DBL G Daily Journal

·         Pre 4/19/17

o   Garden planted with 6 celebrity tomato plants, 1 beefsteak tomato and 2 cherry tomatoes, all on drip irrigation

o   Sprinkled bug-geta around plants

o   Fertilized with Miracle-Gro.

·         4/19/17

o   Daily exercises

o   Planted 2 bell pepper plants in “earthbox” with drip irrigation

o   Installed zip hinge on front left downspout

o   Air Rifle

§  Made two templates for target shooting.

·         Brown paper

·         Bone Collector

§  @20 yds had trouble seeing 1 inch square with open sights, so I made templates for 2” centers, we will see how this works out.

·         4/20/17

o   Daily exercises

o   Went to see Courty at Regent Care,

§  left him a 6’ hank of rope to practice his knot tying

§  He has clearance to start standing,

§  left ankle and elbow not completely healed but getting better

§  right leg fracture healed

·         4/21/17

o   Daily exercises

o   Eye lid stitches appear to be dissolving.

o   Added “raised bed mix” to tomato plants as a side dressing

o   Finished reading “Watchman” by Robert Crais, good book, will try more of his work.

·         4/22/17

o   Made a bick out of an old pick head, still need to round up the pointy side and clean up,

§ 

§  Pick head is just wedged onto the ½” x 3” plate used to make the diagonal hardy stem.

·         4/23/17

o   Started work on garden plant holder, ½” round stock

§  Bent to shape

§  Wire welded leg on and ground off excess weld

§  Cleaned and coated with phosphoric acid twice

o    will have a butterfly sillouette.

§ 

·         Enlarged sillouette to fit in 6” circle

·         Made pattern of thin sheet metal

·         Used pattern to make butterfly from 14ga. Sheet steel

o   Chiseled line shape and now cutting shape out.

9-27-15 approx. 1530,

• thunderstorm hit with straight line winds,
• blew three trees over, 
• one in back yard hit corner of green house and fence
• one behind green house hit stock fence
• one in front part of property did no damage other than being blown down
• numerous other limbs and tree tops blown out
• a big mess, but not as much as neighbor across street.
• 
  

Roadrunners from forged nails

A friend sent this roadrunner made from cut flooring nails,

This caused a light bulb to come on, I have some forged nails that I just throw in a can, so i started gas welding them and the result is below.

 this is the first try.

Here is the second

Both mounted on a horseshoe and coated with paste wax finish

Recent Hand forged knives

• 1st forged knife from a cylinder wall, 
• heat treated in super quench
• not sure of carbon content, but will take a edge, 
• ,doesn't hold very long, but will shave. 
• handle is maple, attached with 3/16 brass pins and JB weld :), Coated with boiled linseed oil
• Sheath is some leather from the scrap bin, probably 6oz. hand tooled and hand sewn with saddle stitch. need to improve on tooling and stitching but always need to improve.

• 2nd forged knife,
• lawnmower blade, will shave, again, doesnt hold edge as long as desired
• heat treated in super quench
• not sure of carbon content, but will take a edge,d
• doesn't hold very long, but will shave. 
• Handle is walnut with 1/4" o.d. copper tubing for pins, JB weld again Coated with boiled linseed oil

• RR spike with twisted handle with skull forged in head of spike
• not completed at yet.

• Tim Tellander, ABS Journeyman Bladesmith was my tutor on this,
• 4th forged knife, drop point with boxwood handle and brass pins, coated with boiled linseed oil.
• 6 1/2" 1084 carbon steel
• Tim enlightened me on grinding, sequence, taper, WAAAAY TOOOO much to learn, will be learning a long time
• Heat treated in 140* quenching oil, tempered to blue
• Shaves and holds edge better than my first two, knowledge and material helps
• 1st Pouch sheath, left hand carry, veg tan, hand sewn, saddle stitch, neats foot oil finish

April 25,2015 Hail storm

• lost power for 23 hours, lots of damage to power grid on Duke road, 1/2 mile to the north of peaceful lane.
• several tree limbs down, no major trees,
• one limb hit green house and messed up the front edge of roof but no leaks
• a lot of hail, 
• beat about half of the leaves off the trees and knocked a bunch of small limbs off of trees
• house roof damaged, finally replaced July, roofers all busy
• workshop roof damaged, finally replaced July, roofers all busy
• north side vinyl siding has holes and cracks from hail stikes, still working on replacement
• Ellen's 2012 Focus had damage to hood
• My 2014 F150 had damage to hood and roof
• both were under cover but hail came in at an angle
• took about a month to clean up the debris in the yard working a little while every day, this includes the back half of our 3 1/2 acres, which had quite a few limbs down.
• finished the clean up around 8-15-15.

Charlotte, pet garden spider

not a very good video.

We have been watching this spider for awhile, she has laid two egg sacks and is probably working on a third.

we occassionally place bugs in her web, it is interesting to watch when she runs down to 'wrap' thing up and paralyze the bug,

you can see her fangs .

when she finishes draining the bugs, they are very flat.

Finally Finished

Saturday, September 13,2014

finally finished clearing the brush in back of our house.

Now just have to wait for the weeds to grow back and start mowing, HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!

found a bunch of sheep, fox and cat bones from different parts of the property.

the last corner took about two weeks to clear