Pick Up The Pieces

 So I promised to show ya'll a few photos of some actual work I have done around here.  I was never really enthused about the idea of painting this bar wall, so when it hit me to sheath it in pallet wood I jumped on that. Allen had been scrounging pallets for me for months and I had stripped a lot of them down to usable wood where they were just waiting for finishing.  So, I finally bit the bullet and sanded, stained, painted, sanded again, and patched for two days to get enough planks to do these 2 walls.  I didn't make a lot of effort to hide any patches, dents, or bangs in the wood.  I mean, it's obviously pallet wood and obviously reclaimed, so there's the "charm".  Ha! Anyway, I thought it came out rather well.  The corners are done in 1 1/2" angle iron and these make helluva good corner guards..  The iron is just stuck on for now because I'll have to take it back off and cut to fit when I run the finish floor and baseboard.  In person it looks better.  The color is a bit washed out in this photo because, due to low light in the warm months in my house, I have a devil of a time getting decent photos.  I often have to use a flash and it just doesn't look right.

 This photo is a little better but it's a little washed out too.  Anyways....I finished this counter top and back splash and wanted to run a little of the glass tile just to see how that was going to look.  I'm very pleased with this but please note; the tile has not been grouted yet, so it will look a little different when finished.  This gives me a lot of motivation to keep going.  I'm very anxious to get the kitchen finished because I think it's really going to be awesome.

 However, I had to take a break from all that and take advantage of the fact we are in an extended drought.  I have needed to fix this basement wall for years after I discovered just how much rain floods down the mountainside during the winter rains.  If the rest of the house were built this area would remain dry but.....we all know that has not happened yet so....I have to treat this as if it is forever an exterior wall.  Which meant chopping the bottom 2 feet off of the wood framing, forming a 4 inch thick wall and pouring it in concrete.  Here you can see the girls inspecting my forms.  It came out real well.  I even played around and did a faux board formed look on the outside.  This 11 foot section is a little less than half of what I need to pour but it's the worst part of the problem.  I admit I should have done this to begin with..but I did not realize the amount of water etc. around here.  And I was under the supreme delusion that the rest of the house would come along soon enough. Ha!!
Anyways, this form has been dropped, the wall sheathed back, and also insulated and covered on the inside.  Snug as a bug!  I'm now running multiple shelves on the inside in an effort to better organize the basement and my studio there.  I'll rub the exterior of the concrete here, below grade, to produce a smoother finish, then waterproof heavily and backfill.  There is still no sign of any rain anywhere in our near future so I shouldn't have any issues finishing this in the dry.

I also thought I'd take advantage of the drought in other ways!  We have ample dried foliage, leaves, flowers, grass and any things else you can think of here, so I gathered up a armful of stuff, a couple handfuls of feathers via some molting chickens and threw together this autumnal wreath.  Not too shabby I guess.  Certainly was cost effective.  haha!

Haven't Got Time For The Pain

So, I wanted to show that I have actually been working on the house again.  It's not a huge amount, yet, but I have slowly been getting back into it.  My spirit is very willing and my flesh just needs to be beat back into some shape for working.  I've completed a bit more on the tile fireplace surround; installing the run below the hearth and continuing on up the wall and wrapping around the sides.  Until just very recently we were still occasionally running the fireplace so I didn't want to disconnect it.  Hopefully, the cold is now over and I'll be pulling the unit out of the way soon so I can bring the mosaic part on up and grout all that.  It's kinda slow going but I'm getting there and pleased with how it's coming out so far.

I've had so much enthusiasm lately, in fact, that I finally tackled this horrible ol' corner in the basement.  Well, it looks fine now but as long as I've been here I have always just crammed junk in this corner to get it out of my sight and it was a horrible mess.  Junky crap in the floor and everything.  So...I got all those towels and rags together and washed and sorted them and installed some new shelves to keep it all neat.  I use the towels for my messy clay work and just general messy garden/ yard stuff etc.  I freed up another shelf on the metal ones to the right; although you can't tell on the forth one down.  I had saved a bunch of old defective or ugly pottery but it is now all bashed up waiting to be reborn as a mosaic.  Heck, I even mopped the floor in that corner and hung up our fishing poles and such.  I'll probably install one more shelf there to hold some of the supplies that are now residing on my pottery shelves.  I want to get those clear so I have plenty of room for making pots.

