Steve Elkerman has always been a doer, his wife Pat, explained one hot afternoon in July, as she stood on the carport of their hilltop home just east of Doniphan.
"We've got plenty of garden," she said, as a comfortable breeze rolled over the house, a tidy yard and three nearby plots of vegetables where the couple harvested green beans and peas that morning.
The garden is one of the many projects that have grown in the years since health problems forced 63-year-old Elkerman to leave behind many of the self-taught trades he picked up over the years.
Arthritis in his hands and back make some days more challenging than others, as does Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, although he interrupts quickly as soon as the lung disorder is mentioned, "Don't tell her I've got COPD," he says, pointing at his wife.
"I'm the one that made you go to the doctor," she shoots back quickly.
The Elkermans met in Jonesboro, and in 1987, the former military brat followed his wife home to her native Ripley County. Pat grew up on a farm along the Current River.
The couple raised two sons together in the home they've lived in since 1989, the one Elkerman renovated from the floor up.
He has always been better with his hands than books, Elkerman says, working at local garages, a nearby handle mill and other trades.
It was idle hands that proved to be his biggest enemy when he had to slow down.
But Elkerman has always had a curious mind. When he noticed a blacksmith shop in Doniphan, he decided to give their $25 class a try.
"This is something he can do. This is something that literally saved his soul, because he needed something to do," Pat said.
Blacksmithing gave Elkerman more than an anvil, hammer and fire. It offered the power to create, and introduced him to a community of crafts people.
"Anything I can think up, that's what blacksmithing is. What your ability and your imagination will let you get away with," Elkerman said, holding one of ten shepherd's hooks he made for a grandson's wedding.
His collection of homemade metalwork also includes gigs, hammers, repaired anvils, one-of-a-kind tools for his trade, unique gardening implements and decorative pieces.For Pat, there is a delicate flower stem, its leaves brushed with molten brass to offer a tinge of gold.
Elkerman continues to learn from other blacksmiths in the area. He also shares the trade and skills he has accumulated. He volunteers with the Heritage Shop in Van Buren at the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, does demonstrations, and continues to expand his interest in handcrafts. Woodworking, small engine repair and other projects wait on the shelves of a basement workshop.
"Most of the stuff I do, I've taught myself. I just get started in something," he said.
Over time, his interests have expanded to a separate outside workshop.
His tools outgrew their original home about 20 years ago, Elkerman explained during a tour of the basement where smaller projects are done, saying, "It's kind of like the clowns in a clown car, after you get that last one in, and everybody falls out. That was the way it was down here."
Blacksmithing is just one more thing in the list of skills Elkerman says he has gained over the years.
"The day you quit learning is the day you're going to start dying," he said. "If you don't keep your mind going, and I've seen this with people who retire, if they don't do anything, the next thing you know, they're gone.
"We do our gardening. I still work in my shop out there."
Pride of place in the shop is a 160-pound Trenton anvil from 1948. A vast array of forging hammers hang from its sides, offering a different weight and shape to fit any project.
Chunks of metal from old sickle bar mowers, buggy axles and anything else that can be transformed make up a collection of supplies.
"Back in the day, somebody who could start a fire, get it hot, and had an anvil and hammer, could make whatever you needed," Elkerman said. "At that time, they were the Walmart and the hardware store. You'd go to your local blacksmith and have what you needed."
Pat has joined her husband at home, retiring not long ago from her job with the Missouri Division of Social Services.
In addition to his projects, Elkerman has helped care for his grandchildren, his mother-in-law, Pat's aunt and uncle and now a great-niece in recent years.
"I'm just waiting to see who's going to take care of me," he jokes.
"I'll take care of him, if he can recognize me," Pat teases back.
"If I know who she is, I might stay here," Elkerman concedes, but he's already warned one niece, "You better get a good job. I might need a place to stay."