Another copy and paste year has passed, same place, garden, produce, shitakes, and flowers galore, and no travels. Nonetheless, I have some news and new views.
After over a decade, since leaving Arizona, I once again got my hands dirty with clay art. I rehydrated a dried out, leftover bag of red earthenware, took out the pottery tools, and set up an art table to entertain and engage the children who hang out here. We searched ancient figurine images online for inspiration and I taught techniques while creating a few pieces myself.
Click images for larger views.
I correctly assumed the wood stove would suffice for our kiln. We were pleased with the firing results so I made a half-dozen pieces for my own wall decor and the kids developed a new skill. Sara's grandson Corwyn and his friends Katie, Winter, Gaia, and McKenzie enjoyed the fun and produced interesting pieces, including their small handprints. Corwyn went on to take a pottery class, started wheel throwing, and impressed his teacher with his figurine skills.
I purchased the first piece of art Corwyn ever sold for five ziplocs of frozen berries. With wood heat season restarted, the clay table is set up again and Corwyn's first figurine is already fired.
Hiking up Crab Creek valley to the old homestead for the Spring daffodil bloom has become an annual event. A bit later in the season I returned to dig ten gallons of bulbs, half of which are now planted here at the schoolhouse. The other bucket full went to a neighbor. Here are Katie, Christine, and Sara taking a break after the long hike.
As soon as the woods were dry enough for equipment, about ten acres of logging began across the road. The specialized machines are impressive to watch, especially when tossing trees about on the steep slopes. At intervals all summer the noise and activity filled the soundscape and viewscape. Most of the work was done by the owner Ed working his various specialized machines and attachments.
Where before the dense undergrowth was a major impediment, we now have easy hiking trails to access impressive ridgetop big tree groves in the National Forest, plus new views from the clearing high up the ridge. The steep trail is great exercise, and watching the log trucks creep down with full loads was exciting. Note the schoolhouse roof in the photo below, looking south-southwest across Crab Creek at the base of Cougar Ridge.
Here, taking in the new views, are neighbors Rick and Carla with their pets Jack and Izzy on one of our walks up the logging road. In the background is Nancy's new dog Major, preoccupied as usual looking for rodents. This is looking southeast. These dogs so love to visit the schoolhouse riverfront in the summer that getting the mail without doing so is a real challenge for Rick and Carla.
An advantage of local timber harvesting is the firewood salvage opportunity. I was able to collect five cords of selected maple limbs while also reducing the amount of slash to be burned at the end of summer, carbon neutral firewood. This winter's firewood stash is the best ever, dense, heavy maple felled early in the season. In return Ed got that five gallon bucket of daffodil bulbs, fresh cut shitakes, flower seeds, and lots of ripe berries and garden produce.
This year's garden was very productive, filling two freezers again. The strawberries yielded heavily, but I need to thin better this winter to keep berry size larger. The pea crop was the best ever and I doubled the height of their trellis. I scored more posts and woven wire at Habitat for Humanity ReStore and neighbor Todd brought over a bunch of circular hoops for tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes grown from seed produced a bumper crop. Also, we got lots of juice and dried fruit from the orchard and neighborhood trees. And I got to surprise a black bear in an apple tree when collecting fruit for cider. Three cats sure help keep moles and rodents at bay, so there's almost zero damage from predators. We are still eating this year's potatoes and there are plenty of carrots over-wintering in the ground with no mole damage.
The perrenial flowers keep getting better and I keep propagating them, adding more color and flower beds to the yard. Sara's sister Mary was here for peak garden and flowers. I had them pose in front of the crowning achievement of the year, a volunteer sunflower in the spinach raised bed. I dubbed this sunflower strain Lemon Pie in the Sky. I continue cross-pollinating seven kinds of sunflowers, and this variety is also the current crowning achievement of that project.
The garden rose to new heights aided by a blanket of maple leaves for over winter weed control, adding summer humus and fertilizer. Again this fall I covered the soil with even more maples leaves gathered around the back yard. This year I collected more flower seeds than ever before, an eight gallon plastic tub full, because Ed gave me permission to scatter seeds in the clear cut. That should be a fun viewscape experiment and we expect some success because beautiful sunflowers grew over there this summer thanks to the Stellar's jays, the culprits I have to compete with for sunflower seeds. They obviously had been stashing seeds in the trees there over the years and the logging disturbance planted some of their stashes.
One of the big changes this year is new roofing on the schoolhouse, garage, and shop, over 70 squares. The roofers came out from the Willamette valley on the very hottest days of summer, to take advantage of the cooler coastal weather. Thus, after a week of prep work I got to work very long days on the very hottest days of the year. To stay ahead of four roofers and take care of repairs and nailing between tear off and reroof, I worked up to 14 hours a day and over their weekend. While I tore out some porch walls in the solarium to reframe a roof section, the thermometer passed 140° in the sun atop the old cast iron wood stove. I had to set up big fans to work, blowing cool 100° outside air on myself. Sara also did more interior remodeling with Mary's help. The old schoolhouse is looking a lot newer now and I discovered I'm not an old man yet.
Finally, I'm well, enjoying good health and maintaining optimum weight. I survived an assault with a deadly weapon this year, a running chain saw a neighbor tried to hit me in the head with. The police did nothing about it, no witnesses, and I was left with neck and back injuries from getting knocked over backwards. I need to pay better attention when warned about "crazy" people, but at least I survived without significant blood loss. Being charged at with a running chain saw is far more frightening than two guys with a little knife was, and it took a month for my blood presssure to normalize. At least the outcome wasn't fatal.
My academic news and recent articles can be found linked in the ArchaeoBlog. I've begun publicly releasing more study results thanks to improved data definition, more GPS coordinates, ease of online research, and fascinating findings engendering my continued persistence exploring our global cultural heritage.
Well, that's my 2018 news in summary.
From my verdant and normally peaceful forest locale, here's wishing you a great holiday season and a very happy 2019.
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