I know this blog has possibly changed a little in the past year and I haven't written a lot like I used to.  Not as many funny stories and such.  I guess it didn't occur to me how much it may be different until the other day though.  We all went to my Mom's for Easter and a few days later Mama called me to see how I was feeling.  A storm front had just gone through here on Easter morning and that day I was still struggling with one of the migraines I often get during such weather..  Mama told me that one of my nieces asked her afterwards what was wrong with me lately.  All the times they had seen me for the past 6 months or so she said, "Annie doesn't joke around and laugh like she used to."
Of course, I'm not apologizing for feeling bad but I just wanted to say I'm aware this blog hasn't been what it was.  But I AM trying.  I'm also fully aware that some people don't like it when others talk about health problems or flat out don't believe the person, especially if it's a rare disease or problem.  "Oh, they're just doing that for attention".  Yeah well, if I wanted attention I'd go around with my boobs hanging out.  They're still in real good shape!  Hey, this is a real blog and I talk about real problems; always have and ya'll have always encouraged me to.  If I can help even one other person feel not so alone then that's what's worth it to me, not whether everybody likes it or not.  But, if you will hold on with me a little longer I think I'll have more to show ya'll, like I used to.  Maybe even some funny stories again.

I don't know how many of you deal with pain, but it's a hard thing to take every day.  I marvel at people who say they've never had a headache, or rarely.  If I could go just one week without a headache, or my feet not hurting, I think I'd pee on myself in excitement.  I'm trying some new stuff though and finding some relief, which I tell you all about after I've experimented some more.

So, enough of that sentimental crap!  Looky what I saw this week!  I believe this is a red-breasted grosbeak!  You can correct me if I'm wrong.  And yeah, I know the photo is not so good but I haven't managed to get that great new camera yet, so that's yet another thing ya'll will have to endure here.  Plus, I was standing on a tall ladder stuck to the side of the house as I cleaned some of the windows, so it was a little difficult to maneuver to take the photo.  This is the first time I've ever seen a grosbeak, so I had to look him up in my field guide.  He's a Yankee bird, I guess taking a rest stop before heading back up north to their breeding grounds.  I saw him for 2 or 3 days but did not see him today so he may have headed on.

And in other news, my 2 Partridge Rocks have let their hormones run wild with the beautiful spring weather and insist on trying to hatch golf balls or other fake nest eggs.  We are letting one of them hatch some real pheasant eggs for Allen but just couldn't spare the nest space for two, so Ms. Etta here gets to stay in the broody-breaking pen until she gets over it.  Which should be only 2 or 3 days.  In the meantime, she is very unhappy with me and puffs up like that any time I come around.  I guess I'm not very popular on several fronts right now! lol!  At least Chigger and Allen still love me. 

Underneath It All

 Erin had asked about seeing a tour of my clay studio, and just so happens I have recently cleaned and purged the whole thing, so I thought it would be the best time to show it, before I mess it all up again.  My studio is in the basement, and while this was not really my first intention, it has worked out fine for now.  If I continue to work in clay I would like to have a separate, free-standing studio away from the house, but that's a dream for another time.

If you enlarge these photos you can probably see things much better; there is a lot crammed in there.  Of course, you can see my wheel in the foreground.  It is positioned so that I can see out the door when I have it open in warm weather.  I like to look out over the front yard and I can watch out over the chickens too.  Almost in front of the wheel is 2 kilns and storage shelves for finished ware or bisque.

 As you might expect, firing the kiln does heat up the house.  This is nice in the winter but not so nice in the summer.  I can open windows in the summer though, and have fans, so this helps dissipate the heat some.  The big metal cabinet to the left of my wheel is where I store dry glaze ingredients that come in smaller quantities, glaze making equipment and small stuff like that.  Of course, the floor is concrete so that helps keep things clean; easy to mop.

Just past the kilns is the sectioned shelving I built.  This holds most all my stained glass stuff; tools, glass etc.  I also keep just miscellaneous craft supplies, furniture and firing supplies for the kilns and all that.  Over to the far left is the wood burning stove that heats the house.  It is not exactly the type designed to be used in this fashion (with the ductwork and all) but hey, it works.  For now anyway.  When I build the rest of the house I imagine I'll have to break down and buy an actual furnace type heater.  My bedroom is directly above the stove too, so it stays nice and toasty warm in there.  No cold tootsies going to the bathroom!

Chigger's bed is right there beside the stove too, so she and the cat, have a nice warm sleepy spot if they want it. Chigger likes to sleep outside if at all possible (better to bark at anything that might come by) but she will come in here when it's real cold or rainy.  There is a dog door on the other end so they can come and go as they please.  And in case anybody wants to accuse me of abuse, as so many are want to do these days, I keep the floor swept and mopped so Chigger is not exposed to glaze chemicals or spills on the floor etc.

