Everything Else

My daughter wasn't motivated to do her best on the PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test). So I decided to give her an assignment which I hoped would put her choices today into a meaningful context for her future. I asked her to roughly define her dream life with everything she cared about laid out over time in the future. Now working deductively from the assumption that her dreams are achievable, I asked her to roughly define how she might overcome the obstacles that separate her from her dreams. In practical terms, that meant estimating the cost of her dream life, then figuring out what careers currently offer sufficient compensation in the place she wa…

I wish to thank our veterans for your service and sacrifices. You are the heart and soul of American freedom, we owe it all to you. THANK YOU! Frosty The Lucky.

Folks: In the next few hours much of these United States* shall change from daylight saving time to standard time. So clocks should be turned back one hour. ("in fall, (autumn), clocks fall back. In spring they spring forward"). That means that we get an extra hour of sleep. (or carousing, for some). Just sayyin". SLAG. * Canada too.

Did anyone attend the Kentucky Crafted fair at alltech arena? It looks like a good place to sell. I didn't attend but saw a piece on TV about it. It had a pretty wide and varied array of items available from craftspeople and vendors. As it's inside I don't know if it would be possible to have a forge going at a booth or not. If anyone attended I'd like to know how it was and if there was any forged items there. Thanks Pnut

Hi All, it is the 21st Century in California, and for once, they have cut power when it is actually VERY windy. Our hearts go out to those north of us - it is terrible. Please note that this is not a forum for political discussion, that is What PM's texts, and phone calls are for. Feel free to help us make light of it though - time to go out to the smithy and put the tea kettle on the shop heater (coffee can on a brake drum). Robert Taylor

2019-10-28 small town (under 10K) in rural NM, BBQ tanks refilled, propane price US$2.79 per gallon.

Spotted lanternfly and they are messing around my fig trees, they are beautiful.

My wife and I just got home from Norfolk VA. Our oldest daughter is one of the US Navys newest Chief Petty Officers. We had the privilege of pinning her new insignia on her lapels. We are a little proud. Her ship deployed Saturday.

Howdy folks, I would love to tap into the knowledge of anyone that has experience buying and shipping equipment from overseas, either Europe in general or specifically Germany. I found some smithing equipment at what seems to be a very good price (even considering USD/Euro exchange rates) but I don't know anything about arranging shipping, VAT and other possible taxes, etc. I'm happy to either discuss on or off-line. Thanks!

As some may remember a couple of years ago the the county came in and trashed around $15K of my belongings and took a few cars. Luckily I was able to save the smithing gear and collectible cars, but lost far more due to some lady in the next town over taking offense to my property out in the county. Well, the county got their fines attached to my mortgage payment recently without my knowledge and almost doubled my payment. As such , I was making my normal payment through my bank, and accruing missed payments unknowingly. The mortgage company stopped taking my payments, and will now only take a lump sum which I do not have, and cannot get a loan for due to the foreclosure …

I've seen this can around before. I'm sure it was my great grandfathers, but not positive. Any idea on when and a what it was used for? Only writing on it is 'patent applied' stamped on the bottom. Mom had it stashed in a corner and came across it again.

I ran across this recently, 1870 census data! CENSUS YR: 1870 STATE or TERRITORY: NM COUNTY: Socorro DIVISION: Pct 3, Polvadera REEL NO: M593-896 PAGE NO: 480b REFERENCE: Enumerated on Aug 16, 1870 by J. M. Shaw. Hand-written Page #12 =================================================================================================================================================================================================== LN HN FN LAST NAME FIRST NAME AGE SEX RACE OCCUP. REAL VAL. PERS VAL. BIRTHPLACE FOREIGN BIRTH MONTH MONTH ATT. CAN'T CAN'T DEAF M-21yrs VOTE- REMARKS …

