Old Ironmaker

I have never been shy about voicing my opinion or feelings.

Touche. I'll trade you 5 pounds of lean ground beef for 2 lbs. of Perch fillets. I make a batch of cold sludge (cole slaw) and top a Perch taco with it. Or on a nice fresh crispy garlic bun. Our local Food Town makes them but you better get in early as they sell out by 10AM. Then they make more after lunch. I bet if I call ahead they will save me some. Now my mouth is watering.

I started smoking the same way. Started with stogies at weddings and dinner dances at about 32, then to cigarillos, then to Colts. I got up to a pac of Colts a day and my Doc said that was like smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. So in my mid 30's I started smoking American cigarettes, the smell brought me back to my youth as all the adults then smoked at my Nani and Nono's in the US. Similar to why adults have the urge to go to MCDonalds. 8 days and almost not counting. Still having the dreams about smoking and getting physical with guys in my dreams. Hardly using the gum or spray and no appetite. I don't want to jinx myself and say surpisingly it isn't that hard, yet. I'm always tired all day. I slept most of yesterday and in bed and asleep by 10PM. Up at 10 this AM and back to lay down at 2 for an hour.

Not bad for a rookie baker. I do bake Pizza's though, that must count.

I made oatmeal cookies today. It's the 2nd attempt at baking cookies in my entire life. They turned out well. All I had to do is measure 2.25 cups of the premixed dry and added 1/4 cup of water. I added some crushed up cashews to the mix, I didn't burn them and turned out pretty good I'm told. I don't eat cookies, never have even as a kid. Try quitting smoking in the hopefully "middle" of this Global Pandemic we all face.

Fancee shmancee eh AK. I have not seen a filet mignon for many years. You can tell who's making the big $'s and who is on a meager Steelworkers pension. I'm with you Brian. We haven't had egg buns for years. When we lived in the city we would get egg buns from Deninger's almost weekly and found them at Food Town and bought a dozen in Hagersville just last week. Any burger or sangwidge is only as good as the bread on each side of it. Even a good lobster roll is garbage if served on Wonder Bread.

Good for you. I was good a quitting the tar, I quit with regularity. 6th day today. Only 2 sprays of Nicorette spray today. I did quit for almost a year 15 years back. I thought I had it beat, I don't think you ever really have the addiction beat. I remember Dad telling me after he had quit 25 years before that when he saw us smoking and smelled it he always had the craving. Popping in a Fisherman's Friend in your mouth may be a way to replace popping a smash of tar into your mouth. I'm already feeling better after less than a week. Constant smokers cough almost gone and my sinus's are clearer. I could use another 10 or 15 pounds. I went from 210 4 years ago and am down to 174 today. No reason why other than not having 1/2 the appetite I did 4 years ago. Fisherman's Friend trivia. It will sometimes raise your body temp about 1 degree. I had a guy at the plant that always went to medical so he could be sent home sick. The nurse would remark "Worker has a low grade fever." Worked every time for him he told me years later, usually on a Friday afternoon shift.

Thanks all for the encouragement. Paul we have Nicorette oral spray and gum. So far so good, we are antsy though. My wife is off today and we are having heated arguments. More in the last 5 days than the last 5 years maybe longer. I had almost the same dream about smoking last night, and my dreams are about me being violent. Last night I beat up a guy I know. It was in self defence. It is a full time job trying to get the real news about C-19 and not rumours. A $750.00 fine to a cottager. For exactly what, just being there? Slashed tires? Some places in the US families are urged to go to country cabins etc. Maybe that's fake news too, I can't tell these days.

Curbside me a couple of those beauties please.

Akrisoner said "I feel like I am safe assuming that this kind of crazy dangerous work doesn't occur anymore." It doesn't other than in 2nd and 3rd world countries. Automation and better refractory and cooling technology has replaced putting people in harms way. In some cases, Coke Ovens however haven't changed much since WW2. At Flin Flon they saw evidence of water leaking for several days and decided not to shut down and deal with it.

OK I give, what's a Bully Beef?. I browned it all on the inside of a cast iron pot tonight. An onion, 4 garlic cloves and covered in Montreal Steak Spice.

