New Green House

About 2 weeks ago Dad bought a 25'X50' green house, and the deal was that we had to take it apart and move it by the 4th of July!!!!! Since I will be going to NC again we had to get it down this week.
Thankfully Joel Knight offered to help us get it down. So here are some photo's of us working on it.

     Since we only had 2 ladders Joel had to "monkey" around. :)

After we got the metal frame down all we had left to get up were the ends, and that meant pulling up the wooden posts....................................................By HAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we got down to just getting these 2 last posts up we thought the hard part was over......WRONG!!! Those 2 last post were the hardest to pull up.

Here is a Mac Gyver trick for you. We used this ladder as a plat form to hang a come-along in the air so that we could use it as a winch to pull up these little metal pipe's out of the ground, it got REALLY interesting when we pulled up the pipes that were set in concrete.

When we finally got done, I think Joel was ready to celebrate!! LOL

New Tractor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well actually it isn't new, but it is pretty close. It is only 8 yeas old, but it only has about 78 hours on it. Here is a photo of it.

Looks pretty big doesn't it?????.....

Well like they say, looks are deceving.

It is a 20 hp tractor, and it came with some equipment.

Like I said it is pretty small, but it will do what needs to be done on this place, and some smaller jobs on the next place.

Promised Photo's

So I guess yall have been wondering if I would ever show what I made at JCCFS. Well here it is.

"What is it?" You ask. Well it is a colonial light fixture called a rush lamp, it gets its name because of the center part is like a blacksmith tong and that tong holds a cat tail rush soaked in animal fat. The reason they used cat tail rushes is because wax was very expensive and rushes were free. But on birthdays, holidays, anniversary's, ect they would use a wax candle for the special occasion.
 I made this light using the same techniques that would have been used in the 1700's, so that made it more authentic.

Back from JCCFS!!!!!

Hey yall!!!! Well I am back from beutiful NC where I took a week long class in blacksmithing at John C Campbell Folk School, or better nown as JCCFS.
I was a nice trip getting there, along the way we drove along the Occee River, were we saw alot of folks white water rafting, it looked lik fun.
Here are some photo's of the trip over there.

 Going through good ol' Nashville.

 And verry happy to get out in the country.

 The Occoee lake.

 It was a verry eventful trip. LOL I think Dave got tired talking about blacksmithing.

When we go to the cabin I tried to take some photo's of the cabin and Dave was tryin to take a photo of me, so I took one of him.
Now here are some photo's of when we got to the blacksmith shop.

 Here is Dave at his forge, not goofing off for a change. LOL

 I told Dave not to take any photo's of me so I came at him with a fire poker, sword fighting style. LOL

 Here is our instructor at his forge getting ready to tell us what to do, besides burn metal up.

 Dave did a little practice piece.

 The enstuctors tools didn't fit in this treadle hammer, so he asked Dave to file it out a little bit.

 "OOOOOOPPSS!!" He filed it a little to much. OH well Dave, better luck next time. :)

 Back to the forge.

 Dave has been telling me how great a power hammer is ever since he used one at JCCFS, I wasn't convinced..... Untill I used this little butey called the Little Giant.

 I have NO idea why Dave gave me this face.....

 Dave asked me to do some striking for him, so I grabed the sledge hammer and went to work, but.......

I got tired of him telling me that I was doing it wrong. LOL
At the same time Dave and I were working in the blacksmith shop, Dave's dad, and my Dad was learning how to make a casket by hand, they said it about killed them.

This is the only photo that I have of the casket class.
after Supper Dave and I got to wash the dishes.

Dad made to many french fries, and Dave got to finish the last dozen, he said it was about to kill him. LOL We were all cheering him on, and he did it, but when we were on our down hill walk to the school, he said that he could just roll down the hill. LOL
Near the end of the week Dave got a nick name.

LOL LOL I thought it was kinda funny. :)
On the last day of the class we took a class photo shoot in front to the Blacksmith Shop.

We had to stay an extra day, so that the caskets would get mostly finished.
Here are some photo's of Dave trying to get out of the trailer after carried them in there.

He said that it was a little warm in there, but I thought he liked the heat????? LOL!!!!!
 The return trip was just as exiting as was the last.

