Robert W. Wallace

One last story because I want his name in cyber space.
   I do not understand writing people off, erasing them like a mistake on a chalkboard.  I think that I remember every single person that I have ever met.  Maybe I might forget their names but each meeting has a response and adjusts the filters through which I see.
   "Bob" Wallace was a friend of my brother's, a part of his gang that gathered around my parent's house in the early 1960's.  The Vietnam era, get out the vote era, segregation era, before "hippies" were invented, still a "beatnik" era.  For some this time was about drive ins, hamburger joints, motorcycles and girls two and a half kids, a white picket fence and "leave it to Beaver".  Ozzy and Harriot kind of life.  The draft had started and for other's life became a bit more serious.
   Bob's parents had a plan for him.  It is always interesting how we are let down by our expectation of others.  Like we couldn't quite figure it out ourselves so we expect other's to do it for us.  Live out our dreams.  They were rich by the standards of our little town.  His dad was the Superintendent of Schools, a pretty important job in those days, a job with high expectations.  Bob was supposed to go to Cal Tech and become an engineer.  He was smart enough.  Could have been like Steve Jobs although he dropped out of school too.  Bob went to Cal Tech for a term and dropped out.  That wasn't the carrot he wanted to chase.
   I knew Bob for maybe three years.  He had a huge influence on my life.  He was buried on one of the tallest hills in Corvallis and I used to ride my bicycle to his grave site to visit him.
   For the longest time it was an unmarked grave; years passed before a marker was set.  His mother didn't go to the funeral or visit him in the hospital where he was in a coma.  His father visited him once for about five minutes.  Years later when his father died there was no mention of Bob in that obituary.
   Bob died in a Vespa accident.  A simple flat tire sent him head over heals and without a helmet his head took the brunt of the fall.  The issue with his parents could have been anything.  I am not sure whether it has any importance.  Could have been the times, just failed expectations,  maybe even something I don't know about.  I know he didn't have insurance.  Maybe it was that?  His dad sent him money for insurance and he spent it on a stereo system instead.  He liked music.
   One day, maybe twenty years later, I went to visit his grave.  I did this at least once a year, sit and talk with him, tell him what was happening, what was going on.  I would always steal a flower from another grave site and place it on his.  He would have appreciated the humor to that, the absurdity of everything.  We laughed a lot.
  On this particular day he wasn't there.  I knew exactly where he was supposed to be, by the side of the little narrow lane, next to a little pine tree and close to a rose bush.  Poof! He was gone, just like that.  Like he never was.
   I found the caretaker and he told me that Bob was dug up and cremated.  His marker so much broken marble behind the crematorium.  Disappeared.  From guilt or hatred or embarrassment I don't know.
   Robert W. Wallace.  I remember you.

