Well here goes my first blog and website. It is funny, I have overseen so many more complicated and involved technology adventures during my career, but now that I don’t have amazing engineering talent behind me, it has gotten pretty real all of the sudden. And for all the tools and guides, it is not always intuitive.

By the way, for all those who might want to know, I’m using the standard WordPress Blog widget and capabilities, inside the BlueHost site I established. Please, for all you wunderkind out there that might be reading, go easy on me! 🙂

So, how did I end up in this woodworking course, and what is the deal with woodworking? Well, about 20 years ago I started it as a hobby. It was always in the back of my mind, and for me, it was about creating things, furniture primarily. My brother started the same hobby about the same time, however we didn’t coordinate which was kind of surreal.

Anyway, I did a few projects…built an entry bench for my mother, and built another bench for my father from maple taken from a few trees he felled on his summer home in Door County, Wisconsin. I also built a bunk bed for our youngest son Charlie, picture above protecting our home (aka, our castle).

Anyway, I was off to a quick start in the first few years, and it allowed me to collect a fair number of tools. As our teacher Nick says, “you are just one tool away from perfection in woodwork” which seems fitting. I also took my first class during this time, while we were living in Atlanta, and built (or almost completed building) a writing desk with Kelly Mehler in Berea, Kentucky. At the time, he had his own woodworking school, and it really fascinated me how you could build real pieces of furniture and hone a craft over time.

But, the timing for ramping my hobby up to the next level was not to be, as I took another job and we relocated from Atlanta to the Denver area. And thus started my 15 year pause in woodworking, as a garage shop was not viable in Denver, and when we moved to the Boston area 13 years ago, I had space for a shop but time, and then needs for the space to store other things put off a restart. However, early on I found the North Bennet Street School (NBSS) and learned of its reputation, and it always stuck in my mind. In fact, when we traveled around New England, I would periodically do weekend courses, like a couple at Lie-Nielsen which kept the flame of interest alive, and fed my desire for another amazing tool that I would some day put to amazing use! 🙂

Well, as luck would have it, when I decided to retire this year I went back to the idea of NBSS (originally I fantasized about their two-year full-time program in Cabinet and Furniture Making) and saw that the timing for the three-month intensive program would be ideal timing. And here we are, me starting that and now doing this blog.

So I will leave you here for now, the night before my first day of class and packed with the tools required to start the class.

P.S. Yes, I am about three-weeks behind in writing this blog/journal, so stay tuned as I try and catch up (I have jotted notes down to be sure not to forget stuff).