All Wet

I've been working on our pool the last week, trying to get it in shape for the summer. We drained the whole thing, cleaned it with chlorine, and then filled it back up. This weekend we changed the filter and put in all the chemicals.

So today Zack and Elizabeth are sitting in the patio and I kiddingly asked Elizabeth if she wanted to go swimming. She said yes. I knew it was too cold, so I started back peddling and told them to find the pool thermometer so we could see if it was at least 75º. It was 72º, so I told them it was too cold. They still wanted to go inside, so I told them to ask mom. I knew SHE would say it was too cold because Connie is always cold. She said YES!!!

So, I had to go in with them. It was soooooooo cold. They handled it pretty well and had fun. I usually can take the water colder than anyone else in the family, but it wasn't fun today.

All Fired Up

I got my 220 installed this week for the kiln. Actually, I already had it in the garage and my electrician told me I'd be better off just putting the kiln in there than to try to have it on the patio. So, he made me a 30' extension cord, replaced the cord on the kiln, he fixed the lights in the garage, which haven't worked in ages and fixed the electricity in Elizabeth's room. It's been having problems for a long time as well.

Now, I'm just waiting for some supplies to come in for the kiln so I can do my first firing. It is exciting. (Unless I blow up all my stuff) It sounds kind of complicated as I bought an old kiln that doesn't have any kind of automatic settings etc.

Jacumba?

Saturday was a big day for me. I had bid on a kiln on ebay. Used kilns sell for almost as much as a new kiln. Go figure. So, I was getting to the place where I was thinking I'd never get one. Then I started following one kiln on ebay that was way lower than the rest. I wondered why. Then I realized that this seller wasn't willing to ship it. If you won't ship an item on ebay, you've taken out most of the country's bidders. So the price stayed very low and I won the bid.

So, neither Connie nor I know where Jacumba is. We look it up on Mapquest and it is about 80 miles east of San Diego, not far from the borders of Arizona or Mexico. We follow the mapquest directions, but we don't get to the town of Jacumba. Instead, we find ourselves going down a dirt road down a country lane. When we get to the end of the road there's a big gate. Down the road, behind the gate, we see a resort of some kind. We read the sign and it is a "Clothing Optional" resort. I told Connie I hoped the kiln wouldn't be too hot!!!

We decided that our Christian seller probably didn't live in a nudist colony, so we backtracked and YES, we asked directions. (I made Connie do it.) Mapquest was wrong, not the first time either.

So, the lady had her kiln in her van, so we were able to just transfer it to my van very easily. Now I have to install 220 in the patio and I'll be able to fire my own ceramics. I'm enjoying the ceramics very much, but I would like to make things faster, especially with summer coming on.

It's Kilning me!

I have been stalking ebay for ceramic equipment. I have two things I've been wanting to get: a kiln and a slab roller. I found a sweet deal on ebay for a small kiln. I got it for about half price. Unfortunately, I didn't check things out very well. Turns out the kiln is for glass and jewelry. Maybe it can do porcelain and china painting. But, it sounds like it isn't powerful enough to do clay. I'm so bummed.

I emailed a local clay company and the guy wrote me back and said I should enjoy my new boat anchor.

Well, it should be here in a few days. I'll try to get my pottery teacher, Gary, to look it over and see if it can work or not. He has more hope that it can be used in at least a limited basis. If I can even do bisque in it, I'll be happier than I am right now.