Stuck at 36

I am thinking my Blog, this Blog, "Hang Art" has come to a full conclusion.  I began it and named it such because I was frustrated by all the empty wall space in my little town and the general lack of support for artists.  We needed space to "Hang Art" and it was supposed to be a simple blog.
   Then, wouldn't you know it, I got Cancer and my life changed considerably.  I was full of ideas and emotions and stories I just had to express.  I thought to myself "what would I do if I had a year to live?"
The stories tumbled and fell and became too much for a single blog.  For awhile I had three.  This one, my Cancer Blog and the total story of the day to day battle on my ArtWanted Art site. That can be found Here.http://www.artwanted.com/slate.
   Cancer will make you serious.  It will do that to you.  If you are worth a damn it will make you reexamine your life, retrace your trails, find old acquaintances and meet new friends.  I discover painting along the way and have shared that experience with you all.  The Blogs have been helpful to me.  When I was at my sickest
when I had lost 50 pounds and could barely walk and people might ask me how am I doing, I had an answer for them.  "Doing fine, thank you," didn't seem appropriate.  It is not the right answer for one with such an ailment.  I wanted to tell people what I was really feeling, what was going on, all of me.  The Blogs allowed me to do that.
   If you have read them you have really gotten to know me.  This is how I really am, what I do and how I think and what concerns me in life, what I value.  I have met friends from all over the world on this blog, friends I will cherish.  You know about my "little island studio" in my back yard, my isolation from the world and last year my purchase of a Tom-Tom, the first time off this island in years and years!
   I have no more stories.  You pretty much know it all.
When I talk politics on this Blog I get the feeling that I am putting you to sleep.  That is a big disappointment to me.  This is not a political blog, not the right forum for that sort of thing.  There are other blogs for that.
There are also cooking blogs and I have posted recipes here.  It is my blog and I post everything here.  It is me.
   Our country is in deep trouble.  When it is difficult to find a common ground amongst the artist community,
when it is so very hard to even get a conversation going, I am discouraged.  I never even knew that artists could not be open minded.  I always thought that we were an advancing force.  Investigators and creators.
   My Blog has run full circle and it is time to end it.  A finished book.
   I like blogging and there will be another, an excuse to sit and gather my thoughts, write them down and organize, plan and plot and think out loud.  It won't be political although I am political.  I have questions and am suspicious, cautious and diligent.  I have voted Republican And I have voted Democrat.  My eyes are wide open and I listen to my heart.  I protect the Earth.
   I don't know what it will be or even when it will be.  I might just be making longer comments on your blogs and leave it at that.  Or start the computer blog for idiots.  I have the qualifications for that.
I am happy with my little warm studio and I will be doing more painting.  I can never stay away too long from steel and that shop is only a wall away.  When I make something interesting I will post it on my
ArtWanted Site.  You can always visit me there and leave comments too. It is only the art of me there.
   I have been all over the world in this blogosphere and have friends everywhere.  One day I might show up on your back porch so don't be surprised!  I have a Tom-Tom!
   2012, a New Year is close at hand.  Those who believe in doom and Armageddon and the Mayan Calendar will be happy.  Sort of a big Y to K experience, remember that one?  Are we supposed to conquer this Earth or take care of it?  Always questions!  I hope all the best for everybody, that the new year will be prosperous in Spirit, a kinder and gentler place.
   And Merry Christmas!  I hope the Season is healthy and wonderful for all. ending now, Jerry Carlin

When We Only Hear Half

There is a problem with arguing and I seldom do it.  When we are talking, especially when we raise our voices, our ability to listen is curtailed and we seldom hear what was said.  This is probably more true about politics than  domestic quarrels.  If government were turned over to private enterprise most of them would be fired.
   It sounds so reasonable when the House Speaker wants to create a budget for an entire year.  Do you want to face this financial issue every two months?  Grinding the government to a halt and preventing real discourse?  Of course we do not want a government financed two months at a time!  That is so obvious that we know it must not be the issue!  Something else is going on.  They talk one thing and do another.  Obfuscate, I think, is the word.  God, we have to deal with this shit for a year and a half!  Why can't we all just get along?
   It is probably about several things, always more than we are told, always more than we care to listen to.
Obama's strength is certainly not in bending others to his will and this close to an election the Republicans will do nothing to make him look good.
   It is the Pipeline that bothers me.  It has been tagged onto the recent budget issue by the Republicans and it is the main reason why they can't or won't reach any kind of compromise.
   One one side the Pipeline sounds good.  Twenty thousand jobs and oil to Texas.  Oil is on a World Market Price so it will not be cheaper but at least bought from friends and closer.  I might even be in favor of this but I think it is a serious issue and should deserve a separate hearing, an argument for another day, not attached to another.
   I do not know "the real price" for this pipeline.  Will it weaken our Environmental Laws and give us the pollution of Mexico?  I do not know.  Oil from the shale of Canada is about the dirtiest oil there is, difficult and expensive to process, complicated and polluting to acquire and refine.  It is necessary to "fracked the Earth" (sounds dirty, doesn't it?) to get it.  Fracking is a process of injecting chemicals deep into the Earth to release the oil.  It destroys water tables.  Pollutes wells and destroys aquifers.
   There are good things and bad things about the pipeline.  It is a very serious issue, far too serious to be tagged along side of a payroll tax bill.  There must be a reason they do not build a refinery in Canada near to where this oil is?  and then just sell us nice clean gas?  Lots of questions!
   Most arguments are never about issues anyway.  They almost always come from a loss of trust.  They are about power and control and, of course, money.  I wonder who profits?
   We should have a deep, reverent respect for this Earth.  We are all passengers and it is our only ship.

