Helping

[mite5255]

There used to be a lady living next door to use until about two months ago and was going through life having heaps of family dramas, this lady is in her early forty's and her early family life was very fractured with no stability and that has been past on to her own children. She appears to be really trying to change and be a better Mom and person, anyway my wife and I have been trying to help in anyway we could. She had her two elder boys visiting from Victoria this week age 15 and 10, she has a 6 year old that lives with her, she brought them around to meet us yesterday and I took them outside to show them what I do in my shed, they were amazed that I actually cast metal and the elder boy was full of questions and seemed to be genuinely interested, so next time when the visit I’ll offer to show the elder boy how its done, I’ll show him how to mole something up, but I’ll pour the metal, this should happen around Christmas I would think.

[Jammer]

Kids are great... usually My sons used to help me or, do their own projects. They both started pretty young.

[mite5255]

I not aloud to teach our son, hes very much like a bull at a gate and he would hurt himself

[Jammer]

My boys weren't sure what to think. When I had the Gasifier running, it started to pop and backfire through the tuyere. I was trying to tune it and looked back at my sons and they were standing on the other side of the yard about 30 feet away. They usually tried to keep me safe.

[mite5255]

Every-time I'm showing someone, I tell them as a joke, if I start running, under no circumstance get in my way, you'll get trampled to death, just try and out run me With new people I do run through a few things that could go wrong and I tell them which way I want them to go if things turn to shit in a big way and which way I'll be going, thus far all my f%^kups I've been on my own and haven't needed to worry about others being around. I do always try to keep watchers to a absolute minimum, only one or two, but I prefer only one, any more and I loose concentration

[mite5255]

Talk about kids deserting you, years about son had two off road bikes and at the back of our place was a pine forest (its gone now) and we went riding. I've never like a motorbike sliding around underneath me, a car I don't mind, anyway there was this deep drain with steep sides, son goes down ne side heaps of throttle and air when he gets to the other side, I'm sitting on the ike looking at this drain with the feeling of impending doom , I when down my side riding the back brake, got near the bottom and gave the throttle a big twist, up the other side I went, got heaps of air and thought so far so good then gravity took over and I though OH F&CK, I hit the deck and landed on my back, so I'm slowly wriggling fingers and toes making sure a I no back or neck injures, I might add I had my eyes closed as I was sorta hurting, I then heard my son coming back, anyway I'm still on my back when he stopped and I thought gee its tacking a awile to come and check to see if his Dads ok, the the prick was picking up the bike and was checking it out I said oh by the way I'm ok, he looked at me with a grin and said that's great Dad

[F.C.]

Years ago a good friend of mine (ceramic artist) assisted me with a bronze pour. First time he ever poured metal turns out a spider crawled into the sand mold when we weren't looking just prior to make'n the pour. As the metal went in we heard a loud "POP" and out the vent riser come a squirt of molten metal droplets which one landed on the hunched over shoulders of my friend. That droplet went through his sweater, traversed down toward his arm pit, then he let go with that hand of his end of the yoke (still holding stable with the other hand) and wiggled his arm numerous times till that solidified droplet exited his sweater sleeve and dropped sizzling on the concrete floor. He held fast the entire time!! After the pour he removed his sweater and shirt and you could see a burn track on his skin the entire route that droplet took under his sweater. Months later, he assisted me again, only this time it was a single one man yoke (tongs) I used to make the pour which contained about 60 lbs of bronze melt. His job was to shovel any spillage of bronze out of the mold that might occur about the floor so's not to cause the cement flooring to POP and fling molten metal about the shop. Sure as shit, that mold broke... and to complicate matters worse I was still recouperating from hernia surgery which just as that mold douched its contents, and I tried quickly to move the crucible away I suffered severe pain and went to my knee on the floor. That very second I glanced up and saw my friend taking huge leaps and bounds directly away from me towards the back door of my shop!!! leaving me there alone w/cement pops going on and molten bronze droplets flinging about like hail stones. In the next split second I saw a bronze flow coming toward my knee on that floor and in the next split second a shovel scrape to remove the metal away from me by my son's hand which I had no clue he was there witnessing the pour. He was soooooo calm and treated the situation like it was routine. He worked the metal with shovel in one hand, and doused each metal glob with water from a milk jug I always kept handy for that purpose. He had Walkman headphones on, bopping his head from the music he was listening to, and just did what he knew was necessary to help remedy the situation. I was ever so proud!! I'll never forget, though, seeing my "FRIEND" of many years bounding away like a jackrabbit leaping over shit in a panic try'n to get to the back door.... HAHAHAHA..... I tease him about it every time we even bring up the subject of casting metal together. HAHAHA

[mite5255]

I wouldn't let him forget ether Frank