For BB

Becky, you pointed out that our mother hoarded all the "seconds" I sent home with her last time and you were left out. Well, last night I bought some porcelain clay and tried it. It is much less plastic and harder to use, so I may not do many (any) for a while, but you get my first one. I even marked it for you (see photo below - it's not clear but is says "for BB". I guess it is a bowl. I started out pulling a cylinder, then I decided to make it bowl like. I didn't make it wide enough to be useful for eating without chopsticks, but you'll find a use for it.

I have no idea how my glazes will work on porcelain, so it could end up really bad. Who knows. I was thinking of trying the tri-color glaze. I hope it turns out really cool so you can gloat about it.

Christy's Underglazing

This morning while I threw a few pots, Christy painted on a couple that I had done a few days ago. When we were at Highwater Clays recently we bought some underglaze, and as it turns out, they work pretty much like her watercolors. I think for the look we really want we will be using over-glaze, but I still thought it was neat. She painted a vine that went most of the way around, where it met a dragonfly.

Squirrel solution?

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I was shaking from anger at the time. The squirrel was hanging by his feet, doing situps to the bird feeder. He would grab a sunflower seed and then just hang upside down and eat it. My wood feeders have little squirrel feet scratches all over the tops of them. They completely destroyed another feeder shortly after we moved in. Apparently the bb gun wasn't that scary to them.  Or this was a squirrel who had not felt the sting yet. Either way, something had to be done.

This morning I made a trip to Lowe's. The result:

 

I put up galvanized wire between two trees and made loops for the four bird feeders. The best feature is the section of PVC pipe on both ends near the tree. That way if a squirrel tries to walk out on it they will find themselves in a "log roll" of sorts. The design is inspired by the backpack hangers at back country campsites in the GSMNP. They have a hoist (which we didn't need) to get the packs away from the bears, and then they use PVC to prevent the smaller critters from walking down to your bag and eating through it.

Take that!!

As an aside, when I was taking picture from the deck I noticed this little chipmunk giving me the eye from his hideout in the rain gutter outlet.

Squirrel Update

I had my first opportunity at the squirrel behavior modification I mentioned earlier. Saturday morning we were working around the house and noticed that our squirrel was sitting on the dome that is suppose to block it from the feeders, eating away. I crept out on the deck, which is elevated and took a shot. I missed but got close enough to scare it away. So the next time he was up there I didn't even get a shot off because he was on the lookout. The third time I saw him up there, stretching from the dome to the feeder, perfectly broadside. I literally belly crawled out on the deck and poked the barrel of the bb gun through the pickets. Direct hit! It was sweet. I got him right in the side and he ran off. Christy got a shot off at one this morning. We have tons of them, so I have no idea if it is the same squirrel or not.

The sad thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. They could happily eat from the ground and gorge themselves on all that we spill as we fill the feeders. They could do that. But they don't. Instead they take our spillage for granted and demand more still. Not from me my friend. Not from me.

Nantahala Fly Fishing

We headed to the Nantahala gorge to fly fish Friday afternoon. The fishing was horrible. Oh, there were fish. I just wasn't catching any. A guy that looked like he knew what he was talking about said that they stocked the river that day, and that the fishing would be better tomorrow. I just nodded and assumed that getting dumped from a big tank truck into the river turned them off for a while.

As I have said before, I don't like fishing for stockers as much, but when you get skunked as we did last week they are good for a pick-me-up. Except, of course, when they skunk you too. When that happens you are willing to cling to the flimsiest excuses. Like the river having just been stocked. With hungry, stupid fish straight from the hatchery who don't know the difference between a Light Hendricksen and a Pale Morning Dun.

In western NC you don't get as many opportunities to watch trout rising. The water is much more "broken" and there are less long still runs. But we watched a smug little trout rising in one place, picking tiny bugs off the surface as they floated by. I put a fly over him a couple times and he rose to inspect it, only to refuse it go back to his place. Christy tied on some sort of tiny black fly (technical term) and I floated that over him he took it. Of course I managed to screw that up and didn't get the hook set before we spotted the fraud and spit the fly (or whatever they do). On a brighter note we saw a couple water snakes and the one I came really close to was at least as scared of me as I was of him. He ducked below a rock when he saw me, but wouldn't you know that I needed to stand right beside where I knew he was to fish one section of promising little water? I know that he wouldn't try to bother me, but just the same I kept looking down at my feet every few casts. Maybe the bear encounter still has me wound up.

The Nantahala is a beautiful river. It's name is Cherokee for "Land of the noon day sun" and it's easy to see why. The river runs through a stunning gorge for miles. There are two sections that are popular and are the areas that people are talking about when they say the "went to Nantahala". The first is the upper section which is delayed harvest trout water. From October to June you can't keep any fish. What this means practically is that only fly fisherman are on this section of water during that time. Drive this section on the first Saturday in June and you will see nothing but five gallon buckets of fish, Toby Keith hats, and beer cans. Then when every fish in sight has been pulled out of the river (by legal or illegal means - limits be damned), things get quiet again. The second section of the river is the white water section and is known all over the country for rafting and kayaking. Nantahala Outdoor Center is the main outfitter on the river. The state record brown trout came from this section, but rafts and kayaks are king on this section.

I thought there was sort of an unspoken deal that the fisherman had the upper section and the rafters had the lower section. But as we were leaving Friday we saw three kayakers paddling the falls in the upper section. It was fun to watch since I had already left, but I bet they met up with some folks that were less than pleased with them. People drive from all over the east to fish the Nantahala and I doubt they are pleased when a kayak comes splashing into the pool they are fishing. Keep in mind the river is 20 feet or so wide through this section and you can't see very far down the river. So when they plunged into a new section of river there could very well be someone right there waving a relatively fragile $600 graphite stick.

Custom Pottery Order

I was up at Christy's shop for lunch the other day when a call came in. It was a very sweet lady that I met briefly on the street a few weeks earlier. She had complimented my pottery as I was bringing back into the shop one afternoon. We were both in a hurry and so we just chatted a few minutes and that was it. Anyway, this time she was calling because she needed some chalices (think Anglican communion) made for a confirmation class. Eight children in her church were going through confirmation classes and would soon be admitted to the Lord's Table and full church membership.  I explained that I was flattered that she thought of me, but that I really was a beginner, I didn't make chalices, and if I did it was unlikely I could make eight that were all alike.

She wouldn't take no for an answer. She was very kind but continued to press me - pleading to at least give it a try. I told her I would think about it and call her back in an hour or so. I called back and explained everything. There were a few things she had to understand:

1) Pottery isn't woodworking. When I "make" them it might be 10-14 days before I know if they turn out ok.

2) By the time I do know if they turn out OK or not, there is no going back and fixing them by the time she needs them.

She assured me that while she thought it would be very special for them, they would be OK if I didn't deliver. In short, either I tried it or they didn't get them anyway.

So I have spent a few hours now trying to figure out how to make them. There are several ways and I have tried them all, but I think I have settled on an approach. I made a prototype yesterday. It is not very good and it is about 2 inches too small, but it did give me hope that I can pull it off. It was the shape and attachment of the stem and the bowl that concerned me, and I think I have the "how" part of it. Now, I just have to make it bigger and pull off eight (plus extras for breakage) of them that are roughly the same.