Are children learning?

During the massive and widespread disruption in American education that's resulted from the covid-19 pandemic, folks are seriously concerned about "whether or not children are learning." The answer of  course is dependent on refining the question. "Learning what?" If we're concerned about whether they're going to perform as well on standardized tests, the answer is probably not so well. If we are asking whether or not children are learning about life, and perhaps things that won't be on the standardized tests and that are more important to their ultimate success the answer is yes. 

One thing we should remind ourselves about learning is that it's one of the most important and relentless of human attributes. We learn. We learn best under certain circumstances, and if traditional schooling were more focused on providing the right circumstances, we'd not find ourselves in the predicament we're now in.

So what are the right circumstances? Education  must be closely associated with and indistinguishable from real life. In the January 18th issue of Time Magazine is an article about Spanish chef Angel Leon in which he states, "The sea saved me." "I was a terrible student. Couldn't sit still, always in trouble." "But when my dad took me out here on his boat, everything changed." And so as a chef, everything he does is related to the sea that saved him. School cannot do for children what real life can. And by artificializing learning, failing to move from the concrete to the abstract, we diminish its effect.  While we fail to engage student interest, we also fail their intelligence, leaving them ignorant of science and the processes of life that surrounds us.

I was talking with a friend, Elliot Washor, earlier in the week about assessment. The question of how do we provide evidence of learning is one that haunts those American educators, who, out of an unwillingness to understand that learning is the most natural of human inclinations, believe that education must be contrived. 

Elliot has come up with a four part assessment scheme. 

1. Determine and follow student interest for without student interest nothing else follows. 
2. Establish relationships. These can be mentors in or out of school, but out of school is important evidence of education having transcended the isolation of schooling. 
3. Observe growth of skill. These can be skills of processing but aimed toward action. These can of course involve the development of hand skills as well as skills of mind. 
4. Provide opportunities of growth in the form of delivery of service to the community both inside and out of the school walls.

I drove my tractor to school today to make use of its strength in the assembly of a new jointer at the Clear Spring School woodshop. The jointer was too heavy for me to lift out of the box and onto the jointer stand, so I used straps and the front loader of the tractor to lift it high enough to roll the stand underneath. These being covid-19 pandemic times, this was a safer approach than asking friends to help. The photo shows that. The jointer is now assembled and ready for use after it's cleaned up and grease is removed.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Testing a Veritas number 1 plane

The power of the arts

I hesitate to give him a name. It might be Bob, or Bill, or Doug for that matter. It might be aunt Jill, for crazies these days come in both sexes. But the Republican party has been the sanctuary for some time now for those we excuse as harmless crazed folks when they come to the dinner tables of the sane. 

Remember the folks that insisted that Obama was a secret Muslim and that when he was born in Kenya, the liberal elite had plans, even back then to plant him illegally on American soil and raise him to run for president to destroy our democracy? 

Those folks found safe harbor in the Republican party and ran for statewide offices to gain a foothold of importance in American politics. They passed around photos online of Michelle Obama as a monkey and if caught claimed it was all in jest. They took delight in using the "N" word in private company and hoped for the time when they could be public with their rude thoughts. So then they ran Trump as their chosen candidate for President and all went happily along as he talked about his rude conquests of women, made great fun of the handicapped, called those of hispanic descent rapists and hoodlums, incarcerated children on the border separating them from family while neglecting to keep track of which child was taken from which mom.

So here we are. The innocent crazies, uncle Bob or whatever, have become an angry, violent hoard of gun toting folks, nourished for years within the Republican party. Some of the saner folk are jumping ship, knowing that the trumpian assault on the US Capitol, where "patriots" threatened to hang the VP and execute leadership in both parties has been step too far. It is amazing to me to see what it can take to bring folks to their senses. Some have not yet come awake from the nightmare they hope to inflict on others.

Years ago I had an uncle who was somewhat crazed on the subject of race. The topic was an obsession for him. He would talk about his feelings whether you wanted to listen or not. But then a funny thing happened. He started woodturning. He and his wife, an artist, would come to visit me in the summers, just a quick visit, stopping by to check and see that their craftsman nephew was doing well. I would give him pieces of wood that he used as he was beginning to turn wood. We found the subjects of wood and woodworking to be a bond between us. I have some of his work. His children inherited some of mine.

Each summer my uncle and aunt would attend classes at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. When my aunt stopped going along, he would go with woodturning friends. When I taught my first adult classes in New Iberia, Louisiana, he signed up. When I saw how much Arrowmont meant to him, I began visualizing a school like that here, which has become the Eureka Springs School of the Arts.

As he began getting good at his work he began selling his work in galleries. His passion led him to make more than he could sell. Every two years at our family reunions he would bring boxes and boxes of his work, asking each member of the family regardless of age to select works to take home, so the whole family has collections of his work. He wanted to offer something meaningful of himself to each and did. His dark obsessions were no longer of interest to him. He had so much more to share.

