The Valley of Fire!

On Vacation I visited Nevada. One drive took us through the Valley of Fire! The State park has remarkable desert scenery. Stark red cliffs. Torturous canyons. Shattered mountainsides.

I particularly like seeing the ancient Petroglyphs. Amazing.  These were create over centuries on the side of a cliff.  The designs were carved into the dark oxidized rock.

There is a hunter with an Atl-Atl hunting Mountain Goats in the top of the picture below.

Only a mile away were the remains of petrified trees.  These trees were part of a forest that was here far before the Egyptians built the Pyramids.  Covered by mud for thousands of years the wood was replaced by iron rich minerals and became rock.

The red cliffs were once sand dune up to 2,000 feet deep. They turned to sandstone and were covered by a sea. Then iron rich minerals stained them red. That is my Blacksmithing content- Iron rich sand.  Iron has stained the rocks red.  The hills are full of sweeping curves and holes.  This is a natural sandstone arch.

Bec and I were out there for our 20th anniversary.

A good trip into desert.  It sure doesn't look much like the Adirondacks!

New Blacksmith Shop building here!

My prefabricated, Amish made shed is now on site.  Now I can start making it into a small Blacksmith shop at my home.  The larger shop is windy and unheated.  That doesn't work too well in North Country winters.  It is hard to work in the shop when it gets below 20 F.

Delivery truck pic.

The building was purchased from North Country Storage Barns.  They were pretty good to work with and allow you to customize the building.  Size, number of windows, roofing material, and stain color are some of the choices.  Technically my building is a Horse Run-in Shed.  I think it will make a good little shop for hand work projects.

It came on a hydraulically adjustable trailer.  Pretty neat!  I have trailer envy, go figure!  The trailer can adjust itself for tilt, camber, extend and retract, and tilt. My favorite feature is that it can drive itself straight sideways!  The deliverer was able to back it in, set it down on an angle, and swing it into position 90 degrees from how it was on the trailer.  The trailer is all controlled by a wireless remote control.  Putting the building in place didn't take 5 minutes.

Now I need to make barn doors.  And hinges.  And a traditional latch.  And shelves.  And... well you get the picture.  Lots to do.  My driveway overlooks the Black river just before it meets Lake Ontario.  I'll always have a pleasant view.  

Strange Lichen pattern on rocks!

I was walking in the woods with some Blacksmith friends when we saw this rock.  It was in a small wet spot on the trail with some flowing water.

I think there are two kinds of Lichen on the rock.  One is mottled brown, and the other makes the interesting white and black pattern!  I think the white and black must kill off or displace the other at it expands.  It is both startling and pretty to find in the woods.  At first I thought someone had made very intricate artwork on the rocks.

Getting Ready for more Blacksmithing!

After a long pause I plan to post more regularly.  There are a lot of thing afoot at the Kellogg & Sons Blacksmith Shop.  Namely a new shop building.  A nice little 10 x 18 shop will be at the end of my driveway soon.  That will let me do more work at home instead of driving to my larger and less weatherproof shop.

The new shop required a load of gravel to make a base.  The site overlooks the Black River just before it enters Lake Ontario.  I'll have a good view, that is for sure.

The man that moved the gravel for me was quick and accurate with his skid-steer loader!  I've rented them before to do similar jobs, but he did the job for less money and in a fraction of the time.  Sometimes it is smart to not do it yourself!

I'll have some work to do on the shop.  New doors, add a woodstove chimney, and make some shelves.  Then to start moving the tools.  I have accumulated more than enough to use in my old shop and the smaller new one.  I'll just have to start moving heavy stuff, like anvils and hammers.  Now which of my friends have Pickup trucks?  Hmmm!

I'm looking forward to setting up the new shop, making new tools, and getting some product lines out for sale.

Quad State Roundup Blacksmithing Conference 2011

As usual Quad State was a fantastic get together for Blacksmiths.  It is the last weekend in September each year in lovely Troy, Ohio.  Good demonstrators, good facilities, and great camaraderie!

Four of us went down from the Cooperstown area to the event.  It was a good road trip, in part because I got a new Toyota RAV4 two weeks earlier.  The trip sure broke that in and got rid of the new car smell!  Once there we went to most of the demos, and picked up lots of ideas and new techniques.  We saw some great ironwork being made.

We saw a lot on neat old tools.  This bridge anvil is more ornate than was usual for an industrial tool.

There were several smiths that brought their own portable demonstration rigs.  This one was very compact, and had a neat linkage that turned the rotary bellows by pulling a handle like a bellows!

We ate well.  Even if it was possum stew.

Of course we bought lots of tools!  Hammers old and new, files, books, chisels, bottom tools, and flatters!  The little truck had a full load coming back!

My thanks to the guys that went with me.  We had a great time.