4/12

Since the last blog post, Ciro and I have gotten quite a bit done. At the end of the day on Friday, we cleaned the air blower we received from my family friend. It was grimy. On Saturday, we finally had good weather and were able to pour the concrete. This was a long process, but was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. First however, we had to  pump the water out of the holes, resize them to fit to the proper dimensions as our initial measurements were off, put in the 8” forms, set them at the right height, and finally bury them in with dirt. We were tired at the end of the day, but that night we ended up making hammer handles out of a piece of hickory we had laying around. It was nice to have a change of pace and switch to a more patient and familiar task like woodworking. On Sunday, we celebrated Easter and began to modify the forge between meals. We still need to weld a lower shaft section underneath the vent for the fire, and figure out a decent setup for the air blower.

It was very exciting to get the concrete done, and it finally feels like we are moving forward. Tomorrow (Monday) will be rainy, so we will try and finish handles, make a stump anvil, and continue with the modification of the forge. On tuesday, we plan to complete the construction of the outdoor structure and begin with laying bricks for the forge. We are more behind schedule than originally planned, but not detrimentally so. It is likely going to be poor weather next weekend, so I am glad that we have decided to build a structure so we can forge regardless.

(I don’t have my phone while I am posting this and cannot transfer photos and videos yet. This will all be in another post.)