Any other southern hemisphere smiths feeling the heat? Nice to get away from the forge for a day or two to visit Townsville where our grandson has just turned one year old. Very hot there. Even the wallabies joined the party and found a cool spot in the shade of a tree in the yard. Can you spot the Joey?

 

I can only imagine Aus. And you guys are kind of used to it. Right now the cold has been getting to me. Working in a body shop we get hot,cold,hot,cold.... either the garage door opening, or the safety cross shop vent fan kicking on. Or both. Then getting baked from the radient overhead heat. Then being a cigarette smoker, I have to go out into the weather everywhere now to smoke. 

My shop heat gets it "ok" in the cold months. I'm great if forging. 

For all the hotter it gets here, I can only imagine in that kind of heat... sending cool thoughts your way. 

Looks like one hanging out of the pouch to cool off second from left.

53 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

Looks like one hanging out of the pouch to cool off second from left.

Yep. It must get kinda warm in there.

 

Australia endured its hottest-ever day on Tuesday, but that record was smashed again on Wednesday - which saw an average maximum of 41.9C (107.4F).

 

It's so hot that ..

the birds have to use pot holders to pull worms out of the ground.

the trees are whistling for the dogs.

ice melts in the freezer.

It is a function of what you are used to; but if you are on the edge so to speak and it keeps going up and exceeding; then it's rough on everyone.

Machines start breaking down, water levels in wells plummet, tempers heat up, you start sticking stock into the forge to cool it down,  the beer runs out...The fires sure don't help!

Stay safe and as cool as you can.

Thomas, who had a week of 112 degF/44.44 degC, the first year he worked across the border in a factory in Mexico and had a friend reporting 50 degC in Arizona.

Meanwhile in Texas.

2 years ago I was in Dubai,  went to the local forge. I can’t imagine how they work in such heat.

I grew up in the high desert and picking a ton of 3 wire hay bales off the field at 100+f. was just another day in the sun. Hot sure but not terrible. I've lived in Alaska for 47 years now and a 70f. day is sweltering. 

Humans are adaptable though I notice the hotter the clime the more violent and war prone humans are. The people of the arctic rim rarely fight at all, argue sure but fights are rare. If something serious needs deciding the village elders talk it over and vote. I've visited a lot of villages and all seem to have a museum/gift shop sort of thing and you don't see things like war clubs. Fish bonkers, seal or boar spears atlatls and darts, slings and later folk used bows sure but not weapons of war. 

The Athabaskan people on the other hand practiced war sometimes on a large scale, the farther south the more so. The Alaskan Athabaskans tended to be less warlike but just less so. If things got too tense they tended to remake the village house into it's boat form and move elsewhere. Same if fishing and hunting got slim. 

Sorry about the side track. My general observation is folk are nicer in cooler climates. Not universally but usually.

Frosty The Lucky.

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 3:59 PM, Glenn said:

It's so hot that ..

the birds have to use pot holders to pull worms out of the ground.

the trees are whistling for the dogs.

ice melts in the freezer.

You know it's hot when the drop of sweat from your nose evaporates before it hit's the ground

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

.Humans are adaptable though I notice the hotter the climate the more violent and war prone humans are. . 

Yes, good observation, not very politically correct, that is why no one dares to generalize this way, but that does not make it less true. There are also other loose link to socio economics, cooler climate seem to be more prosperous than hotter ones. 

Australia seems to escape that rule however, at least in regards to war or violence in general. Perhaps because we have been here just 200 years, a drop in the ocean of genetics. 

Lol some will remember 

There was a whole line of academic theory in the 19th and early 20th century regarding why European culture became dominant.  Part of it was that geography was determinism.  Temperate climates fostered civilization in a way that the tropics and high latitudes did not.  Part of the reasoning was that the tropics were so disease ridden that people who lived there were semi sick much of the time and did not produce agricultural surpluses which are the basis of any advancement beyond subsistance agriculture.  The theory, IIRC, has been largely discredited because it does not account for the civilizations of the mid-east or meso-america. Also, it is no longer considered accurate that urban civilizations are "superior" to other social organizations.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."