And so I offer this as a simple observation. When we craft useful beauty, we are also crafting something within ourselves. The transformation that can take place in wood (or through other crafts) is also a transformation of self.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

a pathway toward peace.

Forgive me for having become obsessed with the national news. I would like to be interested in other things. I have watched four years of Trump's relentless assault on our democracy, knowing that it would end like this. And it's not over yet. Pray for sanity. Pray for peace. Pray for a restoration of normalcy in which we can pay greater attention to smaller things.

And of course, praying is not enough. To craft is a form of prayer. It is a form of meditation. And if we all were to pay greater attention to that which is at hand we would find better pathways toward peace

On the personal front, I received a new plane from Veritas in the mail yesterday. It's an amazingly beautiful thing that I'll review in a later post. Yesterday I also finished the installation of a materials exchange cabinet at the Clear Spring School. School to home and back again. 

The photo shows a box that I'm making to use as a prop in an article about installing Brusso quadrant hinges. It's walnut and has a a beveled lid and inlay made of cherry and maple.  The lid will be cut from the body of the box after the outside has been sanded. The corners are joined using finger joints. These are the kinds of things that my adult students learn in my box making classes.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Yesterday and today.

Yesterday I installed a cabinet I made on a railing outside the Clear Spring School so parents can pick up work for their kids and that materials can be passed between home and school. It's very sad that the pandemic was allowed to advance this far into the school year. Even with the vaccine on the horizon, we all are at greater risk here now than at any previous time. Had there been a coherent federal response from the outset, led by science and not by ineptitude and purposeful politicalization, we would be far safer at this time with far fewer deaths nationally and in our own county. In-person attendance at the Clear Spring School is delayed while we hope the pandemic will be brought under better control.

At the Clear Spring School, as teachers attempt greater reliance on distance learning, I plan a supportive role consistent with my watch word for the year, "useful." To be useful implies giving over something of oneself in the service of others. Last week I met with the director of a wellness program where they hope to use crafts. This week I meet via zoom with the co-founder of the Big Picture Schools to discuss some kind of collaborative venture that he has in mind.

The world is deeply concerned as we learn more about the hostile takeover of the US Capitol. I read this morning that some of those claiming to oppose the certification of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were doing so out of fear for the safety of their families... fearing that right wing trumpian extremists would take revenge on their families for disobedience to their insurrection . It's much more likely that they were concerned about their re-elections and the toll loss of elections will take on their family finances. Any excuse will do when you're caught with your pants down. 

Being raised knowing that it was legitimate to oppose government policies, but but that all must uphold the rule of law, I've found myself taking what some would think to be the wrong view. For instance, I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. I was deeply opposed to Bush's invasion of Iraq. I've been a persistent critic of Donald J. Trump and knew exactly how seriously and dangerously his narcissism would play out.

So where are we going with all this? One step at a time. When danger persists, step cautiously. Pray for sanity and peace. There's a saying from the iChing that provides clarity in times like these. When confronted by evil, proceed to do the good. Doing the good puts oneself at peace. In my own case, the "good" is to awaken folks to the glories of the instruments through which we build better families, communities and culture... our own hands.

Today I'm shipping boxes to a gallery in Little Rock.

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

The compelling nature of that which is Real

 

Yesterday I installed a  new bedside table in our guest bedroom. It takes the place of the access panel for the bathroom plumbing and was months in planning. It had to be carefully fitted to the wall and required a cut out for the electrical outlet. I made it from white oak. It was not the answer to the question, "what lovely thing would I like to make today?" But it turned out to be an interesting and lovely thing none-the-less, for its loveliness lies in part in meeting a specific need.

I have this idea for the reformation of economy and culture, in that if more of us were engaged in the process of making useful beauty, we would have a clearer sense of what's important in the world and would become less involved in destructive fantasies like those that led to the fascist siege upon our nation's capitol. There is an important essay in the New York Times by historian Timothy Snyder, The American Abyss, that helps explain the predicament we're in. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html

At one time is was believed that if everyone was educated in the manual arts we would have a better basis for understanding each other. I hold to that belief. We need to come to a better grasp of our commonality. An appreciation of all labor is part of that. We're all in this together. We need each other. Each who contributes deserves respect, including those Capitol Police officers who were overrun by Trumpian insurrectionists.

You need not be an artist to engage in the making of useful beauty and to earn for yourself a new grip on life. You can make simple, practical things. You can give them away if you like, so this need not be yet another operation of commerce. You can listen to the needs in your community and act in fulfillment of those needs.

Engagement in the real world through personal creativity offers its own rewards in the form of neurohormones that awaken feelings of wellness, of being connected and of fitting in. 

