A little wintertime wood prep

After a couple of days of collecting wood from the woods, I decided now was a good as anytime to split it. I rented a log splitter for the weekend. Ended up making for a longer weekend than anticipated. I spent Saturday splitting and stacking wood.

After Saturday it became apparent that if I wanted to get everything split I needed to postpone the rest of the stacking and just split the wood while I still had the splitter.

Hopefully I'll get it all stacked tomorrow. After that it's back to work on the gallery space which is coming along nicely. Tomorrow a man is stopping by to talk about installing the exterior door into the gallery for me. Time is starting to run a little low, so it seemed like a good idea to bring in some help to get the gallery done sooner rather than later. The plan as it stands is to finish up the gallery sometime soon and then make pots until our firing in mid April (our gallery is scheduled to open May 1). Looks like there might be just time to fire the first two chambers again. One of these days we'll get that third chamber fired. It's a funny thing finally starting a pottery after all these years. The last year setting up the pottery has been by far the least amount of time I've had at the potters wheel in about ten years. Funny how things work out.
Joe

Into The Woods

We took advantage of a lovely, frigid day to cut up a few trees that fell along the edge of the cornfield during last year's terrible storms. Aaron and Joe cut the wood, and I stacked a load or two before heading to a tedious meeting. And the sun was out, and the sky was blue...

The World Premiere of...

our newest cat, known as The Orange Kitty. She (or he) showed up here in late December, prompting Joe to recall his days spent bunking with a certain NC potter and his girlfriend who had a bazillion cats with fleas. Yes, this is how it starts. So far, we haven't gotten close enough to pet her, but she doesn't run at the sight of us anymore. Since she seems to be big buddies with our cats and can catch mice, as soon as we can get near her, we'll take her to the vet for some shots and fixin' operation. We hope The Orange Kitty doesn't surprise us with a bundle of Little Orange Kitties before that happens!

--c

Back home

Well I'm back home. The trial was quite the experience. I don't want to be too melodramatic about it, but it was certainly one of the more emotionally intense/difficult experiences that I've ever been through. I could write pages about it all, but I'll try and keep it short. It came as quite a shock to be picked. After we were picked we had about one hour to gather everything and be at the bus. After that point we were monitored constantly when we were outside of our hotel rooms. We could not have any contact with any media source just in case our trial came on the news (which apparently it did quite often). While we were outside our hotel room we were under constant supervision by our bailiffs and our contact with the public was kept to a minimum. We were not even allowed to talk to other jurors outside the watchful eyes of our bailiffs.
So that's one piece of why it was so difficult. The other obviously being the trial itself. Sitting in the jury box was quite intimidating. Everyone spends quite a bit of time staring at the jury as witnesses speak, trying to catch any reaction that they might be having. The case itself was fairly gruesome. The man was convicted of murder, but there was obvious intent to rape the victim as well. Her pants and underwear were both torn. Her face was then crushed with a large piece of concrete. Her skull was broken in several places and her face was unrecognizable afterwards. I'll stop there with the details. Hearing all these gruesome details and then being unable to talk about them to anybody was quite difficult.
I certainly don't mean to paint to horrible of a picture. It was somewhat traumatic, but the county treated us very well. The bailiffs were very kind and did the best they could to lighten the mood outside the courtroom. The hotel was nice, and the food was excellent. All the other jurors were very kind and supportive, everyone certainly looked out for each other the best they could given the circumstances. I've also learned quite a bit about our criminal justice system.
It took me most of a week to get adjusted to being a juror. Now that I'm back you would think everything would be great. However it feels like it might take me a while to get readjusted to the real world.
Joe

The List of Good News is as Follows:

# 1: Winks did not poop all over the camper! What a good kitty. This is your warm-up Piece of Good News, preparing you for...

#2: The trial is over! Joe will be home tomorrow afternoon! Yay! I will leave it up to Joe to tell you any details that he wants to share, but, for the record, after 90 minutes of deliberation, he and his fellow jurors found the defendant guilty.

#3: Our dear friend and talented potter Julie Jones sent me the new Ryan Adams Cd and some tasty chocolate, and therefore I survived a very long day at ands'L ndE by nibbling on chocolate between (and occasionally during) phone calls. I don't get much caffeine in my life, so the dark chocolate infusion made me extra perky!


#4: Betty from Tennessee, who called in a substantial order for shirts to ands'L ndE today, told me that she had some Very Good News regarding the status of Jesus' return to Earth. She was incredibly sweet, and I would have enjoyed having a conversation with her about something other than cotton weave patterns and garment chest size, but we are taped and occasionally forced to listen to ourselves. This would be humiliating and weird enough on its own, but our calls are also "graded" for effectiveness by some mysterious people on the "Quality Team." (I received a festive "Fantastic" sticker on my call report today. Wish me warmth in my voice and effectiveness in selling alternate colors and products as I shoot for a gold star next month! ) I told Betty that I was indeed familiar with the fellow, and in between teeny, tiny, audibly imperceptible bites of chocolate, I told Betty that I would be happy to pass on the word that He is coming soon. We are encouraged to always tell our customers that we "would be happy to do that for you!!" Working for a large corporation has just turned me into a customer service machine, baby!

#5: Mineral Point is getting a second bookstore!

#6: I cut my hair myself, and it is pretty much even side-to-side:

#6a: I do not look like a troll in real life, just in this picture.



That does it for today's Good News!

--c

Winks, Lost and Found

Winks is back! I realize none of you knew he was missing, but I'll share my happiness nevertheless. I hadn't seen him since Thursday. I know that three days isn't a long time for some barn cats to be missing, but it is practically a lifetime for our cats, as they do not know they are in the "barn cat" category. They think they are house cats with a big house. And Winks is the Bill Clinton of cats--full of charm and constantly trying for your vote.

After I got home from work tonight, Miss Priss and I did a moonlight search for him--we tried the basement, the kiln, and all around the yard and building. No Winks. After detaching Miss Priss from my shoulder, I started to head for home (hotel-home, that is) and had a flash of brilliance. Winks is the master of sneaking into the studio unnoticed when anyone opens the door. I had gotten a cd out of the camper on Thursday night. I turned around and dashed for the camper. Guess who was sitting on the couch. While this little episode means that any residual mice will have been eradicated from the camper, I'm a little afraid of what may be on the floor now...

c

Back to Plates

After a few weeks of binging on vases, I am back in the plate world. Must be the warm 38 degree weather has me thinking about salad greens and dishes to hold them. I am loving our new Ivey Red slip, too! Unfortunately, I am working 32 hours this weekend, so I'll have to glaze sometime between 11 tonight and 7am tomorrow. Sloppy sleepy glazing ahead!