Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Adventures in Organic Meat



I have to come to terms with the fact I get worked up over pork products. I recently met Kim Snyder who is raising her own organic free-range meat. That she is less than an hour away from me means that I am now making "meat" road trips. I was struck by seeing cows, chickens and turkeys living happily together. The cows laid comfortably on a huge pile of hay in a shelter that reminded uncannily of every nativity creche I have ever seen. Evidently cows that aren't all hopped up on hormones like to sleep all day and chickens bond with the cows. Even as the cows move around and graze the chickens stay close to them.
The pigs live in a wheat field that had become stubble as they grew from piglets into full sized three hundred hound pound hogs. I wish I could say I felt bad about taking home half of a pig that grew up here, I don 't. I love delicious happy pigs. I like knowing that I am getting great meat raised in the best possibly way. I can't wait to put in my order for heirloom variety turkeys and chickens for next year.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

More work!




I like to glaze my peices with calculated pours. I have limmited my pallet to black, white and clear glazes.

Finished Pottery!


Unexpected Delays


What happens when everything is going great and your working like crazy making pottery and everything comes to a creaching halt. My incident started off with a fun Thanksgiving Holiday weekend winding down. Midway through making breakfast I decided to clean off my hand blender after smoothing the lumps out of my pancake batter. I then accidently turned on the blender as I wiped it off and did some serious damage to my middle right finger. An ER visit and five stiches later I realized I would be taking a break from throwing for a while.
Also, I quickly discovered the injured finger was responsible for the letter "e" when typing and so I laid off the typing a bit. So what can you do when your are on a forced art break? Finish a insanely complicated house for your children of course! I feel great pride in it's completion and I am posting a photo.