F$CK F%CK F&CK F*CK F@CK!

There aren’t enough four-letter words in the English language to describe the pain in my hand tonight.

I’m in the studio working on the first glass pendant of the night. While working, I decide to fume* the glass before turning it into a pendant. I grab the block of wood holding the fuming rod, fume the glass, set the block down, and then reach for another glass rod. At this point I experience SEARING PAIN in two fingers because in the fractional second between setting the block down and reaching for the glass rod, I managed to forget all about the fuming rod sticking straight up. It’s still glowing bright cherry-red (+2,000F (+1,093C)) and is currently sticking to both fingers that have touched it! A quick flinch frees my fingers and I dunk my entire fist into the glass of ice water I happen to bring out with me. Following the creed that every glassworker is taught (finish your work, then seek medical attention!), I finished making my pendant before shutting down the studio and heading for the First Aid kit in the bathroom to take a look at my fingers.

The damage? Some flash-seared flesh on my pinkie and ring fingers, with a little blackening on the ring finger.

* Fume: This tool consists of a hard glass rod with a bead of Sterling silver on the tip. When the silver is introduced to the torch flame, it boils. The fumes from the silver travel along the flame path and stick to the glass pendant or bead further out in the flame, changing the color of the glass and frequently giving a metallic sheen to the bead. Excellent ventilation is required for this because while silver-coated lungs are probably quite pretty and shiny, they’re also no longer useful for breathing.

Last week I worked in the now-vacant vegetable garden. I spread out a layer of homemade compost, raked up some additional leaves for additional organic matter then turned it all under by hand. Georgia is famous for our red clay “soil”. It’s great for terra cotta pottery, not so great for growing vegetables. Contrary to popular belief, adding sand to clay doesn’t help unless your intention is to make bricks.

So each year I add a little more organic matter, and each year it gets a little darker. This year it’s still light and fluffy from the last time I used a tiller on it, so I only needed a shovel to get it ready this year. I created six large raised beds and planted the garlic I had sprouting on the back deck. According to the UGA Cooperative Extension this is the right time to plant it even though it feels wrong to me. We’ll see. I’m betting the first hard freeze kills them all and I’ll have to sprout a whole new batch in March.

Justin was released from jail on October 31^st.  He was back in on November 9^th. Staying out of jail for nine days is a bit of a record for him these days. Way to raise the bar, Justin! He’s being charged with criminal trespass, theft by taking, five counts of theft by receiving, and giving false information to an officer. Bail is set at $35,000, another record. *sigh* At least no one can say we didn’t try to give him a better life when we adopted him, but he seems determined to follow in his birth family’s footsteps.

Tropical Storm Ida should be moving out today. It did and didn’t live up to all the hype we were fed through the media. I never saw the heavy torrential rains everyone was talking about. But the rain we did get has been very consistent since early Tuesday morning (not overly heavy, but certainly not light. I’d probably compare it to a short, fast summer shower that’s been going for 36 hours now.), and combined with already saturated soil made for quick and easy river flooding. Falling autumn leaves easily clogged a lot of storm drains so many streets have several inches of standing water.

After weeks of torrential rains and days only marginally brighter than nights, the sun finally decided to grace Georgia with a brief appearance.

Rivers and streams are not only overflowing, but most have already broken record flood levels. Many others will be breaking records over the next few days as even more rain starts moving in this evening.

Yesterday afternoon the crawlspace started flooding and the sump pump couldn’t keep up with the water coming in. The ground is so saturated with water that it’s started seeping up through the concrete in the garage and my sister did a great job getting everything up off the floor and onto tables or shelves. I ended up going out to the side yard in the heavy rain to unclog the yard drains and that definitely helped to ease the flow of water into the crawlspace. Michael and I spent the evening cleaning things up. Fortunately we didn’t get the rain that was expected last night. This morning the sump pump was activating every five minutes or so. We’ll see what tonight’s rain brings.

 
In the meantime, here's some photos of the flooding in and around the Atlanta area.

Wow. What a complete waste of time, money and effort!

Ok, that not completely true. There were some important lessons learned.

Lesson 1: My current garden plot is too shady. It was fine when I marked it out in the winter when the trees were bare and the sun was in a different position in the sky, but in the summer there’s just too much shade for anything to thrive. This 20’ by 50’ space should be an excellent winter greens garden, perfect for spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. I now know where to put next year’s summer garden.

Lesson 2: Seed companies lie. If they claim to have a “summer variety” or “heat and drought tolerant variety” of a normally cool-weather vegetable, don’t believe it! My special “summer variety” cauliflower, broccoli, and brussles sprouts were weak spindly plants that became worm food as soon as summer started.

Lesson 3: Plant the onion sets a little deeper than recommended. If you use the recommended depth they’ll just fall over in the slightest breeze or when watered.

