2014 finally ended! It didn’t come fast enough for me. It was a rough year for me and the
critters. My sweet but stupid cat got
into something the weekend before Christmas and needed surgery to stitch up
from the corner of her left eye up onto her head. That makes 3 animal hospital visits for the
year.
Leslie found a large cyst on
Charlie’s neck and had to take him in the last week of the year. Not sure what it is yet but it looks
hopeful. He is a good hound dog.
All this isn’t so bad when you
look at the BIG picture. Life has its
ups and downs. If you don’t have any
downs you ain’t living right.
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Santa had to work especially hard
to get all these knives finished and in the mail to be delivered before
Christmas. From the left we have 2
custom Bird & Trout knives. In the middle is a slim hunter in Desert
Ironwood for my son-in-law. Next is a
forged Raindrop Damascus Hunter with Burl handle and last is one of my Altoid
Tin knives with a necker sheath dressed up with Curly Maple handles.
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The Bird & Trouts were made
for a super guy from Memphis
and his son. He wanted their initials
carved into the sheaths, which was a good idea since they were identical
knives. This fellow already had four of
my knives, so with these two, makes him own as many of my knives as I do. He is already anticipating what I’ll have for
him at the next Ames Plantation Heritage Festival in October.
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This slimline trapper was made
from a Rough Rider Trapper kit that I got for myself a few years ago. I always felt a little intimidated by folding
knives but this was easier to put together than I thought. Instead of slipping into my front pocket, it
was given to my buddy as a Christmas gift.
He does so much to help me that I figured he should have it in his pocket. It has some pretty Black Ash burl handles
with brass liners and bolsters. I think
I’ll have to come up with my own design and make a folder to sell some time in
the future.
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My intention each and every year
is to upgrade equipment and take things to the next level. So for 2014, I’ve wanted to have a propane
tank installed to run my forge. It took
all year long to make it happen because “Life Happens”. It is almost ready to crank up the heat. Not sure what's in store for 2015 yet.
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Our electric co-op, TVEC came around to trim and
cut trees along their easements. It’s on
a 10 year cycle so there was plenty for them to cut. The big cedar and half of my favorite
Loblolly Pine fell to their saws along with quite a few smaller trees on our
driveway. It saved me a bunch of work,
so I’m letting them dump a few loads of chips across from the shop. Win – Win.
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When a friend gave me a jar of
candied ginger, the first thing I thought of was making a Ginger Mead. I chopped some of the ginger up, mixed it
with some lemon juice, honey and a tea bag.
This mixture was steeped with hot water and left to meld into the base
of the mead. It turned into a 2 ½ gallon
batch that looks very refreshing. Hope
some of y’all get to taste this later in the year.
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Someone got a brand spanking new
work truck the last week of the year. It’s
a Ford F150 4x4 Extended Cab. Sorry to
see the 2002 Ranger go. It has taken me
to and from work so many times. I
certainly appreciate this perk, and take care of my work trucks. This pic is before she gets gussied up with running boards, city emblems and other stuff.
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Last thing I want to talk about
is a call I received after the Validity magazine article came out. It was from a gentleman about 15 miles
east of Waynesboro. Tommy was his name and he thinks that we
might be kin. We met for lunch the week
before Christmas and had a very interesting conversation. It seems possible that our great great grandfathers
may have been brothers that came to the U.S. in the early 1800’s. I don’t have much information on the Burns family
prior to my great grandfather. You just
never know why things happen. This will
be interesting to find out more info on my family history.
Let’s hope that 2015 is a
Fruitful and Prosperous year, with many great days ahead of us all.
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