An Avalancher sort of afternoon!

[CrappieKeith]

Hey Mike...come and see my BJ90 running...I liked Steve's comment about going fishing...I knew I liked this guy!

 

[mikes mold]

youkon

Hey steve! I grew up there part of my life. Back when Kens Key board was a general store in farmington and the blacksmith shop was right across the street. You think you had a bad day. The blacksmith got blown through the front doors when welding on a drum. My sister Kathy Olson still lived there till she passed. Down on the rice flats where the apple meets the st croix. Have a great day.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Hey steve! I grew up there part of my life. Back when Kens Key board was a general store in farmington and the blacksmith shop was right across the street. You think you had a bad day. The blacksmith got blown through the front doors when welding on a drum. My sister Kathy Olson still lived there till she passed. Down on the rice flats where the apple meets the st croix. Have a great day.

Never heard the blacksmith story, will check on that tonight. Ken's is my preferred hangout, going to shoot dart league there tonight. Will ask the older fellows about the explosion. I grew up with Ken's kids, their cabin is just down the road from my house on Lower Pine.

Would Kathy be Steve and Randy's mother? Randy was my next door neighbor for a while, graduated with him.

It's a small world...

 

[mikes mold]

youkon

You got it! The blacksmith broke his back and never came back. I was maybe 13 or 14 at the time. 64 now

 

[Curlycherry1]

My BIL worked for one of the very few 18th century blacksmiths registered to do historical restorations in a bunch of key places. He got to travel to Virginia, Philidelphia, NY and Washington a lot to help install the stuff they built in his shop in Upstate, NY.

My BIL and this blacksmith were always singing weird songs and I asked WTF is up with the constant weird songs. Turns out the songs were for timing of heating, working and cooling of the various metals. Based on a size of a hunk of metal it could be put in the forge to be heated and based on the verse of the song they would know when it was ready to start banging on it. They also used songs for tempering metal, how long they had to work before reheating, all kinds of stuff like that. They were regular little chirpy birds in teh shop all day.

Turns out blacksmiths can't spend time looking at a clock on the wall plus they did not have digital clocks and so a song with good rythym was a good way to count out known periods of time.

I saw them take bundles of rought iron that were tied on one end with wire, heat them up,take them out and put them in an anvil, twist them and pound on the top perfectly so that the cluster of bars twisted and opened up to form a ball in the center. They were needed to repair a railing at some historical site. They make those things like they were playing with playdough, yet it was red hot metal, and more amazing was every one of them came out exactly the same despite being made by hand with hammers.

 

[Tendencies]

That's the GTG location. I'm down south of Osceola.

Sure were not leading a double life?? You must pass my house (8th Ave in Osceola) quite often, also cut all my wood in G-Burg (end of Gile Rd.) north of town...... I work in Taylors Falls......

 

[Steve NW WI]

Sure were not leading a double life?? You must pass my house (8th Ave in Osceola) quite often, also cut all my wood in G-Burg (end of Gile Rd.) north of town...... I work in Taylors Falls......

I don't cut up there, except for playing at the GTGs. The location for it is Grandpatractor's place. If you can make it there, it's a great experience for any aspiring chainsaw nut.
I live just off of Lower Pine Lake on 200th Street, and do most of my cutting in the back 40 here at home. I'm thinking 8th ave. is about the old high school area?

 

[Tendencies]

Yup, right across the street from the new Royal Oaks retirement home....

 

[Steve NW WI]

Tendencies, if you ever want to spend a day in the woods here, you're more than welcome. As I read your sig, you're retired Navy? Desert Storm vet here, 3 years active duty and 8 in the WI National Guard before I hung up the uniform.

 

[stihlcountry]

Hey Steve, I wish I was a movie producer,, Your day would be more interesting than watching a episode of ax men. I,ll rep ya for being a good sport with your bad day. Please keep posting anymore fun days you have. :greenchainsaw: