Hot Weather Woodworking

Rob-Portrait351I don’t know where you live, but here in Minnesota recently it has been stinking hot. Now ordinarily, those of us, whom Garrison Keiller calls, “God’s frozen people,” don’t complain a lot about warm weather — we’re just happy not to have to shovel our precipitation at the end of a day. But the last hot spell has taxed even the fabled “Minnesota Nice.” And that’s an ugly sight: lanky, fair-haired Norwegians hollering, “right back at you, Ole” or “you and your mama smell like lefsa” in their singsong dialect. And sadly, the shop is not much of a refuge. Recently, after some intensive project sanding in my garage, I came out of the shop so covered in sawdust that my English pointer (known as “Cujo” by my neighbors) tried to run up and bite me … apparently because I was unrecognizable.

In any event, I am sure that hot weather is just a passing fad here in the North Star state. I’ll soon be able to sand and shape without fear of canine confrontations. But until then, it might be time to break out the fishing rod and take the bird dog to the lake. At least it will keep her away from the neighbors.

— Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal

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