Behind the big metal cabinet is my work table and wedging table.  This is where I measure out my clay and get it ready for throwing.  Or work on hand built stuff.  All those buckets and stuff underneath are glazes or glaze material.  I have some large metal shelves on the other end of the basement where I store the pottery in progress.  I keep it down there, away from the wood stove, so I can better control it's drying etc.  If clay dries too fast in will crack or warp so there is some technique to it.  There is also a big utility sink on that end for the obvious reasons.  That sink is wonderful, even if I didn't have a studio down here. 

The basement is partially underground but the north side is above grade and we put in lots of windows for light.  Some on the west end too.  That helps make it a nice enjoyable space to work as I can see outside and enjoy the woods and flowers and all.  These are all casement windows too, so I can open them in nice weather for ventilation.
So, that's about it.  There is not much to it really.  I do have some more stuff crammed here and there in the back section of the basement but it's hard to photograph anything there.  I have a nice slab roller back there and that's where I store all my clay (usually around 800 lbs) and a few other things.  Like I said, in the best of worlds I would have a separate building for my studio with rooms and very organized storage and work areas but you have to work with what you've got.

 I added this photo after another artist asked me about venting the kilns.  I should have thought to include that to begin with.  All kilns should be vented, especially if they are anywhere around living quarters.  Venting not only removes the harmful fumes (like sulfur) released by the clay as it fires, but it also helps the kiln fire more evenly, acting as a downdraft.  Most fumes are not really released until the temps get pretty high, and it often gets too warm in here for me to work before that time anyway, but everything is still vented to the outside.  Fumes could pass up into the living areas of the house and plus, Chigger and Callie do go into the studio when the kiln is running and this makes sure they are not exposed to the fumes.

Overdue Update

 I had thought I might get some rest while I was "off work", so to speak, but things just keep piling up and multiplying.  On a good note, I am almost finished with all the orders for pottery and am now just making whatever I feel that people might like.  Small stuff mostly; pie plates, mugs, small bowls and such.  I have been so busy with this!  The kiln often does not even completely cool before another load is ramping up.  That's good though!
Unfortunately there is usually bad to go with the good however.  About a week or so ago I noticed one of the smaller meat chickens was out standing in a mud puddle, covered head to toe in mud and grime.  I had just been out to check on them about a half hour earlier so he hadn't been there long but he was obviously not well.  I have seen how vicious some of these chickens can be to the smaller ones and suspected one of the big ones had stomped on him a bit.  I actually saw a big one grab one of the smaller ones one day, by the nap of the neck, and sling that poor little chicken halfway across the pen.  Although I think it's a horrible practice, I can see why they sedate these chickens in a commercial environment.  5,000 of these monsters crowded in one place and you would have half of them dead in no time.  Anyway, I scooped the little feller up in a towel and took him into the basement where I gave him a warm bath and set him by the stove to dry.  Chigger came in to warm too and they hung out for a while.  It was apparent that the bird was messed up though and I wasn't sure what to do.  After a while he started to eat and drink but he couldn't stand up and was very quite.

The next day I noticed that another one was staying in the coop house and wouldn't come out.  Upon investigation I saw that it was having trouble walking but seemed fine otherwise.  This breed just has issues with their joints and tendons and this one's knee joint wasn't working well, so I brought it in to keep the other one company.  I gave him a bath too and he seems to really enjoy being a basement chicken!  He just chattered and talked the other one's head off.  I tried all kinds of treatment on the first chick but it just couldn't seem to recover.  It would eat but got to where it would not drink.  It could sit up, like you see here, but could only take a step or two and was always unbalanced and teetering around.  I suspect one of the bigger ones damaged it's neck maybe?  I hoped and tried so hard to help him recover but it just started to get worse and I was afraid the little guy was suffering, so I put it down.  The other, bigger one seemed to miss his buddy but is doing well now.  He stays near my pottery wheel while I'm working and chatters to me and Chigger, or whoever else may be around.  He has a VERY good appetite and eats well.  I have been massaging a healing oil into it's knee joints in an effort to keep him mobile.  We'll see.  I told Jack I feel kinda like the witch in Hansel and Gretel;  "Here my sweetie, eat this so you'll get plump and juicy!" 
And so, in more bad news, our sweet Emily (a young laying hen) died yesterday.  She was a good little Leghorn hen that had just started laying.  I never noticed anything to be wrong with her; she seemed the picture of health.  I went out to check on how many eggs we had and saw her on the nest, which is normal.  But she had her eyes closed.  I thought this was odd but when I petted her she stood up and clucked at me so I went back to the studio for a while.  I went back out maybe 45 minutes later and she was dead, laying in that same nesting box.  It's so hard to tell if a chicken is sick.  I examined her body but couldn't find the first mark or swollen spot or anything on her.  I mean, gushing blood or not eating or spitting up you can tell, but otherwise it's baffling.  So, we buried 2 chickens in 2 days.  I can take a good many things in life but I can't bear to see an animal hungry, sick or miserable.  I think we try to take care of ours the best we can but sometimes stuff still happens. 

