My second blacksmithing class…

Posted on April 17, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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And once again, I had a great time… although it was really hot today…

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I love everything about that crazy barn…

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I love the smells, and all the old tools, and the forges… and the cool old guys… of which, I suppose, I might now be one…

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Today, I took those two pieces of precut metal and the rivet, and made blacksmithing tongs… to use when I am blacksmithing… and, despite the precut pieces, it was not an easy project.

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Of course, to start, we needed to clean out the clinker breaker and the clinker box, and sort the clinker, coal and coke… (you can read all about this process in the posts I did after my first class… just search for it)… I had my newspaper jellyfish ready to start the forge and light the coke.

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Oh yeah, crank in some airflow, and the forge is ready to work!

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Dance to my tune, hot steel!!!

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Please join me for tomorrows post to see the finished project and more blacksmithing pictures.

 

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Arrrrrrrrrthur…

Posted on April 17, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Ha… see what I did there in the title? It’s a pirate joke… sort of…

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Oh yeah, my new birthday kayak lets me add ‘captain’ to my collection of useless titles… but you can call me ‘skipper’…

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I really do love boats… any size boats… I was on aircraft carriers when I was in the Navy, but this is cool too.

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It might be just a bit too small for me… the front seems to be riding pretty high… and remember that sign I was talking about in the last post… there it is again, right over my head…

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Yup… they rent jetpacks…

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I might need to try that one of these days.

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When I do, I promise I will have someone take pictures of me doing it…

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Just like I had my daughter take these pictures of me…

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Because… ME!!!

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Who doesn’t like pictures of me?

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I will even throw in one gratuitous picture of my big ol’ feet.

 

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So, my daughter and I took my new birthday kayak out…

Posted on April 16, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Now that I own a boat, that means I am not only a Scottish Lord, a blacksmith, and a minister, but I am now a captain too… among other things!

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The dismount is always the tricky part… and we all know the Russian judges grade harshly on those dismounts…

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Oh man, we had fun… and pay attention to that sign behind me, it will come up in tomorrow’s post… which I will try to do, before I start the new posts about my next blacksmith class… which is tomorrow…

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Mollie loves the kayak too.

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We took it out together, and I got those cool pictures of all the jellyfish you saw in the last post… but I didn’t remember to take any selfies while we were both in the boat… which isn’t like me at all… but I am not supposed to show pictures of Mollie where you can see her well, so maybe that was what stopped me.

a 7Mollie is a pretty good paddler… wait… what is that across the bay? It looks like a rocket taking off from the water. I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

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I did remember to have Mollie take a bunch of pictures of me… surprise, surprise.

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Yeah… we all know how much I love pictures of me…

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There is Mollie, relaxing in the kayak. We decided to name the boat: ‘The Mollusk’… which is funny, because that is what I call Mollie.

 

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Uh… that is a lot of jellyfish…

Posted on April 16, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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So, my daughter, Mollie, and I took my birthday kayak out on Mission Bay in San Diego. It is the first time I have had time to use it.

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There is even a vacant apartment at the complex that I manage, so we had a place to blow it up, and a hose to clean it off after our adventure.

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Well, it looks cool… let’s see if it floats…

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As soon as we got out on the water, we saw some jellyfish… which isn’t unusual…

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The boat worked great…

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The water was as flat as glass…

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And we saw more jellyfish…

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And even more jellyfish…

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And… okay… I ain’t never seen that many jellyfish…

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Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…

Posted on April 16, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Seriously… what is wrong with me…

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If I have to explain this to you, you aren’t in the right place anyway…

Posted on April 15, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Uh… does this seem just a bit insensitive?

Posted on April 11, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Yes, I realize that cruise ships full of tourists roving up and down the European waterways are not very likely to pillage and plunder anything more than souvenir shops and bakeries… but the name choice still seems a little weird.

I mean, you wouldn’t open up a Nazi summer camp… in Auschwitz…

Now, before you fly off the handle, I am not actually comparing Vikings to Nazis… although, in all historical fairness, to the people they visited, they must have seemed at least as bad… I wouldn’t be that stupid… mostly because I am fully aware that these warriors have achieved a level of respect and reverence, partly due to their brave, seafaring explorations and partly because of the fact that they are so far removed from us in time.

As an historical note, did you know that Vikings never wore the horned helmets we associate with them? Some costume person involved in an early movie about them added that little bit of costume, and the idea stuck with us.

If you ask me, and I know you didn’t, it would be cool if the Viking cruises used real Viking long ships… and the tourists had to row the danged things up and down the rivers… and eat and live like real Vikings… without the butchering and looting…

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Why you freekin’ need to vote… (or); I swear, this is the last political post for a while, and I will get back to doing all my other weird stuff…

Posted on April 10, 2016 by pouringmyartout

Yes, I know, a lot of you feel that voting is a waste of time… and maybe it is… but here is the thing… (and this is a thing that should damned well be tied in with your very instinct for self-survival and the continuance of our species)… but if you are in a row boat in the middle of the ocean, and it springs a leak, you start bailing. You don’t spend time wondering if your bailing is going to work, you just do it… especially when Donald Trump is telling the rest of the people in the boat that it is already sinking, but he has  plan to fix the leak… and make the Mexicans pay for it… but he can’t tell you the plan yet… and in the mean time, he is not only telling the rest of the people in the boat that the leak… (which actually started during the last time the Republicans were in charge of the boat)… is all Captain Obama’s fault, and that they should not only not help bail until Trump is made captain, but they should all pee in the boat too… just to show how unhappy they are.

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Silly elephant… the final chapter…

Posted on April 10, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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Silly elephant… part 15…

Posted on April 10, 2016 by pouringmyartout

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