Been gone, but not on vacation.

Hey yall,

Well last Tuesday morning I hit the road for Columbia, Ky, where my good friend Dave Custer's blacksmith shop is located.

 The plan was for me to come over to his shop, and forge as many "Brian Brazeal" style rounding hammers as we could, so that we can sell them on my eBay store. Also we were able to get some coal out of an old school basement (it's where Dave gets his coal), and get some steel for some forges that I plan on making for my eBay store.

So here are some photo's of our weeks work. I don't have many photo's of us working on the hammers, but a lot of video that I have to edit.

Tempering one of the hammers.

Hardening one of the hammers

A hammer tempering, and in the background is Dave putting a ruff polish on another hammer

Well that's all the photo's I have of us making the hammers, but here are some photo's of us getting some coal.

Dave sitting on top of  large pile of coal.

We hauled out the coal via 2 5 gallon buckets at a time.

Here are the old coal boilers that used to heat the school. 

All in all, we got about 3,600 Lbs of coal, so that gave Dave and I a good coal supply that should last us for a good while.

In 4 day's we were able to make 6 hammers, get steel, and do a full day of "coal mining", so a good day's rest was welcome this Saturday.

Many thanks to Dave and his family for having me over, and as always it was a pleasure to work with Dave.

Working on the house

Well we got a good bit done on the on the house this week end. We got the all the floor joist's in the center room laid, and also got some of the subfloor laid. Enough talk, it's time for photo's.

Dad and Junebug

The floor joist's are down!!!!

Those metal bands are called "Bridging" it keeps the floor joists from twisting.

Nailing down the subfloor.

Taking the shortcut down.

A good day's work.

Bad Water

Well yesterday I went to the USDA office in town, and asked to look at a geological map that shows how deep the water table is, and what kind of stone is you have to go through to get to it. When I first walked in to ask about looking at one of these maps, and when asked why I simply said "I am building a off grid log house, and I am wanting to drill a well for my own use". At that point the ladies there in the office were looking at me like was a mad man or something, "What do you have against county water?" asked one of the ladies. "I just don't like my water tasting like pool water." I replied.

 After a few minutes, they finally found a geological map, but I think it's the first time in years that those maps have seen the light of day (judging by all the dust that was on them). When we found the farm, it said that the water table was around 360 to 380 feet down (and with that map being almost 45 years old it might be deeper),the stone was Warshaw Limestone, and that the water was Sulfur water. :(

So with that being said, I won't be drilling/digging a well, so I am going to have to figure out a better source of clean water. Right now I am looking at different designs for a rain catch system that will clean the water of any contaminants.

Horse on the Lamb

Being woken up by a neighbor calling the house phone, and telling us that one of the horses (Pete) is up the road at his house is NOT the way I like to begin my day....... Better than starting the year I guess. LOL

 I still haven't figured out how Pete got out, Non of the fences were down, and all the gates were closed...... All I know is, I got them both in the small field in front of the house were they can't get out, and there they will stay until I am finished putting up the rest of the barbed wire fencing in the back field.

house pics

Just thought I would share some of the photo's I have of when we were building the basement of the house.

Dad giving his approval.

Our block layer, Doyle









It's SO BIG!!!!

all things that are new

Well I have kinda changed course on my blacksmith shop business plan. Instead of just doing hand forged iron work, I am now making/selling blacksmithing forges, tools, and equipment. So far, I have made all my forge sales on eBay.com, and I love it. It is sooooo easy, and more inexpensive than I thought it would be.
Here is a photo of a forge that I made about a month ago.

Also about a month or two ago ( I can't remember) me and my good friend Dave Custer, forged a hammer at his shop in eastern Ky.
Here is the hammer we made.

Here is a video too of the making of the hammer, and of us forging a "striking anvil" for Dave's blacksmith shop.

I don't remember what my shop looked like when I last showed it to yall, so here is a photo of it in it's current state.

It's still not completely finished, but it will have to do, since I am now building myself a log house!!!!!

Here are 2 video's I have of building the log house.

Part 1

Part 2

Well that's all I can think of that is new around here, so until next time. God's Speed.

Hey yall

Hey yall,

I know that it has been a long time since I wrote a regular post, or any thing for that matter, but it has because I had a iPad and not a regular laptop. But that is about to change, just today I bought a Dell laptop!!!!!!!
 So hopefully this means more blog posts, and if I go a while with out posting any thing, just drop a comment and say "hey bud, remember you said more blog posts???" LOL

Yall have a great new year!!!!

Cabin, and Homestead update

Building my off grid log house: Part 1