Serious Fun

One thing you need to know about the lonely potter is that he is a glass-half-empty kind of person. In fact, not only is the glass half empty, he is sure the government siphoned off  the top half, and what ever is left is unfit to drink because of someone's incompetence. The other thing you should know is that we need rain. Badly. This creates a dilemma for the lonely potter - whether to be more frustrated by the lack of rain which is holding back the growth of grass and other good things, or by the occasional showery day, which will inevitably interfere with something he had planned to do that day. On those days when this frustration combines with a painful arthritis flare-up, it is very hard to make the lonely potter smile.

So it was with great trepidation that I woke the lonely potter yesterday, pointing out that it really was mid-morning and the darkness was a result of overcast skies, not because  the sun was not out yet. To my relief, he took it well, merely sighing and painfully flexing his swollen fingers before getting out of bed. Perhaps it was the anticipation of waffles, whipped cream and fresh strawberries that put him in a good mood, or maybe he had just made up his mind to do something productive, no matter what the weather did. It was, in fact, a very productive day, but not in the pottery studio.

Aside from pottery, the other great love of the lonely potter's life is the horse. This beautiful, intelligent, sensitive animal remains the last vestige of his boyhood dreams of the wild west, where a man's best friend was his horse. When we moved to this acreage he had four horses, but tragic and mysterious circumstances have led to the deaths of two, leaving a very despondent lonely potter and two bewildered and tightly herd bound horses. For quite a while it has been easy to find excuses to not spend time with the horses. By the time they were fed, watered and  groomed his energy to do anything else was spent. Lately though, whether as a reaction to Spring or a result of recently meeting someone who loves horses as much as he does, the lonely potter has begun to pay more attention to "his girls".   Daily training sessions, no matter the weather, are starting to show results, both for the horses and for the lonely potter. There have even been days, when the training has gone well, that the shoulders are a little straighter, the head lifted a little higher, and there seems to be a smile. Could it be that the lonely potter is having fun?  Judge for yourself.

There you have it. Cloudy skies, rubber boots, and, it appears, a happy lonely potter and his horse.

 If this keeps up, can more activity in the pottery studio be far behind?

The Sawmill and the Pottery

It was a fine spring day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, the trees were showing their colors. From the storage shed came sounds of brick clinking on brick, and there, moving with purpose and the new energy of spring, was the lonely potter, building... something.

Firebricks were stacked about three feet high on each side of a square. This was obviously something to do with pottery, but it was different from the raku kilns I had seen him make. There was no hole at the bottom to insert a propane torch.

Mystified, I asked what he was building. He looked over at me, and without pausing in his work,  "Sawdust kiln", he said shortly, as if anyone with eyes could figure that out.

"Ahh" I thought, "So that's a sawdust kiln.

Not far away from where he was working there is a large, and growing, pile of sawdust. There are only so many things one can do with sawdust. Mulching the garden with it could use it up, but the Fire-smart experts  suggest that this mulch could become a hazard if a forest fire ever came our way. One could press it into moulds (like egg cartons) with a little paraffin wax, and have handy, dandy fire starters for winter. But really, how much of these things could we store before they too became a fire hazard?

So There it sits, a big yellow pile, waiting to be burned to make beautiful pots.

Behind the sawdust pile is the saw that created the sawdust. It was used to  saw all of the lumber that was used to build the pottery studio and the shed under which the sawdust kiln now sits.  So, if there was no sawmill, there would be no studio, no kiln, and no pottery.  There are still many trees to be cut into lumber, which will be used for fences, shelves, more buildings, and what ever else we may need as time goes on. This means, of course, that the sawdust pile will continue to grow, which means, I hope, that more pottery will be fired in the sawdust kiln.

I don't know anything about firing pottery, but I do know that the lonely potter has been wanting to try this method of firing for many years. Now, finally, all the elements needed to make this happen have come together, and there is a spark of excitement in the pottery studio. That's not to say that other things won't get in the way of the magic - things like sawing lumber and walking dogs - but it feels like a corner has been turned. Someday these pages will be filled, not with stories about the struggle to make  pottery, but with pictures of the pottery itself. Then I will know that the lonely potter has found his way again.

Lonely Potter to the Rescue

First, some good news for those of you who are annoyed by spelling mistakes. The spell check feature has finally decided to become visible on the edit bar of my blog, so I can  catch those pesky spelling errors. I hope there have not been too many. Errors, it seems, can have unexpected consequences, like getting stranded in a blizzard.

A few weeks ago, the lonely potter decided it was time to clear up some unfinished business. This involved driving to Winnipeg to pick up a horse trailer and bring it home, a round trip of over 5000 kilometres. He decided to have the oil changed in the truck, to have extra peace of mind for the trip. We also monitored the road conditions to make sure he would not be driving into a spring blizzard on the prairies.

