New templates... Yeah!

Tried out the new stuff.  I think it looks pretty good!  Wish I could figure out how to put my own background image in though...
Happy weekend everyone!

Stop and smell the ... octopus??

The last couple of weeks has been filled with grant applications, fellowship applications, job fairs, graduations, and all the errands I couldn't get done in the hectic, last two weeks of school.  I have been on the road all day, every day since the 28th.  Today, I finally had a chance to notice that it was a beautiful sunny day, and realized that it has been for the last week +.  So I took a minute to take a few shots from the top of the hill, above where I live.

One side of the street: a panorama of three pics

And the other side of the street:

I also had to go to one of the smaller Southern villages, to collect a final exam from a student who begged me to change his failing grade.  So I waited for him in a small park across the highway from the village...

and relaxed in the shade whilst a roadside vendor was selling the days' fresh catch!

Step by step...

Step by step my kiln is coming together.  Nothing fancy mind you, just a 55 gallon diesel fuel drum.  Today I made 35 two inch buttons to hold the ceramic fiber, now I need to find the wire to fasten them in with.

I also have received the Pyrometer, thermocouple and ceramic protection tube that I ordered.  

On Sunday afternoon, a neighbor will help me by cutting the drum - a lid for the top, and a hole near the bottom for the burner.  All I need now is the ceramic fiber, the burner (I have my eye set on a small 70,000 BTU venturi), and the wires to hold the buttons in place.  Slowly but surely.