Today is a rainy, dreary day but it's not cold at least.  Some of the production rush is over so it is a slightly lazy day.  I'll do a little more throwing today as the kiln cools off, keeping BC (basement chicken) company.  If the rains slacks off a little we might go walkabout to find a Christmas tree.  I noticed that the little corner market where I normally buy one has sold out, so, looks like this may be a homegrown Christmas for real!  I might even make out some of my Christmas cards and do a little shopping online tonight while somebody else is occupied with reading or such.  Tomorrow looks to be a nice day.  I must go into town to deliver yet another load of pottery and while we're there we thought we'd check out a couple of holiday markets and just generally piss around and enjoy ourselves.  Have a nice lunch somewhere; that sort of thing.  I'll try to get some photos!

Keeps Gettin' Better

So, here is the pantry after I cleared all the junk out and had prepped the walls for painting. And yes, I know that many of you are sitting there thinking, 'she put plywood on the walls?' Well, in the pantry, yes. This was actually Allen's idea way back. I wasn't too sure of it at first but I guess it was a good idea. I mean, in a pantry you are going to be installing many shelves and attaching various things to the walls. Well, this way you don't have to worry about hitting a stud. The plywood is 1/2" I think, so it is very sturdy and it is easy to tell where the studs are also. Plus, most of the walls will be covered with supplies, boxes etc. on the shelves, so it's not like you are going to see much of the walls anyway. And, it's a pantry! who gives a crap; it looks smooth and it's easy to clean. One more note; that is plywood not OSB. Which is shit. Mashed, hammered shit that will begin to expand on you the first time it gets wet. I hate that stuff.

And here it is with the final coat of paint (I used a kitchen and bath semi-gloss) and the window trimmed out. The only thing I don't like is that, if you look real close, you can see a slight crack where the sheets of plywood butt each other. But! I have a trick for that I will show ya'll later. I did skim some areas of the walls with sheetrock mud. It adheres to plywood just fine and sands real smooth.
Now, I just have shelves to put up over the window and around the other wall and move the freezer etc. back in. Oh! I forgot, I am going to go ahead and install the flooring in here also.
I have picked out some really neat stuff I will show you later.

In other news, Jack installed a sink for me in the basement/ studio. Man, this helps me SO much with my pottery and just everything. A friend gave me the old cast iron sink, the faucet and the countertop, so that was great! We also had the lumber for the legs and framing so the only things we bought were a few fittings for the plumbing that I did not already have.

When Allen and I first did the plumbing in the basement he stubbed out for hot and cold water and the drain line by the washer and dryer 'cause he knew my studio was going to be here at some point. I was really glad he thought of that because it made hooking things up a snap. Just cut off the caps, sweat two fittings on the lines and install the valves. Jack says I did most of the work because I sweated the 2 fittings on, but he really did everything. And I think he did a real good job.
But seriously, if you are ever running any water lines and think there may be the slightest chance you may want to put some other fixture anywhere in the vicinity, go ahead and stub out at least some partial lines. It hardly costs anything for a few inches of pipe, a couple of T's and 2 caps and you will be SO happy if you ever do install the other stuff.
I thought about showing a step by step of how I connected to those water lines but wasn't sure if ya'll would be interested in that.

Now, from some time ago I know a few of ya'll had wondered about my support for the pantry shelves I have installed. Here is a photo of the steel braces that are in the center. I know some people seemed skeptical of my methods but you have to consider the materials. These shelves are a FULL 1" thick and they are old-growth pine. That makes a tremendous amount of difference as compared to the 3/4" sugar pine (new growth) they sell at Lowe's. That stuff will warp and sag all over the place! Plus, the shelves are doweled into the wall. These brackets are 1" wide x 12"x 8" and they are 44 3/4" from the wall supports. I could load these babies up like hell and they ain't goin' nowhere.

