country life.

It has been a year and Bob still claims to be bored by country life. He was born and raised near the docks in Brooklyn so I understand his apathy. Just to remind Bob (and me) why we are here, we put him in the basket and went for a bike ride.
First stop was the estate sale in town where I found, and quickly bought up, an old work table the size of my ex-Brooklyn apartment. I talked Ed into fixing it up and delivering it to my studio for a total, including the table, of two hundred dollars. Ed in Brooklyn would have charged that much just to deliver it. The next stop in town was the potter's studio where we agreed to have a teapot workshop tomorrow morning at 11am, open invitation.
A quick ride up the hill then brought us to the new found swimming hole...holes actually. There are a series of deep spots cascading down river, mostly hidden in the trees and perfect for skinny dipping. A long follow up ride on the most perfectly cliche country road led to a mysterious sign in hebrew suggesting there was a public yurt down the drive. It was true, must be some kind of kabbalah training center. We meditated on the idea for a few moments (mats were provided) and then carried on our way. After stopping a serious rider to ask how far to hwy.6, we realized his concept of "not far" may well be vastly different from ours. Luckily, there was an organic farm stand on the way, the kind where you put money in the box and take what you need. We needed a couple of perfect red tomatoes to get us to hwy.6.
At this point it was getting close to dusk and I was unsure how far to the blacksmith. The blacksmith shop is a landmark in the area. To be honest, I didn't think it was for real until I met Jonathan a couple of weeks ago. Jonathan was at the Swenson's farm looking to fix Ralf's old hoe that had come over on the boat from Sweden at the turn of the century, "my dad had this hoe in one hand and his banjo in the other". Jonathan invited me to visit his shop that day and it seemed like a good marker for our ride. Once finally there we were playing poker with the daylight. After an extensive tour of the shop we were getting hungry and there were at least a few miles left to get home . Jonathan gave us a couple cold drinks and sent us on our way. The final detour was the Swenson farm. You can't pass the Swenson's and not stop by for fresh cut collard greens and eggs straight from the bird.
Dinner was perfect and just in time for scarlet skies. Bob didn't even have to pedal.

snake water

for andy in munich who doesn't believe I live in the mts.

This is the view from the end of my property.

room 8

no joke...even the surgeon remarked.

08•08•08•08:00

• 8 is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, and 4.
• 8 is a power of two, being two cubed. It is the first cubed prime number.
• As of 2006, in our solar system, 8 of the bodies orbiting the Sun are considered to be planets.
• All spiders, and more generally all arachnids, have 8 legs. An octopus has 8 tentacles.
• In the middle ages, 8 was the number of "unmoving" stars in the sky, and symbolized the perfection of incoming planetary energy.
• There are 8 notes in an octatonic scale.
• In chess, each side has 8 pawns.
• The 8 Immortals are Chinese deities.
• Feng shui says 8 is the luckiest number of all because it sounds like the word "prosper" or "wealth".

The Beijing Olympics will open this Friday because of the very lucky date 08•08•08. They will begin at 8pm.
I have my very own Olympic challenge, inadvertently scheduled on the same day at 8am, and am actively seeking sponsors. I was officially told, not by the puppy lady, to request good vibes from friendly sponsors at that time. So here I am, breaking blog etiquette and asking for something back. Vibes and comments will be especially appreciated this Friday 08•08•08 at 08:00.

squatter's rights?

Someone is trying to make his point...and mine. You see, I do in fact use the bbq. This new string and leaf nest appeared overnight. Not sure, but I don't imagine 24hours gives him much legal recourse as a squatter.

country convergence

Looks strangely similar to the gold scrap...?
I guess someone was making a home in my bbq. Not as meticulous as a bower bird, but somebody who was very resourceful. They found Bob's fur in the compost and combined it with a shredded bbq instruction manual.
A bower bird nest!!!!!!!!

diamonds are forever....

Here is a sample of what 4,604.00 USD buys you at your local scrap yard these days. There was no trace of my stuff being dumped this week, but I did battle for some prize goods. I had to battle because there is a pecking order. Although I was there first, the guy with the yamaka took me for a rookie and decided to "help me out" by going through the bins first and passing me crap he thought I'd like. His true motive however, was to get to the diamonds first. You see, the price of gold is so outrageous that it is not worth some people's time to bother separating the stones. Good thing I wasn't interested in the diamonds, they creep me out. We all know by now, thanks to Hollywood and beyond, that diamonds represent eternal love only by way of arms exchange and civil war. Gold is equally disturbing. Since the resource is so fine and scarce, it takes cyanide to separate it from the ore it lives in. The extraction process leaves traces of mercury, arsenic, lead and cyanide in our water systems. The nice thing about gold is that, unlike diamond, the old stuff can be reshaped and reformed ('I love Jesus' is not an uncommon charm) while maintaining its material integrity. My goal is to keep some of its formal history in the process of re-building. You can actually visualize the dead guy's story whose teeth are hanging from your ears...if you feel like it. Anyway, occasionally a diamond gets in my mix and this time it was a 12 pointer. We know it is a diamond because my local setter took a dremmel blade to it and it didn't even mark. This could be big business, but I have a better idea, I will work on a piece (not a skull) using these bits and donate it back to the cause....or the Iziko museum of South Africa.