Grandpa's Blacksmith Shop

The small building behind our farmhouse consisted of the wood house and Grandpa's blacksmith shop.  The main portion, where Grandpa fired up his forge and hammered out horseshoes and other items for farm use, was two story.  The woodhouse seemed sort of an afterthought build onto this.

The upstairs was somewhat of a storage area, although we children sometimes played up there.  I never gave it much thought, why the building had two stories.  However, in later years, a family friend said he'd heard that small building was the original house, where the family lived until the larger main house was built.

I do recall watching Grandpa, who died when I was four years old, hammer the red hot horseshoes into shape on his forge.  He also used bellows to fan the coals hotter and brighter. 

I still have one of the horseshoes Grandpa made.  Actually he made it into a door knocker for the kitchen door of our farmhouse.  It's attached to a metal backing.  When you lift the horseshoe and let it drop onto the metal, the sound could be heard within the house.  I don't have a place to attach it to a door in our current house, but keep it as a fond memento.