Greyback Forge | My Shop | Forum

My treeplanting buddy bought the place in the early 80s with his gf and another couple. "lets but this hillside land and all live together" didnt last long, but long enough to build a couple cabins, plant some fruit trees.
I'd been living in a camper, and treeplanting for a few years living in different places. He and his gf bought the property next to it that they had been caretaking when I moved into one of the cabins here in 92.
I'd been saving for land, and bought a lot in town in 95, was planning to build a shop on it, but really didnt want to move into town. By 98 I had tracked down the other owners, and paid them off, sold the town lot to pay off my friend, and owned it outright in 2000, no bank loans involved.
I got the roof you see put up over a slab in 01, and in 02 started the foundation for expanding one of the cabins into a livable pad.
Got into milling wood, one thing I can get around here is trees.
Still spending most of the year living out on jobs in a camper, and working on the place in the winters. In 06 I sided the shop, a salvaging bro donated 25 sliding door windows that give me lots of light in there. The aspect is perfect, in the summer the sun just hits the workbenches in the back, in the winter sunlight (when I get it) goes all the way to the front doors. This is my 5th winter with walls and doors for the shop.
I'm only a couple poles from the grid, but there was already a 2" waterline with 140 psi running a hydroelectric (well, a vw fan for a peltonwheel in a breadbox) so I skipped all that messy county paperwork and stayed off grid with a better hydroplant and a few solar panels.
My FS contracts have been getting pretty thin the last few years, and I've found myself doing more of my pole construction, spending more time at home. My alternative energy covers the house well, and I can run some tools in the shop, like skilsaws, drills and grinders. My welder is a Miller genset on the truck,have had some equipment repair work with it.
When the lathe, and bandsaw showed up, I had to figure something else out, so I put a hydraulic pump on a diesel I use for backup charging, and plumbed the shop with hydraulic. It is a pain to fire a diesel to run the power hammer, but I dont run it 8 hours a day, with a little planning the heavy work can be knocked out pretty quick on it, do detail on the anvil. The lathe may not be gnats ass for accuracy, but it will take a good cut.
25 years of trucking around the slopes of Oregon and Washington has taken a toll on the bod, and this is the first break between contracts in a long time. I've been lucky and had contracts in the Siskiyous for the last 7, but it looks like I'll either have to start bidding abroad again, or see if I can make enough around here.
I dont have any illusions of making a living in my first year of hammering iron, but along with a carport or two I think I enjoy the activity enough to keep pounding when I can.
Dont need much here, what some of you make a month to keep your shops running, I could live a year on, I'd bet.
I'm thinking some ornamental ironwork would go well with the log construction, people who like the style usually want as much "rustic" look as they can get.
Here's a shot of the shack, and a few of the pole jobs I've done.

No,that was actually a yanmar tracked carrier that had a small dump bed on it. I added a blade, and made a mini-mini excavator out of it. Only 3' wide, it will pick about 1000 lbs, I use it quite a bit moving stuff around, trail building, some digging. Put a hydraulic wheel motor on a braden winch I picked up, you'd be suprised at the size logs I can skid with it if I brace it against a tree.
I know some equipment guys, I'll hire a cat or a hoe if I need any serious earthmoving done.

working on another jy hammer, had some use of the versamil on the lathe for sure

Yea, at first I'd pre-drilled the splines on a drill press, but locating the holes after the plates were fitted in (yea, plunge cutting into the endgrain is fun) is too much of a PITA, so I bore through the whole thing with a hole hog, and the holes are true. Fighting a hole hog through 14 inches of wood with 3/8" of steel in the middle is a joy. I have about 600 bolts in the place I'm working on now.
My blacksmithing partner has a timber framed straw bale home, and I've worked on a couple others. Maybe I can get some pics for ya.
Man, you can keep that place warm with not much more than a candle.
I've been doing polework for 20 years or so, and would really like to play the steel work out into it, they go together so well.