Back in 1974 my parents bought a house that had many fruit trees on it. Most of which were avocado, but there were apple, plums, oranges, grapefruits, and I could go on. If my memory serves me correctly, there was very little sunlight that came in thru the canopy.

One of the first things my dad did was start removing trees. He would usually fell the tree leaving the stump. My job as the kid was to dig the hole. I loved digging. Friends and I had underground forts next to big stumps all over the yard. Eventually we had to remove the stumps, and fill in the holes. All this digging was to prepare me for a bigger hole for an above ground pool that we pot in…but that is for another post.

Back to chopping wood. After the tree was bucked into manageable lengths, it was my job to stack the wood. I remember a time when I spent the better part of a day stacking the wood when my dad came out and told me that the stack was not right, and I had to re stack it.

I remember the words out of my mouth: “When am I ever going to have to know how to stack wood?”

Little did I know. One of my first jobs at guitar factory was stickering wood. This is at job of making a course of wood, lining up thin sticks perpendicular to the coarse and repeating. Each sticker had to be right over the top of the one below it.

Another job there was selecting lumber for production. I probably stacked over 500,000 board feet of lumber in my travels around the world.

At the time, neither my father nor I had any idea what was in store for me.

This was really the only time that I can think back to that was relevant, a little coincidental, and funny to boot. You never know what your life experience is setting you up to do.

My advice is to do everything well. Advice I should probably take.

I was mounting my bench grinder on a 12’ work bench I just finished. I had a ratchet on top, and an open end wrench I was using to hold the nut below.

2 maybe 3 things went wrong

#1 – I dropped the wrench on my unprotected big toe. Ouch!

#2 – the wrench then deflected under a glue up table I have stored under the bench making it a 2 step process to retrieve the wrench.

#3 – I moved the table, I bent down, picked up the wrench and I hit the back on my head on the way back up…ouch again.

On Blogging: I have been blogging for a few years now as well, mostly on life and music. I have a blog that shows some of my work, but I’ve never really attended to it. LJ has probably the most user friendly, set up of all the user groups, forums and bulletin boards that I’ve come across. The ability to post a project, blog an idea, and browse without coming across un-related topics ot images is refreshing.

So what do I do: Currently I’m a Stay-at–home–dad. Some would call me Mr. Mom. Others know better. When I have time I work around the house, and occasionally, I do some woodworking. (Check out my projects) most of these are old items that I’ve made for family members and friends. Some items I do for trade for more project wood.

What have you done lately: funny you should ask. Last year I received a pallet of wood from a friend up in Bellingham WA. In it were all kinds of goodies. First was a large chunk of figured maple and a second piece of somewhat spalted maple that had heavy curl on one side. Today I was set up at the guitar factory with a jointer, couple of band saws, and a table saw. What I was able to do was take both of these chunks and turn them into usable.

See the pictures below.

So what are you going to do now? I have in mind to make a Aeolian harp for the “Design in Wood” competition this summer. There are some jewelry boxes and even a couple of yo-yo’s. you know the song “I fiddle when I can, work when I should” in the months ahead I’ll get more up on this blog. I’ve found that they are helpful in a few ways, getting your point across, reading other points ov vies, and as a document of what really happened.

Until next time, keep all your fingers…I still have 10