Pottery, Knitting, Photography, Reading, Nervous

These are just some test shots of my daughters pottery. I know the above shot is too dark and oddly staged but I have been thinking about presentation for commercial purposes ever since seeing some of her fellow students work-studio shots that highlight only the object. I think they look good and the objects are beautiful but if I were the client, I'd want to get a sense of where these pieces might fit in my life.  I am working this out because my daughter has asked me to help her create  some displays and advertising. Whats a graphic designer mom for after all?

These are just ideas. Nothing set in stone just yet. Normally, I would actually just draw thumbnails. I will be doing that soon too.

My sweater has already progressed to the sleeves-one down since the above shot. I find that the whole patternless thing is a breeze since the stitches are so simple but I can see how it would be a great headache if for example, I wanted to knit in lace. I want to knit in lace of course. Next time. That cup in the background was a Japanese tea cup experiment.  I like its weight very much and its rather nice to not use a handle sometimes. Beautiful glazing. 

Another shot that was not blurry until I uploaded it. Garry knows how to set the camera in such a way that it will take good shots and I don't mean that he sets it to auto. I have to have him reset it I think.  That blue cup is by far my favorite because it is very tactile. Infact, my daughters work is amazingly tactile, some of it being so centered that it feels like a meditation to hold the object. This is true of some sculptures of hers as sell as coffee and tea mugs. 

We will use that aspect in the concept. The above cup is worthy of reproducing. I have commissioned her to make a set for me along with some plates or soup bowls.  We found a local kiln but are now looking for a potters wheel for her. 

The books you see there are what I have been  referring to lately. Field of Greens by Ann Somerville is a vegetarian cookbook. I used to keep it checked out of the library for months at a time in Chicago then finally decided to just buy it. Its an excellent book for using seasonal produce in spring and summer and keeping things interesting in winter.

The Handmade Soapbook by Melinda Cross is a pretty book with some basic information and really neat looking food based recipes. Its also  the only book I own that has a 100 percent pure tallow soap recipe. I have looked online too and everybody adds another oil to tallow. I don't want to do that. I want to learn to make soap with what I have around or have obtained locally or in fact just not wanting to waste the part of the cow that most toss out. 

I had to go get blood work yesterday due to some serious bruising on my legs (not bumping myself) and on my belly (the injections are leaving silver  dollar sized bruises). My blood thinners are to blame but so far I don't know anything. I also thought I had a bladder infection. I'd of appreciated a call back from the doctors yesterday but it took the nurse hours to find one of them after I called. I of course am upset about that. 

I am expecting to not feel well all the time but the biggest terror for me is to end up back in the oncology ward. I didn't say so before I don't think, but that is one terrible place. 

No Chickens For Molly!

Molly spent the first few days after we got chickens sitting at this window whining. I finally gave her a bone to distract her and that seemed to work well.
We finally tied her up outside and let the chickens roam. They are smart enough to not come the close to her but we are watching. She thinks we are not watching though.

She barks to notify us that we are being invaded. We then let her know she did good. After that she sits at attention outside until the chickens go back to the barn.

We will never let her roam free because we live by a busy road. The chickens seem to not know there is a road just yet. Dalai Llama seems to have finally accepted that chicken mash is not his daily crack (he has his own grain treat we feed him) so is less jealous right now.

We very nearly had an animal uprising here over these chickens-our very own Animal Farm. We will continue to keep an eye on Molly and try to train her to leave the birds alone but Jasmine and I are designing an enclosure  for the chooks. I don't think free range right now is safe enough and though the hens are really happy this way, its been pretty stressful for us with Molly acting up and us worrying about her eating one.

Independence Day Challenge for April/ May

Judy over at My Freezer is Full posted her IDC which reminds me of my own....
This was not all done by me and as the title suggests, it was over a long period of time.if interested in the challenge, head over to Sharon Astyks site. In years past, anybody could jump in whenever they felt like joining- no deadlines. I assume it's still like that...feel free to ask over there.