On a different note I am considering starting a computer Blog for idiots!  Would that be fun?

My website is HERE

The Downward Spiral: (In)Famous Last Words

The Downward Spiral: (In)Famous Last Words

these are pretty fun and funny quotes. Bill's blog itself is pretty bleak but these are fun to read quotes.

In Mourning

My computer is seriously ill and soon I will be pulling the cables and I wonder what will happen?  In a way
I am IN there.  The images I have caught on camera,  my paintings that only exist in the digital world, every piece of steel art photographed and documented, my personal thoughts, a hundred stories from my past, my entire battle with the demon Cancer, that train ride through hell, my very first steps into this computer world, my stumbles and falls and friends I have made along the way all reside in this computer.  It is a journal of my life, the only book I will ever write.  In so many gigabytes it knows who I am.
   Oh, I can "flash drive" her.  I know that.  Like memories of first kisses they get filed to the back into obscurity, lost and lied to and misremembered.  Something "alive" becomes a computer chip in a drawer.

 I am  IN this computer!

I am hesitant to pull the plug although my new computer is sitting right next to me, tempting, sleek, modern and fast.  Beautiful, clean and shiny and black.
   My old computer is demanding and I think there are one hundred and twelve wires connected to her.  She is fat and broad and takes up a lot of room on my desk.  She has grown slow and dull and old but she is a tough old bird.  I remember when I got her she was about five then and already middle aged for a computer.  She was a gift from my daughter and I had purchased her five years earlier when she went away to college.
She was the best available in her day, $2,500 more than I paid for my first brand new car!  After five years at school she was worn out, tired and out dated when she arrived into my messy shop.
I was always told that you had to be so very careful around a computer, always clean and spotless with no dust or dirt.  That is why I never had one in my shop.  It is pretty dirty here.  Steel dust and spilled coffee and paint everywhere.

 New Hot Lover!

   "It is worthless dad, you can't hurt it," my daughter said.  And so we began.  This computer has been a tough fine friend and has taught me "everything" I know and she knows things about me that no one else knows.
   I wonder about the Internet and Ethernet and cyber space.  I wonder whether each typed word, every image, my deepest thoughts will be retrievable.  Immortality that way, huh?  The real reason artists do what they do.
   My new computer is next to me with no wires nor cables, just mysterious rays that zap from my house to my shop, though walls and around the trees.  The neighbors might have these too.  Rays hitting rays, we are surrounded.
   She is sleek and hot and fast and I am a little afraid to touch her!
   If you want to take her for a spin, help me try her out, she has a new address.  I will at the end of this year pull the plugs from this computer and my new email will be:  slate2235@gmail.com
It is a good address now because I can't let go.  I have two computers!  Jerry

Modern Technology!

