Our journey to the 1800s

 So, I really think that my husband was born in the wrong generation century. Although we  love our modern comforts like central air, deodorant, internet, and spray paint, a big part of our interests lie in things of days gone by.

On Monday, my mom called to tell me something she saw on Tradio. (it's a local radio station's program where you can list stuff to sell). She saw an "antique forge blower and horseshoeing tools". She and I didn't know what any of that meant, but we did know that "forge" is a blacksmith term so we told Dustin. An hour later, we were headed back down to where I grew up, an hour away.

We "got a great deal" I'm told :) All these tools and the blower for $100. Actually though, we looked up the blower we bought online and it is more in the $200 range by itself. So, the blower plus the 20 tools that he can use to blacksmith were well worth the country cruising with the puppy and the $. 

The blower is on its side here and is apparently going to be taken apart, cleaned, and painted.

He has been working on his forge and is currently cleaning in the garage so he can bring it home today or tomorrow. We're almost in the blacksmithing business!

A few words from our resident blacksmith:

It has been about three months since my wife lovingly let me attend a blacksmithing class.  So that puts me about three months behind in getting this blog done.  However,it's not my fault- she's a blog hog!  It was awesome!  She puked the whole time we were gone, but I had a blast! :)

(Editor's note- I got the stomach flu on the FIRST day we were there and was in bed--minus the time I slept on the bathroom floor-- in the hotel for an entire week.)

I had always wanted to try blacksmithing and I wanted to do it before I was too old to do anything with it.  With that said, if you want to go someplace to learn something, and meet cool people the John C. Campbell Folk School is the place to go.  The class I took was a beginning blacksmithing class and I learned a lot.  So after I get some other things accomplished around the house I hope to put together a smithy so I can start playing with fire and hot metal.  In the mean time I am sure Shannon will keep you updated on the situation! 

So, stay tuned... hopefully we'll have a blacksmith shop up and running soon. We still aren't exactly sure WHERE this shop is gonna go- details...- so he's working on a temporary fix so he can at least get started.



With a guest appearance by DUSTIN :)

PS- I'm nicely mended from last week's procedure. Dustin was my nurse for the day once we got home and was kind enough to photograph my recovery. :) Luckily, I had a great crew helping me come out of the anesthesia. Apparently my throat hurt even while I was out!

Luckily for me, we didn't live in the 1800s for this procedure- yikes.