Nick Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Today I closed down my shop. I'll be leaving for grad school in less than two weeks, my wife sold her car so we've only got one between us, and I've got to finish packing up the house. Packed up all my favorite tools, the wrought iron bars I've got, and put the old forge I'm going to restore in the shop (it was under the eave). When we come back and I've got a new shop I'll get everything in a truck. It was certainly sad. I'm going to miss the hammer and anvil. I'll still be checking in here, though. Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candidquality Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 At least you're off onto a new adventure. And you know you'll be back. Good luck with the schooling. maybe you will unpack it for the weekends and holidays. kinda hard to stay away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted T Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Nick, I had to shut down my shop 4-times over 50 years. The operative words I think that you should use is: "Just For Now". You will be back most likely with even more energy toward blacksmithing. I know that is what happened to me! Be safe! Old Rusty Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Today I closed down my shop. I'll be leaving for grad school in less than two weeks, my wife sold her car so we've only got one between us, and I've got to finish packing up the house. Packed up all my favorite tools, the wrought iron bars I've got, and put the old forge I'm going to restore in the shop (it was under the eave). When we come back and I've got a new shop I'll get everything in a truck. It was certainly sad. I'm going to miss the hammer and anvil. I'll still be checking in here, though. Nick It's a sad but temporary thing I hope. Except for the checking here of course! I've had to do the same thing several times though and lived through it. Heck, most of my stuff is still waiting for the new shop to get finished. I only have a couple hours work left to finish the new section of roof on the barn and it'll be leak proofed for years to come or till I decide to finish adding on. Lets see, Then all I have to do is build the new wood shed, get the season's wood in, cut, split and stacked for next winter; this winter's wood is ready to go. Oh yeah, I need to do some repairs on the snow plow and get things picked up before the snow flies. All that's left then is get the last wall, garage door and roof on the shop and I'm home free!! :cool: Ah, just another summer on the last frontier. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerald Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Nick, we'll miss your work. Looking forward to your return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Frosty what is this "snow" you mention?---ahhh wait it's the white stuff on the mountains I can see in January as I'm drinking my tea in shorts and a short sleeve shirt---right? mnow for the important things like running water to the shop building so you can install a swamp cooler for those 100+ degree days at single digit humidities... Nick; think of making a "one firebrick forge" to have something to play with; forge withdrawl can be rough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Nick, Keep tight control over who watches over your tools. Them there mice can carry off a lot of 'em while your off to school besides the ones that grow fury little feet and walk off on the own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennis_hl Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Hey, its temp I'm sure, plus you'll likely find a way to heat some iron at some point when you settle in at grad school. It was certainly a pleasure meeting you in the iron museum's shop that day way back when. Wish we had had the chance to hang out a couple more times. Good luck in your travels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Frosty what is this "snow" you mention?---ahhh wait it's the white stuff on the mountains I can see in January as I'm drinking my tea in shorts and a short sleeve shirt---right? mnow for the important things like running water to the shop building so you can install a swamp cooler for those 100+ degree days at single digit humidities... Yeah, it's the white stuff I can see on the mountains all year round; the blue stuff is glacier ice. Mt. McKinley is visible from our deck when the leaves are off the trees. Important things eh. SWAMP COOLER? Is your swamp overheating? That doesn't follow the low humidity thing. I suppose your alligaters need hand lotion too? I know this is a BS site but pUHleeeeze! I gotta go feed the Polar Bears now or they'll eat the wolves. