Joys of the Season

#1: Being at Work

(2002.06.11)

It's 1:30 in the morning, and I'm at work. I just traipsed over to 312 Laurel Ave to pick up the 500 grams of Ferrous Oxalate that arrived for me today. I don't know how to express the joy that this brings me (and I'm not referring to the box of iron, though that is, indeed, a happy thing).

I'm in the middle of re-reading sections of Nigel Wood's wonderful Chinese Glazes and Robert Tichane's excellent but nonetheless troubling Copper Reds. (I'd be happy to discuss this in email, if you are.) I'm building a tiny test kiln. I'm making pots, and people are asking for them. It's almost summer (actually a mixed blessing in these parts -- it's a lot nicer outdoors at this hour than it is during the day).

I've been given an old box-style electric kiln, which I think I'm going to convert to gas. It will be just over three cubic feet inside when I've lined it with high-temperature fiberboard, and that means my small burner will handle it. (I had to build a tiny burner for the test kiln, which I did by modifying a propane torch. Don't yet know whether it will cut the mustard, but I should find out within a day or three here -- the kiln is almost ready to assemble and test, and I've already verified that the burner works.)

(2002 July 5/6)

I've made a certain amount of progress on that test kiln, btw; if you care to read more about it, try the "Jon Builds a Very Small Kiln" page. I've also concluded that I'm better off keeping the cube-shaped kiln as is, because it has 5 inches of insulation and is rated to cone 10. (Most electrics, as for example our L&L Econo-Kiln 23, have at most 3.5 inches of insulation, and are rated no higher than cone 9.) I may convert the L&L to gas, instead.



#2: Gotcha, Ya Liddle Bastid!

(2002 July 09/10)

The security cameras have done their work, and have detected our first intruder: the groundhog that is eating my Extremely Special Chinese Melon Vines.

Dammit.

I knew it was either a groundhog or a bunrab, but had no real way to determine which... until this afternoon, when John Todd showed me the images. The evidence is entirely clear; and I have borrowed a trap, which is now out there in a nice shady spot with some cantaloupe melon in it. With any luck El Senor Piggo shall be transported in exile upon the morrow ("Ey. You. Yeah, you. Geddin da cah."), and maybe we'll actually manage to eat a Hami-Gua or two by the end of the summer, provided that this is the only critter in the area with a taste for the things, other than ourselves. (I once read, in an Archie Carr book if memory serves, that herds of box-turtles occasionally wander across fields in Ohio, biting the ends off the cantaloupe melons. Woe betide any T. carolina carolina who tries that kinda crap on me!)



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Last modified: Tue Jul 9 21:39:07 PDT 2002