DAY BY DAY, LIVING IN THE COUNTRY.....


I've decided to share some things that are almost every day happenings. This assortment of photos might give you an idea of what's up day to day.


Large numbers of  big brown bats roost under the soffits on the west side of our house (we've counted 60). Normally we sit inside come dusk and watch them "drop" and head off for another evening of eating mosquitos. Jerry Nicolaus and I decided to grab lawn chairs and watch from the outside. Not a bat attacked us. And, there's more. About a dozen small brown bats roost on the north side of our home behind the shutters. We sometimes watch them after one of our late evening meals. 

Karol has been teaching a three week English and American culture class for 30 Japanese students from Dokkyo University (near Tokyo). Each afternoon, they invite a guest speaker. I thought the applause at the end of my presentation on "retirement" was given with gusto.

At the end of my presentation (including pictures of bowl turning), I offered a bowl for a drawing. Yuriko was the lucky winner, able to take a "Made in the USA" souvenier back to Japan.

I have had this burl on my shelf for some time now. It's a piece of scotch pine (not at all good for making bowls since it is very soft). But the burl intrigued me, so last night, I thought I'd see what I would get. Later, I made a platter out of the thick pine board under the burl branch.

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The bowl turned out to be a real beauty. I had intended to make the "big chunk" into a bowl, but since the wood was so soft and "ugly," I kept turning it off. The burl itself is wonderful.

Do you remember the flat piece of wood under the raw burl? This is what the flat piece turned out to be. It's pine, but I wanted to experiment to see if I could make a flat type dish. The creation is 10" in diameter.



I made this "vase" several days ago. I'm not sure what kind of wood it is, but it came from St. Louis from Jerry Nicolaus' wood pile. It turned fairly easily. The flowers are sitting in a 13 grape glass tumbler.

 

There's only one caption that fits this picture of the doe that I was able to photograph standing right by the side of the road. "You really aren't going to hunt again this fall, are you?"

Dr. Shigeru (Shibo) Narita stopped by to visit this noon. We met many years ago when I was serving as a Prince of Peace Volunteer in Japan. Later, in Madison, we met again when he studied at the University of Wisconsin. How good it was to renew our friendship.