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Gilly from the Great White North used to feed Moose Munchies to the local mooses in her area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Gilly from the Great White North used to feed Moose Munchies to the local mooses in her area. Some 30+ years ago I was at a friends one evening. John and I were in the living room, John playing his guitar. Sunni was in the kitchen making dinner and suddenly we heard a loud crash of breaking glass and Sunni lets out a shriek. John and I leapt to our feet to see what happened. Sunni had the salad bowl on the counter in front of a window adding something and a moose stuck it's head through the window and was chowing down. Another time I was driving along the Denali Hwy and there was a moose browsing at the side of the road. I stopped to get a reasonably close pic but it had it's head down and it wasn't a good pic. Well, I gave a short whistle to get it to look up. Evidently the guys working at the mine a couple miles up the road had been feeding the moose because this one looked up then trotted across the road and stuck it's head in the open driver's window looking for a munch. I'm sitting there with a moose streatched across me sniffing at the pasenger's side seat. I'm literally pinned against the seat hoping the moose doesn't too POed when it doesn't find anything. Fortunately It just pulled it's head back out after a few seconds and snorted in disgust. Lots of moose around these parts, best not to mess with them. This pic is me winter of 2,000 I'm about 20' from our front porch and the moose is about 50' farther out. And yeah Thomas, the white stuff IS snow. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J W Bennett Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Nice Slippers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Frosty; just in case you haven't cooled a swamp... out here where it gets a tad hot but humidity gets very low they make a cooler where water is pumped over pads of shredded aspen or plastic and a nice big squirrel cage fan draws hot dry air though the pads and pushes it into the house---you leave a window open a bit where you want the cool to end up and it will find the outlet. Drops the temp quite a bit and raises the humidity just a bit---helps the furniture from falling apart. The fancy folks use AC and call it "refrigerated air" but AC doesn't work very well at high temps and use a LOT of electricity. Commercial places either use big swamp coolers or use a swampcooler as a pretreater for their AC unit. Unfortunately swampcoolers don't work real well when the humidity gets above 30%; so we're ok 98% of the time... Oh yes our heating bill last year was about 1 cord of wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Thomas: I grew up in So. Cal. so I've cooled a swamp or two. Feels pretty good when you first come in but gets muggy after a while. A combo of swamp cooler and AC seems to work best. Unless of course you live somewhere human beings SUPPOSED to live. Heating your place has a long standing tradition supporting it's correctness. I mean seriously, how many old paintings show a group of old guys hanging around with their feet propped up in front of the swamp cooler? Hmmmm? I didn't. . . think. . . so. Slippers? I'm in my bear feet. What kind of whimp do you think I am? :cool: Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J W Bennett Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Sorry, Nice Bear Feet! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 OK Frosty, you have a varied background. with single digit humidities we don't have many muggy issues inside; I posted cause a lot of my friends north of the mason dixon line have never heard of a swamp cooler, they use AC because what they really need to do is to get rid of humidity. Running the swamp cooler on low at nights we're using a quilt on our bed and it's the furthest room from the cooler inlet! Watch out for bears wanting human feet! BTW if you feel like it I would like to hear how you got from Ca to Ak some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 Varied and perhaps checkered. Our branch of the family tended to move around quite a bit while others still live in the same house built at the turn of the century or earlier. It wasn't a big adventure or anything, my brother used to live here and the summer of 72' I packed a bag and caught a plane for a visit. I was more than half hoping I oculd find work and stay. Dennis put me up for a couple weeks and helped me find work. I did odd jobs and such for a couple years till I got established and known. Anchorage was still small enough in the early-mid 70's to become known around town for good or bad. I had vague plans on getting a job on the pipeline and making a bunch but was still naive enough to think things should be fair. I wouldn't pay a union a kickback for a job so didn't get one. Stupid me it was only one paycheck but at 20 I had principles. Yes siree I did! Found a job in a service station instead. After a couple years of the pipeline siphoning off skilled operators, labor, etc. other places started opening up a bit and I got a job for the state. Up till then about the only way to break in on a state job was to know someone or have a necessary skill. Well, that was 30 years ago and I retired last june 1. My first state job was taking speed surveys with radar. When that played out I went to wok in the soils lab and that got me in touch with the geology section. Within a year or so I'd developed a reputation for being able to fabricate most anything from materials in the scrap pile. The next thing I knew I was going out with the drillers and the next fall I was asked to transfer to the Foundations Drill crew permanently. Spent 19 years all told drilling holes and the last 10 working for highways maintenance. Lots of things happened while I was traveling on the drill crew but the job was boring in the extreme. So, who else has a moving tale to tell? Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.