Sunday, April 7, 2013

Raised beds and rocks

Bubby put in raised beds for me! Here's a pic. 

They're 3 x 6 out of redwood. There'll be 3 altogether. Bubby says only 2 tomato plants will fit in each, but I'm sure I can fit in 3. I must grow tomatoes, and also eggplant, squash, cucumber, beans, and a few flowers. Bubby will grow peppers in the planters. I have potatoes in those 2 green potato bags. And that little chicken is Connie, our 8+ year old Americana alpha hen. 

Besides buying lumber and helping build the beds, I sawed rock on this not so lazy Sunday. It's a many step process. If I have rough, I slab while I cab on my big saw.  Those larger slabs go in one of a few containers. Going through the big slabs, I saw them into smaller slabs on my little tile saw. Working on the little saw is messy, wet, loud, and I have to set it up. So I save up things to saw on that, so I do one big sawing session. I mark things with a sharpie. Here's my basket of tiny slabs, ready to hit the Genie.

The basket in the middle are the tiny slabs. In a previous life, I actually wove that basket with raffia, and it's still sturdy after 30+years of abuse and neglect.  The crystal bowl on the left are mostly nuggets and small rocks that I shape into cabs. The basket on the right are bigger slabs that I'm interested in marking for a tile saw session.

Even working 80% at the dayjob, I work everyday on my Etsy shop. So far this year, I've reached my goal of 10 sales a month! My gross income a month has been between $258 and almost $800 so far this year from Etsy. Of course, some months I spend more than I bring in, but I'm trying to keep it to about 50% back into my business. 

And finally, a picture of my last finished piece. My first attempt at fire agate, from a parcel I purchased 2 years ago wrapped in sterling and 14K gold filled wire~


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