Sunday, December 5, 2010




For the past several weeks I had been promising myself to take the time and the energy to track down the leak into the studio as soon as I got the craft shows all done. So that was yesterday, Friday, and today I moved shelves around until I could see this mess.

I had feared the leak was coming up through a crack in the floor (we had several small earthquakes this year) but I see the problem is on the wall. That should be easier to fix but I still have no idea exactly what I can do.

My solution is glue but this is all too wet for that and another storm is already moving in. I tried to dig away the soil on the outside of the hole but it soon filled with water coming down the side of the mountain on its way to the sea. Our house was built directly over a previous stream bed and though they moved earth all around, the earth remembers where it once had a small river and tries to maintain it, even if it means burbling over my cement floor.

The river had even populated itself. I noticed the last time I cleaned the studio that there were less spiders. I figured my attempts to poison ants had given the arachnids stomach aches and they left. Not so. On the bottom shelf of the rack, in a lovely basket was the fattest alligator lizard I have ever seen. He was torpid from sleeping so close above the concrete so it was easy to carry him outdoors. I am hoping that when all the fuss about the waterway is over that he will move back in.