Field Piggies

The piglets from a few weeks ago are twice as big now and having a fine life rooting through the long grass and rolling in the gloppy mud in their pasture.  The mothers look worn out.

Drew these from photos I took of them-- too buggy to stand out there sketching!

Not As Much Fun As Plow Day, But ---

We have a screened back porch that we live on in spring, summer, and fall.  This summer's liquid air left behind odd blotches on the screens that turned out to be gunky black mold.  P and I devised an arduous-sounding plan that involved propping the 18 foot extension ladder against the roof overhang (the porch is on the second story in the backyard) and fitting an eccentric drill bit into each of the bazillion screws and removing all five of the 10x5foot screens that needed cleaning.

The prospect of this daunting job got me thinking in a more Occam's Razor-like way.  I fiddled around with some Method bathroom spray and some Windex and a brush.  After a few experiments I realized all we needed to do was spray the mold spots, no brush required.  Windex and Method each worked perfectly.  It took only one hand to do the job, so I talked on the phone to my oldest best friend from high school, and after our two hour conversation I had four empty bottles and five clean screens, and no need to put them back up because I never had to take them down.  What is done with fewer is done in vain with more---

Plow Day!

The hand-lettered sign down at the corner of the college road and hwy 70 said Plow Day 9-3.  P and I walked through waist-high wildflowers down the hill and across the river under a crackling blue sky to the back of a field where we met up with M for a day of draft-horse-powered field work demos.  I was excited to get to draw, but it was a challenge.  Nothing stood still for long.

It was like a movie set for a 1920s film about family farms.  Teams of draft horses-- stocky Suffolks with white forelocks drifting down their faces, black  percherons that looked like medieval war horses, Belgium brabants, and even a team of sweet little mules-- pulled old-time plows and ride-on plows up and down the field.

At one point, which we unfortunately missed, teams competed in a logging race in which they pulled trees through a course simulating pulling big logs out of a woods.

Meanwhile teams rested up and teamsters stood around talking.  We asked lots of questions.  I was especially interested in the plows and how they worked.

One guy explained the difference between donkeys, mules, and jackasses to me.  Another told us all about how his hillside plow worked.

I so wanted to ride on a plow, but only the owners got to do that.  Love Plow Day!  

Bliss

My niece sent two large boxes of dog food bags for F and me to use in our recycled bags project (www.weRpiecework.blogspot.com) yesterday;  and Jesse has hardly moved from his perch on top of them.

He paws them, scratches them, rolls on the top, sleeps on them--

grooms obsessively and

cannot be pryed away.  Better than a $300 cat hotel.

 

Jesse's Favorites

Jesse is back to his old pre-owl-attack self, and his favorite toys are scattered all over the house.

Contours

Contours are tricky because they don't exist.  To create them you have to become an ant and crawl millimeter by millimeter around a horizon andthen trace   cross-contours wherever you can find a groove.  L and D's pepper and garlic bulbs are perfect for this trick.  The most abstract of figurative drawing.

Quail Eggs and Emerald

My friend L greeted me tonight (when I arrived for a studio night together) with a small bowl full of quail egg shells.  We've both been sitting here drawing and painting them.  I also drew the in-matrix emerald that her husband gave me to send to Nate, who collects rocks!