, squares) 07 Local Symmetries 08 Deep Interlock and Ambiguity 09 Contrast 10 Gradients (gradual changes in size, fine lines) 11 Roughness 12 Echoes 13 The Void 14 Simplicity and Inner Calm 15 Non-Separateness" Great stuff!

August in the Woods...

Wow, I can't believe it is so long since I have been here. The summer has been really busy. We went to Wyoming for 10 days in May. In June I taught some week long art classes to kids, which I hadn't done before, so this required some preparations ahead of time and evaluation afterwards. Then there was an intense summer retreat two weeks ago. Now I feel like I need to get very organized and catch up on all the things there are to do around the place. It is a little overwhelming, actually. On my way back from turning the ponies (who are bored and need to be worked) out this morning I checked the vineyard for grapes.

The previous owner planted a few grapes in a poor location, lower on a little slope, with lots of trees around so the air is pretty still and the vines only get sun for 7 or 8 hours. The vines were overgrown, with lots of oak saplings coming up in the row, and weeds, and part of the supports were broken so the vines hung on the ground. In February, I pruned back the vines unmercifully, and have whacked back the little saplings and weeds a couple times since the growing season started. Now, it looks like my efforts have paid off to some extent. In previous years, the little grapes all got some sort of fungus - they started to form up, and then turned brown and looked like little raisins without ever make grapes. Today I see the vines now have many clusters of nice fat grapes, and many of the clusters show no sign of disease! They are hard and green and the size of small marbles - hopefully they will be able to ripen so we can eat them. I don't know what sort of grapes they are. But it is exciting to see. Now I will do some in house chores - folding laundry, and then go out and weed the garden some. I love summer.

Cherry Blossoms and Sore Throats

I just couldn't make myself go to the Buddhist services yesterday morning, and it is probably just as well, my throat was sore yesterday, and this morning it is very sore and I have nasty laryngitis - I squeak instead of my normal voice. Very odd - I usually pick bugs up from my students, but I didn't notice anyone in class with these symptoms. There were lots of absences but I chalked that up to end of the semester spring fever. Oh, well, it is 63 degrees outside right now, and the cherry trees are blooming, and the peach tree's big pink buds are going to unfurl any second now, and the apple trees have smaller buds just starting...spring is well on it's way. Today, grocery shopping, finish writing the Social Psychology test for tomorrow, paint the beehive parts that need painting, and work on the garden. The vet is coming this afternoon to give the ponies their vaccinations against West Nile and rabies, and then the farrier later to give them a manicure. Then, more work on the garden. Going to plant lots of vegetables and herbs this year. The last two years, my gardening efforts got stalled by too much stuff going on at the end of the semester. This semester, much fewer demands on my time. So, weird that I am sick. Left over conditioning from all those years being a student where the end of each semester had to be a crisis. But, no more.

Bedo's Really Good Granola

I want to put this here so that I can find the recipe next time I want to make it... Bedo's Really Good Granola 4 C. rough cut whole oats 1.5 C. barley flakes 1.5 C. rye flakes .75 C. oat bran .25 C. flax seed 1 C. pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) .5 C. salted hulled sunflower seeds 1 C. slivered almonds .5 C. butter .5 C. olive oil 1 C. maple syrup 1 tsp. vanilla .5 tsp. almond extract 1 C. dried cherries 1 C. yellow raisins butter or olive oil to grease 2 cookie sheets Grease two large cookie sheets with butter or olive oil. Preheat oven to 275 degrees (electric) or 250 degrees (gas). Combine all grains and seeds in very large bowl and mix well. Combine butter, maple syrup, and flavorings in small pan and heat gently until butter is just melted. Do not boil. Pour liquid over seeds and grains, mix well. Divide evenly between the two cookies sheets. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring mixture and turning pans once or twice to be sure it all gets evenly heated and cooked. After 30 minutes, turn off heat and let sit in cooling oven for 30 more minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely. Mix in dried cherries and raisins, and store in airtight container. Excellent eating out of hand or with milk or yogurt. To make trail mix, add M&Ms or semi-sweet chocolate chips!

