Geologist, Blacksmith, Engineer, Rancher, & Fireman
Contact me by phone: (208) 462-4028
Site Map - Links to all
Blacksmithing and Other Pages on This Site
The Reil Ranch Current Weather & Web Cam Page
Decorative
Metalwork "Gallery" Page
ABANA
has graciously consented to host my web site. I was
concerned that after having had three flat-line heart
attacks, and three other less serious heart events, my
future could end at any time. I wanted to insure that the
blacksmithing information I have in my many web pages
would be preserved into the future for the metalworking
community, and ABANA made that possible. A big thank you
goes to ABANA.
Update
6 Jan 2016: Here I am, about to turn 70, and I am still
here and doing great! I am amazed at that, but in case you
think it is just being lucky, it isn't. For those of you
who are suffering from one or more degenerative diseases
(syndromes), I want to say that you do not need to suffer
from them, as I found I was doing some years ago. Finally,
after four flat-line heart attacks, and several other
slightly less serious heart events, I took charge of my
own health, spent 18 months of 6 to 8 hours a day, 7 days
a week, doing Internet research, and collected a huge
database of health related documentary information and
reports totaling 150 Gb at this time, and covering almost
every type of degenerative disease, which are not diseases
at all but "syndromes" of the body caused by poor
nutrition and toxins over a long period of time. Using the
information I collected I was eventually able to flush all
my heart meds down the toilet and take charge of my own
health and future. I have now fully reversed my heart
disease and have my life back, and the best part, I do not
take any medications now at all other than one 81 mg
aspirin a day. With my change in lifestyle came some very
beneficial surprises, including going from a weight of 220
pounds to 134 pounds in a little over 3 months, totally
unexpected. The results were amazing, and my doctor, who I
had asked to "ride shotgun" with me while I made this huge
lifestyle change, and who didn't believe in anything I was
doing, after three years of steady improvement and seeing
my resulting excellent blood work and various scans,
finally admitted he "was now a believer," which was a huge
step for him. Whatever, if you are suffering like I was,
and would love to stop managing your disease, and instead
cure it and get your life back, please feel free to
communicate with me at "ron_reil" at "frontiernet" dot
"net". Heart disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Crohns, Lupus, and
almost all other "syndromes" of the body, are totally
curable, as many others found out after they took charge
of their own health.
Sincerely,
Ron Reil
I
am pleased to welcome you to my home page. If you would like to know a
little about my background please continue reading below. I have also
included some of my more interesting experiences.
I
have a background as a civil engineer, precious metals exploration
geologist, and science teacher, among others. I am now a gentleman
rancher in Garden Valley, Idaho, and work on decorative metalwork in
my shop in the winter when the snow lies deep on the land. I also
drive the ambulance when needed, and am a fireman in the Crouch
Volunteer Fire Department as well as a fire commissioner.
Retirement doesn't have to mean
inactivity or playing golf. :-)
I
have had the benefit of traveling and living in many different parts
of the world. A large portion of my youth was spent on the island of
Okinawa, where I fell in love with the island and its people. Some of
my travel was associated with my father's career as an Air Force
officer. I was later in the Navy for six years, spending four of them
in the West Indies. During that period of my life I was heavily
involved with SCUBA and free diving. I was a diving instructor for
part of this time on the island of Grand Turk. I was also deeply
involved in speleology, taking part in a joint Barbadian/Danish caving
expedition to the island of Barbados, as well as doing a lot of other
cave exploration with my buddy Jack.
While
I was living in Barbados, a beautiful hardwood yacht sailed in from
England and was put up for sale. It was the perfect boat to allow me
to embark upon a dream I had been working on for the previous four
years. I bought the stout little craft, Sea
Dart, while still having
two years remaining in the Navy. When my tour of duty in the Navy came
to an end I returned to Barbados, and Sea Dart, to prepare for a world
cruise. After three months of preparation I sailed Sea Dart into the
setting sun to spend an extended period of time exploring some of the
world, and learning about myself as well.
After
exploring many interesting places, and meeting lots of wonderful
people, I felt it was time to move on with my life. I sold Sea Dart
to the now famous late writer, Tristan
Jones and signed on as
skipper and navigator to the much larger yacht, Banjo,
which Tristan had sold to a couple in New York. They wanted me to sail
them to New York from Bequia, just north of South America, a roughly
3000 mile voyage. A month later, between Culebra and Great Inagua,
disaster struck twice. When we were near the boundary between the
Dominican Republic and Haiti a long-boat approached us with six men,
seated two by two in the boat. They had an engine and could easily
outrun us. I had been warned that pirates were to be expected in these
waters, so I told Jan and Jim, Banjo's new owners, to remain below
while I met the long-boat. I placed a 12 gage double-barreled shotgun,
loaded with buck-shot, on the cockpit seat ready for action. I had
been warned that pirates from Haiti had been attacking yachts, killing
all on board by cutting off their heads with cane knives, stripping
the boat of everything of value, and then sinking the boat along with
the bodies, so I was prepared to kill to defend Banjo.
