o This may be the pleasantest bit of hard work we have ever done. The Emerald Ash Bore has killed all the ash trees in the vicinity including the many dozens on our property. We are probably about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the project of cutting down and cleaning up the dead and potentially dangerous trees and mowing the grass which we have planted in the open spaces beneath the trees, for the purpose of controlling the poison ivy.

Each stump removed, each patch of poison ivy mowed into oblivion and each stagnant pool filled in adds to the beauty and usability of the place.

In the mind’s eye we can imagine an art fair, a big tent, a removable stage and lively performances. For the time being we enjoy walks, barbecues and, amazingly, cross country skiing when the winter weather cooperates.

We have built new doors and resided the first floor of the front of the barn. This has gone long way towards mitigating the air of ruin and dilapidation which had demoralized more than one visitor, to say nothing of the residents.

This recent repair job inspired a general cleanup before the last open house. Whether it was wise to spend the effort to cleanup spaces that no visitor to the open house saw, is a question we won’t go into at the moment. Suffice it that rotten posts have been discovered and replaced and plans made for further repairs. The entire barn needs siding, new windows, and an unknown amount of additional repair.

The studio’s connection with the Hunterdon Art Museum has been a great source of satisfaction. The workshops are always rewarding events and bring us in touch with the wider community of artists, students and curious minds of the county.

We hope to continue and expand this program over the next years.

We have received donations of brick which should be enough to build a modest sized gas reduction kiln and and and even more modest soda kiln. These would allow us to schedule workshops more flexibiy since they wouldn’t necessarily have to be synchronized with the firing schedule of our big kiln which, for all its wonderful and near miraculous reliability, takes a long time to fill with work.

Although it has been workable and pleasant to welcome visitors by appointment through the pandemic, we miss the interesting surprises of spontaneous drop-ins that we had on weekend afternoons. Happily, there are some venturesom souls who will drop in anyway. if we are here, it works out; if we are not here, we have no idea what goes on. We do have full time outdoor surveillance cameras operational, so we could find out if we really wanted to…

This is a project which is dependent on a) funds and b) resident artists. There is a chicken and egg conundrum here, but we are assuming that we will need to raise the funds first and then with certain changes in place, we would be likelier to attract artists to a residency program.