Big Jaws and Little Jaws

The name of this photo is "Big Jaws and Little Jaws". I thought some would like to see the snowblower machines that keep us in touch with the world during the winter here. The little red machine helps take care of the snow in our 150-foot long driveway, and the big yellow machine keeps the roads in our area from becoming too tunnel-like. (Click on the photo for the best view.) 

"Big Jaws" can take wide swaths of 10-foot tall snowbanks and shoot them up or down onto the mountain sides. It has a 7-foot opening and the yellow 3-foot berm cutter which knocks the highest snow down into the opening where the giant auger is as it drives past at about 4 or 5 miles per hour. The snow shoots out of that giant top chute (which the operator can rotate to either side of the street as well as raise and lower) and the streets have 2 lanes once again.

On the days when Jaws is out and about, we can hear its engine (the entire long section behind the cab is the engine) for hours before it arrives on our street, so we tense in preparation. Will the operator see our driveway before he shoots snow 30 feet up into it? They usually know, but we've had a couple guys bury our driveway with it, so we are always outside when Jaws comes by, day or night.

Thankfully Jaws generally comes out only a few times each season, most especially when over 6 feet of snow falls over a 7-day period as happened this week. There is no other way to keep up with that much snowfall except to bring out the big Jaws!

Winter Views

Driving home from Christmas shopping on December 19th afforded us these lovely views of the valley below our mountains, (the Sierra Nevada mountains) with the western mountains shadowing the valley even as the lower eastern mountains (the Pine Nut mountains) were still bathed in sunlight. Please click on the photos for a closer view.

The small community nestled up against the mountain as we drove above it looks like it could be part of a Christmas card, with the barren trees and distant rugged ranchlands dusted with snow.

As we rise up the mountain, the valley fades into the distance as the steep road, the craggy mountains, the deeper snow and the pines take precedence. A few miles more and we'll be home.

Winter.... again

Just like clockwork, winter has struck again. The temperature dropped to 9 degrees last night, and then warmed up to 19 degrees today. Guess who is dressed in layers? :)

This is the view out the front door and across the valley to the east today.

So, like any good polymer clay aficionado who has no desire to be out in the elements, I've been playing, um, I mean working! Keep in mind that I'm supposed to be making Christmas ornaments - so where did these autumn-colors beads come from? An imprint mokume gane stack somehow appeared on my clay table last night, and these cute little earring beads are resulting. Of course they are not baked yet because I'm going to make about a hundred more of them before I preheat the oven. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Inspired by Cinnabar

I've been really "into" expressing myself via the monthly challenges that my Etsy guild, Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) holds each month. It's been very satisfying to carefully consider what each theme says to me and the art that I can create as a result.

For November, the challenge theme was "Asian-inspired", and mostly due to a suggestion from another guild member, I decided to try a faux cinnabar look. I really like it! I had a lot of fun mixing clay colors, then finding just the right hummingbird and flower mold that would give me that Asian flair. Once the piece was baked, it was time to get the finish just right. I added acrylic paint for that antique look, and then I sanded and buffed the piece for quite a long time to get just the right glow on the patina.

Please click on the photo below to see the vessel in all of its glory. :) And, please take a minute to vote in the challenge from Nov. 1-7 by visiting the PCAGOE blog here. There will be 3 voter winners, hopefully one of them will be YOU!

Bull

Yikes. Would that barbed wire fence have stopped him?

Please send workers into the harvest...

In this blog post, it will be revealed.. I am a Christian woman and deeply involved in a personal pursuit of God and all that He is. Said pursuit is great fun and I love it.

Several years ago, I read a missive about effective prayer, something that impacted my life greatly. One of the points in it explains that Christian people have an important job to do in the plan of salvation for humankind, and that is to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers out into the harvest field. In Matthew 9:38, Jesus instructs us as follows:

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest”.

Since Jesus said to do it, I began adding that request to many of our prayers, and so did hubby. We really didn’t know exactly what we were praying for at the time…. But what do you know, we found out. After years of praying that prayer, we were both touched by the Holy Spirit to check further into God’s plan, and since then we’ve learned tons of new information that was always right there in our Bibles but took depth of prayer and study to find. We are still studying, and we know there are many layers to God’s word that we haven’t discovered yet.

But back to that harvest prayer - we realized at some point that we had prayed ourselves right into actual “jobs”… because over time we’ve figured out that we are a couple of those labourers. Now don’t worry, I won’t go all “sermon-y” on any of you or anything, but the purpose of this post is to request something from all of you, I’m asking for your specific help. As is God, as explained above.