Plant Something: carrots, lettuce,kale, Swiss chard, sunflower, okra, long beans, daikon, several type tomatoes, zuchinni, more rhaspberry, spinach, eggplant,, beets, bok choy, cilantro, cucumber, ground cherry,potato.
Herbs: basil, lemon and orange thyme, oregano, chives, nasturtium, lavender, borage, peppermint, chocolate mint, sorrel, bee balm, anise hyssop, chamomile, tarragon, rose scented geranium, bay scented geranium, echinacea,

I am forgetting a thing or two.

Harvest something: spinach, rhubarb ( a friends patch. Something is eating ours) asparagus and eggs:)

Preserve Something- a variety of veggies were dehydrated from our freezer. I have two gallon bags full that I will make into soup mix for the kids. We dried a quart and a pint of strawberries ( fresh) and two bags of frozen cranberries as well. 2 quarts of bananas bought on sale because they were over ripe. One pint of pickled pearl onions ( refrigerated) and 5 lbs of beef tallow from the freezer was rendered for soapmaking. Froze rhubarb and asparagus.

Waste Not: we grew all the things in the freezer but due to my illness, didn't end up eating them since I am the main cook.drying is a great way to deal with extra foods. By doing this, I was able to unplug one freezer and I feel better about having dried rather than frozen foods for emergency purposes. We have had power outages for no reason up here already and sending the kids dried foods is easier plus c fit more in a prepaid box.

Want Not: trying to be a bit more active ( my want not was more about health) but all of the above regarding frozen food has made me rethink my garden. Garry continues to glean the Amish rejects ( asparagus this month) which happens because Organic Valley has visual criteria that farmers must meet. They sometimes keep the rejects for themselves but sometimes the food gets tossed out.

Eat The Food: asparagus sauté, rhubarb shortbread, spinach salad ( tomorrow we will try to make pasta if we have time.)
Build Community Food Systems- we gave honey as appreciation for the free hens. This was a non- Amish deal. We need to head up to the Amish auctions soon to see how these work. Agreed to a half a cow herdshare from a local farmer who is a friend. We bought one last year from somebody further away. I think I can go back to my raw milk club which we quit when I thought I had dairy allergy. I can't have raw milk yet but I can pasteurize my own.

Skill Up: learning to knit sweaters without a pattern. This weekend is a free fishing one ( no license required) so I am borrowing poles if possible and giving it a go. Garry wants to mke poles out of bamboo......Round two of soapmaking will be coming up this week as well.Learning vermicompost.


I had alot of help getting the above done. Infact as to the garden, Garry did all of it and Jasmine is doing what I normally would do. Drying food is easy if using already frozen foods since the work has already been done.

I am amazed at how much can get done.

Farmers Markets Most Wanted Man

Three weeks ago, we went into town to get my chemo port removed so stopped as usual at the farmers market to buy a treat from the Mennonites and visit with Amish friends. I stood looking around at the other vendors when a man in a Chefs Hat and apron ran past me, giving me a sideways glance.
I knew right then that he was foreign because we all have a way of recognizing each other some how. Yes, I grew up here. Yes I am American but my first culture was not of the western world and I married a foreigner and have generally lived a multicultural lifetyle. I use the word "foreigner" here as a term of endearment.

Anyhow, I traced the mans path to it's most likely original destination....a booth with a sign that declared, "The French Crepe." I don't find crepes enthralling because I can make them myself but he had tiny fruit tarts that I can make also but like more when others make them for me. I promised to seek him out the next week- abandoning my loyalty to the Mennonite bakers.

Of course he wasn't there. As I stood staring off into space another vendor asked if he could help me. I told him I was sadly disappointed that the tart guy wasn't there. He said, "Oh the crepe guy. He'll be back in two weeks. We all miss him. Can I give him a message? "

Um...no.
Today, he was back and he had a constant line of people- like 12 at once, each waiting for crepes while his rhubarb tarts were just sitting prettily waiting for me! I had no patience.

I stood gazing at his apparently well deserved success.....I will be back. Next week. Not at lunch time. Earlier. He had better be worth it!

Back to Basics in Knitting

Long time readers might recall my "anti fashion" fashion quest? Reminder.
I actually did finish that sweater and I ended up dying it in walnut husks as I intended. Every thing I said I would do, I did. But witness the remaining circa 70's 100 percent virgin wool that I had in abundance.