The long-boat came slowly along side and a huge black man in the
front grabbed the railing on Banjo's port side while starting to stand
up. As he did so I could see the long cane knives which he and the
others were holding partially concealed by their left legs. As he
started to stand I raised the shotgun, aimed right between his eyes
and waited for what would happen next. I had only two shots, and there
were six pirates, so there was no doubt that they could take Banjo if
they were willing to pay a price.
The huge man froze in a semi bent over position, staring into the
bores of the two barrels of my shotgun, broke into a huge smile, then
nodded his head in a knowing maner. He slowly sat back down, and
during a long moment, pregnant with threat, they contemplated what to
do next. I watched them closely, never taking the gun off of the
leader, while moving back to the far side of the cockpit to give me
more room to fire upon any one of the pirates that might decide to
leap over the side, and also to prevent the leader from attempting to
grab my weapon. The stand-off continued for what seemed an hour, but
was perhaps only 30 seconds or so, when the pirate leader pushed off
and nodded to me, still grinning a huge white toothed ear to ear grin.
He allowed me to live, and I granted him the same in return.
Within a matter of hours of surviving the aborted attack by the
pirates, we entered into the next cataclysmic phase of the voyage. The
weather had been very unstable for several days, and finally broke to
the full fury of hurricane Alice, the first of the season. Banjo
weathered the storm well until the third night. At 2:30 AM a huge
rogue sea lifted the 36 foot Banjo and smashed her down upside down
into the trough far below. The impact ripped out our steel fresh water
tanks, and caused a lot of other lesser damage, including springing
the shaft log causing an inflow that was not to be stopped.
Fortunately the mast remained intact, however the boat would have to
be periodically bailed until the end of the voyage due to the shaft
log inflow.
After
the
yacht slowly righted herself we had more than 8 feet of water on board
when measured from the bottom of the bilge! Our engine was underwater,
and the water was up to our waists in the main cabin. The three of us
started into a marathon bailing session with anything that came to hand.
Since the engine and batteries were underwater, the pumps were useless.
By mid-morning the boat was riding high on the waves once again, and it
looked as though we might live to tell the tale. Four days later we
limped into Great Inagua where I finally went to bed and slept for more
than 24 hours! I should add that even arriving at Gt. Inagua was not
without its problems. We raised land shortly after midnight and were
almost caught in the huge suction caused by the immense hurricane swell
breaking across the outer reefs. There is much more to the story, but I
will leave it for a narrative at some later date.
Several
weeks later we sailed into Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The owners of the
yacht had experienced enough sailing and decided to sell her right there
and not continue on to New York. I returned home to Oregon where I
entered Oregon State University's School of Engineering. I graduated as
a civil/construction engineer in 1977.
Life
was not to be dull after finishing school. I went to work for Morrison
Knudsen Corporation in Boise, Idaho, where I advanced to the position
of senior engineer. My work was mainly in tunnel construction. I spent
two years as a shift engineer, building the under sea cooling water
tunnels at the Seabrook Nuclear Power plant in Seabrook, New
Hampshire. The three mile long, 22' diameter, undersea tunnels
were the first of their type, going out over three miles offshore to
intersect with 11 offshore shafts in the sea floor. I was eventually
transferred back to the home office in Boise to do estimating work
while awaiting transfer to another field job.
In
1982 the construction industry fell apart, and two
weeks before Christmas I was laid off, along
with 3,500 other engineers. I continued to work as a consulting
engineer, doing various jobs along the way. Two of my favorite
construction projects in Idaho were the Fish Trap
Facility, just below Hell's Canyon Dam, and the
Sawtooth National Fish Hatchery near Stanley,
Idaho. Because of their locations I enjoyed both projects
immensely. Changes in my life, a new daughter among others, led to my
return to school. I enrolled in Boise State University to study geology,
and obtain my secondary teaching credentials.
Geology
soon took me to new adventures in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and
elsewhere, which I have included narratives about, linked below. Also, I
later connected with a full time science teaching position. I taught
science for 16 years, and geology at Boise State University for about 10
years. I now have a 26 year old daughter, Kimberly, and an 17 year old
daughter, Natalie.
