18 Days until the competition and working on the farm..

As some of you may know I’ve been invited to compete on the History Channel show Forged in Fire. I’m super excited about it, but nervous as can be. I’m confident in my abilities as a Blacksmith and a Bladesmith. I’ve got alot of really satisfied customers…but this is a competition with a time limit, and some other unknown variable thrown in.

From what I’ve noticed by watching the episodes I’ve recorded over and over is that any of the smiths can beat any of the other smiths on any given day. It all really depends on who has a good day, and who has a bad day…I’m really hoping for a good day.

Maria and I did actually get the opportunity to talk with a guy who was on Season 2 of FIF…he helped relieve a good bit of the anxiety about competing, but then made another type of anxiety appear because it made it more real…that it’s really happening. LOL

All in all, we are both excited about traveling to NYC (not our first choice for a vacation spot) because neither of us have ever been. And this should be a fantastic experience.

If you’d like to check out some of the knives I’ve made, or if you aren’t into metal work and want to see some the best hand tie-dyed items I have ever seen pop on over to our Etsy shop for a gander:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/NoHarmInFarmin

Maria has a true talent with dyes and cotton…and I’m not just saying that because she’s the love of my life. Need proof? Slide on over there and check them out…you won’t be disappointed..

Ok…enough about that and on to the farm work…

We haven’t had a ton of chances to get up there to work, but when we do we tend to get alot done. We had a guy give us a single row, 14 inch bottom plow for the tractor and that’s been a big help with removing roots and small stumps. There are just SO dang many of them. Maria has been cutting brush like a fiend with the weed wacker/saw blade combo. We’ve got 1000 feet of driveway, and about 70% of the area where we’ll build the cabin/shed, barn, and eventually house. Now to figure out how to not have the driveway turn into a muddy mess. Things tend to start getting sloppy after a while. Gravel will be necessary eventually…ALOT of gravel. but once the small trees, shrubs, and briars are all cleaned up we’ll plant some rye to have a better root mat that we should be able to drive on. As of now, we can’t burn anything we’ve cut until after April 30. I know that isn’t that far away, but it’s piling up quickly.

This past week we also ran into a slight drainage problem..not huge..but there was apparently a pretty hefty rain storm yesterday and down by the creek there was some standing water in the bottom land and the creek had risen about 2 feet. It was still well within the banks, but it was swollen and rushing pretty well.

From the time stamp, you can see this was on the 29th…nice and dry…..

Same spot, same camera…only on the 1st…alot of standing water…we’ll see how quickly it drains..hopefully fast.

It’s a good thing my boots are water proof..LOL..

We hope that everyone has a great week as things start to green up for spring. Whenever they tell me the episode of Forged in Fire will air I’ll let everyone know..I’ll probably be shouting it from the roof tops…LOL..until the next post…..take care.

Chad