The closing of Heritage Blacksmith Shop.

After I woke up AGAIN, I started the sad and hard task of closing up my blacksmith shop.
While packing up the tools, I remembered my humble beginnings. Not only with my shop, but my experience. I will always remember the Little log room that I made my first items in, and how hard Dad and I worked to improve it.

Here is a photo of my shop when I first started 2 years ago.
This photo was taken after we put the interior siding up.

The Move Begins!!!

This morning I was awakened at 5:30, by Dad who said that it was time to get up, and that we needed to load the trailer. Being mostly asleep I said " What in the world are you talking about, its not even daylight yet."
I thought about going back to sleep after he left the room, but the last time I did that, he dumped a pitcher of ICE WATER on my head!!!! That woke me up!
It only took about an hour to load, and he was on his way to Bowling Green, and I was on my way back to BED.

CATCH THAT PIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I have come up with a new sport, it is called MUD SKIING. If that sounds crazy, just keep reading.
Dad found out about a butcher shop that had a good reputation, and could take our pigs today. So we figured we could go get the trailer that we rent, make a make shift loading ramp, and load the pigs. We thought all that would be easy.... WRONG!!!
By the time we got the trailer to the house, it was raining a flood. So when we pulled out in the field it was pretty muddy. By the time we had the loading ramp made, I was starting to think that we should start construction on the Ark II.
Now it was time to load the pigs, by now the rain was beginning to let up, and things looked like it might go easy. Well like they say looks are deceiving, when I let the pigs out they made a mad dash AWAY from the trailer. So I walked calmly over to the pigs on mud that was slicker than a greased pig, in a effort to herd them calmly into the trailer. I think the pigs had other ideas, because when they saw the trailer it was their turn to herd me!
So after that failure, Dad went and got a 10' gate so we could keep them from running in between us. That's when the MUD SKIING came into action! I didn't know it but pigs can run.. FAST, not to mention that they were bucking and kicking like a wild bull!! So Dad and I are trying to catch up with them, and finally got them in a smaller holding pen that the trailer was backed into.
The smaller pig went right up into the trailer, but the bigger sow had obviously seen this movie before. So in a wild attempt to escape the large red trailer, the old sow decided to make a mad dash under the corn crib! It took a while to convince her that the trailer wasn't going to hurt her.
The trip to the butcher shop was quite peaceful, and even our GPS didn't try to make us drive into a corn field or have us go down a 1 way street, THE WRONG WAY.
So out of all our trouble we will have pork for a whole year, and I made a new sport. I think we will do this again next year. Does anyone want to join us?

Its time to rest!!

First of all you are probably wondering why the dining table is in the living room. Well we packed all the packed boxes in the dining area, so we had to move the table.
These are some photo's of me doing what I do best.Beatin..... uhh playing Dad in Chess.

"YESSSS, I got your Queen!!!"

We're packing now!!!

Since we might close on our new farm next week, we figured it was time to start packing. We packed, and we packed.

AND WE PACKED!!!!!

What a fishing hole!!!!!

Our neighbor had told us of a nice size lake back in the woods behind his house. So we asked if we could walk across his farm to get to it and he said yes.
The lake is about 5 to 6 acres, and is pretty deep. So here are some photo's that we took while we were there. This photo was taken about half way down the lake.

Here are some guy's fishing. All they were catching were Bluegill.

Up on the hill is a small log cabin that the owners stay in while at the lake.

Here is at one end looking at the other end. Man is it long! We walked from one end to the other

More photo's...

This is a photo of the creek, it was taken from the back yard.

This is the view from the back deck of the house... AWESOME!!

Heres the new place.

Here are some photo's of the new place, we named it "Creek View Acres"

This is the 40'x30' work shop, it's pretty big but Dad wants to build an addition off the side for my Blacksmith shop.

Here is the front of the house, and no the whole drive way isn't black top, just the last 100'.

I thought we were suposed to downsize!!!!!

Since I have only moved once in my life, I had some preconceived notions about moving.
First of all, I thought you were supposed to sell some of the stuff you already had, so that it would be less to move. If that is right, then we are doing it all wrong...
Because last week I bought a 30 year collection of blacksmiths tools, which includes 2 forges,3 blowers, 70 tongs, 50 hammers, a drill press, a table, and a 125 pound swage block.
If that wasn't enough, Dad bought a Massey Ferguson hay baler, and we will have to pull it with the truck all the way down there. Going a whopping 35mph!!!
Oh well, I guess it will all work out in the end.