Each day brings us something new

Yesterday we became the new owners of an 8 foot drainage pipe and 2 yards of gravel... how is that for excitement?! The drainage pipe at the end of our driveway is completely plugged up. The DOT is doing drainage work in the area and they are going to clean it out. Since the end of our drive is quite narrow, they agreed to extend the pipe and cover it with gravel, if we bought the materials. We had to jump on this opportunity quickly and our new lawn guy delivered everything in time for the work to be completed. Of course the DOT let us know yesterday that they were coming on Monday... it was a scramble to organize it all while trying to finish loading the gas kiln. In the end we held off firing until today so that it wouldn't be an all nighter.

What is really exciting is that our lawn guy bush hogged behind the house and we now have a sweet spot cleared for a nice big garden. Our plan is to clear a few more trees and brush, which will give us a nice view of the neighboring pasture. We've also discovered that we have quite a few pecan trees and more blackberry bushes!

And now for something completely different...
Last week we were a little disappointed that we would not be able to watch Steven Colbert host the late show. None of the streaming services that we have were going to carry it. There was no way we were going to pay for another service to watch one show. So what was our low tech solution?

We bought an old fashioned antenna! It was cheap ($40) and arrived yesterday. Last night Jeff took it out of the box, placed it on top of our empty CD rack (still haven't unpacked those) and, VOILA! Crystal clear picture and lots of channels. Imagine how much better it will be when it's on the roof.
Our home sits on top of a small hill, overlooking Seagrove. We figured we were in a good spot for an antenna...
Now if  DISH network and Time Warner would stop sending me junk mail, every other day, with all those fabulous "deals".

found (fond) memories...

We have been preparing for Jeff's trip to S. Korea, figuring out what we have for suitcases, electrical converters, passport, cameras...
On the camera front, we decided that Jeff should take the newer camera so I dug out my old Sony that is 10 years old. It's only 2.1 megapixels but it should get me by for blog pictures while he is away. I charged the battery and turned it on this morning. Low and behold there were picture on there from 2010! Jeff must have taken them...

It's the gypsy potters school bus... towing Jeff's pickup truck! We were heading south and stopped at my parents house to say good bye.

I am sure that Mom and Dad were thrilled to have our hippy bus parked in front of their home with the perfectly trimmed hedge. My Mom would also not be thrilled to know I posted this pic on the web when she didn't have her hair "done"...she will never know because at 85 years old they are clueless about the internet.
My parents sold their house in Nashua last year and moved to an apartment in Dover, NH. Most of the relatives are there and they are closer to my sister. The manicured yard was getting too much for Dad to take care of and he was never happy with how anyone else did it. I was happy to find this photo of the house I grew up in as well as some more recent photos of my parents.

a new community

last night jeff and i attended our first Seagrove Area Potters Association (SAPA) meeting.  we joined just prior to our move down here.
the meeting was a welcome break from all the cleaning, unpacking, etc.  it was nice to reconnect with the potters i met this spring and have the opportunity to meet new people.  this is such a welcoming community and i am really excited about being a part of it!

little by little we are clearing more space to be able to move around in the log cabin... the kitchen is close to being unpacked.  today i think i will tackle the living/dining room, while jeff finishes installing a new vanity in the bathroom... the biggest challenge is trying to get furniture to the second floor via a spiral staircase....

...we remove a second floor window and hoisted the bed through it!  we don't want to do that with the rest of the bedroom set, so our dressers will stay in a small room off of the bath... to make it sound extra fancy we call it our "dressing room".
... back to work now so that i can get closer to being back to work with clay!

headin' south... again.

today is the day we head to seagrove with all the contents of our northwood home!  it will be a quick trip as we will be back next weekend to unload the wood kiln and attend the potters guild meeting.  after that we will dismantle the gas kiln at the studio and load that and the rest of the equipment on to the bus.  the logistics of this move has been a little overwhelming at times.  i am very anxious to be settled in seagrove and back to doing what i love...MAKING POTS!
here is one last pic for the road...

a peek inside the kiln

see ya in seagrove... hope our internet is connected when we get there!

the continuing adventures of the gypsy potter and swirly girl...

the seats are out of the bus!  once jeff figured out the trick to getting them unbolted it went pretty smoothly... he worked under the bus and i worked inside with a ratchet.  most of the bolts we just snapped off.  when we were done we caulked all the holes with silicone.

one of our concerns was about how to get rid of bus seats... hurray for facebook! we posted that we had seats to give away and very quickly they are almost all spoken for and taken away.  people wanted them for all kinds of things... seating around a campfire, extra seats for a musicians bus... the best one is tree-house furniture!  we are feeling good about recycling them.
today we covered all the windows - i can't WAIT to post pictures of how that turned out.
...we started to load the studio into the bus tonight - tomorrow we load some household stuff and head to seagrove for trip number one.
stay tuned for more of our headin' south in a bus adventure!

did i happen to mention...

... that jeff and i decided to move to seagrove, nc?