Iron above the Arctic Circle

Hey
Its been a while and many miles since the last update. the Wiseman pour was a success. It wasn't perfect but iron was poured and art was created above the Arctic Circle.
Our group left for the circle in 2 vehicles. Myself and Shane Morgan in the pickup and D'jean Jawrunner professor at Mesalands Community College and Susan Byrnes and the Wests Laura and Eric in the Tahoe. we left as early as any six people with different dispositions , multiple bags and various molds could manage.
After multiple stops we were actually on the road by 11 am Thursday. we proceeded at a good rate up the parks highway stopping at the Denali viewpoint to get a glimpse of the mountain. We made our way north to the entrance of Denali national park and drove in as far as they allow private vehicles. We saw beavers, caribou and eagles.

We arrived in Fairbanks about 7 pm and stopped for a nice meal at the Chena pump house. after that we gassed up and headed for the Dalton highway. The Highway was in pretty good shape with several sections improved over last year. We drove into the night. Though not dark, as at that latitude night is a concept more than a reality.

When we crossed the Yukon river we decided to stop and sleep a while in the cars, it was about 1;30 am and when we parked I noticed the flat on the Tahoe. Being tired we decided to leave it till morning another concept at this latitude. we slept until 4;oo am got out and changed the tire and continued on our way. We stopped at the arctic circle marker for photos and bathroom breaks. Then we continued on to Cold foot the only truck stop above the arctic circle. After much needed coffee and breakfast we had the tire repaired and pushed the last of the way to Wiseman.

When we arrived Donnie and Butch and Rhonda were already setting up the copula . We unloaded the stuff we brought and helped set up. we spread the molds into pour lines and assembled equipment . Butch burned in the copula for a couple of hours to be sure it was dry and ready for Saturday.

We checked in with our hosts Bernie and Uta of the arctic getaway lodge
and put our stuff in the charming 2 story cabin we had rented. Wiseman was beautiful ,the weather was nice though not warm enough for the non Alaskans.

The pour site was the yard of the Wiseman community center a large log building used for community purposes. We were about 50 yards from the Koyokuk river where we hauled buckets of water from to use in case of fire. Wiseman has about 13 full time residents and about double that in the summer. The residents are living the lifestyle of real alternative energy as the whole village is off the grid and all electricity is generated by each individual home owner by various means including water, solar ,wind, or gas and diesel generators or a combination of all depending on their needs.

After setting up, we relaxed and visited. The other group were staying at the Boreal lodge the other b&b in town . About midnight, still not dark. Wendy Croskrey and 3 of her students Hannah, Margaret and Tamara arrived from Fairbanks.
On Saturday we fired the furnace and began the preheat. set out the mold lines and prepared the ladles, after a couple of hours we began charging and in short order had iron at the slag hole. We tapped and poured the first pieces. We had a second successful tap and then the trouble began. On the third tap we couldn't get through to the liquid iron, after several attempts to tap

We tipped the furnace on its side and dumped the contents on the ground. We then knocked as much metal and slag out of the furnace as we could, cleared the tap hole set the furnace back upon its stand and refired it with fresh coke,after another preheat we were able to tap a couple more times before we had trouble again. We dumped it out beat on the inside and cleared it again, re heated it and got one tap before it froze up for the third time. We dumped it tried to clear it and finally admitted defeat.

We did manage to get about half the pieces poured including several scratch blocks made by the locals some of which were very nice pieces. The weather for the pour was typical Alaska summer, bright warm sunshine for awhile, cloudy for a while, rain for about 20 minutes and then clearing to partly cloudy . All in the same day. We had about 16 participants about a dozen from outside and the rest from Alaska. The locals came out and watched and participated in making scratch blocks . Bernie and Uta even brought the participants coffee and cookies after the rain storm. We estimated about 50 people at times between participants and spectators. If we include the mosquitoes we had over a million . Yes the mosquitoes were thick.

Like I said , the pour wasn't perfect but we did melt and pour iron in the village of Wiseman.
We had a good time and the locals including some from cold foot and Nenana enjoyed watching and participating. All in All we put it down in our book as a success.