Living on reds, vitamin C and Rogaine

The title of this blog is kind of a twist on some lyrics from a Grateful Dead song. The reds, in this case would refer to my gatorade, which I really prefer lemon lime. The vitamin C is self explanatory and the Rogaine is necessary for all the hair I've been pulling out.

Have you ever pulled off the roof of your house and then wondered if you might be stupid. I have. Tuesday, my roof came off and the last of it left for the city dump yesterday--all 4 layers of shingles (2 wooden shake layers and 2 layers of asphalt shingles). Needless to say, the load was very heavy. It took 3 dump trucks loaded to the gills to haul it all off. The dump said it weighed in at 11 tons! Its crazy how much stuff weighs. I don't think my addition will weigh anything close to that--at least not anything above the concrete.

I have learned to enjoy the meditation of hard, physical labor. Pottery is hard work too, but these past 4 1/2 weeks have really been the hardest I have ever worked in my life. I have bruises and scratches over my whole body to prove it. A friend of mine is out of work and so I have hired him to help me with this project. We have spent the last three weeks building concrete forms, moving dirt, digging holes, grading dirt, ripping the roof off, making lots of mistakes, working on basic plumbing, etc, etc. I'm glad he has come to help me because I have been able to have someone to blame for most of my mistakes. Things are moving along. Framing begins Monday if all goes as planned. Tomorrow will be consumed with finishing the kiln, stripping concrete forms and making new ones for the bond beam on top of our walls. As it turns out, this project is kicking my butt. Today was the first day that I wondered what the heck I was thinking. I'm sure tomorrow will be better.

Throughout all of this chaos, people have continued to drop by and visit the studio. It has been nice to have so many visitors that have both questioned my sanity and insured me that the worst is over. I'm not entirely sure that is true. A portion of the roof fell off on Tuesday and hit the gas meter, breaking the pipes in a couple of locations. But a nice, unemployed plumber came over today and put it all back together, better than before. It only cost money, right. Over all, we are still under budget, which is exciting, but I find myself bracing for disaster. Rains yesterday were a little scary. This morning found me trying to avoid the puddles on top of the blue tarps we nailed to the hardwood floors. It will get better. Hopefully we will have some better cover by the time the the rains come again. The art festival starts in less than two weeks and I am freaking out. Pickins this year may be slim, depending on how this weekends firing goes. This is the fourth Kiln I have built, but the first on with these configurations. I worked on the floor tonight until I could not longer see my tools in the darkness. Tomorrow I will organize the chimney stack. Saturday I hope to do a bisque fire. I have said a lot of very earnest and sincere prayers and hope all will be well. Wish me luck.