Worm Annex

It was a bit of a rocky morning. I was up all night, yet again, and then Dave tried to wake me up about ninety minutes after I got to sleep. I was not happy and said so in so many words. Then I went back to bed. I was afraid I might not be able to fall asleep again, but I was so tired that I went out like a light.

I woke up around noon. It was just me and the cats; Dave went off to visit his mother for Mother's Day. I texted and asked him if, on his way home, he could stop and get me a huge diet Pepsi and an Itsa burger with cheese from Blake's Lotaburger. Then I jumped into the shower.  We had pilates at 2:15 and I wanted to have lunch first and Dave wanted to stop by the studio to check on the kiln that we started the night before.

When we arrived at the studio around 1:45, the kiln was at 1010 degrees. I thought it was a good omen, but of course I turned out to be wrong.

We went to pilates and then stopped at the coffee shop (Humble Coffee) next door for a latte after. (Well, I had a latte and an iced tea, Dave and Judi had iced teas.)  We sat and chatted for a bit before returning to the studio.

When we got there, the kiln controller was flashing an error message which meant that the kiln had misfired. We talked about what it might be and how to fix it. I don't think it was a particularly disastrous thing to have happen in this case since it was just a cone 06 bisque firing, but we'll have to wait until next weekend to refire it.

Judi and Paul came out to chat and Judi brought Crunch out for a visit. Crunch has had some recent procedures related to the arthritis in his shoulders and he's been feeling pretty crappy. He came out for a visit and got some belly pets and seemed happier and perkier after.

While we were chatting, I took out my new toy, a cake decorating set complete with tips and bags. I had mixed up some thick slip yesterday using dried out clay scraps. I put together the piping bag and filled it with the slip and piped out some designs. It works exactly like a soft cake frosting. I think piped designs will make awesome additions to some of the calavera dresses I've been making lately.  I piped out some things onto a bit of newspaper and left it to dry, just to see how it handles.

Since we didn't have to wait for the kiln, we came home early and had dinner. We made an impromptu stir fry using tofu, onions, kale, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. We had it with some brown rice and a green salad on the side.

After dinner, we sorted through another box of pottery, some of ours, some of it pottery that I've bought or traded my own work for. All of that stuff will go into the yard sale.

My new criteria for deciding whether or not to keep something (not just pottery, but anything) is: If I were moving, would I pack this into my suitcase and carry it around the world with me? Most things, no. But some things, a very few things, yes.

After sorting our box of pottery, we shredded some newspaper and fed the worms. We have so many vegetable scraps and peels and such that we started a worm annex in addition to our worm composter. The worm annex is simply a big plastic tote that had some potting soil in the bottom. I added a bunch of scraps and let it sit for a week or so. Today we added some shredded newspaper and stirred it up, then added a couple of scoops of worms from the composter. (There are so many worms in that thing!) I put a three-inch layer of shredded newspaper on top of that (to allow for air flow but discourage flies from getting in there). And that's our worm annex!