Sunday, February 21, 2010

Compost Happens

Here you can see an Official CBT for Recology (formerly South Valley Disposal).
Oh, don't know what CBT is? It's Compost Bin Tester. I volunteered
about two years ago to be a CBT and it has been a very rewarding
experience. The bin came with some assembly required. Son Jay
willingly helped me with that. I have been composting for many years
but never in an Official Bin. It has a door on the back side that you
can pull up to get out compost that has been in the bin the longest
and thus it is the most "composted". My plants are happy, I am happy
and Julie from Recology is happy.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Tree on Tree

Here is the tree I made out of about 100 pieces of 24 gauge steel
wire. The tree is mounted onto a piece of petrified wood that my
nephew Gordon gave us when we were on our Arizona road trip November
2009. The trees were silver until our teacher Earnest "cooked" them in
the oven at 550 degrees until they turned bluish black. Then he
sprayed them with cold water to finish the tempering process. The
trees will gradually turn a darker black as it ages. Everybody's tree
is unique and each person is proud of their own tree and is so glad to
have gotten to participate in the class. If you want to see some of
Earnest's trees go to www.nanajos.com.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Six Whens of Wine

I am in the throes of making a wire tree under the tuteladge of a true artist. Earnest has been crafting trees out of wire for 40 years and agreed to let a small group of us sign up for a four-week class. Once a week, we twist and twist and twist and then take a break for nuts and sweets and coffee and wine. Since I had my camera I couldn't resist snapping this advice about wine. If you would like to see our teacher's handicraft you can go to his website at http://www.nanajos.com/. Earnest is truly a renaissance man. Besides being an artist he is a Lutheran minister, a master chef, a very patient teacher and no telling what else that I don't even know about! I promise to post a photo of my finished tree. Today I did some homework twisting during the Super Bowl - a pretty exciting game. Right now the score is Saints 16 and Colts 17. I am rooting for the Saints since they have never won a Super Bowl.
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