Today has been a very busy day. I was up early for a shave using a Palmolive shaving cream from India in the fragrance of Lemon. I was told to use it up before I came home. It was an invigorating shave with the lemon fragrance. I used some Aqua Velva cool ice to follow it. The menthol chill was refreshing.
Breakfast was eggs, biscuits and gravy with a good helping of peaches on top. The culinary swirl for the day was peaches in gravy. It was a real delight. After breakfast I was looking for my morning fix of caffeine. I stopped by the office to ask about the canned Dr. Pepper they were serving at the movie last night. One of the staff members within ear shot spoke out loud, “Greg, I thought you were LDS.” I replied, “Yes, and I can drink caffeinated soda if I desire. I just cannot smoke it.” The entire office staff was listening to the conversation and proceeded to laugh.
Off to the trading post for the caffeinated drink. No luck, they did not serve soda until after 9:00, the time which I was there the two days before and was successful. Today I had not time to wait. I needed to be up at the lake to do a little blacksmithing. Off I went.
Upon arrival, the first thing I needed to do is get a railroad tie put in the forge. Then there was a little cranking involved getting the tie red hot. After it was hot on the top of the spike I put it in a vise and gave it a good twist. The tie went back to the forge to get the pointed end red hot. Once it was red hot it was time to do some real work. Swinging a hammer to pound a chunk of red hot metal is more difficult than I thought.
Turning the blower handle for the forge
The old adage of strike when the iron is hot is so true. When it is no longer red, you minds well pound sand.
Pounding hot metal
After some pounding and grinding the form of a knife became apparent.
Anvil, hammer, tongs and a knife
I went back down the hill to meet up with Jacob for lunch. We had sack lunches that were prepared the day before by the scoutmasters and other volunteers. Bread that spends the night in a refrigerator in a brown bag looses it’s moisture. I drank lots of water with lunch thinking that perhaps as the bread gained moisture it would expand and give me a feeling of being full.
There is so much more to cover from today. I will have to leave those details for an addition tommorow. Until then I will leave you with this picture. You will then have to come back tomorrow to find out what happened.
Wack on the forehead