I'm CV-19 out. I want to be informed as much as one can as much as the other guy, but I've had about as much as the same info day in and day out as much as I can take. I doesn't mater if it's POTUS, Justin, Ford, Cuomo, or his kid brother Christopher Cuomo or some other talking head they are all repeating the same info one after the other. day in and day out. By the way if Trump happens to win the Presidential seat in 2020 Chris Cuomo, the talking head at 9PM on CNN will be the next US President after the 2024 election. You can say you heard it 1st here on OFC in April 2020. If he chooses to run against his older brother Andrew who has had his eyes on it for years he will win it hands down. 4 day no smoking update. So far so good, Had a dream last night that that there was a glass ash tray and I reached to grab a smoke. I said don't touch a smoke, I don't smoke. Then I said we can smoke in the AM, the AM came. The morning came and no need, it went and came and zero smokes. So far so good..

In order to see all the movies out I need to join 10 different sites. The last I saw was The Joker. Too many to list I want to see. I have been trying to see "Then Irishman" for over 6 months. I've read the book twice over the winter. It's not that the book is that good, it's that I can't go to the public library to check out another book and I'm down to reading Ticha's year old decorating magazines. All my fish hooks are sharpened down to the shank. We have plenty of food, water and can pay the bills. I consider ourselves blessed compared to many. I called to volunteer to deliver meals to the elderly or work the food bank last week, come to find out I am the elderly and don't qualify due to my health. If you are under 60, healthy, home, bored and able please volunteer. We all need you.

A public service warning for all. I was a card carrying member of OFAH for years and I just went away for some reason. So when I saw this thread I saw the membership app and re joined with selecting to "receive" the news letters updates. Within minutes I received their email selling their OFAH hats, t-shirts and jackets, mugs and stuff I don't want, I didn't join to be sold stuff. I tried to cancel the "news letters" but the sales crap keeps on coming. Just a warning. I'm disappointed to say the least. Now I remember why I didn't stay with them.

I see the word "casualty" and read the word "tragic". It's not easy being me sometimes guys. Nor is it easy being the partner of my wife. Just task him. I'm sore she will have an answer for your.

I'm actually familiar with that fatality. It's was tragic. And without being a Monday morning QB it could have been avoided. Working under the Industrial Safety Act for Mines and Mining Plants in Ontario I had access to all MOL investigations even before I took a job with them and used them for our monthly safety meetings as often as I thought necessary. You don't want operators frightened at work rather than fully aware. Molten metal, slag and water do not go together. Even though slag is far less dense than metals it can also cause massive failures as well when in contact with water. You can actually pour high volumes of water onto molten running slag and nothing will happen but don't pour slag onto a puddle of water, boom. At Flin Flon hot metal was mixed with the slag. Simply due to the 2300F plus temps of molten metal and it's density when metal covers water it is turned into hydrogen in less than a millisecond and you basically have a hydrogen bomb and those Atoms are flying around so fast eventually with enough velocity to break through the metal and result in a massive explosion. All metal producing vessels whether a small crucible or massive 8000 Ton a day Blast Furnace all have to be cooled by water to protect their construction. The water cooling members after time may eventually leak and water infusion into the furnace causes scaffolding and localized pooling of the hot metal. Water covers the molten metal and an explosion may occur if you get a perfect storm within the furnace resulting in all the hot metal and slag to "breakout" of the furnace. OK' boys. Smoke em if ya' got em'. As far as your old tinner holding memories well I get it. I think more and have more great memories about the very first car I bought at 18, a 67' MGB for 500 bucks that I kept held together with bailing wire and duct tape. It was far more fun repairing and driving it than dropping the 50 grand for a new vehicle I have no real connection with other than it taking all my money.

That was me until I turned 40, right around the time I met my lady. There was no need to be buff anymore I guess because I scored big time when she decided to let me into her life. It was a Beauty and the Beast. 52" chest, 34" waist at 210 pounds, me not her, come on. Here's what happened. I won't go into great detail. 3 of my guys and I were working to determine where we had water infusion into one of our Blast Furnaces, there were 4 teams of 4 above the casthouse floor on the stack of the Furnace. We had what is referred to as an "iron breakout". We were unable to get to fresh air for a few minutes that seemed like a few hours. The air was thick with approximately 200F to 500F gases, rust coloured iron oxide, massive levels of carbon monoxide and very little oxygen if any. 2 of my guys suffered severe 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns to 80% of their bodies and never returned to work. One of our mechanical foremen suffered a heart attack, he was off work for a few years. 2 of our contractors fell off a 3 stage scaffold when the slag pit exploded and that resulted in several broken bones to the 2 construction workers. I didn't get a scratch on me. Why no one was killed still baffles the experts.When the furnace was secured some of the guys were passing around cigarettes, I took one.