I am almost there!  This will be a confessional of sorts but nothing really graphic or bloody.  My computer is on its death bed and has in fact been pretty sick for a long time.  It is in my shop and black from steel dust and at ten years is just plain old.  I am told the Rams are full to the top and the gigabytes have been eaten.
There is no more room, no digital expansion, no more space between the electrons, nothing.
   Slow has been okay for me.  I have learned a great deal from this speed and often it has matched my own.
I can watch utube seven seconds at a time then it reconfigures and adjusts, pausing to get direction and space.  Some of you have emailed me or attempted "live chat" while this computer was attempting something else and, good old friend that it has been, it is incapable of doing two things at the same time.  It cannot multi-task.
   I have slowly introduced myself to this modern world.  There is another computer in the house but it is clean and sleek with no scars from actual living, not even a speck of dust.  It is the "house computer", my wife's computer and I have never touched it.  However, she is sleek and modern (the house computer, not the wife) and well connected.  High speed cable with all the bells and whistles!  Can dance and sing at the same time and knows tricks this old country boy has never heard of!
   My shop computer and I are friends and it has been a wonderful and slow friendship.  "Friends first"!
She is connected to a land line and tethered like that is a bit timid and slow with the world.  As friendships sometimes go, she remains the same while I have changed.  Breaking up has not been easy.  I am confronted with decisions that I have never faced.  I am so used to her pauses and hesitation.  I know when she is just plain not thinking!  I confess that when she was at her worst, when she was just so very slow, I was thinking about another!  Yes I was.
   There is nothing ever that will replace a first love.  You can never regain that singular experience that always comes with fantasy and unrealistic ambitions.  In a way this first computer and I grew up together.
I think she taught me everything she knew and she was patient, I'll give her that.  With a new computer I wanted an entirely different experience.  Not repeating the same kinds of things.  I want to go FAST!
   I did justify this divorce.  The old computer and its provider service have been expensive mistresses, forcing me to keep a land line and tying me to two providers, the cable for the house and connected to the telephone in my shop.  I have no cable connected to the shop and always thought that these relationships just had to be the way they were.
   Then I discovered, several years later because I am pretty slow too, Wi-fi!  With a router gadget I could free myself from the world of wires and cables!  Unbound!  Untethered!
   So for the rest of December I have 2 computers!  Then there will be changes!  I am at the first kiss stage
now and find it difficult to let go.  I'll keep you posted on what happens.  I think I will be losing my email address and have to find another.  As a part of this freedom experience I will be abandoning my land line telephone number that I have had for over 40 years!  I don't know what to do about that yet.  I am not yet comfortable with my new found freedom!

No Ticker Tape Parade

No giant parties to welcome home the troops, so sense of accomplishment, not even much of a sense of relief, not even a sigh.  The war in Iraq is officially over!  Nine years, our longest war ever and it may go down in history as the war that never was.
   Officially it was Bush's War, a misguided response to 9-11, costing over $800 Billion and counting.  More than 4,500 dead American youngsters, our very best and strongest, over 32,000 seriously wounded.  Obama ran on the promise to end this tragedy and he did.   There should be celebrating, dancing in the streets and parties into the night, but there won't be.
   This was a war that we never felt.  It was not on television every night like the Vietnam war.  On a daily basis most of us never knew what was happening and probably couldn't even find Iraq on a map.  Shiites or Sunnis, we wouldn't know which was what.
   There was no rationing for this war, no scrounging for metal bits for the war effort, not even a tax to support the war effort.  All of it, the entire nine years has been put on our credit cards.  We had no idea what we were buying, how much it was going to cost.  It was a war without education and the National News should feel ashamed.  That "fifth element" of government did nothing.
   Thank you, President Obama for doing what you said you would do.  Maybe now we can concentrate on the Home Front, jobs here at home, what we need so badly.  So sad there is no jubilation, no pride in a job well done and over with.  We know the bill will be in the mail.

The Proof is in the Pudding!

I think the most precise art, the most exacting and finely crafted masterpieces are edible.
   The microwave oven has been the most destructive invention ever to the culinary experience.  If we are what we eat it is no wonder we have lost a sense of purpose and have an empty unfulfilled sensation.  No sense of accomplishment other than to say, "yeah, I did that", heated up the instant dinner in the microwave!
   I think modern people know so much less than generations before us.  We no longer darn socks and most of us wouldn't even know how to do this.  Bread is something that comes from the store and is wrapped in cellophane, a nice meal is purchased from the deli in styrofoam containers.
   I like the Christmas Season because for two weeks in the year all of this changes.  Pots and pans almost never used are dug out from the back of the cupboard, grandma's old recipes are carefully read over and the smells of good food permiate the entire house.  People are cooking!
   There is a satisfaction in making something and sharing it with others that we are rapidly losing.  In our modern technological world we are becoming all the more capable of making nothing!  That is the sense we get.  Today I made nothing.  I am a maker of nothing.  That is who I am.  Nothing.
   So in this Season, for two weeks we can become something, a candy maker, a candle maker, cookie, bread maker.  Maker of gifts.  Joy maker.  Creator.
   I think artists are aware of this desire, this necessity to make things, to create and share.  And I think a good cook, a well prepared meal, a nice loaf of bread, a plate of home made cookies is art in itself.  All of the senses are captured, sight, smell, and I can eat it.  It is the best art, produced from the soul and appreciated by all.