By Easter Sunday, the truck was shipshape, the weather forecasts were for sunny skies all the way to Winnipeg, and the lonely potter drove off. Two hours later, he was back home. He had stopped to fill-up at the next town and discovered a serious oil leak - one that had not been there before the oil change. Since it was Easter Sunday, there were no garages open, so the lonely potter drove home and spent the rest of the day under the truck, trying to find the problem.The next day he went back at the shop where the oil had been changed. They checked it out,  and sure enough, the oil filter was causing the problem. We were more than a little annoyed, since we had never encountered a faulty oil filter before, but they fixed the problem quickly and the lonely potter was ready to hit the road by noon. Unfortunately, the window of clear weather we had been watching had begun to close, but we were committed, so we crossed our fingers, and off he went.

An hour after the truck pulled away, our phone rang. Wondering "What now?, I answered. The call was from Edmonton. It was the owner of one of one of our pups, a result of our single attempt to breed and sell Belgian Shepherd dogs 11 years ago. She said, "It's me. Chloe and Max are in trouble. Can you guys get them?"

Chloe and Max were litter mates of Boomer, the caller's dog, and were the off-spring of our beloved Belgian bitch Panda. Panda's death two years ago had left a hole in our lives that only Belgian owners can really understand. They are the most exhausting, exasperating, endearing and lovable dogs I have ever met.   Chloe and Max had gone to an excellent home  and had had a great life for the past 11 years. Sadly, catastrophic health problems had made it impossible for the owner to look after them anymore. Not knowing what else to do, he had taken them to the vet to be euthanized. The vet, however, who had looked after Chloe and Max all their lives, refused to kill them. Instead, she took them to a rescue shelter and began to look for a new home for them. The Canadian Belgian Sheepdog Association had posted the story in their newsletter, and shortly after that, we "got the call". I told our caller, who had 4 dogs already and could not take two more, that we would do what we could.  When the lonely potter made his check-in call that evening, I told him the story, and despite some serious misgivings, we both knew we had to try to do something to help Chloe and Max.

By the time he had concluded his business in Winnipeg, the lonely potter had decided he would go see the dogs. They were near North Battleford, so he could make a short detour on his way home and not add too much time to the trip. On Thursday evening he and the new horse trailer rolled into North Battleford, just ahead of a storm front that had chased him all the way from Manitoba. He pulled off the road for a sleep, planning to find the rescue farm in the morning and be on his way again by noon on Friday. What he didn't know was that the storm from the east was about to meet another storm from the west, right where he was parked. On Friday morning, he contacted the rescue farm owner, and she gave him directions to the farm. By that time there was a full blizzard all across Alberta and Saskatchewan, with zero visibility, resulting in several car accidents. He came close to disaster a few times, but he found the farm, and there he stayed.

By Friday evening I was getting anxious. I had followed the road reports and knew that the weather was terrible. I called the rescue farm and was relieved to hear that the lonely potter was there and planning to stay until the storm was over. After he told me about the trip I asked what he thought about the dogs. "Well, they're coming home with me." was the answer. Of course. Was there ever any doubt?

The only unknown was when they would be able to leave. The storm was still raging, so strong at times that they could not see the buildings in the yard.  He would not be able to leave for two days. Meanwhile the lonely potter made friends with all the dogs at the rescue farm, including Doberman Pincher's and Pit bulls, two breeds he has never liked.  This visit to the dog rescue farm was turning from a slightly annoying duty to two days of forced relaxation and re-education, as well as being a very fortunate haven from the blizzard. By Sunday the storm had ended, although the roads were still unpredictable. Running out of time on the temporary insurance on the horse trailer, the lonely potter, Chloe and Max hit the road.

Seven days and twelve hours after leaving home, the lonely potter was back, along with two dogs, a horse trailer, assorted groceries and dirty laundry.  We braced for the first meeting between the two resident dogs and the two new additions. Sparky is the lonely potter's dog, an Australian Shepherd, and the lonely potter is Sparky's human. Sparky does not like to share. Buffy is my dog, an elderly Border Collie mix. Buffy dislikes change of any kind, and she assumes the role of dowager in the house - no dog would dream of attempting to challenge her position. Fortunately, the two Belgians, although bigger than the resident dogs, tried to either avoid conflict  or to quickly back off if a conflict situation arose. There were a few disagreements between Sparky and Max, but Chloe quickly began to try to charm both Buffy and Sparky, and has so far avoided a turf war. Buffy, for the most part, remains aloof, having resorted to stiff legged, bare toothed growling a few times, but mostly pretending that the new dogs simply do not exist.

It is almost a month since the rescue mission, and it looks like everyone has settled into their new roles. Our daily dog walks have changed from off leash romps to on leash training sessions; the Belgians have survived two bouts of  bacterial infections (new food? new water? new dirt?); Sparky seems to be starting to relax; early edicts that the Belgians shall sleep in the garage have been relaxed; nobody needed to be put on Ativan; and Buffy is still the ruler of the house. We, humans and dogs, are all getting older, and have various health issues that go along with that , but it looks like we will all be too busy with each other to worry about that for a while. Unfortunately, it probably also means that there won't be much pottery produced , but what the heck, it's not every day  the lonely potter gets to play hero to a pair of Belgians. For now, an adoring look from Chloe is all it takes to make it all worthwhile.