I received a copy of a book written by my cousin David Bye. Sharp's Corner School Adventures recounts his experiences attending a one room school house in Minnesota in the 1950's. The book is a refreshing read about simple times and the wholesomeness of family and community. Having visited Dave's family on their farm in the 1950's, I can assure you that every story in Sharp's Corner School Adventures is likely true. https://www.amazon.com/Sharps-Corner-School-Adventures-David/dp/B08NZR4896/ My cousin David Bye is a retired teacher of industrial arts.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in living likewise.

Mitered finger joint(2)

The photo shows a closer view of the mitered finger joint and how it allows an inlaid edge on the perimeter of a box. The floating panel shown fitted into a box side will be shaped slightly before the box is assembled. 

I am grateful to have simple, practiced things to do that require exactitude and careful, distracting, concentration. To complete this joint requires careful measuring. And when you make a cut, wood cannot be uncut. It's real life. Like when you unleash an angry mob for the purpose of disrupting an election count, you'll have a difficult time fixing what you've broken. 

When you stand up and claim fraud, knowing full well that no fraud was committed, there's at least a chance that angry folks will break what should have never been broken. Public trust is like that. It can be cut, or miscut, but putting it back together will not be an easy thing. It will require those who lie to stop lying.

When I was a kid, there was the tale about the boy who cried wolf. He did so because he saw the effects. When he would cry wolf, people would become frightened and he liked seeing that he could have that effect. To see that he could holler something fearful and get folks stirred up, gave him a sense of his own power. The story ended badly, just as the end of the Trump presidency with all its lies upon lies is ending in disaster. Brace yourselves, please, as it's not over yet.

I'm installing a box for the teachers and parents of students at the Clear Spring School for exchanging lessons between home and school, as in person learning will not resume until the Covid-19 pandemic is under better control in our local community. The American people were lied to about that too, and the consequences are that the real wolf is upon us, uncontrolled and biting at our legs and arms.

Let's pray for the return of safety and sanity to our nation. When we hear folks spewing hateful things, we must answer bravely, simply and with courtesy to ourselves, "I'm sorry, it's not like that."

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

Mitered finger joints

The mitered finger joint is one of my specialties that I teach in my box making classes. Its advantage is that it offers the incredible lasting strength of the finger joint, but the top edges coming together at a miter allows for an inlaid edge around the perimeter of the box. I've been inching my way toward the completion of these boxes, as I'm also tied up with end of year business accounting.

Today I have a conference call with an organization hoping to establish a therapeutic woodworking program. Many woodworkers, recognizing how wood working makes us feel regard it as "sawdust therapy." The evidence is compelling. 

In people's minds there is a slight difference between art and craft. It's not set in stone. Some art is repetitive and formulaic and tends to be like a craft in practice. Some craft is experimental in scope and tends therefore to be more like art.

What we often think of as craft may be more closely aimed toward the making of useful objects, or may be derived from the tradition of making useful objects. Most woodworkers do not consider themselves "artists" as we intend our works to be useful. 

While the arts are an important calling, woodworking and other crafts are easier to grasp by mind and taken in hand. Art often requires explanation or a certain cultural perspective to be seen of value. Things that are useful are often more easily understood. The useful crafts are often not valued at the same level as art because it's intended that we use them and wear them out, while art is to be placed aside and admired and yet our lives and the lives of others in our communities can be transformed by the making and use of useful beauty.

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

finger jointed boxes

Yesterday I was shocked but not surprised when the US Capitol building was assaulted by Trump terrorists. The Capitol police, being used to tourists, not terrorists were easily overrun. President Trump is clearly to blame. I was not surprised because Trump has been transparent for weeks as he proved himself willing to do anything and everything legal or illegal necessary to retain his grip on power. 

Do you remember in the debate before the election when he told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by? Yesterday was exactly what he had in his twisted mind and what he was hoping for.  I was shocked that while the president was so transparent in his plan, the police and FBI were totally unprepared. Was that on purpose? If the crowd was black many, many more of the insurrectionists would have been jailed or left dead.

Whether by impeachment or 25th Amendment or resignation, Trump should be removed from office today and spend the rest of his life sequestered in shame. He should not be alone, however. There are many others who encouraged him and egged him on. The list is long. Lindsay Graham danced around like he was wearing no pants last night as he finally admitted that Trump had lost. That it took him so long to admit the truth enabled Trump's furtherance of delusion purposely imposed on the American people.

As we face the pandemic and the destruction of our economy, we need to come together and work toward a common future. Perhaps witnessing such shameful desecration will induce some to resume working together with more serious intent. I'm grateful to have some meaningful work to do as a distraction from worry.

I'm making a couple boxes to use to demonstrate the installation of Brusso quadrant hinges for an article in Popular Woodworking Magazine. This type of hinge is challenging and I have a relatively simple router table technique for installing them that will be useful to other woodworkers. Tomorrow I have a discussion with an organization interested in building a program using woodworking as a form of therapy.