 My Daughters, cooking!

I can be found HERE

The Job Completed!

If "feeling the burn" is a good part of exercise then I did pretty good yesterday.  I feel it everywhere.  My effort to save the deer is finished, now they should just be embarrassed when they fail to jump the fence.
   I was reminded while working there that it was these same clients who just last year wanted me to make an iron base for a 20 pound piece of marble.  A piece of marble I could not lift out of their car!  That cancer stuff and chemo cure seem like a lifetime ago, a different me entirely.  I remember not being able to turn the key with one hand in the ignition of my little truck.  Two hands to start the car and I could barely walk a block.  What a difference a year makes.  I am so lucky!
   I have done most of my Christmas shopping too and the challenge I gave myself was pretty easy.  Buy only
stuff Made in U.S.A.  You can "Google" that and get pages and pages of content, tons of ideas, lots of holiday discounts and often free shipping.  I bought a lot of clothes this year mostly because I came up with the idea for this Christmas, "wear American or go naked"!  It is not going to be as exciting as I thought.  We make a lot of clothes!  We even make socks!
   I think we must be poor marketers because we do make a lot of stuff and no one is aware of this.  We need a naked Paris Hilton to push our wares.  Maybe naked but dressed in American clothes?  We have no spokesperson, no one telling us what is available or where to get it.  Don't get me wrong.  I like foreign things, exotic things.  I just prefer the days when French Perfume was made in France and not in a vat in a Chinese prison camp.  My Mexican friend, Oscar, tells me that all Mexican souvenirs are now made in China as are most American Flags!

 Stone Post with Light Fixture

   I liked shopping "on line".  There were no crowds, no tattered and littered piles of gone over stuff.  I didn't feel pushed or rushed and in a hurry.  I could leisurely read about the product and in most cases I was prompted.  If you liked that then you might also like this!  Clever, someone was paying attention to me!
   I think I enjoyed my Christmas shopping experience this year more than ever.  I spent no money on gas whatsoever and in fact did most of my shopping while in my bathrobe!  Now if we could only get Paris to do that!

I make Big Art, you can see it HERE

A Job Half Done

In the front of this property the deer are safer.  I would imagine that it is not all ideal being a deer.  There are coyotes and cougars around here and probably hunters too but at least this fence will no longer harm them.  I built this fence P.C. (pre cancer) years ago and it really amazes me when I see it now.  A Grand Entry and over 300' of ornamental iron fence.  I had discovered steel finials by then and unlike cast iron finials these will not break off.  The fence was designed to keep a couple Scotty Dogs in the property not to make it deer proof.  Sometimes a lazy deer would not jump hard nor high enough and would become impaled on the fence.

 One of my "Stone Posts"

   So I have added a "trip bar" over the finials and now a failed attempt will not become fatal.  The front of the property is completed and today I will complete the back section.

 Picture to prove it.

   For the record I wore boots!  It was cold, freezing and damp when we began and you could see the frozen spider webs along the fence line.
   I am so sore and so tired!  I won't even tell you about my hands; I don't want to hear it.  Today it will be done.

