I’ve rarely taken a hiatus from writing in The Dirt since starting it way, way back in January of 2015, but sometimes a break is good and I also don’t like to clog up inboxes with nada, so here we are two months later. Thank you to all of you who reached out concerned when you noticed that The Dirt wasn’t showing up – it’s always nice to know people are out there in cyberspace reading this!
To catch you up, it’s been a hot and dusty summer here in the desert. Most of my time has been devoted to the dogs these days since we officially adopted Cazadora, who then promptly needed surgery but she’s recovered and is doing great. Our morning walks on an empty beach are the highlight of the dogs days and with the water warming up, we jump in whenever we can. While we are missing the whales of winter, instead, the sea turtles have been coming up on the beach to nest, schools of rays have been swimming so close in shore that you can see them in the breaking waves and I even found paper nautilus shells washed up on the beach. Keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes and super weird bugs is also a highlight of summer. As my neighbor says, it’s not for the feint of heart but the adventure keeps you on your toes and the inspiration from nature is everywhere. Now, we hope to get through the September rain storms without issues and without hurricanes, while quenching the thirsty desert!
It’s been hard to make a lot of progress on projects because of the heat, but we have plugged away at a few things. I finished tiling the studio sink counter top, which was a bigger endeavor than I anticipated but I love the way it turned out. Little details like getting artwork up on the walls, designing curtains and making shelves from the pallets we used to move our things here, take time to do but make the biggest impact on the finishing touches of the space.
The most exciting move forward is my generator to run my kilns and Nate’s welder has arrived! It’s a beast of a thing and it needs a lot of planning for hooking up the electrical and the propane to it, but once it’s set up – we will be a fully functional ceramic studio! Wahoo! Nothing is easy or fast when you live off the grid, in the middle of nowhere, but it’s totally worth it.