Although for me life has become infinitely happier from within, really glorious; as life does, it hands out some big problems from the outside. I’ve been dealing with some problems for the past year and a half that are difficult, to say the least. I’ve spent many days offline because it’s too hard to pretend that I’m fine, and I’ve been posting and living and doing my art with a heavy heart the rest of the time. I am not saying this because I need a pity party – not at all. What I need is help.

So I ask earnestly from all of you who pray to pray with me – “Dear Lord, please send forth labourers into your harvest”.

Whether you end up to be one of those labourers or not, you’ll be praying as Jesus asked, and you will be helping me at the same time. Because one of these days, one of those labourers that you’ve helped pray into existence is going to arrive at the door of the difficulties that I’m dealing with, and is going to help resolve the problem. I can’t resolve it, because it’s not my direct problem. I need outside help, and seriously, in my desperate prayers tonight, it was revealed that if there were enough labourers, a lot of problems would be resolved. For me, for you, and for everyone who loves God and knows that He is the way to a peaceful life here on Earth, as well as to a fantastically better life in our eternal future.

There it is – I’m asking for your help with this prayer, and I’m promising to keep asking God for help as Jesus instructed. Between all of us, we can assist with the furtherance of God’s plan by doing what Jesus asked us to… and I believe that will benefit each one of us individually as well.

So please allow me to say – thank you in advance! My faith is strong that you will want to help and that God will smile down on all of us as a result.

Wordless Wednesday

Back door silhouette

Wordless Wednesday

San Francisco's Union Square on a Saturday evening

Wordless Wednesday

One benefit of looking up - a silent glider floating past

Medieval Crown Jewelry Box - challenge entry

I made this small Medieval Crown Jewelry Box last week for the October edition of the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy's monthly challenge, the theme being "Medieval".

The jewelry box opens to hold a small piece of jewelry, some coins, or any small items that are special to you.

I had a tough time with this challenge initially, my plan was vague, "a castle", but when it came time to put it into action, I had nuthin'! So I began searching the web, and in the process I learned so much about medieval art and medieval times. I know I took that class in high school, why wasn't it as interesting then?

Finally, I came upon a video tutorial by Tejae Floyde for these small crown boxes, and I decided to see if it would have merit for the challenge. I was so pleased to be able to create this box by using her ideas! It was really fun and I'll be doing more and yes, they will be listed in my Etsy shop soon.

I hope you will vote in the PCAGOE challenge this month, please!! To do so, all you have to do is click on this link - Voting Link - and choose your favorites. Voting is until October 7th. Three voter winners will be happy to choose from the awesome prizes offered, one of them could be you!

Thanks for looking and extra thanks for VOTING!!

Lenticular Clouds Sunset

Tonight's sunset with a bold and dramatic Lenticular cloud formation totally rocked! I was surprised at how dramatic it was and took a lot of photos of it. Actually, it was better in person because the part of the cloud formation in this photograph is only about 1/4 of the total thing that was spread across the sky. God used his BIG cloudbrush for this one. :)

Please do click on the photo to see it in all possible glory. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Squares vs. Hexagons - All In A Day's Play

After a lovely visit from our young granddaughter, it was time to get down to brass tacks and clay again. I clayed while she was here but not with the same focus as when I'm working alone. She's a very mature 3-year old, but she's still a 3-year old.

I've had the nicest couple of days with my clay, falling in love with it all over again. Also, our clay buddy Matt of the newly opened ClaybyKerm at Etsy has done the impossible... he has me thinking in hexagons instead of squares! I just know he's laughing behind his hand as he reads this, as we've had a few conversations about square vs. hexagon. :) I'm not sure if he's completely converted me or not. Hexagons are rather interesting, though, as I'm learning.

Here is what is on my clay table today, and it was hard WORK (okay if I'm being honest it was hard play....), and I'm going back to play some more. Hope you like these!

Click to see larger photo:

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wild Ride - Reno, Nevada

Quail!

Quail show up for a brief couple of months at the end of summer here - they travel in family groups and they're really cute, but man, are they fast. And nervous. They are come and gone in an instant, running on their stretched-out legs and disappearing over a rock or behind a tree, in seconds. They also blend in with the ground and bushes really well, so they're hard to see.