More of what I do is HERE

Sometimes Nothing Happens

Oh Dear, I am getting e-mails, "are you alright? you are not blogging!"  No, I am not laying on the beach in some tropical Paradise and I am not so engulfed in my painting that I am left unaware of the world around me.
I think I am in a "Winter Mode".  My little gallery is finished, warm and pristine in it's cleanliness. Everything is organized, three easels set up, brushes out and tubes of paint all in categories of color. I am ready but nothing is happening!
   I welded and cut steel and fabricated for three days, working on my "deer fence trip bar" and all of the pieces are at the powder coated being painted.  I like this time in a job.  What I can do has been done and I am waiting on other's.  My excuse.  I am waiting.
   Truthfully the thought of this fence makes me tired.  Over 300 feet, 37 pieces with different measurements
by maybe an eight of an inch for a precise fit.  Numbered and marked in a secret code I hope that I remember.  I will need to take ladders with me for the installation.  I am mentally making a list.  All of my battery tools and extra batteries, the concrete drill  for just the one single fastener that will be in brick, drill bits, tech screws and the level, of course.  What if I mismeasured?  I need a way to fix any error on the job.
Anticipations for when things could go wrong!
   It is going to be cold and I do not look forward to that.  I will dig my boots out from the back of the closet and curse because I know the laces are broken.  Always, next time, I tell myself I will replace them!
My hands hurt and the cold weather just makes them worse.  If I wear gloves I can't pick anything up.  I have always hated gloves.  It will be a three vicodine day, I am sure of that!
   At the moment nothing special is happening.  That is mostly the case while you are waiting.
   I am reading though.  I found a great book and will tell you about it when it is finished.  It is about America, a very great recession, about Cancer, about Grover Cleveland, the death of American Industry and bankruptcy.  Just like now in a way but 1895.  We have been here before!
   So I am hibernating, put away for winter like my garden, curled up in front of the fire with a good book.

A Room With a View

My  little gallery/studio room is finished, at least as much as anything is ever finished in my life.  Life is all about change, additions and subtractions, making things do and making them comfortable.  Sometime this Spring I will add a window or at least replace the door to the back with one that has a openable window.

 Three big blueberry plants outside the front entry.

The ventilation would be nice and I would have more natural lighting.  The main door has a window in it that looks towards the garden and my little plunge pool so I do have a view.

   I like my new room.  The floor (thank you SoozeeQ!) came out great, colorful, hodgepodge, historical and very much "me".  Two coats of "wet-look lacquer" will keep it nice and easy to clean.  More spilled paint will just make it even better.

 The room is waiting for me.

   Mostly it is warm and I love that!  Oregon has cold, rainy winters and it is freezing now.  I have begun the process of moving in, sorting this and that, finding places for things.

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 Soozee's Floor!

 It is my "shop side", the other side of this wall where I can make money and do the metal art I know how to do.  I have no fantacies about creating an income from this gallery side but it will be warm and inviting and offer me another opportunity to try something different.  It will also offer an enticing place to seduce customers!  I will find some metal art to put in this room.
I think my photos are getting screwed up so I will stop for today!  The last one which will probably appear HUGE here but I have lost it is one of my office door, the back door and the door to my "junk room" that I haven't entered yet! yipes!

You can always find me HERE

Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty

That is my generation, who said that?  I am officially a "part of the problem" today.  It is my birthday and,
man o man, it creeps up on you!  I am 65 today!  and on... Medicare!  That is like saying I am a patient when I am not even sick!  I can get Senior Citizen's Discounts! and I think, a free fishing license!
   I remember my daughter once had a sign posted on her door that said, "Old enough to know better, too young to care!" and I want that sign now, it fits me to a "T".  I am liking this age and pretty much do what I want.  Some days I do a lot and other days I don't accomplish a damned thing and I don't criticize me for it.
I am lucky to even be here.  My year 63 was the battle of my life with Cancer and I won that fight and the year 64 was pretty much spent getting my strength back.  There were many days, months, where I couldn't lift 20 pounds!
   I am younger now for sure.  It is as if I discovered some secret of youth, each day getting a little younger instead of older!  That is pretty cool and I am thankful for that!  Today is my birthday and I am welding up a storm!  Working! and I love it so much, banging and welding and grinding and cutting steel and making noise.
I am Alive!
   If 63 was Cancer and 64 getting stronger 65 will be different again.  I have my Tom-Tom now, I told you about that.  I might just go someplace, hit the road this Spring and do some travelling.  I am thinking about that.  and my Gallery is done!  My easels set up and blank canvasses on the wall, calling me, teasing me.
We will see what happens there.
   I am still after "the perfect tomato", so I will be doing that again this year.  I always save the seeds from the very best of the previous season.  That is the secret to getting older I think.  Saving the seeds and knowing which to throw away.  So much to do.  This will be a great day and just the very beginning into this 65th year.
What I do is HERE