So, hopefully I will have more finished pantry photos soon. My Be Prepared Challenge is probably going to go slower than the other peoples, since I'm dealing with new construction not just organizing, but that's okay. I will finish the challenge and be stocked up. Plus, it also involves accruing a decent first-aid kit and similar things, not just food. This is something every home needs. If any of ya'll are participating int he challenge, even a little, please let me know how it's going for you.

Stuck

Gaaaaaaackkkkk! Ugh, I feel like I am stuck in the worst combination of writers' block and just mental disorganization. I guess I've got so many projects going on at once around here that I literally can't think straight, much less form any kind of sensible writing. I have at least, been trying to focus on my studio and the goings on there this week and I have limited my gardening to after 'work' hours or the weekends. I am trying to maintain actual studio hours like it's a job. Because it kinda is, if I am going to try to make any money at it. So, one project is to lay up this small block wall in the basement. I may not have shown many photos of my basement/ studio but it is not a full basement. The concrete floor exists only in half of the space. The rest is storage over dirt floor. Anyway, this little knee wall will divide these spaces and give me a clean, defined edge for the working area. I am going to backfill with gravel and then pour a little concrete pad on top, which I then will install metal shelving on top of. I am in great need of shelving to organize my tools and hardware. This will also give me a little more space because now those shelves sit out on the concrete floor. Now, I ain't no block mason, so don't be dissing on my block work. It is functional but it ain't purty. It is fairly straight though. After I laid the first course I drilled the floor about every other cell and drove in rebar to anchor the wall. I then laid the next course and will fill each cell with concrete.

I have also been throwing as regularly as I can, in between all the other stuff I've been doing. This is the bisque load that came out this morning. I spent most all day today glazing and getting ready to fire again tomorrow. I felt like I was really making some progress but as I was cleaning up this evening and putting the glazes away, I came to a very discouraging realization. I have two glazes, a slate blue and an oatmeal, that look almost identical in their liquid states and.....yes, I had mixed them up, thinking that I had glazed certain pieces in one color when in fact, it was the other color. Now, had these only been glazed in that one color, it wouldn't be much of a big deal. But no, I like to mix colors and double dip some stuff for effect. So, the secondary colors I used, that go well with one glaze, don't necessarily go with the other glaze. And it goes on and on. One glaze must be applied thinly etc. Blah, blah, blah. Bottom line, I get to wash all that glaze off the pieces in question and start over. Damn.

So, anyway, other things are going well. Jack is experimenting with sprouting seeds for eating and I'll show that soon. He is also building the coldframe for me. He kinda fusses about actually building anything for me because I think, he thinks, I'm going to criticize his work, seeing that I am a carpenter, but as long as it holds together and looks halfway reasonable, I am okay with it.
And I think he came up with a good idea for the foundation of the coldframe.

Hey, Crow Doesn't Taste Too Bad!

You know when you rant and rant about something it's going to come back and bite you in the butt. If it's a free bite in the butt though it's easier to take though! Most of ya'll know that I dislike Pella windows because they have a tendency to rot, in my opinion. I even inadvertently attracted the attention of Pella Corp. with my rants here on their product. Well, anyway, I was offered 10 free Pella windows by a dear friend who didn't need them so...... beggars can't be choosers, I guess. They look great and I really, really appreciate the gift. I don't want it to sound like I just took them and didn't really want them, I just need to take some extra steps to assure that they stay dry in their setting. So, this weekend, we set the windows which helps in closing in the underside of the house. This is very important now as winter is approaching and I have bare water pipes under there and an uninsulated floor. We used 3/4" plywood to create a backing for the windows (spaces where cut out in the plywood so that you can see through the windows) and this works to suspend the window in the space above the concrete block so that I can lay the stone around the windows without hindrance. And I can lay the stone at my leisure and the space is still closed in. That stone work is going to take some time and I would have never been able to get it all done before winter with all the other work on me.
Here is a little better view of what we have done. You can see the stone work approaching from the far side. The stone lays out flush with the front of the block work so the windows will be recessed into the stone about 3 inches. I will wrap the outside of the windows where you see the bare wood, with a rubber membrane to keep the moisture out. It's the same stuff we used in the window sills before we set the windows upstairs. This is some cool new plywood too. Well, I don't know how new a product it is but this is the first time Allen and I had seen it. It's called Dryply. It's apparently just CDX with one side embedded with a water repellent. Looks like good stuff. Could have really used that when we put the sub floor down. It's tongue and groove stuff too.
So, this is the "basement" now. My pottery studio will go down here and some storage. This area you see here is where the washer and dryer will go for now. We need to continue that wood frame wall on the right a little more and put up a door and it will be dried in then.
I was finally able to order the tile for the shower and it is on it's way! YEA!!! I have a feeling I will be down there installing that stuff at night to get a little further along. We are working so much that I now only have Sunday to work on the house. I'm making lots of money to buy stuff for the house but no time to put it up. I'm not complaining though. It is funny though that not too long ago when I was laid off, I had lots of time for the house but no money. Ain't that just the way things go?

