September 2014

Troy, Ohio
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Tim is forging ahead with his plans for a new blacksmith shop at the farm. So we’ve made the trip up to the annual Southern Ohio Forge & Anvil Quadstate Roundup, one of the largest blacksmith conventions in this part of the country.

This is our fourth trip to SOFA, and we always begin the weekend with a stay at my folks’ house, camping driveway style. It also happens to be close to my birthday, so we celebrated with Mom & Dad – and big double thank you for the birthday gifts!!

Noon on Friday found us lumbering into the Miami County Fairgrounds in Troy, Ohio, where we will camp for the weekend. Tim scurried out to do a look-around at all the vendor wares. He was on a mission to purchase a new forge, and this is the place to buy one. If you’re interested in blacksmithing as a hobby, this convention has all the rusty iron implements you could ever need. There’s dozens of sellers lined up along the gravel drives, and they’re all willing to make a deal.

Tim came back within the hour – a hot red forge procured on the first go-round. So now we can relax the rest of the weekend, since the primary mission has already been accomplished.

Tomorrow Tim will spend the day watching various experts do demonstrations. I’m going to leave the crockpot cooking in the motorhome and backtrack south to the Cincinnati IKEA store. My folks are going to join me for some shopping and they’ll have no trouble finding me, as I’ll be in a big blue truck with a bright red forge strapped on the back!

This year we find ourselves with an abundance of real estate and properties. The City house, the Farm home, the Cabin, and of course the RV. It’s a bit too much to take care of and maintain. Not that we ever did it extremely well in the past, but adding the farm house to the list has really put a burden on us. Especially since the two residential homes are 50 miles apart.

So after much discussion and gnashing of teeth, a decision was made to sell the city home and renovate the house at the farm. It’s been a tornado of activity since May – coordinating contractors, emptying houses, making hundreds of decisions and calculating budgets. And of course prepping the city home for sale.

For Sale!

New Addition!

Which leads me to the Other, Other Home.

When our house is being shown by the realtor we have to vacate the premises for a couple of hours and bring the dog along with us. Not so bad when the weather is cool, Shadow and I can go walk around a park. But in the heat of the summer nobody is comfortable hanging around outside, and there’s no air-conditioned establishments that would welcome a big smelly dog indoors.

So we head over to the storage unit where the RV is parked, picnic basket in hand, and crank up the AC. The dog stays cool and comfy. I’ve got the TV on in the background and the microwave humming. It’s just like home. Well, just like one of our homes anyway!

Air Conditioned Refuge

Forge Ahead!

The Other, Other Home