Packing Horses into the Park County Electric Power Line

     We all know the Recession has been hard on the construction industry...my main customer base for the past 18 years has been the construction industry and national historic sites. Happily for me my shop was employed way over 40 hours per week filling orders for hardware, lighting, firescreens and other custom articles which fall under the heading of housesmithing. Prior to that the historic reenactment participants throughout the Country kept me busy. Hats off to those boys and gals for they fed my family for the first seven years of business, and have been helping take up the slack during this Recession. Thank-you for your patronage.
    Having said all that, for the first time in 25 years the shop work has not been enough to keep me as busy as I am accustomed to...so after completing our house remodeling projects, cutting and splitting 10 cords of wood to heat the house and shop, staining the house and log blacksmith shop...I found I still had time to fill after filling the blacksmithing orders the shop produced.
    So for the first time in 25 years I took a job helping a freind of mine in his business which mostly involves treating infestations of noxious weeds on rangelands. In a nutshell we ride ATV's over incredibly rough terrain spraying species specific herbicide to treat foreign invasive weed species that threaten to destroy habitat for wildlife and livestock. At first , I have to admit, that it was an adjustment to take a job after being self employed a quarter of a Century, but that sense of embarassment was quickly replaced with a sense of fulfillment that rather than sitting around feeling sorry for myself and waiting for some governemnt bureaucracy to bail me out, I was ,as always, taking resposibility for myself.  If I had to find a part time seasonal job to help take up the slack, this one was perfect for me. I got to spend up to 12 hours a day outside in beautiful Montana landscapes, improving wildlife habitat.We treat everything from private ranch lands to Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and Wildlife Refuges. The nature of the work still allows ample time to fill my blacksmithing orders between projects.
     Last week I was able to fill an unusual contract for Prairie Elk Forge...my freind who owns the business had a project to treat weeds on the Park County Montana electric transmission line  right of way into the mine South of Big Timber and McLeod Montana.  The terain required the use of horses to get water and herbiced to the weeds. I rode Char's old gelding"Senior" and packed herbicide and water on my riding mare "Whitney" to backpack sprayers who mixed and applied the herbicide to Spotted Knapweed, Canada Thistle, Musk Thistle, Ox Eye Daisy, and Houndstounge. All these weeds destroy habitat for wild ungulates such as Deer, Elk, and Bighorn Sheep, which of course impacts all the carnivores. This is very steep mountain side country with stumps and down timber criss crossing erosion washouts and boulders, stirrup deep grass, and young fir and pine trees on slopes greater than 45 degrees!
    I wish I had some photos to go with this blog, but I decided not to bring a camers as I already had 8 equine legs to worry about not breaking in that challenging terrain, and the possiblity that a Grizzly Bear could show up at any time and make my life more entertaining than it already was! I carried a .44 magnum pistol on my hip all the time, while we had one pistol and two cans of Bear Spray with the backpack crew so everyone was covered even when the horses and I were on the trail picking up or delivering water jugs and herbicide to the crew.
  There were times I was off the power line riding back to the trucks to pick up more water, and lunch, cigarettes etc.needed for the manpower doing the spraying. The road was much easier and safer for the horses, so I used it to intercept the powerline and packed loads to the tops of the ridges the powerline crossed to supply the crew, as much as possible, with downhill spraying.
    The horses and I shared the road with logging trucks, contractors vehicles, mine trucks and busses hauling miners to and from work, as well as a few bowhunters looking for Elk. I have to tell you everyone I met was very polite to the horses and I, and slowed down or stopped til I waved em by.
    I left that project so very proud of my horses, they did what I asked of them, and performed beautifully in a very challenging landscape...even if I occaisionally had to ask the a couple of times.
 

Coat Hanger Pictures

This is an axe I recently made and sent out to a client in West Virginia, he described it as a Hudson's Bay Saddle axe, made specifically for use by horsemen in woodlands. There are tool steel cutting edges forge welded into each edge, forged to shape and heat treated for hard use. This axe weighs in at about 2 pounds and has a 13 1/2 inch handle  

Too busy to blog

I want to thank everyone who has read my blog...I have been told by a number of folks that I didn't know were reading it that they enjoyed it, so I will be writing more often and including more photos of what is going on. Also look forward to more recipes as  we get into Fall and things slow down a little. My son has agreed to help me negotiate the maze of the internet, so I hope to be less frustrated by the ever-changing buttons etcetera!

I just completed a coatrack for a freind I've had for over twenty years but haven't ever met. He's been a great client for all that time and we talk on the phone about things freinds talk about but haven't ever shook his hand, here's hopin' that will change before too long!

Anyway the coatrack is about 4 feet long with swinging hooks (they swing side to side as required) made to hold a Western Hat and coat on each double hook. The hooks are forged from 1/2 inch round steel in a forging die I made in the shop. The little ball on the end is forged in the die which  I also make using technology that is thousands of years old and allows a blacksmith to reproduce complex forgings easily...once the die is made. The rest of the work is hammer textured while hot and finished with the traditional hand rubbed black that is so popular and traditional. A coat of high quality paste wax over the iron will protect interior work from rust for about a year.

Photos of this coatrack temporarily installed on my shop back door will follow, with technical help from my last remaining teenager!