the state of preparations, the state of the yard, the state of the union

Plodding along with the preparations, what gets done, gets done. What doesn't, doesn't. As long as the heron box is finished and the feathers mounted in their frames, everything else is extra. I do wish I had been a little more focused on getting the planned lizard with lichen (on the log I posted about making the reproduction mold for earlier here) with the lichen made from the modeling glass and the lizard and log cast but I wasn't so, a project for next year. This has probably been one of my least productive years. The last two days I've been making more snowflake ornaments but I ran out of the liquid medium (more on the way) and now am trying to fill the rest of the kiln shelf with stuff I can make from what I already have mixed up and still I have no idea what to do with any of it once it's all fired, like the pansies. Saturday I made 3 pansy leaves but one I squished back up. Maybe I'll do a butterfly or make another pansy.

It's a gorgeous day yesterday as was the day before and today is shaping up to be as well. The gingko trees finally turned yellow but not before already losing many of their leaves and in just two days (seems like although the trees have been steadily raining down leaves for weeks), the tallows and the pecans have become bare.

     

The picture of the gingko on the left was taken at 3 PM, the picture on the right two hours later with the lowering sun illuminating it.

My pecans trees are still holding onto some of their leaves but they've dropped enough to carpet the ground making picking up the nuts impossible, impossible to see them. No worries though as I think 99.9% of them have already fallen and I am weary of picking them up anyway. I'm going to take one more small bucket to be cracked even though I'm sure I have more than enough shelled and then Tuesday, I'm selling the rest.

Wandering out in the yard I've noticed the early spring bloomers are already starting to sprout...the woodland petal pinks are shooting up like giant blades of grass; the baby blue eyes, the rocket larkspur, the love-in-a-mist all sprouted and starting to put out their first true leaves; the bluebonnets spreading out, the sweet little yellow oxalis is blooming.

Later (yesterday)...I just closed up the shop for the day getting less accomplished than I wanted or think I can. As usual. May be done with the cold work on the heron box, just have to wash it and check a couple of things before I start putting it all together. The shadowbox frames are painted but I'm still indecisive on the color for the backboards for the feathers so today I'm going to the frame shop and pick my friend Margaret's brain since she has a good eye for that sort of thing. Made zero progress today with the modeling glass but I did get out the dragonfly and bee reproduction molds. Supposedly you can press this stuff into silicone molds and it pops right out after it dries. These aren't silicone but RTV (room temperature vulcanization) rubber but I thought I'd try anyway.

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The public hearings of the impeachment investigation are over. Now they review all the testimonies given and decide if there is enough evidence to write articles of impeachment though they are still getting materials turned over to them and an important court ruling on whether or not the White House must comply with subpoenas is supposed to come down today. It's plain Trump is guilty of trying to extort Ukraine, just one of his many corrupt acts since he has been in office, even though the Republicans keep trying to deflect to the debunked conspiracy theory against the Bidens, mostly they just ranted and raved during the public hearings, and refuse to accept Trump's guilt, demeaning and accusing dedicated state department employees and a decorated veteran whose loyalty is to America and the Constitution of lying. If the House votes for impeachment it goes to the Senate for trial. It's so disheartening to know that none of this will cause the Republicans to do the right thing and protect our democracy. McConnell has already said that the Senate won't impeach even before the public hearings and many of the Republican senators have indicated that they don't care what Trump does so long as they stay in power and they are prepared to do Putin's bidding. Never forget that 8 Republican senators including Devin Nunes, Rand Paul, and John Kennedy, 3 of Trump's most vociferous supporters, spent last Fourth of July in Russia and these men are touting Putin's party line and advancing Russian propaganda. As one tweeter wrote: REPUBLICANS ARE DEFENDING RUSSIA. LET THAT SINK IN.

As bad as the last three years have been, this coming year is going to be ten times worse, 100 times worse. The Trump cult is already circulating a fake image of Schiff with Epstein and last night Rick Perry, the Energy Secretary, said on TV that Trump is the chosen one and sent by god to do great things though as I recall god destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for being filled with people like Trump.

As hopeless and discouraging as it may seem, people are still coming forward with information and remember, Republicans were adamantly behind Nixon until the very end when suddenly they weren't. There are some Republicans that are willing to go down with the ship, maybe because they refuse to see the rising water but I hope there are plenty more who will run for the lifeboats.

If all else fails, vote blue no matter who for every office up for election in 2020.