The photo shows walnut box sides, finger jointed and ready for the next step which will be to cut miters at the corners, that allow the inlay made from cherry and maple to intersect and flow around the top edge. When the boxes are assembled and the lids are cut free, the hinging operation will begin.

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

Article in Quercus

An article excerpted from my book Making Classic Toys that Teach is published in this month's Quercus Magazine from the UK. The magazine fits a nice niche, as it features hand tools, whittling, woodturning and wood carving, all from a hand tools/simple technology perspective. 

The magazine also shares my interest in woodworking education. From my book the article shares a bit of information about Froebel's Kindergarten and describes how to whittle a sphere from a block of wood.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise

Sunrise

 

We have been having beautiful skies lately in Eureka Springs if you're up early enough to catch the receding dark. To see such things is one of the benefits of having a dog. Rosie gets me out early to walk in the woods. This photo had to be manipulated slightly to capture what you see in real life.`

Today in the woodshop I begin work on an article for Popular Woodworking Magazine. To begin, I must make a box.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Kappan Online

You'll find me mentioned in this article by Matthew Crawford. https://kappanonline.org/learn-a-trade-crawford/ Phi Delta Kappan is an extremely influential journal for educators, and Matthew Crawford is the author of best selling Shop Class as Soulcraft.

When we are able to get back to normal schooling, it should be based on a new/old model from Educational Sloyd. I repeat myself over and over in the hopes that some will hear and help to forge a path forward. Start with the interests of the child. Move from the known to the unknown, from the easy to more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract.

Jerome Bruner proposed something similar though not so explicit in his concept "scaffolding." But scaffolding is an external structure that provides support and that when removed we hope allows the children to succeed. 

I'm reminded of all the wonderful boxes my students are able to make when I teach at Marc Adams School of Woodworking when I'm there to demonstrate and problem solve with three assistants to do likewise, with wonderful wood provided by the school and with all the equipment set up for student success. Can they all go home and do what they've just done? That's an example of scaffolding. In Educational Sloyd the scaffolding was not external, but inside the child, having started from a firm foundation, the child's interests and concrete experiences granted by doing real things.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

 

A new workbench design

I've published a holiday edition of my woodworking with kids newsletter. https://mailchi.mp/1d8ca653adc8/woodworking-with-kids-holiday-edition

The newsletter is not just for kids. It offers techniques that are useful for adults as well.

My wife asked me if there's a guide word that I would choose for the coming year. The word I settled on is "useful." It's a word that's not highly inflated and egotistical. To be useful is to be worthwhile to others just as a fork might be useful to put food in your mouth. In that spirit I've been working on a new design woodworking bench for kids. 

The bench will use an inexpensive woodworking vise that can be purchased on Amazon for less than twenty dollars. The bench will be relatively easy to build using readily available materials and will even offer tool storage. A drawing of it is shown above. I've been asked to offer instructions on YouTube, and in the spirit of being useful, I may do that as well. I'll offer the option of tool storage inside.

An experienced woodworker could build this from the drawing alone. Captioned photos of step-by-step will help others. The top board parallel to the one on which the vise is mounted is to be hinged  giving access to storage for tools underneath. The woodworking vise for which this bench is planned is available from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002I2KFMG 

Every elementary school classroom in the US should be equipped with a woodworking bench and a few tools.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Welcome the new year...

We all share hopes that the year 2021 will be better than what the nation has gone through in 2020. Given the blessings and curse sight, we've seen unprecedented environmental disasters, "proud boys" running amuck, a brutal pandemic completely mismanaged by the Trump administration, 300,000+ unnecessary deaths, and police brutality exposed at an unprecedented level (had you ever dreamed that you'd see a black man on TV being strangled by a white police officer during a pandemic while that officer looks up for the camera and the man is telling the officer, "I can't breathe"?).

If 2021 is to become a better year, it's up to us. It will take the first half of the year to get enough of us vaccinated that we begin to feel safe. Mask up, my friends. We're in this together. Keep busy cooking and caring. Make some useful beauty. to share with each other. Keep hoping and praying for better days. But know that hope is not enough. We must care for each other and show that care by all that we do.

The photo shows dawn in Arkansas. We are at the very crack of dawn for a new year. We can make it better than the one we just lived through.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in living likewise.

books and cooks

I got a royalty statement from Taunton Press today and was pleased to find the amount of sales being well over twice normal. That's a sure sign that during covid-19 folks are reading more and wanting to spend more time doing real things. We need that. The virtual world and the virtuous world  are not the same. In the virtuous world we provide tangible service to each other.

Certainly, a renewed interest in cooking is taking over in American households.

I'm curious what the long term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be. Some, sadly, will have lost loved ones and friends. Some will know quite well how important we are to each other. Some will survive with debilitating effects from the disease. 

Please be careful. When all this is over, wise, healthy hands will be needed to fix things and set things right.

