Blacksmithing
It was -1 when I woke up this morning—air temp, not wind chill—so no concrete is being poured this week. The husband had the BMW up on the lift yesterday so he could take it apart and flush out the diesel exhaust fluid reservoir. I had been in town Monday and as I walked past the racks of distilled water at the store, I wondered briefly how the distilled water situation was in the shop. Of course, I ignored the voice in my head telling me to put a couple of gallons into the cart, thinking that the husband would have told me to get some if he needed it.
We have been married for 31 years. I should know better.
He came in the house yesterday afternoon and said, “Do we have any distilled water in here? I’m all out in the shop.” I managed to locate the remaining half gallon, which appeared to be enough. Distilled water is now on the shopping list for later this week.
Last night, after dinner, we sat down to watch YouTube. We put on the latest Essential Craftsman video, where Scott, the EC, was talking about ordering 12,500 pounds of Pennsylvania coal for his forge. He lives in Oregon, and while I was mentally calculating the cost of freight for that many 50-pound bags of coal from Pennsylvania to Oregon, the husband said, “I need to order some coal.”
“Whatever for?” I asked. We heat with propane and wood.
“My forge,” he said.
“What forge?”
“The one I’m building.”
“You’re building a forge?
“Yes.”
“Were you going to share this exciting news with me?”
“Eventually.”
We have been married for 31 years. I should know better.
He does have an anvil:
Silly me, I thought this was just for hammering all the things that need to be hammered around here. I had no idea it was the beginning of a blacksmithing operation.
[I tell you, if there isn’t an apocalypse after all the effort we’ve made to acquire all these post-apocalyptic skills, I am going to ask for a refund.]
I’m hoping to return to our regularly-scheduled concrete content soon. This deep freeze should be over by next week, but more snow is in the forecast.