My son informed me yesterday that finding my blog is somewhat akin to seeking one organism in the ocean. I was happy this morning to find that some of my relatives had already found it,including my sister in laws sister who I rarely keep up with except thru my sister in law! I assume that means she found it on her own. Sue, thanks for the nice comments, I am begining to see this gizmo as a communication device, I spend alot of time alone, meaning no human companions, I usually have my dog(s) or a horse or two around, but I spend most of my days alone in the shop or out in the rimrocks hunting, trappping, or cutting firewood. I savor the solitude, always have, but its fun to reconnect with people.
Cool again this morning, my mare Whitney had frost on her eyelashes, she looked like some new model queen, and bucked and kicked enthusiastically waiting for her nosebag full of grain! She has one blue eye and one brown eye, a pretty girl. I tease my wife of thirty years that she is the only young female I can handle without getting in trouble!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
February 25 2011 Yellowstone Natinal Park Lantern in progress
Twenty five below zero this morning at 6:45 ! I went down to feed the horses and my brown horses were white with frost! None of them complained about getting extra grain and hay this morning!
Sunshine this afternoon with temperatures hovering just above zero. I ground some mule deer buck trimmings this morning (from my daughter's buck) and mixed jerky spice in with the meat so have been ferrying meat rolled out thin between sheets of plastic wrap to the oven for the initial drying time, and then cut them into strips and move them to the wood stove top to completethe drying process. The house smells great and my dogs are inclined to drool ever so little! I worked up about 12 pounds of meat and so it'll take a couple days toget it all jerked.
I spend about 10 minutes per batch with intial drying time about 1 1/2 hours, so it doesn't interefere much with my shop work.
I had a client call the other day who went above and beyond the call of duty. He had seen my lanterns in the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park, and crawled around on the until he found my name stamp. Then he looked around on the internet until he found my profile on the Contemporary Longrifle Website.That's where he found my phone number and called to order a lantern for his yard light in Utah. You have to love clients who go to that much trouble! Anyway his lantern is in progress today.
Sunshine this afternoon with temperatures hovering just above zero. I ground some mule deer buck trimmings this morning (from my daughter's buck) and mixed jerky spice in with the meat so have been ferrying meat rolled out thin between sheets of plastic wrap to the oven for the initial drying time, and then cut them into strips and move them to the wood stove top to completethe drying process. The house smells great and my dogs are inclined to drool ever so little! I worked up about 12 pounds of meat and so it'll take a couple days toget it all jerked.
I spend about 10 minutes per batch with intial drying time about 1 1/2 hours, so it doesn't interefere much with my shop work.
I had a client call the other day who went above and beyond the call of duty. He had seen my lanterns in the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park, and crawled around on the until he found my name stamp. Then he looked around on the internet until he found my profile on the Contemporary Longrifle Website.That's where he found my phone number and called to order a lantern for his yard light in Utah. You have to love clients who go to that much trouble! Anyway his lantern is in progress today.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A Technologically-Challanged Blacksmith Tries his Hand At Blogging
Welcome to my new blog, My parents, teacher and almost everyone who knows me will tell you I was born 100 years too late, I know it's kind of a cliche' but in my case it's truer than most. I spend my days using pre-Christian metalworking techniques to reproduce artifacts for museums, reenactors, and National Park Service historic sites, or using those technques to create new ironwork with traditional methods and "feel". You can check out my work on my Facebook page under Prairie Elk Forge.
It's hard for me to adapt to this new fangled contraption but my children and wife assure me that folks out in cyber space will find some of what I do every day interesting. Remember I was dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th Century...the 21st Century is a daunting place for a guy who spent his whole life working out the technology from the previous millenium!
I started today like everyday feeding my saddle horses and my nieghbors down on the banks of the Musselshell River in central Montana, it was about five degrees below zero
and they were all glad to see me.
I spent the balance of the day working on a pair of table lamps for a great client from Western Montana. I was fortunate enough to spend the better part of a year working on her house, everything from the door hardware and fire screens to all the custom lighting. A freind of mine and I collaborated on a sofa table for her last Summmer, his firm built the woodwork, and I built the ironwork. The table incorporated wood salvaged from an old tobbbacco barn her husbands grandfather built in Georgia, iron that I forged came from the railroad watering tower built here in Lavina Montana in 1884, and sandstone with a petroglph of two sandhill cranes. So I was happy to have the opprotunity to make her table lamps.
I got pretty well done with them today and have only the wiring to complete the project.
It's hard for me to adapt to this new fangled contraption but my children and wife assure me that folks out in cyber space will find some of what I do every day interesting. Remember I was dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th Century...the 21st Century is a daunting place for a guy who spent his whole life working out the technology from the previous millenium!
I started today like everyday feeding my saddle horses and my nieghbors down on the banks of the Musselshell River in central Montana, it was about five degrees below zero
and they were all glad to see me.
I spent the balance of the day working on a pair of table lamps for a great client from Western Montana. I was fortunate enough to spend the better part of a year working on her house, everything from the door hardware and fire screens to all the custom lighting. A freind of mine and I collaborated on a sofa table for her last Summmer, his firm built the woodwork, and I built the ironwork. The table incorporated wood salvaged from an old tobbbacco barn her husbands grandfather built in Georgia, iron that I forged came from the railroad watering tower built here in Lavina Montana in 1884, and sandstone with a petroglph of two sandhill cranes. So I was happy to have the opprotunity to make her table lamps.
I got pretty well done with them today and have only the wiring to complete the project.
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