In August
2000, I guided my brother Walt,
and my daughter Kimberly, and her friend
Neil, on a backpacking trip
into the "Big Boulder Lakes Basin" in Idaho's high Whitecloud
Peaks, where our base camp was at an elevation of 9,200 feet. This
image of Kimberly and me was
taken on the summit of the second highest peak, at an elevation of
11,200 feet, as are the other images. 2000 was a horrible year for
forest fires, and one of them can plainly be seen topping a high ridge
in the distance. This back pack trip was a very special one to me
for several reasons. We had superb weather, and the smoke from the
many forest fires never darkened our skies. We saw a great many
mountain goats, one only 30 feet away, and on the night of August 14th
we watched a spectacular meteor shower through the ever changing
colors of the aurora,
in one of its most beautiful displays in the last 50 years.
There is more to the story however.
There are two other reasons that make this trip stand out from the
rest for me. Twenty plus years ago one of Idaho's most amazing, but
unknown, epics of survival had played itself out in the valleys below
the peak we are sitting on in the above images. Because of my past
experience in mountain rescue I had knowledge of the amazing events
that had taken place far below us, and I wanted to relate the story to
my daughter of the survival of the two young children, sole survivors
of a plane crash, through one of Idaho's most severe winters. I also
wanted to walk with my daughter Kimberly through one of the most
beautiful places on the face of the Earth, a high basin that has no
trails or mapped routes into it, and a place that I call "God's
Cathedral." I will not name it
here in order to help to preserve it from those who do not respect
such places, and who, like dogs, leave their mark wherever they go.
The entire trip was one of the best I have ever had the good fortune
to be a part of. We accomplished far more than I could ever have
hoped for.
If
you have read this far you probably wonder why I taught junior high
for 16 years. Certainly the money was not one of them. I did so for
various reasons, but the enjoyment I derived from teaching and
working with kids was at the top of the list. I always said that
when it was no longer fun it woud be time to quit, and when the
Federal "No Child Left Behind" program came along, it was time. I am
now involved in decorative metal work, and with my move to the
mountains of central Idaho, and setting up my big new
shop, the future looks
bright. Also, I have now posted my Golden
Age Forge Gallery page where I have a little of my metalwork on
display, including commentary about how some of the pieces were made.The
2003-2004
school year ended my teaching career. I retired at the end of the
year for a variety of reasons, but the most compelling by far was
the terrible state of education in our country, and in my school
district. When test score numbers became more important than the
children, it was time to leave. It was a good decision. Four days
before my retirement I suffered a major heart attack, which would
have forced my retirement had it not already been in progress. We
purchased a heavenly beautiful ranch
on which we are raising horses, two
of which are shown here in
our front pasture being ridden by my two daughters when the snow was
only a week or two away. We have other
critters too, including
Daffodil,
our miniature donkey. It is not an easy life we have chosen, as
this image,
and also this one,
demonstrate, but I am fortunate in having the kind of equipment
that is needed to live in a
location that
can receive over 200" of snow in a season. BTW, the images you have
just looked at are of a normal winter, not a heavy one. I
produced some 360° QuickTime VR panorama images of our place, taken in
mid Summer, Fall, and early winter, that may be of interest to you.
After it loads, click and
hold the mouse button, then move your cursor left or right to
make the image scroll in a full 360°
in either direction. If you zoom in you can also move it up and down.
The "Early Fall Panorama" pans across our home and my shop.
Early Fall Panorama, (shot in our lower pasture)
When
I am not plowing or blowing snow, or working with the horses, I may be
helping to fight fires as
a volunteer firefighter,
as shown in this image of
a fire we had recently. I can now pursue my work in decorative
metalworking, enjoy the spectacular fishing close by in the many
mountain streams, or explore the wild country around
our place by Jeep or
horseback. We have a great many elk here. This image,
taken across our lower pasture, shows the Spring elk calving in
progress. There were a number of wolves attending the birth of the
calves too. The elk were a problem because they liked to eat the hay
I had stored under my shop's eves, but that problem has been solved
by the construction of our new barn.
The future looks bright, and I think it will still be full of
adventure and new horizons. :-)
Narrative
Links
If
you would like to read more of my adventures you may do so by clicking
on one of the "Narrative" links below. You may find it more convenient
to save these files to disk and read them off line with your browser
because some are fairly long. I will continue to add to this list as
time allows.
Narrative #9 - Tristan Jones - "The Good and The Bad"
Narrative #10 - "Week of the Buzz-Tails"
Conclusion
Thank
you
for visiting my home page. Please feel free to contact me if you
have any questions or comments. You may phone me at the number
listed below.
Contact me by phone: (208) 462-4028
Note: Due to spam problems I no longer post my e-mail address,
but I will be happy to supply it to you over the phone.
29 Jan 2013
©Golden Age Forge
