Sunday, October 18, 2009

Garden 2009: First Frost in the Fall Garden



Fall Garden 2009: Our first frost was this morning (10/18/09) so Jo and I covered the wire hoops over our fall garden bed with plastic. Around mid-day Jo opened up the ends of the tunnel so everything inside wouldn't be cooked by today's full sunshine.



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Friday, October 16, 2009

Homemade Pizza



Homemade pizza for supper. Both pizza and photo by Jo.


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Like many folks in the southern and eastern U. S., we'd really like to see some sunshine. Maybe a little on Saturday and more on Sunday, they say.

Wednesday was overcast and damp with a high temperature in the mid-sixties. We got a very little bit of rain in isolated showers early Thursday morning. After warming some during the early morning hours, the temperature fell slowly all day, bottoming out down around fifty degrees at midnight. Overcast all day. North wind started kicking up some during the evening.




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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Art in the Park, Springfield, MO



We set up under gray skies, but the rain had stopped and the ground was firm enough to drive on.


Friday, 10/9/09:

Rain began a little after midnight on Friday. A brief thunderstorm forced me off the computer, but mostly we experienced steady rain through the early morning hours. There was 2.3" inches in the rain gauge by the time we awoke.





The geese didn't object to the wet weather.


As expected, we finished loading the van in the rain, taking about an hour longer than usual. It was nine o'clock by the time the four of us pulled away from the house and headed for Springfield. We made a couple of stops in Marshall and one shopping stop in Harrison (AR), finally made it to the motel in Springfield a little before two o'clock. We drove in rain most of the way. After staying at the motel only long enough to unload our personal items and replenish our coffee supply, we headed out to Sequiota Park to set up.




Galloway Creek flows through Sequiota Park. It's usually dry when we do this show.


We expected the worst at the park -- standing water and/or not being able to drive to our booth to unload -- but were pleasantly surprise that neither of those events occurred. We didn't even need to set up our booth on the ratty old carpet we'd taken just in case. The temp remained chilly and the skies overcast, but no more rain fell during set up. After getting the canopy and fixtures erected and the merchandise unloaded, Jo and I grabbed our "big city shopping list" and patronized a few local retailers.




The playground side of the park was still holding a lot of water when we arrived on Friday. We were afraid the show side might look like this too. Locals said water was standing on part of the show site Thursday evening, but fortunately the tide had gone out by Friday afternoon.


Saturday, 10/10/09:

Saturday dawned clear and cold. There was frost on the van windshield. There was also frost on the canopy, both inside and outside. When the temperature warmed a little, we had rain inside the canopy as the condensate defrosted and dripped. A few clouds moved in mid-morning, but the day remained mostly sunny. Unfortunately, folks didn't turn out in droves to enjoy the sunshine and artwork. This is a small show and the crowd/sales have never been really great, but this year both were a little below average for some reason.





Friday sunset over the Wal-Mart parking lot. The overcast was beginning to break up.


Saturday evening we went over to a friends house along with several other artists and enjoyed some good food and great company.




Saturday blue sky and sunshine. Unfortunately, the crowd of shoppers was a little thin.


Sunday, 10/11/09:

We used up most of our sunshine allotment on Saturday. Sunday was forecast to be partly cloudy, but we saw a lot more clouds than sunshine. Sales were again below par.





The railroad track runs within a few feet of the outside booths. Fortunately, only one train traveled those tracks all weekend. I was told that about all this section of track is used for is supplying one of Springfield's power plants with coal.


Normally, we stay over Sunday night after packing up and head home Monday morning. However, because this show was relatively close to home, we'd decided to drive home Sunday evening. Having all our personal stuff and food cache already in the van really extended packing up. Having two large dog crates didn't help either. Everything had to be pulled out of the van so we could load the canopy, fixtures and merchandise. Once those items were loaded, everything else had to be reloaded. Handling the same items twice certainly slows things down. By the time we got everything loaded, the show organizers were prodding us to hurry so they could lock the park gate behind us and go home.

Jo and I and the dogs arrived home around eleven o'clock Sunday night. We unloaded the bare necessities from the van and went to bed.





Another period of overcast, drizzle, fog and/or rain has descended upon the Ozarks


Monday and Tuesday:

Overcast and drizzle on Monday. We managed to get the van unloaded anyway. Rain on Tuesday. A total of 2.1" the last time we checked the rain gauge. Funky weather is forecast to continue at least through Thursday.  Neither Jo nor I has waded out to the garden since returning home.  We had our first fire of the season in the wood stove Monday evening.





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Friday, October 9, 2009

Thursday, 10/8/09




Today's weather certainly wasn't what we expected it to be. We had a 100% chance of rain and thundershowers were supposed to start early this morning, but rain never happened. The morning was overcast, but there was a fair amount of blue sky around this afternoon. The photo above was taken up by the gate on our afternoon walk.

Since we'd already gotten the van mostly loaded in anticipation of the rain, today was pretty much of a piddly sort of day.





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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Cutting A Rug




Jo and I are doing an art fair in Sequiota Park in Springfield, MO, this weekend. Heavy rains are predicted for the area over the next couple of days. Even if we get lucky and the rain stops over the weekend, the show site is likely to be a total quagmire little muddy. Jo came up with the idea of setting our booth up on an old piece of carpet. That should help it from becoming a mud hole. And, we just happened to have an old carpet on hand. All it needed was trimming to size. It would be better if the colors and pattern of the carpet were more subtle, but it should get the job done.



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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Setting Up Jo's Booth In St. Louis



Jo does an excellent job of setting up her booth -- and with very little supervision. Actually, I helped erect the canopy, unloaded the shelving and will help with other tasks when Jo's finished with the shelving. The shelves will hold her pottery and must be set up and leveled to her satisfaction. It's best if I just stay out of the way and let her get the shelves set up the way she wants them.

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Tuesday, 10/6/09:

Rain off and on all day -- mostly just drizzle and light rain, no downpours or thunderstorms in our area. A total of a little more than a half inch of rain. The rain finally stopped and our skies began clearing during the late evening. Wednesday is forecast to be sunny. However, by Thursday this weak cool front is supposed to turn around and return as a warm front, bringing a couple of days of rain back into our area. Loading on Thursday and leaving on Friday is liable to be messy. High = 68°F/20°C. Low = 55°F/13°C.



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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

What's Your Sign? --- #1




No parking sign for monthly street sweeping, I suppose. Taken at the Shaw Art Fair on Flora Place in St. Louis, MO.




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Friday, October 2, 2009

Big Bird



Big Bird, a turkey track, no doubt.

Thursday, 10/1/09:

An all around funky day: Overcast, strong south wind and misty, but the thunderstorms forecast for afternoon and evening never materialized. New cool front moved through late in the evening and clear the weather for the weekend.

The van is loaded and Jo and I are heading up to St. Louis for an art fair.



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