Motoring On

In the wood shop, the real workhorse is the stationary circular saw. Some would call it a table saw or some other variation of the machine's possible names. Virtually every piece of wood that makes its way into a finished project is, at some point, sometimes various points, passed through the table saw. So it was important to figure out what to do when it became apparent that the motor that drives the saw started making disturbing noises and little pieces of the ball bearing on one end of the motor worked their way out into the open, This is not not the way things are supposed to be.

A replacement motor, though pretty expensive, was available and, although delayed a bit by "extreme weather conditions" was delivered in less than a week. We're back in business now and it would appear that replacing the bearing on the original motor will enable us to have a spare for the future. Repairing rather than replacing is usually my choice since we deal entirely too much with an attitude that says, "Get a new one:!". The saw is working fine for about one fourth the cost of replacing it and a spare motor is now available for about one tenth the cost of a new one.

I like the idea of fixing things rather than replacing them when its not ridiculously  out of the question. Fortunately our Father feels that way about us too. He has it within His power to replace us when we are broken. He has this wonderful thing called grace that is offered to all of us once we realize we are broken  If you're feeling a little worn out, just talk to Him about a refurbishing. He has promised to be with us until the end of the age.

Who's This For?

How much of what we do are we able to say is done for the benefit of others? When the ministry "Out of the Woodwork" was just getting started, I liked to tell myself that, "This is really not for me, but to give opportunity to others." Who knows? The idea of sharing tools and work space with others seems like a pretty altruistic thing to do and it might even put a star or two on that "good behavior" chart that someone somewhere must be keeping. It hasn't exactly worked out that way however.

It would seem that the primary beneficiary of the whole share the wood shop idea has turned out to be me. What started as a tentative, "if it doesn't work out we'll just stop doing it", turned into "if I stop doing this, it's going to leave a big hole in my life". Looking at how this has come about is perhaps instructive. At first, having the shop available regularly seemed like an obligation and needed to be fit into the "important" things I was doing. Somewhere along the line, that changed into "What would I do without this wonderful experience?"

If there is a key to what has allowed Out of the Woodwork to become a welcome habit rather than a nagging responsibility, it is a realization of something I had professed, but, at one time, failed to practice. Once we accept the idea that we posses nothing except for the grace of God, it becomes not only selfish, but downright sinful to refuse to share. So, here we are several years into the program and although there has been benefit to lots of people, no one has gained more than I. With what has God entrusted you? How are you sharing it? Don't hesitate. God trusted you with everything you have: time, talent, and treasure. You'll be closer to Him if you share it. 

Generation Next

One of the greatest things that can happen in our lives is to see folks younger than ourselves taking an interest in the things the older generation finds pleasurable and or worthwhile. So it was with some satisfaction that I got to spend some Out of the Woodwork time with my two granddaughters and my two sons. We got a chance to spend a couple hours making some useful stuff out of trees that grew not too far from where we turned them into items of utility.

Cutting boards are always fun projects for me ever since making the obligatory pig-shaped one for my mother in 7th grade shop class over 60 years ago. Dad ran that one through the planer a time or two over the years to smooth up the knife-scarred surface and although the pig got thinner, it still functions pretty much as it did when new. My daughter-in-law indicated that she would like a couple small boards to use as general use and sandwich servers and, inspired by her request, off to the wood shop we went. Each granddaughter made a cutting board making use of some tools that their great grandfather bought for the shop long before they were born and I have to believe that he was smiling with approval.

Should I be given the opportunity to work with my kids and grand kids in coming days that will be cherishable, The places where we get to intersect with the younger folks diminish, especially as they mature into adulthood. If you have opportunities to do things with your heirs, take advantage of the chance to make memories not just for you, but for them. Steven Covey, in his great book. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, suggested that habit number 2 was to consider what you would like people to say about you at your funeral. We would all do well to want those who survive us to say that we shared that which God gave us with the younger folks.

Warming Up

This summer has found me in a curious position of indecision, procrastination, and wonderment. There is no doubt that, in our sober moments at least, we all want our lives to have mattered; to have made a difference and hopefully improved the situation we inherited. Sorting out what is fact and differentiating that from opinion is of utmost importance and this is what has me in a bit of a quandary. An issue that has bothered me for some time, is the matter of global warming, climate change or whatever one may wish to call it.

Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that the earth is warming and changing weather patterns are responding at a very fast (for such things) pace. That the scientists agree is not a matter of opinion. That I agree with their assessment makes it my opinion. Scientists also agree that warming of the planet is sped up by higher levels of gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels. Once again, that scientists agree is factual. My choice to agree with them is considered opinion. So here I am caught in a space supported by evidence and still considered an opinion.

Back to my assertion that we desire to make a difference. I would ask any who take the time to read my stuff to consider how important this matter of climate change is. There is little doubt in my mind that my opinions will not convince anyone with differing ones to accept mine. I would ask, however, that we all consider the evidence and the need to be serious about preventing runaway global warming that will make life, as we know it, difficult if at all possible for future generations.

Unfortunately the issue has become a political one and although single issue politics is less than desirable, I cannot support any candidate who believes that this issue is not real and therefore needs no attention. Our planet is a gift from God (opinion again I guess). But if you share that opinion then not supporting the care and preservation of the gift is no longer political. Unfortunately, it seems this is the arena in which the battle takes place. Jesus assured us that, "In this world you will have tribulation," But He never said, "Don't do anything about it."  Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.