All in all it was a good trip, I will have photo's of what I made at JCCFS soon, hopefully tomorrow.
 Here is some REALLY good news. The first day we were there Dave and I took a mid-day break at what is called the Kieth House (it is like the community house) I went to the office and talked to the ladies there about a scholarship, and after a brief conversation, I left with a scholarship application. The next morning, Dave and I stopped by the Kieth house to check some important emails, when one of the ladies from the office came to me and said that she had some thing that I might be interested in. Well it turned out that she was wanting to give me what is called a teachers resource, and here is what that is. When ever a instructor teaches a class the give him a free class with room and board, all he has to pay is $120 and the materials cost of what ever he makes. Well it seams that this one instructor wasn't going to use his, so he called JCCFS and told them to give it away. So she said that when this came up they immediately thought of me, and wanted to know if I was interested, and it just so happened that one of the classes that this resource was good for was one that I wanted to take anyways!!!!!!!!!!!!! It gets even better. Dave will be attending the same class!!!!
 So now I have a lot of work to get done before I leave.

CRUNCH TIME!!!!!!!!!!

Well we will be leaving for John C Campbell Folk School EARLY Sunday morning, and Dad and I have A LOT, I meant A LOT of things to get done before then. Right now I am eating pizza, and when I am finished Dad and I will be heading back up to the shop to finish the chicken coop, we will probably be working up there till 12:00-2:00 in the morning........... I hate workin over time. LOL
  I am really looking forward to going to JCC and learning some new techniques, and the really good part is that I will get to go with my friend Dave Custer( Dave's Blog). He has warned me of a forge at the school that will smoke up every time you fire it up, and I am afraid that Dave will trick me in to using that forge........ So Dave if you are reading this, I wouldn't do that if I were you..... LOL
  Here is a photo of what I want to make.

  Well the pizza is gone so I got to go work, so I can get some sleep.

Blacksmithing, snakes, and up the creek..... with a paddle

Well Yesterday I finally got to do some blacksmithing today, and was it ever HOT!!!!!!! Have I ever told any one that I hate summer????? The other day Dad and I went to Lowe's to buy a barrel bolt for the barn door, and when Dad saw how much they wanted for the size we needed he just about passed out!! LOL So I just had to open my mouth and say that I could make one of those in a few minutes.....OOPS So he said that I was to make him one......... SOOOOO I spent about an hour making him a what he wanted, sorry no photos of it, I didn't think about it. About the time I quit I looked at the thermometer in the shop, and it said that it was 102 degree's!!!!!

So after that I cooled down by going to the creek for a swim, and just when I had stepped in to the water, I looked down and there was a Water Moccasin at my feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Apostle Peter doesn't have any thing on me..... I RAN ON THAT WATER!!!!!!! I there is any thing I hate more than summer it is snakes, poisonous ones at that. So with that being said the swim was off, instead I just go the canoe out and went paddling up stream for several miles and then floated back down. When I was paddling up stream I just stood up in the center of the boat in stead of sitting in the floor, but when I was coming back down I sat on the very back seat. For some odd reason :) the front of the boat was in the air a little bit, so on the slow parts of the creek I paddled as hard as I could, and was able to get the front of the canoe pretty high in the air, just like a speed boat. I wish some one could have been there to take a video, I bet it looked a little funny.

Here are some photo's I took while canoeing.

When I was driving back to the house I had the truck speakers blaring with country music, and when I drove by Jake's paddock he was shaking his head up and down to the beat of the music. LOL I guess he likes country.

Herb Garden

The other day Dad and I started on a raised garden bed for herbs, we built it out of old RR ties, and was pretty easy to build.

A pile of dirt, time to start shoveling.

 This drill is older than me, and just about vibrated my teeth out!!!!!

 The ties were a little long, so Dad had to cut them off.

 After a days work we got it finished, and even got the herbs planted.

I think it looks pretty good, we put it right behind the "turn around area of the drive way, and with my luck I will probably back in to the herbs and flowers!!!!! hahahahaha

Workin Over Time

Since Dad and I have a week before we go to NC, we need to finish the chicken tractor. so since Sabbath ends at sundown, we worked a little "over time" in the shop.

All we did was get the rafters, and lathing up, but we will take as much progress as we can. Now to BED!!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The Garden

Well Dad, and I worked on our garden until dark yesterday. Here are some photo's of it.

 These are all the bell peppers

 In this one we have 2 rows of Peaches and Cream cor, Eggplant, and lettuce.

 Here we have the cucumber and squash plants.

 Bush, and Pole beans.

 MORE peppers!!!!! We have Hot Banana peppers, Sweet Banana peppers, and Haberneros.

 Also, a few tomatoes.

I think this garden will provide our needs for this summer, or until we sell the farm and move to a place where we can grow a bigger, better garden.