Weekly Editorial
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Good Stuff!
If you’ve been reading for a while, you likely know that I learned woodworking at my dad and uncle’s knees. Back in the day (which day, I’ll leave you to guess…), there was no one out there offering us a cushy, already-put-together program to start a woodworking furniture business
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Save a Little to Spend a Little
In the current print version of the Woodworker’s Journal, I asked my editorial readers how they are responding to the current discouraging economic news … specifically, how they were responding as woodworkers. As a group, we are known to be thrifty. To say we woodworkers are proud of our ability to squeeze the most out of a dollar would be a significant understatement. Something akin to saying: politicians like to talk, or winters can be nippy here in Minnesota.
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Show Us What You’ve Got
Woodworkers by nature are humble folks. Why? Well, one reason is that building things out of wood tends to humble you. For instance, in a totally hypothetical example, like when you bring a coffee table into your house that looked fine in the shop, but resembled an aircraft carrier when you put it in your living room.
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A Season of Little Woodworking
As you might imagine, with a job title like mine, I get asked what kind of woodworking I do. The truthful answer is: not much, these days.
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Foolish, Foolish Me
As is usually the case, last week’s April Fool’s edition of the eZine garnered both praise and condemnation from our readers. This year’s effort met with fewer complaints — perhaps due to the fact that sophomoric behavior is gaining acceptability … or perhaps because some folks have simply given up on us. In any event, most people seemed tickled by our attempts at humor. Several even said that they had been waiting in anticipation of the annual event.
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Cross-hobby Production
In anticipation of our Minnesota lakes thawing out, I am getting ready to turn a bunch of fishing lures. As the winter has progressed, one of the ways I have combated cabin fever is designing new and fantastic handmade fishing lures (mostly just in my mind). Making these lures allows me to participate in two of my pastimes at the same time – how cool is that! I am sure that I am not alone in this goal of using my skills (such as they are) to support more than one hobby at a time. I have long known that woodworkers use their skill to improve their home and to build stuff for those that they love. But do you use your woodworking to enhance your other interests?
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Power to the – um, Woodshop!
Our long Northern winter is hanging on with the tenacity of a terrier worrying a bone. And as it happens, March here in Minnesota – although it is our last real snow month – can gather our heaviest snowfall amounts. For that reason, cabin fever can become epidemic, even as the days grow longer and the sun gets stronger. What is the solution to that odd annual mixture of anxiety and depression?
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Exciting New Woodworking Schools
As some of our long-time eZine subscribers may know, from our very first issue of the eZine we have provided our readers with a serious list of woodworking schools. These schools are varied in their size, location and curriculum. If you want to learn how to build a canoe, we’ve got you covered. Build a guitar … no problem. Basic cabinetry? It is a piece of cake. Organized by location (looking for a school in Nova Scotia? Look no farther. ), the listings provide contact information, a brief description and a link to the school’s web site.
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Looking at the Big Picture
For many of us, especially those of us who have passed the half-century mark, small images have become the hobgoblins of annoying web sites. For some time now, I have been receiving e-mail requests for bigger images in the eZine (so readers can see what the heck the story is talking about) or, if not bigger images on the web page, for that groovy web site option of the expanding picture. (Click on an image and boom … it gets bigger!)
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Heading South
By the time you read this missive, I will be wandering through the primeval forests of central Arkansas (with a bona-fide forest ranger) — looking for the much-coveted bobwhite quail. (Who, by the way, convene in coveys.) From there, I will mosey on down to Texas, where according to my friends from the Lone Star State, “we’ll be fixin’ to shoot some birds.” Although to my Yankee ears it sounds a bit more like “burrrds”. My bird dog, who for the last month or so has either been freezing outdoors in twenty-below temperatures or lounging on the sofa, is in for a big and a pleasant surprise. She will go to sleep in a dog box in the back of my Blazer, with dreams of snowdrifts and wind-chill, and wake up in big woods and sunshine.