Stuck Up

Much of the lumber we use at Out of the Woodwork is material that has been milled, dried and machined starting with the log itself. It makes one appreciate the cost of a piece of lumber purchased at a retail outlet when you consider the time and energy required to turn trees into furniture. As with much of what I do, the concern is not so much with what it costs as with whether or not it is worth doing in the first place. There is little that can compare to the satisfying feeling that comes of taking a tree, an undeniable gift from God, and making something useful of it.

The expression, "windfall" took on new meaning this year with the great number of trees that came down in March and April storms. Since we only sawmill part time, we will be busy with the process for most of the summer trying to get out from under the great pile of logs we have as a result of the damage. The first of the boards from the mill are now stacked and stickered. Hence the title of today''s blog. Stickering is the process of placing dividers, called stickers, between each layer in the board pile and is necessary to allow air to circulate between them.

Unless one has a drying kiln, the process of drying takes years; several outdoors followed by a couple more indoors. It's a never ending process if we want a continuous supply of lumber dry enough to be used for most projects. I have entered that bittersweet period where it is obvious that some of the lumber being stacked and stickered today will be used by someone else because my woodworking days will be over before it is used up. But that's the way it works. Some of the material I use was put into piles by my father knowing he would outlive the need for them.

So, I ask my readers this. What is it that you have done that will enable the next generation to build on what you have done? Lumber is a very real material type thing. But what we build as good stewards of what God as entrusted to us determines the type of world our children and their children will inherit. We have all been given time, talent and treasure (The three "T's" of stewardship). Hopefully, we leave more than a pile of boards. But that's a step in the right direction.

Thinking Like a Piece of Wood

I encourage any who might be interested to pursue woodworking. There is something about taking a piece of raw material like a tree and transforming it into an object of practical or artistic use that seems to complete the person who does it. The number of people I've helped in the matter of building stuff probably numbers in the hundreds if you count the many school students I've had the privilege to work with over the years. Although some seem to have better innate skills than others, everyone can have success at some level. The only necessary ingredient is an honest desire to figure out what needs to be done. There is no substitute for a genuine sense of curiosity and willingness to go get another board when the one being worked on turns out wrong.

There's no denying that wood is inanimate and, although it was once a growing, living thing, it is quite content to allow the woodworker to cut, plane, drill, whittle or whatever until it becomes the proper shape and size to do what is needed. The difficulty arises when we fail to take into account the very nature of wood itself. Working wood requires that one thinks like a piece of wood. That's not quite as silly as it first sounds. What is that piece of wood going to do if I try to chisel out a groove in that place? is the kind of question we ask as we begin to think like a piece of wood. Knowing how a piece of wood thinks is not unlike considering how people think and just like people, different pieces of wood may think quite differently from another. Some wood is harder than others. Some is more split resistant. Some is better at being glued together. Being familiar with the wood with which we work enables us to come to think like the wood.

It would appear that there is an analogy here in thinking like another person. Heaven knows, we have some real difference of thought right now in the people we encounter. Working with another person closely enough to think the way they think is essential if we hope to have civil discourse about matters of which we think differently. We are all rather quick to let one another know, "what I think". Being effective in human relations is quite a bit like woodworking in that until we take the time to know others and "what they think" and, more importantly, why they think that, especially, if their thoughts differ from our own, we are left with a pile of splinters.

Each of us has come into being and have what we have by the grace of our Creator. If we believe that we are loved by that Creator to the extent that He sacrificed His Son for us and that the Son is the only example of how we are to live, then we owe it to one another to think like one another. Being a carpenter, Jesus knew how to think like a piece of wood. More importantly, He knew how to think like the people he encountered. We have been charged to love one another. That can not happen unless we become familiar enough with one another to think like one another and agreeing to seek His righteousness
.

Board? Sure. Bored? Never.

At Out of the Woodwork, the ministry of woodworking that has been going on for several years now, there is a lot of lumber that comes into the shop and gets turned into practical (usually) items. The transition from a board (or sometimes a pile of them) to a usable item can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks. Although we try to schedule extra time if possible, we regularly meet in the shop only twice a week, three hours each time. So the process from board to whatever can take quite awhile. This seems to work for the folks who keep showing up and the virtue of patience is pretty much in evidence. A good outcome of this work awhile and then come back later allows for considerable thinking to go on between sessions, usually resulting in a better end product than if it was done for eight hours every day.

The thinking that surrounds woodworking is almost as rewarding as the woodworking itself. That thinking may start as early as when a board is first run through the planer (often the first step in making rough lumber into usable boards). Checking to see what that finished surface looks like often changes ones mind about how the board will be used. The fact that most boards have a look all their own and the shape of knots and grain pattern say, "Use me for that table top," or  "Wouldn't I look great in the middle of a cutting board?". Amazing how an inanimate thing like wood can stir the circuitry in this computer we call a brain. Each time that happens, another project idea comes to mind and soon sketches and drawings are made so the idea doesn't get lost in that computer's overworked hard drive.

I have reached that uncomfortable age where I'm pretty sure the projects I have in mind (or on paper due to the aforementioned overworked hard drive)  are too numerous for the years I have left. I suppose this could be considered a somber idea, knowing you will die with some things definitely worth doing being undone. But that is not the way to look at the situation. We are assured that we know not the time we will leave our earthly existence and we have been blessed to create a lot of projects with the material we have been given. Knowing that the ideas for things to do will outlast the time we have in which to do them means no boredom, no thinking, "There's nothing to do," And when the projects are ended, there should be no sadness for any woodworker or anyone else who has placed their trust in Jesus Christ. He has promised us an eternity of being with Him, in happiness beyond anything we can imagine. At this point I can't imagine something more pleasing than turning a tree into a table. I think Jesus understands that. After all, He is a carpenter. Do you suppose He has a woodworking shop in that eternal place He has promised?