among friends

I never seem to get done all that I want to accomplish, so I hope to begin spending at least one hour each night in my shop. It will be better than TV. Last night laminated eight top panels for boxes using a variety of Arkansas veneers to cover 5 in. by 7 in. Baltic birch panels. These will be used with ash sides, and if I add just a few shop hours each day the boxes will be finished next week. The photo shows some panels glued up, and another stack of four in the vacuum press.

I reordered hinges from Craft Inc. In my early years I kept track of the number of boxes I'd made by counting the number of hinges I'd bought from Craft. Two thousand hinges meant 1000 boxes, and I always ordered from two to four thousand at time. Now I use a variety of other hinges as well and made some lift lid boxes, so keeping track of hinges no longer gives a clear count.

I have been thinking about the importance of staying put. We live in an age of constant motion, with people moving from place to place and seldom realizing the full value of where they are and with whom they live. You can glue yourself to the TV watching the nature channel and know more about distant places than you'll know about your own back yard. And so it makes sense for us to allow ourselves to become rooted in one place, to care deeply for it and for the people who surround us. For me to have lived here for so long, means that wherever I go I find myself among friends.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.