The photo is of my new work bench from another angle. The retractable wheels allow me to move it various places in the shop. The drawers will be loaded with tools and jigs.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

My new workbench

I've finally finished the new work bench that I started last spring. 

I used dovetailed drawers that I salvaged from an earlier project, and a slab of silver maple cut and left over from a much longer plank. Bench dog holes in both the top and vise will allow pieces of wood to be held on top for various operations. 

Wheels make it easy to move around the shop. Its weight will keep it stationary when the wheels are lifted allowing the legs to touch down. 

This is a covid-19 survival project, intended just as much to meet my mental health needs (keeping the hands and mind busy) as for actual shop needs. 

The bench has natural edges along the front. The legs are white oak and the wooden vise is made of cherry. The drawers have white oak facings with the drawer boxes made of maple. It's robust and will last long after my own days are done.

Other things we've found useful are cooking and yard clean up. This week I hauled another 100 yards of old hog fencing and barbed wire out of the woods and have been cutting brush to make our woods more inviting. 

Make, fix and create.

finding a common truth

 I've heard from a number of friends and family members over the holidays, even from distant countries, and it appears we are living in pretty much the same world. Covid-19 is an equalizer of sorts in that it is forcing us all to recognize a common truth. 

We've been lied to and deceived about the dangers of the disease. Some have lost loved ones due to the lies. But lies only work until they've been laid bare by circumstances intruding from the real world. The sun comes up and lays the truth bare. We all have been made clearly aware that Covid-19 is real. It is dangerous and we would all be safer now while waiting on the vaccine if we had all been encouraged to take it seriously from the outset. I can point to the number of lies we've been told. I can name them and name who told them, but that would not solve the problem we face.

While Covid-19 is taking a much larger toll on the poor, and a much lighter toll on those who have the means to work from home or are retired, we all face the same risks when we venture out, and most are taking greater care in their daily lives. We are among the lucky ones. We've learned how to stay safe and have the means to do so.

In the early days of manual arts training in the US it was proposed by educational sloyd that all should receive training in the manual arts. Even those who were going to college and were to have everything done for them by minions were to benefit by being humanized in the manual arts. In the Jewish faith the Talmud warned:

"As it is your duty to teach your son the law, teach him a trade. Disobedience to this ordinance exposes one to just contempt, for thereby the social conditions of all are endangered… He who does not have his son taught a trade prepares him to be a robber… He who applies himself to study alone is like him who has no God."

 

Martin Luther insisted that each man be taught a trade, not just one of the mind, but of the whole body, that human culture might be of whole cloth. 

One thing that learning a trade did, and that the manual arts also did, was to bring all students into a relationship with the fundamental reality upon which all other learning should be based. The manual arts develop the skills of observation, problem solving and hypothesis, while also creating a sense of the dignity of all labor and empathy toward those who perform it.

Now a days, it's become perfectly acceptable to tell whatever lie you can get away with or to fudge the truth in the belief that if you can get others to believe what you believe, then you've found some victory of sorts. What a shallow, shameless world ours has become. But it does appear that reality is persuasive in times like this. It is time to learn a few things from our shared situation and hold accountable those who lie, and for each of us to become awake enough to see through and to act toward the protection of all.

Make, fix, create, and care for each other. We need that.

humanizing

 My wife and I have learned that we can survive in a pandemic by being careful to keep social distance, to wear masks, to avoid crowds and unnecessary travel. It's not fun. But  I would prefer to not put her at risk and she has the same feelings for me. We're lucky. She's retired and I'm lucky to be able to do most of my work at home. I'm deeply concerned for others who are not so lucky. It would be painful to live alone. It would be frightening to be an essential worker and to know you may be infecting those you love by just coming home at night. Can you imagine feeling responsible for the death of someone you love? There are many in that situation today. Taking chances. "It won't happen to me!" Sometimes the statement is made with bravado. Sometimes with desperate hope. But then it happens. The world is real.

Working in the real world, doing real things, you learn that there are consequences when the mind wanders or you are pre-occupied rather than focused on the task at hand.  If you're a potter at the wheel, and your mind wanders, so does the pot. If you are cutting along a line with the band saw and your mind wanders you'll likely screw up. These days we have a singular task, that of keeping each other safe. And while it's painful to be apart, the time will pass. Hope is on the way. For those who gather despite what we know to be true, there's forgiveness. We're human. We make mistakes. And we live through to brighter days.

There is a good reason for the use of hand tools. You are unlikely to mess something up when, for example, you are taking thin shavings from a piece of wood using a hand plane. A power tool places the work at greater risk. Another reason for hand tools is that they instill patience in the user. They are not for the hurry up get done folks, and patience learned from adjusting our minds and bodies to their use allows us to contend and be content with the difficult times we pass through.

I wish you all joy this holiday season. Be safe. Stay happy. Better times will come.

a steel drivin' man

In the struggle, man vs. machine there's the legend of John Henry, immortalized in folk music and in songs by Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash. 

