Before and after

[C. Perry Rapier]

Oh, she only gets aggravated when he gets involved in something that could burn down their house or sumpin dramatic like that.  Otherwise she's glad to send him over here with his backhoe to work for me... says it gets him out from underfoot.  He can be a real PITA but is contributing to the value of red and cream enameled Griswold by having me bid (what I think is) too high so he can add to his collection.   ;D

AH, I see. Well, he don't sound too bad of a sort of feller, I like them too.  ;) On the right piece, one chip equals 100.00 easy enough. I only got a few pieces though, never was crazy about them, but if they are in real good shape, they are pretty. I like the yellow or buttercup ones also.

[Charmayne Heiden]

Yeah, he's a good guy overall.  Now if he'd just let me play with the backhoe...  ;D

He's bought a couple nice pieces for his collection... the most recent was one of those breakfast skillets.  I cringed when he told me what to put for the maximum bid.  Fortunately it didn't go that high.

[Jeff Seago]

Hey Chuck,

I don't think that I would miss that IM chix pan that much!  I would suspect that you could by a few more 777's with lids for what you sold that puppy for!

There is no doubt about the quality of your cleaning and seasoning.  I think that you should write a book about how you do it and sell it on EBAY.  You could market it to all of the folks that think that pieces that are that nice are painted!  You could make a fortune selling it to these less than intelligent folks!

[C. Perry Rapier]

Yeah, he's a good guy overall.  Now if he'd just let me play with the backhoe...  ;D

He's bought a couple nice pieces for his collection... the most recent was one of those breakfast skillets.  I cringed when he told me what to put for the maximum bid.  Fortunately it didn't go that high.

Charmayne, "chip", I meant to say a "chip" makes the difference of a 100.00 but I said "cheap". Good thing nobody read that.

So you wanna play with the backhoe huh? They are kind of fun.  :)

[Charmayne Heiden]

I read it... just thought you were usin' some of your good ol' boy country talk and that one piece could be cheap for $100.  ;D

Shhh... I've long had a hankerin' to play with heavy equipment.  So far no one has been dumb enough to let me run anything but a skidster.

[C. Perry Rapier]

I read it... just thought you were usin' some of your good ol' boy country talk and that one piece could be cheap for $100.  ;D

Shhh... I've long had a hankerin' to play with heavy equipment.  So far no one has been dumb enough to let me run anything but a skidster.

Now that you mention in Charmayne, that does make sense, one piece could be "cheap" for 100.00. I know I'd give a hundred dollars for a number 3 red and cream griswold oval roaster if it was in reeeeel good shape with no chips.  ;)

And that backhoe, put you on flat ground in the middle of a field and play away.  ;D I used to own a trackhoe.

[Charmayne Heiden]

And that backhoe, put you on flat ground in the middle of a field and play away.  ;D I used to own a trackhoe.

We've got lots of adobe dirt in this area... when it's wet it sucks everything down into it.  I can see me getting the darn thing stuck.   :)   Several years ago a guy came out to move the waste water ditch.  He got stuck and brought in something larger to pull the hoe out... that got stuck too.  He kept bringing in his next bigger piece of equipment.   By the end of the night there was half a mil in heavy equipment stuck on the back part of my acreage.  

[C. Perry Rapier]

Charmayne, there is a lot of people on here and ain't nobody seems to be talkin too much but me and you. And I am a talker.  :)

I have never heard of adobe before, BUT, as they say, the first liar ain't got a chance.  ;D Now you do know I'm pullin your leg about tellin a lie.

But, I was on a job once, right around here, and your story reminds me of mine. This guy was using this big bulldozer, it was a D6 Cat, I don't know if you know what this or not, but its pretty big, and he got it stuck and got down into gray clay.

I have never seen it before or since, but he was down in a hole, and then stuck in the hole, the hole was big, and the clay was up over the tracks and up to the foot pedals, I have some pictures somewhere, but I have never seen this kind of stuff before, you could actually pick it up with your hands and make a nice ball out of it and then put it back down and your hands did not even get dirty, the stuff just moved and you could not get a grip to get out.

