Carpet of white

My thoughts lately have wondered pass the snow drifts and arctic blast weather. I stayed in yesterday and caught up on some paper work. I imagine the studio is a block of ice this morning and the cat has disowned me for not dispatching his food, so today I have to make the effort and open a can of Special Kitty for his approval.

I haven't written any thing in a couple of weeks. So, my day was brightened by my oldest son Chase calling me and we talked for about an hour. He said he had just got in the day before from a month deployment in the China Sea and a stop in Hong Kong, Philippines, and a base near Kyoto, Japan. He is stationed in Yokosuka (sp), which is about 50 miles south of Tokyo. He says he is a little homesick and can not wait to get back to the states, but Laura, Shelby and he are making the best of it, and have seen most of the sites within a days ride. Laura gets the major responsibility for Shelby and the house, and her own work, but when Chase is home, he says he loves to see his ladies when coming off the ship, he spends as much time as he can playing with Shelby and Laura. Good for them.

You can tell where my thoughts have gone in the bottom picture, I posted above. I didn't get to fish, but once last year and it ended in a very funny story.

Finally on the lake, I had unloaded the boat and actually brought keys for it , this time. Tanks full of fuel, attitude good, bright sunny day, very little wind and the engine starts on the first try, this should have told me that there was more in store than lots of fish in the boat. I trolled the banks going west on the lake up to Snuff's Holler, where I have had some very good fishing. I was just getting ready to plug around the little bay with my brand new Rappala, just out of the box. I got in a little bit of a hurry to make that first cast, and it landed in a big oak, dad would have said that I was squirrel fishing. It had gone through the limbs and was hanging down a few feet and all I had to do was pull it up close to the limbs and give it a real hard pull and it should come out of the leaves and limbs. The plug was a four or five ounce plug which is more weight than I normally use. As it came out of the limbs like firing a high caliber gun, towards me. Now, not having the qualities of a karate master or prize fighter, my reflexes were a little slower than they should be and the treble hook on the tail of the plug gave me the piercing of the right lobe of my ear that I had so wanted for years. Well, with my new ear rings, I could not back it out and keep fishing. I had no wire cutters with me, so I had to go back to the truck.

I tied up at the dock and walked up to the truck, but no wire cutters in the tool box. As I turned to see if some else was around , a fellow was coming up to his truck and I asked him if he had cutters and I had to point out my ornament to explain. I could tell he was having a good deal of fun from this and he reached over on his flat bed, which had just been used to haul manure for his garden and produced side cutters which easily cut the barb off, so I could remove it. Still smiling, my rescuer told the first three people he could find near the dock , my story.

I hope this will brighten your day, So make them good pots and stay warm.

candy roaster souffle

Several folks have asked for this recipe, it can also be done with a butternut squash,so enjoy:

Candy roaster soufflé>>
6 tablespoons butter>> 4 cups butternut squash, parboiled>> 1 cup sugar>> 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk>> 1/2 teaspoon salt>> 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice>> 2 teaspoons vanilla>> 4 whole eggs, slightly beaten>>>> Take parboiled/softened squash and mix with butter in a mixer. You can use> candy roaster squash or other squash. Should have no lumps after boiling.> (I puree with a hand held mixer). If you use fresh squash, it will be very> hot at this point, after parboiling.>> 2. Add sugar, cream, salt, vanilla, but not the eggs, till it cools a bits and will not cook the eggs. Mix well when you add the eggs and pour into a> casserole dish.>> 3. Bake at 350 for 45-60 min.>> 4. If you prefer, you can add 2 teaspoons each of Cinnamon and nutmeg and> remove the lemon juice.>> Notes: I double the recipe and it makes a half hotel pan full.>> Serving Ideas: Crumble pecans over the top after baking or marshmellows.>
If you double the recipe cook for one hour and 15-20 minutes.

Some new pots

A couple of new shapes and some hakame using broom straw and twine to produce a bundle for a brush. I like the simplicity of dipping in slip then using the brush to create a grass like appearance to the surface of the wet slip. I go ahead and bisqued the piece, then lined the inside with temple white.

Unloading Shanes Anangama

We loaded and fired Shane Mickey's kiln last weekend and unloaded on Thursday, a lot of pots.
Will Baker and Joy Tanner helped to finish off the kiln on Sunday night, I was exhausted by 10 oclock Sunday night, they stayed till about 1 30 am to turn cone 12 down. This kiln fired so much more differently than the single chambered wood burner I had.

Shane put about 50 pound of salt into the fire box starting at about cone 8. I was very pleased with the work I pulled out, it had a lot of the orange peel that I have always loved. I got some wonderful colors that I had on several pieces and they came out nicely. I'll have them in the next blog.

Obama and McCain, some thoughts

It is finally over, Obama has done well, and supporters are celebrating. The stock market analysis say "there will still be a down turn, but the black cloud is lifting and there are some clear skies out there." Maybe with these words and hopes buyers will gradually come back and the Christmas season will see some turn arounds for our business. Personally, I can not understand someone wanting a job with all the problems and headaches that will be stacked (dumped) on them.
I also have a great deal of respect for McCain and his concession speech was from the heart and I believe he will work with Obama to turn things around. It is great that he stopped the booing of Obama, during his own speech of concession and the fact that he also corrected a senior voter's impression that Obama was a terrorist. Men of integrity and courage are few and far between, especially in Washington. McCain is on my list (this is a short list), although I do not agree with his politics.