Rain Threat Drives us to Finish Roof

The tool shed stands ready for the rain at 8:30 p.m.
The ladder in the truck is how I got off the roof
after screwing down the last sheet of tin.

With the threat of rain looming, I got up this morning and cut 4x8 sheets of half-inch plywood to fit the floor of our loft in our future tool shed, nailed them down and then went in search of Mary to help me pop a chalkline on the end of the rafters.

It was nice to have a floor to stand on to do some of the work on the roof. The sun stayed hidden most of the day, but we only experienced a few drops of rain. It actually was nice weather to be working on a roof, and we worked.

After cutting all the ends of the rafters, Mary and I drove the pickup to the Stewart House, an old heart-of-pine turn-of-the-century house that potter W.J. Stewart built on my land in the 1890s. In the old home's rafters, I've got a bit of lumber stored. I handed down a dozen or so 10-foot cypress boards to Mary. We loaded them into the pickup and drove them to the "building site," using them for boxing in the ends of the rafters.

I love construction for some reason. Hammering a galvanized nail through a cypress plank and into a yellow pine 2x10 while leaning over the top of a 14-foot wall made of white pine 2x4s: WHAM WHAM WHAM! Getting a precise measurement for a board and cutting a 45-degree angle to match the 45 on the previously nailed board so that the seam is hidden: YIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGGG-ZZZZZZZZ-WWWRRRRRRR.

We drank a lot of water and took a few short breaks, but we were determined to get the tin screwed down on the roof before the rain hit. Late in the afternoon, dragging from exhaustion, I think I suggested that we could take the afternoon off and finish in the morning, but Mary wouldn't have it, although the idea of an afternoon nap and a movie sounded enticing to her.

"We better get it done," she said.

We got it done.

New Pyrenese and Goat

Luna (bottom dog) has a new friend to play with, Count, a Great Pyrenese or Pyrenean Mountain Dog. Susan, our neighbor who shares our land with her livestock, got her a couple of weeks ago.


Yesterday, Cocoa gave birth to a male goat. We heard Cocoa last night, and think she may have given birth to another, but we haven't checked yet.

Count is adorable, huh?

Progress Continues on Tool Shed

Progress on the tool shed continues as pots wait to be fired in my worksop. Either I've come down with a slight cold or I'm detoxing because of the weight I'm losing with all this labor.

Fleas have invaded my workshop. While at Lowes this evening, I picked up a three-pack of foggers and set one of when we got home. The little buggers. Did you know fleas are attracted to motion? Anyways, I guess it's a good time to be out of the workshop for a couple of more days. Fleas! The little blighters....

Four Walls up

Mary helped me lift the walls into place after I nailed them together.

Close up of laying out the top and bottom plate of the wall. The Xs are where the 2x4 studs go.

A little trick I learned when you get a stud that's twisted. Hammer a nail partially into the offending stud, then use an extra hammer or crow bar to twist the stud straight.

Another day's work. My body's slowly becoming accustomed the labor. The first couple of days, I was quite sore - my legs in particular from bending and squatting. The picture above is crooked, not the structure. The tool shed will have a sloping roof that matches the slope of my future kiln shed. I'm not sure about the height of the kiln shed. The building's height is about 14 feet. Is that too tall for a kiln shed?

Dancing a Jig

Some thick black plastic tacked down, and 180-some galvanized nails hammered home, and the floor of my new tool shed was able to withstand a 200-and-some pound man dancing a jig.

I actually wondered if my tool shed would make a nice throwing room. There's something inspiring about creating a new space, but after some consideration, I decided to continue with the tool shed, and keep in line with my current plans to finish my "future workshop," a former chicken house that I expanded but never finished.

I've actually got three converted chicken houses. One I call my slab room, one my workshop. Then there's the "future workshop."

The picture at right is my future workshop. A bit of my "current workshop" can be see to the left of it. The tool shed is being built to the right (outside the picture).

A customer said it succinctly the other day: "You've got quite a nice compound here."

Tool Shed Coming Together

I finished up the floor joists on my new tool shed today, and met Mary at Taste of Asia in Asheboro for some great curry after a trip to Lowes for six sheets of 3/4" plywood. She was coming home from her one-day-a-week project manager job in Greensboro.

Here's a few pictures of the work I did on the tool shed yesterday and today:

Using a foot adz, I chopped off chunks of wood from the four 6x6s I cemented into the ground. I made cuts with a circular saw the thickness of a 2x10. Notice my wide stance, just in case I glance off the wood. Can't be too careful with a foot adz.

Nor a broad axe. I stay clear of the blade as I finish the job.

Here I'm adding joist hangers on every joint after nailing the joists in place.
I never knew they made joist hanger nails, but I bought some at Lowes
and they worked great. Popped right in the designated holes in the hangers.

This handsome rabbit stood still long enough at the edge of our driveway
for me to get a picture on my way back from dinner and plywood gathering.

Rakuing for China

Phil Pollet, of Old Gap Pottery, stood amid his piles of paperwork and knick-knacks, pots and other artistic articles in his modest home near his shop right beside Pottery Highway (NC 705), and cursed loudly. He'd had about enough from his lap top.

Now, it was refusing to open up a movie about the past potters of Seagrove, produced in the mid 1980s by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. One o'clock in the afternoon and he was still organizing for a trip to China to lecture at the Jilin College of Arts in Changchun on July 8th.

Phil planned to leave at one o'clock this afternoon, spend the night in Raleigh with friends so he could get up early to drive to the airport. He was a bit tense - distracted might be a better word.

Me and my wife, Mary, were helping Phil get some pictures and movies organized on his computer. I spent the afternoon yesterday filming Phil firing his raku kiln, and this morning I put together a 2 1/2 minute film to show as part of his presentation.

Here's one of the clips I used:



I like Phil's raku kiln. He's got it rigged so you grab a control and an electrical hoist will lift the cube of iron-encased softbrick up to load and unload with tongs. He fired five pieces yesterday, altered shapes, undulating, flattened here and there, tweaked, twisted and shoved around on the wheel. He used a simple crackle glaze and brushed red iron and copper on top the glaze.

He placed the hot pieces into a bed of sawdust, sprinkling them with some extra sawdust before covering them with a galvanized tub, cooling them and then immersing them in water.

"You know, I just love these glaze effects," he said yesterday, scrubbing the black crud off a pot above a garbage can filled with water. The scrubbing revealed subtle red and green opalescent colors and black carbon trapped in the glaze.

"There's a moodiness in them - in the subtleness of them," he said, continuing to scrub. "Some people either feel it or they don't."

I did a couple of collaborative pieces with Phil earlier in the year. I enjoyed watching him work his magic on the shapes that I gave him to work on. We've still got two pieces in our shop that were fired in David Steumpfle's wood-fired kiln. One we plan to make into a lamp.

I hope Phil has a good time in China and I hope he can manage the pictures and movies on his computer during his presentation. I'll be interested in hearing how it went when he gets back.

Finished pieces from Sunday's firing

Preheating

Lifting kiln to load

Pot in sawdust flaming up