Ken taught the first pottery class of 2017 yesterday morning. Today he started making pottery. He said he was “warming up” by making some larger coil pots. As I headed down the stairs he was busy on a banding wheel. He had decided to smooth out some texture. Then he finished that pot. When I went down to announce supper was ready, he was making a second …
Ken’s pug mill of 40+ years needed repairs this week. A pug mill has an auger that mixes clay to a uniform consistency and a vacuum pump that sucks surplus air from the clay. The resulting clay needs minimal wedging (like kneading bread) before it can be used Ken had to take it apart He got out the manual The bearings needed to …
Ken has bees here. He is most concerned with having a healthy hive to help with pollination of our crops. Honey bees also make two useful things for us:honey and beeswax Ken has been saving wax to make candles. I got him some molds and wicks a while back. While cleaning, Ken came across his beeswax stash and decided to make candles. He melts the wax in a pan of water …
Ken processes clay found on our land . First he dries the clay completely and then works the clay into a slip about the consistency of cream or yogurt, then he screens it for impurities and next he has to dry the slip to clay. He has been leaving open buckets to dry, but he repurposed some screens These were sprouting racks for grain for the livestock. He has some newer, improved screens, …
Ken husked and shelled the dry corn. He has an antique sheller he has in a box. It is loud, but effective! We have two types – a yellow and a blue – black. Here are the empty cobs. Ken may burn them to an ash for a pottery glaze. Then he screens the corn and places in buckets with lids. This is our dry corn for …
The pork was ready at the locker so I organized the freezers. I had enough fruit to make some jam and wine. Here are two blackberry and raspberry combo batches, one batch of raspberry, and a small test batch of black currant jelly. I started wine from the culled fruit – a batch of raspberry, a blackberry, a currant and an elderberry. They are in closed buckets and soon I will move them to gallon …
Sometime after Thanksgiving Ken spends some time in the kitchen. He likes to make some seasonal and not so seasonal treats. When I was organizing the freezers before I picked up the pork, I found some frozen cranberries. We also had some cream cheese so Ken made a cranberry swirl cheesecake. Did I mention he made the graham crackers for the crust? Once the lard was rendered and we had cracklings (bits of fat …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has winter tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots or beets, cabbage, and salad mix Field Notes. Snow and cold. It feels like winter has arrived in earnest. And we are so glad to see the snow. It insulates the ground so the frost doesn’t go down so deep so quickly and preserves the microbial life near the top – otherwise the microbes die or go …
Ken built himself a shelf for all his pottery tools. He has several odd pieces he uses to make textured pots, and sling like trays for creating trays like the botanical imprints. He has been using a shelving unit and counter we bought decades ago when a store closed. It worked, but this shelf will work better for Ken. And he plans to move the old unit to his wood …
We are low tech here whenever possible. For laundry Ken runs a wringer washer while I hang the clothes on the lines. In winter we wait for a sunny day. The clothes freeze on the line. They are “boardy” and stiff. After a while they become limp and that means the moisture is out. Once they get past the boardy stage I bring them in by the cook stove on a bar …