Weekend Chores, what fun!

Hubby went off to Tillers International to help with a timber frame barn raising - he wants to learn details of how to put up a timber frame building, and talk to their timber frame architect, since we are going to put up some timber frame buildings here and we want to do it right. This is a great organization! I am staying home to do some of the backlog of chores there are around here, according to this little ditty (sung to your tune of choice): What's the Most Important Thing? There are lots of things to do. So do the most important thing, That would be sustainable, And profitable, And fun, too! Chorus: Finish what you start. Fix what's broken. Make routine chores Efficient and fun! If it's not sustainable, If it's not profitable, If it's not fun - Is it really worth doing? Really! What's the most important thing? Chorus: Finish what you start. Fix what's broken. Make routine chores Efficient and fun! The first most important thing is to get off the internet and do a recycling run to our local recycling center. :-)

Social Psych Class wrapping up...

The Social Psychology students finished presenting their research findings today. Several of them got interesting data. Most of them learned that getting data that is analyzable requires more thought that just writing down the first 8 questions that come to mind and asking some people in the lobby those questions. Some of them had the opportunity to discover that other people really hold different opinions than they themselves do. But, they worked very hard, and most seemed pleased to have actually accomplished such a complex task. One young woman handed in the best paper I have been given in the 5 years I have been working at this college. I will use it as the example for future classes. I feel very proud of them.

Summer projects

This summer I will teach some one week pottery classes to middle school kids at a nice non-profit called the Chelsea Center for the Arts near by. We will make garden pots a couple of times - toad houses, stepping stone tiles, sundials, etc. One session will be wall hangings, where the kids will make several tiles with a theme, and connect them together with string or wire after they are fired to make wall hangings and mobiles. The gallery associated with the Center is displaying all the instructors work, so I took some pots over there. Only have a picture of one of them... but it is one of my favorite pots I've made lately. The director of the gallery admired my work and invited me to bring in some more. An excuse to get busy in the studio with some of my own work for a change! Yay! I think I'll start with making a toad house like I'll have the kids do - hopefully that will attract some students' mommies...

The Joy of Pottery

Here is a two figure work by one of the advanced students, that came out of the kiln on Sunday. These are about 18 inches tall, quite impressive in person. It is such a delight to have the kiln working - the students are applying themselves with gusto to finishing up their projects. It is a pleasure to watch them moving confidently about the studio, designing and producing works with a sense of control most of them did not believe they would acquire at the beginning of the semester.

Catching up !

The kiln is fixed, so I am firing it every other day to give the students a chance to finish up their ware before the end of the semester. Maple syrup is all made, as well. Now I will sell it to my friends, and donate half the proceeds to my favorite charity, Vision Builders, which promotes and provides health care and gender equality in education to children in the developing world, and well as cultural and environmental preservation projects in the areas where we are working with children. Vision Builders is doing a 5K race in a couple of weeks, which is what the little donation link over there is. Give money, or if you are in the area, come and run in the race, which gets rave reviews from participants. Moving on, time to think about getting ready for my bees and planting the garden, although today we are having major rain, so what I will actually do is grade a bunch of school papers and clean the house.