I cannot pull this color off.  I ended up dying it using RIT dye (wine) and though that is not eco friendly, my son can tell you about an adventure that involved poison control and eating an entire packet of the stuff, which he stole from Woolworth's right under my nose-its not recommended to be eaten but it was perfectly fine for a toddler to have done so.

That looks really brash and lusterless in the photo above. Wine was not my first choice.  I chose it because they didn't have orange. I am glad now that they did not have orange. I got it as orange as I wanted it with "wine".

Hmm. That didn't look blurry in iPhoto. Anyhow it is a good color capture -its a pleasant earthy burgundy which is set off nicely by the grey. What I am making is obviously a sweater. A top down cardigan to be precise.
But I am not using a pattern. I am not doing this because my mom can knit and crochet without a pattern and my granny could and my great aunt could. I wonder then why they never taught me? There is an apparent mathematical formula so I went looking and found it at Woolworks. 
I am a math phobic sort of person so I took lots of deep breaths while working this out. Its not rocket science except that its worded like word problems so I had to sometimes break things down several times. I do like math when I understand it.

If you try this out, beware of the the increases for the cardigan. I have figured out a way that it would work better so if you want to do this, feel free to email me and I will tell you what I mean. I don't want to bore non-knitters here:)
I will talk more about the process in another post just so that I have all my notes in one place. If you are hankering to become a knitter this could be the one project that will seduce you. I think it makes a good beginners project.

I feel very strange-like the beginning of the movie Grease when Olivia Newton John and Travolta are saying their romantic goodbyes, knowing that the good times are over. My son will be here on June 1st with the "not girlfriend" and I will restart the cellular holocaust on the 4th. I have been feeling better though tired beyond belief. I know this is two steps forward and six steps back but I think I have to do it. I don't really see a choice.

Eggs

By noon there were two eggs. We thought that was going to be it considering what both Chris and Linda said about chickens under stress might not lay any eggs. We were therefor satisfied all things considered. Jasmine ate one-the one on the left:)

Then, Garry came in around 3 pm to tell us there were three more eggs. That makes five in a day out of six hens. I wonder which one is so stressed out that she isn't laying?

We went out to check on them and they seemed pretty content overall. They greeted us and then the Dalai came along and watched from a few feet away. Curious. They didn't react at all. They remain confined today...we will probably let them out soon.

So while one may feel traumatized from the move, not one seems like they fear human or animal. Which is good. Of course, we have kept Molly at a safe distance. Not sure how we will train her to just chill around these hens. She doesn't roam free so there is no immediate danger unless they are stupid enough to come close enough to her. I hope they are not that stupid?

Meet The Chooks

Henrietta 1-6

Jasmine has given these ladies their temporary names. They are Red Saxons I think. I just can't remember right now.  They are just over a year old now.

They were procured from Organic Valley who apparently get rid of hens that don't lay constantly sized or colored eggs. Our friend had heard they were purging so he went up to get some. There were around 5000 to be had he said.  A yearly event? He thinks so.

They are not easy subjects to photograph. Yet they seemed to adjust pretty fast. One stayed behind in the dog crate for a few minutes longer than all the others.  Pretty soon, they escaped the chicken coop Garry had erected for them. We were outside and noticed the Dalai Llama running after something. On closer inspection, we saw that he was chasing a hen.

Once we got there, he pranced off, his job finished. We noticed that they had all gotten out of the coop (the friend who gave them to us had said they would) and trying to get out of the barn. The Dalai refused to let that happen. He stood guard and herded them away from the door.

We are going to free range them. I did not decide this-Garry did. I am not involved in this endeavor at all. But he is right-we can free range them where we are. The Dalai will keep (and has kept) predators out so far. We saw a raccoon skulk past the other day, not daring to stop for a second on its way to elsewhere as the Dalai stood guard. We saw him chasing cats off too. Before we had chickens that is.

If anything, he is happy since at long last, he has a job!
As for me....not yet seduced by these birds. Yes, they are cute. Yes, they are going to  lay eggs. Yes, their sounds are fascinating but so far, I am just not enthralled. I guess I need to get to know them.