So, we hooked everything we had to it, big tractors and such, we broke chains, cables, and I remember the sun coming when we left and the dozer was still stuck. I was not there when they got it out, they brought in a huge Kamatsu and pulled it out, a great big one.

OH, and you bein a lady and all, how come you ain't read my jokes and give me hell about them, I am feeling kind of bad here, you're gonna mess around and I am going to go delete them, so can you please comment on them and maybe give me hell and call me names and stuff like that?  ;D

[Chris Stairs]

And that backhoe, put you on flat ground in the middle of a field and play away.  ;D I used to own a trackhoe.

We've got lots of adobe dirt in this area... when it's wet it sucks everything down into it.  I can see me getting the darn thing stuck.   :)   Several years ago a guy came out to move the waste water ditch.  He got stuck and brought in something larger to pull the hoe out... that got stuck too.  He kept bringing in his next bigger piece of equipment.   By the end of the night there was half a mil in heavy equipment stuck on the back part of my acreage.  

Charmayne,
 A couple years ago, within a mile of my house, a guy shot a moose within sight of the paved road. It ran a few hundred feet into the swamp before it lay down to die.
  He got his wheeler stuck trying to pull it out to road to load it on his truck. THEN he got his truck stuck trying to get close enough to use the winch on the truck to pull out the wheeler and moose.
 He walked to a local farm and got the farmer to help pull out the truck with his tractor. Yup, he got stuck too. Then came the skidder from a nearby woodcutting site. Also stuck. In the end he hired a dozer with a long winch cable to extract everybody.
  I think that moose meat ended up costing him over $20 a pound, and it was a big moose. ;D

[C. Perry Rapier]

Man oh man Chris, what a story.  :o That guy should have stayed home and bought a beef.  ;D I have seen crazy things like that before.

[Charmayne Heiden]

Chris and Perry, both your stories make me laugh.  Those, and varieties of them are part of the "charm" of living out here in the sticks and near good hunting land.  A friend has a story along the lines of your moose story only it was a big elk and nowhere close to a road.  Apparently it was too rainy and slimy to do anything but come back for a pack mule.  

Uh oh, Perry... you're a talker and I wander off topic constantly.  I'm gonna get in big trouble for leading you astray.   ;D

Homes built of adobe are fairly common in the Southwest.  There are some pictures of New Mexico pueblos (and a cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde in southern Colorado) built of adobe here:
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/houses/pueblo.html

The clay you saw sounds a lot different... and a lot easier to deal with.  I can't imagine adobe clay not sticking to hands, the bottoms of shoes (like walking on stilts) and anything else it gets on.

Whaddya mean give you hell about your jokes?  The topic is titled "NOT FOR THE LADIES".  ::)

(But I have to admit, the second one reminded me of more than one little town in this neck of the woods.)

[Ray Benash]

Thanks for all the great compliments guys. Like I said, it was a gamble of sorts.
Hey Mike S. I have done electro and seasoning work for other people, including Wags members. Just remember, I can clean and season, but unless you let me use bondo, I can't fix pitting, ;D and I don't weld cracks. Also, I haven't yet found a way to remove warps from pans. If I do, I'll make a fortune with that.  ;)

I'll vouch for Chuck's work anytime. Did a couple Gris #9 ovals and a #14 skillet lid for me just a week or so ago. Fantastic job, not too mention a straight up good guy too. I don't pick up that many pieces, typically just items I plan to cook with. These items weren't cleaned when I got them. Just made more sense to take them to someone rather than build my own electro that would take up precious space and not get used that much.


Yep - Chuck really does do nice work.

[Chuck Rogers]

Thank you Ray. Those pieces were a pleasure to clean. It's nice to see quality iron lookin' better after a nice soak in the electro.