primalmommy on fri 10 oct 03
"I read "nana skin saga" and thought mel was going to write us about
grandma's rash...
Play? What play? Mel, I am a one trick pony, and you've all seen my one
trick. This year you guys will have to belly dance or something. I'm
just gonna show up and giggle. Nan Kitchens is the woman who knows how
to pull a rabbit out of a hat when it comes to planning enterntainment.
Maybe we should do a game show... trivia questions about the details of
various clayarter's lives.. big prizes for those dedicated clayart
readers who have been doing their homework ;0) "Which clayarter has
philosophical conversations with hornets and fire ants?" ("the buffalo
guy" would not be an acceptable answer.)
Drying things: this goes for small pots, kids' thick-headed little clay
critters, beads, quickie stamps headed for the bisque, or banana skins
(if you are from the 'dry them first" camp.) Hit the local flea market
and pick up a food dehydrator for a buck. We are at the end of an era,
these days, of home canning and preserving... which means that THREE (3)
times in the last month different people dropped off boxes and bags and
crates of canning jars on my doorstep. Somebody's grandma's moving to
the condo, clearing out the cellar... mom's kids are grown and she's
gone to work and ain't gonna can no more, no more...
Add to that a general, gradual easing of concerns over
y2k-9/11-end-of-the-world scenarios, and it means a lot of country folks
around here are hauling their survival-stock-up supplies out to the
garage sale table or donating to goodwill.
My point (there is one, really): You can find a food dehydrator at
probably one out of three flea markets/garage sales around here, for
pocket change. I have two of them, and they run nonstop from august to
october -- not because I am stocking up for y3k but because we like
dried tomatoes in our pasta/pesto.. the kids eat dried cherry tomatoes
like candy... Dried bananas from the "cheap-ripe" shelf are chewy when
dried, and incredibly sweet for a snack... a jar of home-canned
applesauce makes cheap/easy/organic fruit leather (though not in the
obnoxious colors of the 'artificial fruit flavored" ones at the grocery
store.) Dried blueberries are the greatest for camping/pancakes... and
every night in winter I set up the crock pot on a timer for breakfast of
old fashioned slow cooking oatmeal with cinnamon and (formerly dried)
apple bits.
Note to self: Make venison jerky, dried fruits, etc. and pack them in my
suitcase for NCECA.. One of the great bits of off-list NCECA advice I
got this year was to eat on the cheap for breakfast and lunch so I can
go out to dinner with whatever fun potters will let me tag along.
If you want to make a hoop house greenhouse
(http://www.primalpotter.com) just find out who bought all that plastic
sheeting during the anthrax scare and ask them for it! And people
getting insulated windows are tossing out old wooden framed ones perfect
for making cold frames...
Indispensable tools: I always carry a multi-tool in my purse, which has
saved me a lot of trying to jimmy/repair/cobble things with a car key or
the edge of a bank card. I recently learned my lesson about using the
wrong tool (ouch). I have that, and a bubble level, on my keychain (have
lost two multi-tools at airports, I forget.) Also in my purse I keep one
of those collapsible curved dental-tool looking toothpick things..
because when i am sitting still in a car/campfire/lecture/place with
clay I make little people/critters/beads/stamps the way some people
knit... and it is just right for the pupil of an eye or cleaveage for a
tiny goddess or whatever. Also in my purse: (along with a bushel of
restaurant crayons, and a tiny rubber pig from who-knows-where that i
keep because he looks so absurd and gullible down there with the coins
and old lifesavers) --is a pencil sized dowel ground flat at one end
like a chisel,
because...
I am an evangelist for Vince Pitelka's two part whistle making
approach... it's a great 'rodeo trick" and I love to do little impromptu
demos wherever there is clay.. I "converted" a dozen or so potters on
the front steps of functional ceramics in wooster one year... cornered a
montessori art teacher last night and made her try it. You need the
little dowel for the mouthpiece. The knife on my multi tool cuts the
opening/wedge part.
Yours, kelly in Ohio.. suspecting I may be oversharing, in a post that
just intended to mention cheap garage sale food dehydrators. I'm off to
make some coffee, haul kids to piano, mail some pots/jam to
potters/customers, (i haven't forgotten you, Marty!) and then a big road
trip with majolica goddess Ann Tubbs and some potter's guild pals to see
some amazing pottery... will report back (in typical rambling,
excruciating detail) later this weekend..
_______________________________________________________________
Get the FREE email that has everyone talking at
http://www.mail2world.com
Lee Love on sat 11 oct 03
----- Original Message -----
From: "primalmommy"
> Note to self: Make venison jerky, dried fruits, etc. and pack them in my
> suitcase for NCECA.. One of the great bits of off-list NCECA advice I
> got this year was to eat on the cheap for breakfast and lunch so I can
> go out to dinner with whatever fun potters will let me tag along.
Kelly, you made me think of something I haven't for a long time. A
Christmas/New Year's present I gave to my son one year was a food
dehydrator. (He gave me my Gerber Multi-pliers for my Birthday once and
also my Cold Steel Mini-Tanto.) His main use for it was to make terryaki
beef jerky, but he also dried fruit and other things for camping and rock
climbing. My son gave me the dehydrator when he moved to New Zealand. I
made a lot of Jerky for me & my dog Taiko when we were training in
wilderness search and rescue.
My son & I both know good jerky from my sister, who lives in the country
in Michigan. Her husband has a woodfired smoker, made from an old
'fridge. They make the best smoked terryaki beef and venison jerky and
smoked salmon and sucker.
I've got the extra bricks and the fish is great here. Good beef and
pork too. I think I'll build a wood smoker. Anybody got plans?
> Indispensable tools: I always carry a multi-tool in my purse, which has
> saved me a lot of trying to jimmy/repair/cobble things with a car key or
> the edge of a bank card.
Oh. I forgot some other tools (my belt and pockets must weigh
about 20lbs.): On one of my keychains is a metal shoe horn, I picked up
on the Kobo-Daishi 88 temple pilgrimage in Shikoku. In Japan, you take
your shoes off when you go in a house, so a shoe horn is handy. On my
other keychain is a small knife with a short serrated blade. It is on a
quick release connector so it comes of the keychain easily. On the back of
the handle is a little LED red light. This is handy if you drop something
in the movie theater, and it was handy at my teacher's workshop in the
winter, to walk in the dark on the stone path to my car at the end of the
day. A friend of mine, a mystery writer was attending gun shows, doing
research for a book. She found this little knife there. It is about 6
years old, but the battery is still going strong. She recently published
her first mystery novel and is doing readings.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika
http://mashiko.org
| |
|