Kiln Problems

I'll give an update on the ceramics studio here. The students glazed all the lovely bisque ware that came out of the kiln, but when I did a glaze firing two weeks ago, the pieces came under-fired. We have been running the kiln in the old studio based on the electronic readings, but this time, the electronic review said the kiln had attained 2232 degrees, when it was obvious that many of the pots in the bottom of the kiln had not gotten anywhere close to that temperature. I ordered some standard Orton indicator cones, and we reran the glaze kiln with indicator cones at each blowhole. I started the kiln early last Thursday, and was able to monitor it's progress. The upper element did heat up, but the lower element initially didn't heat up at all. When the electronic read-out said the kiln had reached 1200 degrees, then the lower element came on and heated up very rapidly, causing a couple pieces on the bottom shelf to pop when the kiln reached around 1350 degrees. I heard them go. The next day, when the student worker unloaded the kiln, the indicator cones were not deformed at all. The kiln had not even heated up to Cone 4. This is very disappointing for the students, who are eager to see their finished work. It would appear that the electronics in the kiln are malfunctioning - the temperature sensor appears to be very mis-calibrated, and the programing that is supposed to turn the different elements on and regulate how much current is run to each element is also not working correctly. My supervisor is making arrangement to have someone from Runyon Clay, where the kiln was purchased, come down and work on it. This kiln is at least 10 years old, and is apparently damaged in the move from the old studio to the new - it just got shook up, I guess. Always something. Spring break is next week for our little college, so I am having the students do mini-critiques for their midterm grade. They will present me with their two best pieces, and we will evaluate concept, technique and product for each piece. This will be fun for me, but stressful for the students, I suppose.

Maple Sugaring Frozen Out!

My husband completed construction on our new sugaring stove. It works great! He is so talented, I just love him. We have collected a total of 39 gallons of sap. We boiled most of that on Saturday, and have it concentrated down to about 3 gallons. When I finish boiling this down, I should get just under a gallon of syrup. But now, we are back the Michigan deep freeze of late winter, and no new sap has flowed for several days. It is 7 degrees outside right now. Brr. The trees need sunny daytime temperatures of close to 40 degrees, and nighttime temperatures in the high 20's to make good sap flow. Once it warms up enough so it stops freezing at night, the trees start to make their leaves. Syrup made from budding sap tastes bitter, so once it is consistently above freezing at night, that is the end of the sugaring season. I'll post a picture of the set up we have the next time we fire it up. Collecting and cutting up the wood to burn in the stove is the hardest and most time consuming part of the whole process. We have lots of fuel wood in our woodlot, but getting it from where it lies to where we need it to be is a lot of work.

Maple Sugaring Time!!

Over the weekend it was 49 degrees here - quite a contrast to just a week ago. 40 degree days in the spring is when the sap starts flowing, so we tapped one of our sugar maple trees - the sugaring season has officially begun! Now, I need to find the rest of the taps - I apparently washed up a bunch of them last year and put them somewhere for safekeeping other than along with all the other maple sugar supplies... But, my husband has procrastinated a little bit on our planned boiler upgrade, so once again, we have stumbled into the sugar season, eager but slightly behind. :-) He'll get the stove functioning by this next weekend, and I'll tap a bunch of trees on Wednesday, so we will have a good supply of sap to boil next Saturday. Last year we made 6 gallons of syrup. This year, we hope to double that, and hold a little pancake breakfast sometime in March for our friends and neighbors to raise some money for one of our favorite charities. Well, but, for today, back to thinking about the studio and that kiln that needs to be unloaded!

The First Bisque Firing in the new Studio!

Well, I've opened up the kiln, and this is what I see ....no apparent explosions, no nasty cracks, just a slew of nicely baked pots, now waiting to be finished with slips, glazes and student imagination, and then run through the glaze firing. Delightful!

The Studio is coming together

Here is a pic of the new studio, showing the slab roller, the student work tables, and the door into the kiln and ware storage area. I'm so pleased at how it has finally started to come together! I have a great batch of students this semester - 16 in each class, one overload each but it still isn't too cramped. And they are all working well together. Some of them are already pretty focused potters, and I have one man auditing the class who is quite an accomplished sculptor. All in all, it makes it pleasant to get up in the morning, looking forward to the delightful things I get to do.

Start of the new Semester

Haven't posted here in a while, but the semester is now underway! I am about 93% moved into the new studio, and have held two classes already. YaY! And now, I need to get ready for the class that meets in just a few minutes. I love the beginning of each new semester - so many possibilities!