No problem Sir Hack. 32" wide, 19" from transom to deck and 6" deep. It's cold outside but the snow is melting. Got about an inch that stayed last night. This laptop is about to die, same screeching noise as the last one we fried. NFG. Between isolation, quitting smoking and now this, ain't good but could be much, much worse. No murder suicides in our lane but it could get close. Can't get 4 years out of electronics today, phones, GPS, PC's, not much of anything. I have a 100 watt per channel Kenwood amp that I bought used in 1978. for $1000.00. That was a months salary then. Still use it today

Good on ya' Fisherman. Yes you must be enrolled in the program by your M.D. Hopefully you have it beat but if you need another go around have your Doc enroll you. I might have already said that my wife brought home some Nicorette spray and gum. It's working not to bad but I'm still reaching for my cigarettes. Got in the truck yesterday to move it and there sits 3/4's of a smash of tar. I held it in my hand for what felt like forever, yep I lit it and coughed my lungs out. Tossed it out the window and let out a cheer.

Some guys are retired CEO's like my newest B-I-L. He sold his twin engine air plane, took up fishing and went out and bought himself a 52' offshore something or other. I have yet to see it, or be invited out on it. My wife has been invited out in it. She didn't even take a pic, she said it was cute, CUTE !!!!!!!???????

Was he the poo disturber here when I 1st joined around 10 years back? The guy I am thinking about sure was a piece of work. Art must have been a rookie Mod. then because today no one would put up with the guys shenanigans on OFC. I think they call them keyboard cowboys.

Yes, yes yes, thanks mate. As far as the smoking you have to want to stop any addiction you have before it is possible to stop. I must stop for my wife Ticha. When we met a pack of cigarettes could last her a few weeks. She has quit for months when I did not. I have noticed she has been smoking more and more as of late, if I don't quit she won't. She is my rock. I don't know if it is a phycological thing but just after 2 days of a pac and 1/2 a day my sinuses feel better. Yes 30 a day, and some days more, what an idiot I admit. That's enough self emaciation for 1 day.

I went barefoot a few times fishing and like I said have the scars to prove it. Nothing like ruining a week at the fishing camp when someone needs to drive you to Pembroke a 90 minute 1 way trip away to get stiches in the hoof and not being able to put weight on it for another week to F up the Walleye opener. Padded front casting decks, come on man! City boys strapping 300 HP 4 strokes on 3 @ 4X8 sheets of plywood stacking them end to end. That's funny you said that about being R.C. When I was a kid and an Altor Boy, (no all the rumours are not all true) I thought when they said "thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife" I pictured someone covering the next door neighbours wife in a nice blanket.

Nice coffeeffee table Dutch. Please don't play ice fishing and drill a hole in that gorgeous floor. I'm trying to remember what those hardwood floors were called when they were in every apartment high rise built in the early 70's. Then in the 1990's they were all being ripped out. Now you can't afford to replace them. Please what were they called? Herring bone? Yes herring bone me thinks, thank you all. Sometimes you guys are of no help whatsoever. Here I go reaching for a cigarette. 48 hrs no smoke and counting.

That's good Woodenboater. I have always meant to ask, do you have a wooden boat? On a different car forum I am JD Ferrari, I don't have one nor have I ever even sat in one. A bucket list thing. I grew up with a guy that did have a Ferrari, he was a big time drug dealer and he and his ride went to Kingston for a time out. Apparently not a very savy drug dealer. Ironworkers must have been making big bucks in the 90's in Hamilton to drive a Ferrari red Ferrari. Something I didn't know, Ferrari has dozens of different reds they paint their cars in Ferrari red. Going on 48 hours no cigarettes, hee haw.