Walls Tell No Tales

 Two coats, "Wet-Look Lacquer

...and Floors Leave Every Single Step.  The walls in a gallery studio need to be plain and simple, a soft white that offers no competition.  I have worked in a lot of bars and fancy night club restaurants and those ceilings are almost always a flat black, blending a mechanical background into nothingness.
We watch where we step giving floors a significant meaning to a room, like a foundation on which everything is built.
   I left the scars, the old paint, the spilled grout, its colorful history and after a proper cleaning applied the two coats of lacquer finish.  I like it.  It will be easy to clean, has a lot of memory and a feel of "do what you want", you can't hurt me!

 View from my office door

This is my clean room compared to the shop half on the other side of this wall but it is still a space for an artist.  It will get dirty.

   I have begun to hang things on the walls, mostly blank steel-framed canvasses as an encouragement for me to do something.  I want a lot of open room on the floor so there will not be much permanent furniture there, mostly stuff displayed, benches and tables that are for sale.

 Sink Counter top

   My easels and painting stations are still stuffed into my office and are eager to get out, wanting to call this room home.  Soon enough the floor will be really dry and there will be a lot of organizing to do, places to put paints and the over 200 brushes that I found at a garage sale.  I still haven't plumbed the sink.  Much to do!

    The sink counter top is brand new concrete and has no history. no browns, no rust, no scars of past abuse and this is a photo of what the green stain looks like on such a virgin area.
I like it but it is missing the character found in the floor.

I get to work for a few days on my "trip bar" for the deer fence but soon I will post the completed gallery photos.

You can always find me HERE

The Deer Killer and updates...

The nicest fence and gated entry system that I have ever built has killed at least three deer.  It is in the country and over 200 feet of very ornamental iron with old Victorian Spear Points as finials, lots of little scrolls to make it even stronger and one of my original Stone Posts every 24 feet.

 Trip Bar added to center section

   It is not a tall fence, about six foot high, a lazy jump for any deer.  It was designed to be beautiful, keep some dogs in and people out.  Every season about 20 Elk practically just step over it to graze on the lush vegetation, always greener on the other side.  Deer attempt this too, a lazy high jump and a quick bounding leap and sometimes they fail misjudging the height.  Failure is permanent in the animal kingdom and the fence is unforgiving.  Three times the farmer has had to get his tractor out and lift off a dead, impaled deer from the fence.
   Deer have a path and pretty much stick to it.  A couple of years ago I added a "Trip Bar" to the central section of this fence, the area of the path and the place where the deer began to impale themselves.  It works great and actually doesn't look too bad, framing the fence and offering the deer an embarrassing moment of misjudgement when they trip over it rather than the final jump of a misstep.
   I think they are hunting for a new path now or maybe they are leaderless because they are attempting to jump the fence just about everywhere.  Mostly they succeed but failure is permanent and messy, painful and slow.  They just sort of hang there as if from a meat hook and bleed to death.
   So, I am out to save the deer and I got a job!  Not often one can be virtuous, do the right thing and get paid for it.  Nice farmer, huh?  and just before Christmas I've got work to do!  about 240 feet of "Trip Bar" to be added to the entire fence line.
   Okay, on a different note!  I solved the paint in my hair problem.  It is amazing to me how many people couldn't resist pointing it out to me.  I must have heard "you've got paint in your hair" about a hundred times!

 One little spot left.

Three days of this and lots of shampoo was enough.  It must be good paint because it wouldn't come out.

More fencing and Entry Gates can be found HERE