Clay Is Also Dirt...

So the secret to minimizing the itch and the hard white bump from fire ant bites is a buff puff and isopropyl alcohol. After I got nailed yesterday I dosed the bites in alcohol and scrubbed at them with an abrasive pad (for skin). Using the pad worked better than just dabbing at the stings with the alcohol--which makes sense. Fire ants aren't causing all the damage to your skin and reaction to the venom by biting you. They only bite you to get a good grip on you so they can swing their abdomens up under themselves to start stinging you. You can tell this is what's happening by looking at them--it looks like they're curled up on your body when they are attacking you. Anyway, other people swear by vinegar, but I am sold on alcohol, salt and a buff puff (or a Scotch Brite green scrubby pad from the kitchen in a pinch).

Thursday is my favorite day of the week because it begins with pottery class. Actually today began with me yelling at the solar company (again) about getting an inspector out here from Austin Energy to give us the rubber stamp of approval so we can Go Live. Pottery was definitely better than solar. I glazed my first wonky piece for the kiln, I under glazed a textured vase, and then glazed it, I trimmed a bowl, and I threw another little bowl. I was a ceramics machine! Today was the glaze demo in class, and my first day glazing in a couple of years. I had forgotten all the chemistry and science that goes into it. The glazes I put on my pieces today don't look anything like they will after firing. Part of that's because one piece not only has two glazes which will chemically react with each other, but it will also be fired in a soda firing. Explanation of that technique here. I dipped the other piece in a mint celadon glaze after underglazing it, and sadly forgot to take a picture of it. But the celadon glaze is iron rust brown before firing.

Now I'm off to sleep to ready myself for a piano lesson first thing tomorrow morning, followed by craft morning with Becky. Then the decomposed granite paths are going into the new garden tomorrow, and the concrete footer is being poured for the pond (they placed the forms today). Though that project really feels like it's been hanging forever, all I have to do ton console myself about its duration is to think of the solar project. We haven't sued yet...