But today I was blessed! My husband saw them and called out to me, and I was able to get some close up shots of a quail right near me, for some reason it either didn't realize I was there or it wasn't scared of me. I quietly opened the back door and click, click, click, I got a few pretty good photos:

I have a photo from last year with three of them running like mad across the lawn, they were over that edge in a second but my camera was quicker:

I hope you'll click, click, click on these photos to see them bigger. :)

I believe the species of quail in these photos are "Mountain Quail", but the photos on the Internet always show much fatter and sleeker quail than I see here in the high Sierra Nevada mountains. However, I did determine that these are not "California Quail" because they don't have the feathers on their fronts that look like fish scales. The main threats to quail are hawks, coyotes and feral cats, not to speak of hungry humans. Hunting is limited to 10 quail a day by permit as I understand it.

I enjoy seeing them each year and hope I can continue to photograph them in the future.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

Caldecott Tunnel near Oakland, California

Do You Pretend?

Do you pretend? I do! I pretend sometimes, so I don't have to face the facts. I hope we all do this and I'm not just some kind of weirdo... oh wait, I forgot, I AM some kind of weirdo and I like me this way. :)

But back to pretending, here is my confession - starting in July every year, when our summer finally arrives, I pretend that it's always going to be summer. I completely deny every little thought that summer actually has a beginning and ending. I've really become quite good at this game, despite the "fact" that where I live, summer is very, very short.

I go barefoot every day:

I go kayaking as often as possible:

I visit wonderful county fairs:

I travel far, far from home:

And I'm very sure that the flowers outside are going to look and smell this pretty forever and ever:

However, when on August 21st I find that I have to close every window in the house and turn off the fan at 6PM, and I notice that the sun has just about set at 7:15PM instead of 9PM... I don't sweat it (pun intended)... LOL, I just go put on some warm footwear:

and maybe a jacket, too:

Then I wait until the morrow, because when the sun warms us up again, I know I'll be kicking off that footwear, stripping off the jacket and whistling a happy tune - and once again I'll be pretending that summer is never going to end.

Wordless Wednesday

Pelicans at Lake Davis, California

The Thunderstorms of Life

The forecast calls for thunderstorms every day for the next week! The trouble with thunderstorms is when they're IN your life, not when they are outside the door. It seems like there are an awful lot of thunderstorms in my life for the past year or so - many more than I would have taken on if it had been my choice. It's very wearing when they won't go away, and you can't move away from them, either.

Here's a thunderstorm that was threatening and beautiful but passed away soon enough. This photo taken at the end of July above Silver Lake in California. I thought you'd enjoy seeing it. :)

Before & After, or: Phlox to the Rescue

We live on a hill, a big hill, and trying to keep the hill where it is has been a daunting task, one that my husband, in particular, has been working on for many years. And so, little by little, we win the the battle.

This is a photo of the driveway and house which is a "Before-Before" photo to show the driveway as it once was. (Click on photos to see larger).

The cliff over the side of the driveway is one of those spots where the hill erodes constantly. In order to allow the stuff that falls to collect someplace other than right on the driveway, he built the curbs (with a lot of help from our son and grandson), put in the gravel, and then built this small rock wall:

This summer, the approach to the house has been beautiful, due to the addition of some pink Phlox - I wish this photo showed how bright it actually is:

Here is a close-up photo of the Phlox. Isn't it pretty?

Wordless Wednesday

Click on the photo to see the lovely artsy details of this carnival ride.

Mid State Fair, Paso Robles, California - July 2012

Sizzling Rice Cane in Polymer Clay

I spent some time working on a CraftEdu class by Donna Kato called "Sizzling Rice Cane". Neat name! It was lots of fun to make this cane, it took some precision to get it right, then I kind of over-reduced it at the end. Still, I wanted to share my photos because I see this as a very verstatile cane and can imagine it taking on many personalities.

The first part, getting the "rice" to the right shape and then getting it into the pretty-much-exact center of a square of black clay, was the hardest. Definitely a time to go slow and make sure everything is just right before proceeding. (Click on photo to enlarge).

Then I added some more black.. this step decides how close together the rice kernels will be in the finished cane.

After combining eight kernels, the cane looked like this:

And finally, the cane with 16 kernels is below. As I said, I over-reduced it a bit and that made it go slightly wonky, but for a first try I'm pretty happy with it.

I will be sure to share whatever I use this cane for here at a later date. My thanks to Donna Kato for sharing this techinique with the polymer clay community. If you would like to make this cane yourself, you can go to CraftEdu.com by clicking on this link for the Sizzling Rice Cane. Have fun, and be sure to share your results!

Wordless Wednesday

Out the front door - Monday July, 23, 2012