Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

blows and the coals get red hot."

"I have to shoe this horse here, master, so I can show your friend." "Oh, great, thanks."

Sparks were flying as Kowalski put his iron into the flames. A minute or so in the fire, and the iron was red hot. The smith held it with a long tongue on the anvil and hammered on it, until it had the desired shape. Then he dipped it into cold water and went over to the horse to see if it would fit. A little blow on one side, and it was ready to be nailed to the horses hooves. A smell of burnt hoof came into our nostrils.

"It smells like burnt hair," said Helmut. It did. I just nodded.

"Kowalski is really a master smith. He can repair most of our farm tools and machinery. He is very good."

A broad grin appeared on Kowalski's blackened face. He knew he was a good tradesman, but he also liked to be appreciated.

"We must be off again, see you later." "Now to the Carpenters around the corner." We entered a large workshop and as we walked towards the work bench, a lot of wood shavings curled around our legs.

"This place always looks untidy, full of saw dust and wood shavings, but the work done here is again excellent. Master Novak has helped to build our house, and he made us a lot of toys. I sometimes call it Father Christmas' work shop. He can do practically anything."

Master Novak was working the chain saw again and because of the noise it made, he had not seen us coming in. I pointed to his missing finger and said: "He lost it working this saw, not so long ago. I'm glad I wasn't here when it happened. He said that there was a lot of blood. I probably would have fainted."

After a brief exchange of greetings we left the workshop again. Novak was too busy. We went straight to the coach house which contained about ten coaches plus our two cars: a black Chevrolet belonging to Opa and Oma, and a Hansa sports cabriolet, which was ours.

Helmut remarked about the large number of coaches and wanted to know what they were needed for.

"The biggest coach here can carry nine passengers. We use it when we take the whole family for an outing on Sundays into the forest, or for a drive around the fields. The six-seater or the four-seater usually takes us to the station. We arrived with the sixer this afternoon. The coach with a folding roof is used mainly by my grand-parents, and the completely closed-in coach standing in the corner is for bad weather, rain or snow, and it is usually used by Oma." "And the two little ones?" "They are buggies, handy for just one passenger and the driver. We only need one horse for these."

"And this looks like a sleigh?"

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