According to researchers he was a real person, a black prisoner whose labor  was leased to the railroad in Kentucky to dig a tunnel through solid rock. The "hammer man," John Henry would work with a "shaker man" as a drill bit was driven into a rock face for the insertion of dynamite for blasting. It was a job being taken over at time by steam drills, and to prove the efficiency of the steam drill, they wanted to test it against their best man. That was John. The shaker man's job was to shake the bit, to cause rock debris to fall from the hole, providing necessary clearance for the bit to go deeper into the hole. It's said that John Henry won the competition against the machine but lost his life, probably to silicosis and is likely buried in a ditch behind the prison, where if he was alive, he could hear the whistles of passing trains. While John Henry and his shaker man were able to drill 9 feet of hole, the steam drill could no more than 7 feet in the same amount of time, perhaps because it had no shaker man to remove debris.

The shaker man would stand where a missed hammer strike might hit his arm or hand, so it's not just John Henry's strength that came into play but his aim as well.

Where does all that fit in? Who knows. I'm still trying to figure things out. There's no doubt that machines can make things easier for us. Faster for sure. 

This morning I put a rather large router bit in my hand held router, and neglected to get it tightened enough. So the bit began to climb out of the collet, going too deep into the wood. I managed to stop just in time to prevent it from destroying the project. I changed to a different router bit profile and managed to save the project, and I like the second choice of profiles better than the first, so all's well. My friend Zane at Marc Adams School of Woodworking used to tell students, "hurry up so you'll have time to fix your mistakes." Fortunately the fix in my case was easy.

One of the lessons one learns in woodworking, and perhaps other crafts as well, is that self forgiveness is required. We are human and we make mistakes. Those mistakes can sometimes make things better so there's no point in getting too stressed out. And self-recrimination is a waste of time.

In the meantime, my Christmas wish for all is that we stay safe. We can celebrate double next year when we've weathered this terrible storm that keeps us apart.

Make, fix and create...

Last day of Pop-up store.

This is the last day of the pop-up art store at 67 Spring St. in Eureka Springs. My work there is on sale at 25% off. On Monday the store will be dismantled for new gallery owners to move in. Stop by and see lovely works on display, today.

I have been going through my new book, Wisdom of our hands, and tweaking and refining my message to make it read more smoothly and its message more directly to the point. It is a lovely day in the Ozarks with a beautiful clear blue sky and I sit on our chilly, shaded front porch as I write, dog Rosie at my feet. She watches the woods with great concern that a squirrel might appear. 

In the woodshop I've dusted off my old Worth Machine, a multi-purpose tool that cuts a variety of woodworking joints. I've not used the machine in years, but it will come in very handy today for cutting slot mortise and tenon joints. The slot mortise joint is one in which a  machined part bridges between matching mortises in two pieces of wood. Sized properly and glued in place, it can be easier to use than a full mortise and tenon joint, and just as strong. 

The Worth machine is a classic and built for the ages. Ironically, they're rare enough at this point that it's difficult to find them even on the internet. My Worth Machine, invented by John Worth, though dusty, will be returned to service this afternoon, and will last another 30 years if I continue to take care of it.

Make, fix and create... 

On Sale at Eureka Pop-up Store

 I have put my boxes and sculptures on a 25% off sale at the Eureka Springs Christmas pop-up store at 67 Spring St. in Eureka Springs.  

https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0Y2my3oQThere you'll find other works by Eureka Springs artists just in time for Christmas gift buying.

Buy our work and support the arts.

Make, fix and create.

Alert to young mothers

Quercus Magazine  https://mailchi.mp/5a7281709b08/janfeb-2021-issue 

has a lovely cover for the upcoming issue, January/Feb 2021 that shows a young woman teaching woodworking. Does that seem unusual? It should not. Educational Sloyd grew from the Kindergarten movement, and of course young women were the driving force in that. Pestalozzi and Froebel had each noted the importance of women's roles as teachers. Women were leaders in the introduction of Educational Sloyd in the US. Contrast that with the role that men played in industrial arts education which had as its primary goal, preparing young men for industrial employment. It seems that women were more inclined toward the education of the whole child.

I'll have an article in this issue describing the whittling of a sphere, the sphere or ball being one of the early gifts in  Froebel's scheme for early childhood education. Froebel was a lifelong whittler and wood craftsman.

Subscribers to American Woodturner Magazine, the publication of the American Association of Woodturners will find on page 47 of the current issue where I describe the making of a PVC tool holder that hangs on the wall by french cleat. We use this type of tool holder at both the Clear Spring School and the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. 

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

the relationship between science and the arts

What is it about the use of the hands that makes man smart?

