We had some heavy rain and wind here the other day, and we lost a sweet gum tree.
Some guys offered to chop it up for us, but I figured it would be cheaper to do it myself. I’ve just got this small hatchet, but I’ve put in some good effort so far.
I am also collecting the green seed pods from the sweet gum, as they can be used to brew some healthy medicines.
We had a tree down on our pumphouse for the well a few years back.
We have just now gotten around to fixing the damage.
Fix isn’t the right word.
We’re putting a bandage on it temporarily until a professional can effect repairs.
Well, I decided to go ahead and build a fire in the firebox to harden up the clay.
Unfortunately, there are just too many impurities in the clay. I still need to process it quite a bit more before it will not break as it dries.
I also need to find some sort of fiber that I can mix into the clay to strengthen it so that it won’t break when it dries.
The part that broke is the cross beam that holds up the base layer to the kiln above the firebox. It is an elongated section of clay and so tends to break as I shape it.
My site pages don’t seem to be visible from browsers, and so my last few updates haven’t been seen.
I am working on a new backyard project.
I’m building a small Kiln in the backyard that I will be using to fire some clay tiles to place in the ditch at the front of the house.
I’ve been chronicling this as a photo gallery on my site page however, the site page is not currently visible from the WordPress website for some reason.
I’ve been thinking for a while that I want to terrace a portion of my backyard for additional growing space.
I have been watching YouTube videos and am particularly fond of the Primitive Skills channel.
Since I have an abundance of red clay available, I think I will be able to manage similar constructs. Though, of course, I will be using an actual shovel since I am in a hurry.
I do have two varieties of bamboo planted, however, they are not plentiful enough to use.
Perhaps the greatest challenge with all of this is all of the mosquitoes.
Fat Wallet Refugee 