2018-03-05 - Monday - Deer and pots

Monday I noticed a perfect cloven hoofprint in the backyard. Deer are everywhere here in the city.

Monday night I added accents to the pots for Hal's kiln.

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2017-11-27 - Monday - Salting and deer

Monday we finished firing the salt kiln. If you've never attended a salt kiln firing, we add the salt at the end of the firing. The salt (sodium chloride) atomizes and breaks down so the salt coats the pots and the chlorine goes out of the chimney. It's a community event and we usually have several people helping out with it.

We made it a real community event when I put us on Periscope for the salting process. I was talking to a user in the U.K. (who knew Doug and Hannah!) and later to my friend Ang in Australia. It's a big community.

One of the two forced-air burners.

Greg, Kurt, and yours truly waiting to salt.

We shut down the kiln when it was finished and everyone packed up and left. I was last (go figure) and noticed as I was driving out of the parking lot that I could see light between the bricks of the kiln as I went by. Watch this short video. You will see the gaps light up, cascading across the wall of the kiln as the camera moves. I love to notice little things like this.

When I got home I noticed some visitors across the street so I stopped my van in the road and grabbed some photos. They were not alarmed about my running van so close to them and didn't even mind being in the spotlight. They were vigilant, but just kept feeding on the neighbor's grass and acorns.

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2017-06-19 - Monday - Deer lounge

Monday night Stephanie and I pulled into the driveway and I noticed two large does resting in the back yard, ears up like satellite dishes. They looked at us, but didn't bother getting up; too much trouble I guess. We walked past them and into the house.

When I told Karen about them she went out with her phone to try to capture more photos and they were standing by the fence, grazing. She flashed a couple of photos (that didn't come out) and they stopped grazing long enough to look up at her and went right back to eating grass as if we weren't there.

They are getting way too used to people.

Original photo

Lightened to see more.

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2015-08-19 - Wednesday - Does and pots

We had more visitors in our neighbor's yard on Wednesday at about 5:45 pm. These deer are getting way too comfortable around humans and being out in the daytime. I have seen them in our front and back yards at 3:00 pm. Having no predators makes them not worry about anything and we get to replace ornamental plants and worry about Lyme disease.

Wednesday night I went to Clayworks and threw a spherical pot. I have some surface design ideas on this one. Stay tuned.

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2015-07-23 - Thursday - Doe, a deer, a female deer

I was leaving on Thursday evening and stopped to photograph this doe in my neighbor's backyard. She was very calm and waited for me to get my cell phone out and start the camera app. After I took this she waited patiently while I climbed in my van, turned it around and went out of the driveway. During my three-point turn she started grazing again, so I guess I was dismissed as a threat.

The deer population has ballooned in Charlotte in recent years. If I would have waited fifteen more minutes there would probably be five or six more in the photo. They own the place; apparently we're just visiting.

For some reason that fence rail I replaced has gone swayback. I'm going to have to flip it and/or replace it.

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2015-06-03 - Wednesday - Car repair, sculpture, hazelnuts, and pots

Wednesday I had to take my car in to H & H Motor Co., Inc. for an oil change. While I was waiting I snapped a few photos of some metal sculptures created by Dean, the owner. I highly recommend H & H. They have been taking care of all of our cars for years now. I started going there when Dean's father, Gus owned it. Always a good job at a good price --and you get to check out all the cool sculptures. If you go, tell them I sent you.

Later, while letting Binkley out I checked on the hazelnuts and they are truly weighed down with nut clusters. It looks like it's going to be another abundant year for the deer as they always get them. They will wait, somewhat patiently, for the nuts to ripen and then strip the bushes in one night. I can't blame them, nuts are high-energy food and since they are american hazelnuts, they are pretty small.

It's just fun to watch something like hazelnuts grow and produce every year all by themselves. I like a low maintenance plant.

Potential energy.

Wednesday night I went to Clayworks and made some slippy pots and a two-piece snorkel pot. I'm not too sure about the one on the left, but I like the other two. We'll see, as always.

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2014-07-07 - Monday - Hard work and hazelnuts

On Sunday we made a plant rescue run, and got some more ferns and a dogwood.  Let's see if I can get this one to live.  On the right below are some dwarf nandinas that I purchased at a local greenhouse.  I am going to use the nandinas and ferns in the new flowerbeds by the porch, but first I have to till the soil up and amend it.

I have a small Mantis tiller that works great on many things, but rock-hard clay is not one of them.  I turned over the beds with a pitchfork and shovel which was no easy feat.  I planned on using the tiller to break up the chunks and mix in the amendments.  Unfortunately the primer bulb on the Mantis had cracked over the winter so I had to go get replacement parts.

I purchased 800 lbs of topsoil and six bags of mushroom compost to add to the clay, but I guess they will have to wait until tomorrow when I get the tiller back together.

My friend Nick gave me some hazelnuts a couple of years ago and they have really leapt this year.  They are a formidable size and two of the three are absolutely laden with nut clusters.  I have never seen so many nuts in each cluster before.  Unfortunately I have to wait for a month or more for them to ripen and last year the day the ripened the deer took all but two of them overnight.

I'm thinking about a temporary six foot fence...

The dogwood is pretty droopy.
Keep your fingers crossed.

Water break.

Finally!  This stuff is like concrete.

I'm using some of the old pavers to keep the soil in place
when it rains.  I ultimately want to get a couple of
nice rain barrels with planters on top.

The Mantis tiller
patiently waiting for parts.

Amendments.

Tuneage makes the job go easier.

Oh yeah, the grill came with a cover.

The hazelnuts are quite large.

Pods.

Lots of pods.

Lots of pods on each branch.

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