Jacob Bronowski described the hand as the cutting edge of the mind. The walls between the arts and sciences are paper thin. Both require the development of critical thinking skills and the power of close observation. In woodworking you can’t whittle a stick without making simple unspoken hypotheses having to do with the impact of the grain and the angle of the knife’s edge applied to the wood. Neither the knife nor the wood will lie about the results.What is intelligence without the practice of observation and critique? And what is intelligence if it does not allow us to better manage real life? 

We live these days in a world in which folks think it's just OK to make stuff up and in which you get to believe what you want and that if you can get others infected with your beliefs you've then found truth. I call BS. There is a real world and we live in it whether it pleases us or not.

Bronowski described the practice of the arts and the practice of science as being “explosions, of a hidden likeness. The discoverer or artist presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.”

"The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science. You see it in the magnificence with which he carves and builds, the loving care, the gaiety, the effrontery. The monuments are supposed to commemorate kings and religions, heroes, dogmas, but in the end the man they commemorate is the builder." –– Jacob Bronowski, the Ascent of Man television series, 1973

Make, fix and create... 

the interconnected web of all life

This article from the New York Times describes the interconnections between trees in a forest, suggesting the interconnections of all life, a thing suggested by some religions.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/02/magazine/tree-communication-mycorrhiza.html

I have been making small chess pieces for my middle school class to go with the traveling chess boards we're making. Today I'll make a video to describe the process. The photo shows tiny rooks I've shaped for the students from maple and walnut. 

When will we also discover that children, like trees, do not stand alone in the forest? That we, too, are interconnected in ways we may never fully understand? Perhaps what must come first, will be a refusal to deny that we are indeed part of an interconnected web of all life, a thing Froebel described in his word, Gliedganzes, meaning member, whole. We are each members of a wholeness, and education, at its best, directs us toward that understanding.

Make, fix and create.

On Narrative

This is a repost from a few years back. 

The first characteristic of narrative is what Jerome Bruner describes as its "inherent sequentiality: a narrative is composed of a unique sequence of events, mental states, happenings involving human beings as characters or actors." Bruner's second feature of narrative is that it can be "real" or "imaginary" without loss of its power as a story. Hence the power of well crafted fiction. Bruner's third crucial feature is that "it specializes in forging links between the exceptional and the ordinary." That which is canonical or normal and by the rules, or noncanonical, breaking or transgressing the expected norms.

My point, in case you didn't already guess, is that narrative may be as strongly present in hand crafted work as in speech and written discourse, and in some cases can be more powerful. We place far greater value as a culture on written or spoken narrative and place far greater emphasis in education on discursive narrative than on that which is expressed by hand. And so part of coming to better terms with the value of crafted work lies in understanding its narrative role in human culture. Our objects describe who we are, where we are going, and the means through which we will arrive at our greatest potential.

I offer these photos above and below of a piece of furniture showing narrative qualities in conformity with what Bruner outlines above. Dr. Bruner and I discussed whether craft work was narrative or not, with him taking one angle and me the other.

You will note that this table connects normal and unusual or exceptional elements in the same work. The contrast between the natural edged top board and the more conventional mortised and tenoned base is an example. While some viewers familiar with the process of crafting such work would know the sequence of operations the work records and describes, a casual viewer is drawn to skim or read it sequentially, just as one might skim or read a published text. Each and every piece of hand-crafted work is autobiographical in that it records and describes the maker's character as well as his motions in making the piece. The meander cut through the center of the board is used symbolically in a fictional representation of a river or stream, while also allowing use of a traditional technique--the sliding dovetail joint. And so, I hope my regular readers will understand that story telling, the foundation of human culture, is not just something that happens through words alone, but can take place whenever the human hand goes to work on wood.

Make, fix and create...

An announcement

Following a press release at 10 AM this morning, I'm allowed to mention that our Eureka Springs School of the Arts is being provided a 10 million dollar endowment through the Arkansas Community Foundation that will assure its success and service for generations to come. Some of my readers will know that I was one of three co-founders of the school, so I share this joy with co-founders Mary Springer and Eleanor Lux and all those who've served the growth of the school over the past 22 years. The relationship between ESSA and the Windgate Foundation that's responsible for this large gift grew from my friendship with John and Robyn Horn, artists in Little Rock. 

As a friend of Robyn and a board member at ESSA, I've been involved in all the Windgate Foundation gifts to the school, and have had a hand in many of the developments on campus, including the acquisition of our school's 50 plus acre campus, and the initial designs for our school wood shop and our recently added onsite instructor housing.

The gift, providing long term operations funding, will allow us to focus our fund raising attention on additional campus improvements, innovative programming and scholarship support.

Artists wonder how their work will be regarded in years to come. Will it be kept or discarded? Being involved helping other artists evolve in their work and now seeing that this part of what I've helped build will go on for generations makes this a very  meaningful moment in my life.

Years ago, Tom Begnal, an editor from Fine Woodworking,  asked me why I didn't start my own woodworking school like so many other authors were doing. It is so much better to have built something with friends. Having my own school would have been such a lonely thing in comparison to what we've done.

