Changes

Well, we have taken down the For Sale sign and taken up the hammer. The balcony deck is going to be converted to a roof over the back porch, a door on that wall was removed, a window added, metal siding is going on the outside wall and Plum Pudding paint on the inside.

New window and siding

New window inside. Door was where the dresser is now.

The pool is a thing of the past! Bob finally emptied the water and that turned out to be a very good thing. He discovered a big crack that had been leaking for who knows how long. This will bring a big savings in water and electric bills, pool chemicals and maintenance, homeowners insurance and property taxes. An all-around win for us. Plus, we can convert this area to an RV site.

Crack and gap at the water intake

Goodbye pool.

Something frightening happened to Tux yesterday. We think her bad leg popped out of the hip socket, which is malformed. Poor dog was wheeling around trying to stay upright with the leg sticking out at an odd angle but not having much luck because her other rear leg isn't stable enough to support her weight on it's own. She got to lay on the sofa with a heating pad for a few hours until an additional small dose of carprofen went to work, and today she went in for another laser treatment. I'm upping the dose of carprofen a little bit, watching for nose bleeds of course, and she's clearly feeling better now. The vet thought she is looking much better even though she isn't putting on any weight. Blood tests for liver function are scheduled for next month, and Creatinine/Bunn testing for Hooper (who is rebelling against her kidney diet). Tag got some laser on his hips and legs after pulling up lame one day and he's getting around much better now, too. His back legs aren't collapsing anyway. No more wild Frisbee games for him anymore.

Tag getting laser treatments too.

Lizard in a Pot

My pots are proving useful as lizard traps.

Dogs in a Red Hat

Bob found this dog-sized red cowboy hat in the desert so now we have... Cowdogs!

Cowtux

Cowhoop

Cowtag

Tux update

Cheers are in order. Our million dollar dog weighed in at 58 pounds this morning! Her hips are responding well to the laser treatments and she is feeling good enough to want to run, but the left stifle is holding her back. She has one more treatment scheduled for Friday and I hope that leg begins to shape up. We'll definitely continue the treatments on her hips... I think it will be needed once a month to keep the inflammation under control... until she is off the anti-fungal meds at least. Keep fingers crossed that she makes it through the week without a new health emergency.

Glaze Disasters and Not So Disastrous

Time to make a clay run to Vegas. I need to make a few more pieces to fill the kiln and try to rescue these glaze disasters.

First is this neat pot glazed with Mayco Elements Copper Adventurine (cone 06) under Mayco Alabaster (cone 5/6). I applied the copper glaze a little too thick and even though it was a slow glaze firing with a slow ramping down after a seven minute hold at cone 5 I still got a lot of bubbles. I used a rotary tool to grind down the sharp glassy edges of the bubbles. Later I'll fill them with more glaze and try firing the pot with my next bisque firing to cone 04. I'm hoping the glaze will smooth out because I think this is really striking.

Bubbles

Grinding the edges

Close up of neat colors in the Copper glaze

First time I've used these glazes so learning as I go. Here is Alabaster again with Mayco's Sapphire, both cone 5/6 glazes, but clearly they were applied too thin. Guess I'll try a second glazing and hope for the best. I like the size and shape of this.

Here are some mugs decorated with colored slips and glazed a clear matte. I like working with the more predictable slips and consider these OK basic mugs. 

Next, misc. things I made for Jason, glazed with Coyote Clay's Oasis on the inside and Opal on the outside. The piece on the left has Copper and Archie's Base under Oasis to emphasize the decoration with Opal on the interior. 

Water pitcher in Aqua

Small bowls

Glaze tests

Two I like: Archie's Base with Turquoise (left) and with Oasis (right)