WOW! I'm "stepping up" in the world. I'm getting a new pair of hearing aids and I was told today they are Bluetooth Compatible. I'll be able to connect to my Smart Phone. That's great because I can't hear voices on my cell phone most of the time. But I've also realized I'll be able to get a transmitter for my television. Presently I use cumbersome TV-Ears and I'm forever losing them at various places in the house. And what's worse is the TV-Ears plug my ears so when my wife says something during a movie or a television program, I have to remove them and ask her to repeat what she said. It has become rather irritating for me to have to remove them to do that and ir…

I have a question about wall construction for a shop and nontraditional building techniques. At work we go through a mess of the "super sacks" they are 35" square and 52" tall when fully filled. We are averaging a couple dozen a day, so I could get a thousand in a short amount of time. I would like to build a shop space and got looking at these sacks. The ones we get are rated for 1,000kg and have a 5:1 safety factor. My thought is, fill them with the sand and gravel on my property and stack them. My general questions are ; rebar amounts, shotcrete thickness, how much side load does sand and gravel exert sideways in a berm or direct burial situation, is this a feasi…

I guess you don't suffer from triskaidekaphobia then. Pnut

99 degrees F. Lit the forge looked around for the piece I was working on three weeks ago when last I tried to forge. Found it and turned toward the coals to place it in. Watched the flames for a second and wiped the sweat dripping of my nose and said “not happening today.” I shut down my forge and went inside to plop on the couch and find something on Netflix to binge. Man!!!!! I wish Winter would hurry back.

We lose power out here in the woods so frequently we just take it in stride..................but usually it's just for a few minutes, not a few days! Chris

Just watched the Kevin Cashen episode. I like that he explained that it took many master craftspeople to make a sword in the past. That's a fact overlooked by most TV programs about sword smithing. All in all it didn't have the mistakes and misconceptions prevalent in most TV. Pnut

Very slow day here, even our resident wild turkeys took the day off.

didnt follow me home but interesting. sorry for all the pics .

Just ran across the following quote from musician Jack White of The White Stripes: “Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth. Auto-tuning doesn’t do anything for creativity. Yeah, it makes it easier and you can get home sooner; but it doesn’t make you a more creative person. “That’s the disease we have to fight in any creative field: ease of use.” I would expand on this slightly, to suggest that any technology that minimizes the need for aesthetic judgment, technical skill, and feel for the material is to be avoided as detrimental to both the art and craft of blacksmithing. This is not to suggest, however, that technology as such is to be …

Hey everyone! I know it's not really smithing related but I figured I'd share with you guys since I'm pretty excited about it. We now live in Sioux Falls, SD! Can't smith for awhile though so I'm gonna be hitting the forum archives pretty hard for awhile to try to strengthen my knowledge on my work. I wish our landlord would let me smith though.

It must be fundraising time. Every year KET a PBS station plays a documentary about the journey of Richard Proenneke. He goes into the mountains of Alaska with only hand tools and builds a homestead that he lived on until he was in his seventies. He is one of the best Craftsmen I've ever seen. I think his cabin was turned into a historic site. If you get a chance to watch it I highly recommend it. I watch it every year. It's something I look forward to. Pnut

Well just had to get stitches for the first time. Laid my wrist open working on a knife handle. O was tracing the Tang with a pocket knife to start chiseling the hollow out and my knife I was using to set the outlines slipped and sliced it open. Got 3 stitches I wouldn't have bothered but it was close to veins and tendons and my wife said I should get it checked out. So first recordable injury is in the books.

I've got a two story Victorian home that was built in 1906. It's got a forced air furnace in the basement that only has ducts to two out of four rooms on the second floor. I'm interested in knowing more about split systems because it seems like I could add a "head" unit in the attic which would provide heating and cooling to all of the 2nd floor rooms, and I could replace the natural gas fired, forced-air furnace with another "head" unit to handle the 1st floor. The house is just under 2,000 sf, the second floor is probably 850sf of that total. We're in Northern Colorado so I realize that we will probably need heating coils to supplement the few days a year when i…