Lesson 4: The “Square Foot Gardening” method sucks. Too much stuff grows out of reach and it’s too hard to get to the weeds. Always plant in rows you can walk down.

For the longest time Michael and I thought our compost tumbler contraption was a bust as well. Insulated to keep the generated heat in and dual chambers so you can fill up one side while the other side composts. It was supposed to be odor-free and super easy to use. We got it in December, and by March we were ready to throw it out. We set it up by the back deck so it would be easy to get to, but it reeked! The beneficial bacteria that were supposed to compost the food never got established and you could smell it as far away as the street. Monitoring the moisture levels was tricky at best. It couldn’t be too wet or too dry. Both chambers quickly filled up with rotting food that wouldn’t compost quickly enough. It was a nightmare! Finally we just moved it out by the studio and away from the house.

Then the Creepy-Crawlies moved into it! Thousands of horrible beige and black flat maggots nearly an inch long and a quarter-inch wide. The things nightmares and low-budget horror movies are made of! We would open the composter and the whole surface was simply seething with them. But then we noticed something else. The smell was gone. Completely! In its place was a faint rich earthy compost odor. And the food was disappearing faster then we could put it in. Extensive research online revealed that these were the larva of the Black Soldier Fly. The adults are nearly identical in size, shape and color to the common mud dauber, but they only live long enough to mate and lay more eggs. The larvas are voracious eaters, consuming the bacteria that causes the bad odors and  both vegetables and meat, either raw or cooked. Everything we put in gets devoured overnight. We currently have four adults and to toddlers producing food waste and it all just magically Goes Away and compost is being produced faster than we currently know what to do with it. Eventually it’ll all go into the vegetable garden, but right now it’s just in a modest pile beside the composter. These creepy-crawlies are my new best friends for the garden.

I just hope they keep working through the winter!

You found Michael on the last day of your visit to the shelter and won him over with your charming smile and youthful energy. He took you away from the cramped space you were given and gave you a new house to safeguard, with stairs to run up and down, a wide expanse of grass to run and play in, and endless woods and fields to explore. You were clearly the Master of this domain and he merely your servant. From then on, Michael’s whole world revolved around you. You taught him that low windowsills were begging to be chewed on, and therefore it wasn’t really your fault that you gave them what they wanted. In turn he gave you your prized possession; a small fuzzy fabric Frisbee that you carried with you for Michael to throw. You made sure Michael got lots of exercise throwing that Frisbee, then got even more chasing you to get it back.

One day Michael brought home another stray, this one named CJ. With your snaggletooth smile and charming personality, you wasted no time letting him know who was really in charge of the house and quickly put him on the same exercise routine as Michael.

You spent your days lounging in the sun on the back deck and running through the grass in the yard, with your short legs moving so fast they were only a ginger-colored blur beneath you. When you saw Michael and CJ standing in the grass watching you, you’d charge straight towards them at full speed, only to come to an abrupt stop right in front of them, panting heavily and with your curved tail raised high and proud.

The day Michael and CJ moved into a new house was a confusing one for you. The huge expanse of grass was nearly gone, but that was ok because now there were more woods and even a small river to explore, which you did at every opportunity. All too often you’d come back home soaking wet and your beautiful long ginger fur matted with mud. And so began CJ’s new exercise routine; installing a fence around the back yard. But clearly the entire back yard wasn’t large enough for you. You needed the whole world to run around in, provided that you were still close enough to home to be in time for dinner.

The years went by and Time took its toll. Your high-speed running was replaced with a curious loping jog where you appeared to almost be hopping along. The prime health of youth started to decline and one spring you fell ill to the point that Michael and CJ thought they were going to lose you. They comforted you the best they could and when Death came for you, you frightened him off with your snarling snaggletooth smile. Apparently he decided to play it safe and come back later.

Time continued to take its inevitable toll, as it does with us all. Deaf and nearly completely blind, you refused to let anything stop you. Your loping jog was replaced with a steady walking pace, and your long glossy ginger fur became streaked with grey. But you never lost that snaggletooth smile. Taking long naps in your many favorite beds and rugs, or better yet on clothing conveniently left on the floor, became your top priority.  

In the early morning hours of August 25^th, you told Michael and CJ that it was time for you to leave. They did their best to comfort and console you, but you insisted that this was it. So with many tears in their eyes they took you to your final visit to the doctor, and at 4:00am you crossed over the Rainbow Bridge and into the wide emerald-green fields beyond it.

You’ve finally inherited all the space you’ve ever wanted to explore. Full of endless fields and meadows to take naps in, deep forests with countless critters to chase and plenty of ponds and streams to splash around in. Just don’t go wondering off too far though. Michael and CJ miss you terribly and plan on catching up to you someday, but they’d be lost without someone like you to show them the way.

And besides, you’ll need someone to throw you your Frisbee!