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Hey! I'm back! I have not burst into a ball of flames and been reduced to nothing but ashes unlike a lot of other stuff around here. It is SO freaking hot. The past 4 days have all been 100 degrees or more and they keep forcasting more of the same for several more days. Everything is burnt up; my flowers, half of the garden etc. Well, I've gone back to work and that has been interesting, especially with the heat. It is just about unbearable at times. I think that it is even hotter where we are working because it is right in amongst all these trains. The locomotives put off so much heat and there is nothing around but gravel and metal. I have never experienced a job quite like this. We had one boy get sick Friday and I heard from a buddy who works for a subcontractor who said they had 2 men fall out on their jobs. One guy was OK and later went back to work but the other one was taken off in an ambulance and last I heard, he had still not regained consciousness. Hopefully, it will cool off some next week.
In the photo above you can see that we have about finished the grading under the house to pour that slab. Allen has to do a little plumbing tomorrow for the washing machine and then I can start putting the poly and rebar down. Not sure when I'm going to pour but I need it to be soon! I'm not really able to do much inside the house right now due to lack of funds. I have done a lot that did not require much money but most of the stuff now is big ticket items, especially the things that will help me get moved in the house like flooring, tile etc. After I get through a couple of paychecks I should be able to resume buying material though.
This is a really cool rock I found today while we were doing some digging and clean up. The fossil part there looks like it was made from a piece of wood. Up close, you can see the grain form the wood and all. I know nothing about this sort of thing though. There were some smaller, similar places on the other side of the rock.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to tell you; we were also swarmed by honey bees at work one day! That was really bizarre! Several of us were working on some forms in one spot and all of a sudden we heard this low, weird noise and looked up. We were completely engulfed in a swarm of bees. They did not go down close to the ground however, so it was just like from the shoulders up. They seemed to just be flying in every crazy direction but still maintaining a cloud formation. We just sort of stood still and watched when we realized they were not going to hurt us and the bees slowly drifted off in a cloud. They seemed to be moving in a definite, straight line also. It was very cool.

Why You Should Have Completed Drawings Before....

So you don't have to come back and dig the dirt out by hand when you decide that you want a concrete slab under the house after all. They make these great machines called back hoes that are just wonderful for digging so you don't wake up in the middle of the night with your shoulder and elbow screaming at you for doing this to them. Well, I was in such a rush to get started on the house I wasn't thinking. I knew I wanted a studio at home; I just didn't give good thought to where. For now, this is going to be partially my pottery studio. The washer and dryer will also be down here, until the rest of the house is built and some storage. It's not that bad to dig out if you just don't think about it. You know what they say, just do it! I'm going to try to pour this Friday, or Saturday if the plant is open, so I have got to get on the ball.
Now, this might look bad; Allen sitting on his butt while I'm digging, but he had done most of this by himself while I worked on stuff inside the air conditioned house. This end is to grade and ready for the next step. As soon as I get the rest of it to grade, I'll put a layer of poly down and a rebar mat. This end is where my work area for my pottery and stained glass will be. I found out this past week I can get some free windows to go down here! That will make the area much nicer; being able to work and look out over my garden and flowers. More about the windows later.
OK!, all of you that have not voted on my light fixtures, I want to hear from you. If they look like hammered cat doo, please tell me that too. The BFA actually liked them OK, although he says they should not have any lines on them at all. Just plain globes. What do ya'll think? I thought about that but liked a little detail on them.
As of now, I go back to work on the 13th so it's now a frantic rush to get as much done as possible. Have to go get drug tested tomorrow in preparation as a matter of fact. Whoopee.

Update: I go back to work tomorrow! The 8th. Now, it's a frantic rush to find a pair of size 7 steel-toed boots. Not easy.