Do Little

Hey All,

My new show at Cinders opens on October 10th. It is called "Do Little". I am uploading the postcard images and will post some in-progress studio images and the press release as soon as I can. If you are in NYC come by and say hello. The show runs until November 9th.

Got one!

Well, we finally caught a ground hog... not sure if this little buddy was the destroyer or not but he sure was cute! We relocated him to a woodland wonderland that is not our yard and he immediately started digging a new hole. Jeremy fed him apples and pears and he just ate and ate. It is impossible to stay mad at these dudes. I am not sure we will try to catch one again, it was sort of traumatic. The groundhog was fine, but while he was in the cage he was so upset and it felt really bad to be responsible for his misery... it was very temporary though.

Update!!!

Well, first things first. It is booger season. As a first hand victim of this tragic seasonal epidemic I will tell you that our students all have colds and flus and what evers and they are contagious. So wash your hands and keep your boogers to yourself. I know I am. :)

And now for an update on Mr. Groundhog: We seem to have deterred him from eating all of our stuff for now. The last victim was the green beans. I was furious. He mowed off the top 8 inches of foliage from each plant. Luckily he didn't seem interested in the actual beans themselves! So after that, Jeremy and I got a floppy fence (they supposedly will not climb anything unstable... not big risk-takers apparently.) and we put out a nasty mixture of cloves,cayenne, cinnamon, and mint castile soap to make him unhappy with our smell. We also put out a jar of pee and a bunch of hair from Jeremy's newest haircut. Our veggies are just starting to come out and our neighbors told us horror stories about their squash being eaten down to nubs... so we are trying anything we can to keep him away. So far so good. (I am getting bruises on my knuckles from knocking on wood...) We are going to have green beans and baby squash from the garden for dinner tonight!

We also went to sugar hollow and made drawings on rocks with charcoal that we found from a fire!

Last but certainly not least, we have a new family member to tell you about. This weekend we adopted a kitten from Jeremy's Mom. His name is Edwin Batman Taylor. He is the best. Since we started going back to work, Fricky has been really lonely so I am glad she will have a friend! He has to get neutered (ouch!) and will come home October 17th. We are super excited!

Oh and after tending all 4 vines, we managed to have one surviving watermelon! Cantaloupe were much, much easier to grow.

Allyson

GARDEN FALL 08

Oh Boy this garden is like a wicked stepsister, but she is pulling through, and we can still bro down as long as the groundhogs stay away and the rain stops for little while. I never thought I would say this after the summer months of drought, but I guess Fall is really here. So today our lovely garden was getting chomped on by our local ground hog who lives under our neighbors shed. We did not see him but saw the evidence. We found three of our healthy cauliflower plants gnawed almost to the stump. So we decided to grab some of our landlords old tomato cages which have pretty small holes around all of the cabbage and cauliflower (and thought this would deter the furry dudes). we thought the squash leaves would be spikey and less appetizing. Anyhow I come out later in the afternoon to bust this gigantic ground hog gnawing on the same cauliflower plants INSIDE of the tomato cage. I was amazed he could fit through the small holes, but low an behold they can. So I yelled "you get out of my garden" ...and then the groundhog scurried away, but he was trapped in this cage...so he knocked it over and did a hamster wheel maneuver and then ran out of the cage. It was hilarious and sad. This garden has had a lot of problems from things like stray cats shitting in the garden to aphids eating our tomatoes... not to mention the drought in mid summer that killed a batch of seedings and the fall rain which is finally blighting our late tomatoes. With the cold weather we will be lucky if these half dead tomato plants ,that have lots of tomatoes, will have the opportunity to ripen. We are also getting accustomed to the mountainous clay soil that dries out fast when dry and stays really wet when wet. No in between. We are also combating dead soil in our landlords garden space. This space is probably imbued with all types of weird chemicals (from years past) to resist pests and weeds. So trying to grow without chemicals and to reverse the environment is tough. On a lighter note we found some of our supposed "dead seedlings" finally came up and we have some late blooming carrots that are showing up and are growing in between our almost matured squash. We are hoping they can grow in harmony...hopefully there will be no survival of the fittest and we will harvest the carrots and squash together in peace.

PS. We harvested some green beans, a tomato, and some chives. They became part of a rulin' soup we had for dinner.

Ol Blue Eye

Studio Sale & Installation

Here are some photos from our recent studio sale at The Bridge. It was a super fun time and we are so grateful for our friends in the Charlottesville community for coming out! We also had a special guest stray dog show up who will be up for adoption at the Charlottesville SPCA starting next Wednesday! He has one blue eye! Thanks everybody and happy fall.

xo,

A&J