I want to thank all the Lumberjocks that have either welcomed me to this site, or encouraged me along the way. I’ve only been a Lumberjock for 9 days, but already I feel you all are a part of my life. This site has offered so much in the way of inspiration, advice, and most importantly motivation. The last step in completing my shop is to hang OSB on the walls (I have half of that done), and have the electrician bring the power from the house to my shop. Then its time to relax and do some real woodworking.

I do have one confession and frustration. I saw the best looking wood pallet (frugal rancher side of me) by a dumpster the other day. I stopped and picked it up thinking I would use the wood out of it for something. Have you ever tried to tear down a pallet? Holy crap … can you say ring-shank!

After breaking one board into pieces trying to get it loose, I ran to the house to do a Google search on reusing pallets (all kinds of “green” sites out there on this one). In my search I came across all kinds of advice from drilling with a hole saw to cutting through the nails. But, the one I saw that made the most sense to me, drill through the head of the nail, looked like the way to go. So, with drill in hand and a few sheetmetal drill bits, away I went. It worked perfectly! This is the first and last pallet I will “repurpose” ... way too much work for what I got out of it. Let me know if you all know of a better way to do this.

Seems this blog is just a bunch of rambling tonight, but that’s the kind of night I’m having :)

From my earliest childhood memories, I was my dad’s shadow. I could even be found sleepwalking out to the garage to sit near him as he worked late at night on building our camping trailer. At that stage in his life, he still didn’t have any sons. So, I quickly became his “boy”, including answering to his nickname for me, Charlie Brown. To this day, many of the people he worked with, still call me Charlie.

Saturday mornings, always started with me sitting at the kitchen table at 4 a.m., waiting for my dad to leave for the shop. I ALWAYS begged to go along. While he worked on job quotes, I could be found at his drafting table, shear, brake or workbench, working away on MY projects. Only stopping long enough to ask Dad for 10 cents to buy a bottle of Mountain Dew from the dust-covered soda machine in the back corner of the shop. By age 10, I was able to solder, weld and bend sheet metal into something recognizable. I absolutely loved the feeling of accomplishment when making something with my hands. And I believe that is when I developed a love for the raw materials (especially copper and wood) and the beauty they contained.

My first real project with wood was making a birdhouse (a wren house) with my dad. I got to nail it together. I was so excited, you would have thought I built the whole thing myself. After that I refinished a piano bench for a 4-H project, and the rest is history. I always knew that woodworking would be one of my hobbies.

Like many things in life, my woodworking hobby went on hold for many many years. But now, as my children are grown and gone, I find I have time to get back to some of my passions, dreams and goals.

Although my dad is no longer living, when I walk into my workshop, I can feel my dad’s presence and I know he is proud of Charlie Brown.