There are still openings in my lecture class tomorrow afternoon presented through zoom. You can sign up here: https://essa-art.org/workshops/online/artist-talks-wisdom-of-our-hands/

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

 

This week...

Today my 5th and 6th grade students began sanding some of their travel sized chess pieces. On Wednesday I have a one hour ESSA lecture scheduled. The link here will carry you to details. https://essa-art.org/workshops/online/artist-talks-wisdom-of-our-hands/

I've been at work on a second draft of my book, Wisdom of our hands which offers advice to woodworkers, but also lays a reasonable course for civilization. In the course of digging through the blog which has been my way of keeping notes on the subject, I ran across this unpublished poem from Jerome Bruner that he sent me in 2011.

Let us honor if we must
The right hand's well constructed thrust,
Though note ye well, lest you be cleft,
By surprises kindled from the left.

I asked Dr. Bruner if his poem was about boxing, but it was actually inspired by a poem about death by W. H. Auden which if you think about it is exactly backwards from what happens in the ring.

Let us honor if we can
The vertical man,
Though we honor none
But the horizontal one

Dr. Bruner passed away in 2016 at the age of 101. It makes me realize how lucky I was to have communicated with such an illustrious figure in Psychology and to have been the first to publish (online) his poem. His poem will be included in the new book.

Make, fix and create.

 

what we see, what we say...

I got an inquiry this morning about an operation in one of my books in which the reader asked for clarification in making a particular box. What you see in a photo doesn't necessarily convey all that you are required to know. In this case, reading would have helped. We may all be guilty of this. We see a photo and the mind fills in the blanks, in the assumption things are so simple we fully understand, when in fact we may not.

I encounter this all the time teaching. My students see something that looks easy, when in actual fact, there are things about the operation they may not understand without having first made their own mistakes.

For example, in making a Soma Cube Puzzle, one of my students had a puzzle piece break off, but it was because he had glued end grain to side grain, a thing I had explained in the video. When you orient the grain in two pieces side to side moving in the same direction, the glue joint is as strong as the wood itself. That's far from true if you glue pieces cross grained.

We were showing my 4th and 5th grade students the video of how to assemble their chessboard veneer patterns for the third time, and I had clearly stated that it would work out best if they paid attention to grain orientation, making the grain in the various pieces to align in the same direction. The reason I had suggested that was because if I had any errors in cutting pieces to length, those errors would not compound as the various pieces were put into place. Some got that message. Most did not.

We're becoming a see-it, do it world where complexities are not observed, nor are they fully understood.

There was a reason that Diesterweg, Froebel, Cygnaeus, and Salomon planned that learning progress from the concrete to the abstract and from the simple to the complex, and that was to build up within the student a knowledge base that would form a foundation for all other learning. Without that experiential base upon which to build our understanding, there's no common sense, whether we're talking about the political realm or how to address the Covid-19 pandemic.

So here we are. Scott Atlas said that seniors should not be prevented from celebrating "their last thanksgiving" with loved ones. Loved ones rush home, not dreaming that at their last stop for gas they picked up the virus that will kill Granny. 

In the meantime, our own lovely county is a hot spot, and I'm hoping all will exercise extreme caution. In Fayetteville, not more than 50 miles from here they've set up refrigerator trucks to handle the overflow of bodies. I hoped it would never come to this, but with the lack of caution, we have only our own communities to blame. The vaccine is on the horizon, developed by dedicated scientists. We will prevail over the disease, only if we've kept each other safe. 

How much more thankful we will be next year when, with those we love still with us, we celebrate Thanksgiving 2021 together.

Be safe. Make, fix and create...

new series, art lectures

ESSA has announced a new series of online art lectures. I'll be the first in the series on Dec. 2 and you can register here: 

https://essa-art.org/workshops/online/artist-talks-wisdom-of-our-hands/ 

Participation will be online, via Zoom but enrollment is limited. Sign up soon.

I want to thank those who responded to my post inviting you to subscribe to my youtube channel. The number of subscribers went from 990 to 1038, pushing beyond the 1000 required for direct streaming.

Make, fix and create.

Wall Art...

I want to thank my friend Bob Rokeby for honoring my work as "wall art." It reminds me that I need to make more of these wooden ties. Several of my friends have them. Seeing the one hung as art reminds me of a friend who passed away a few years back. 

Members of the arts community in Eureka Springs will remember Zolli Page. she had made a point of showing me that her husband's tie, purchased in a charity auction, had a special place on her wall, surrounded by art.

Make, fix, and create. The world becomes a better place.

live streaming?

I've learned that I can live stream from my youtube channel, but in order to be allowed to do it I have to have 1,000 subscribers. I have 990, so just 10 more. Becoming a subscriber would give you the opportunity to be notified when I have new videos to present or live demonstrations to be performed.  To subscribe, please go to

https://www.youtube.com/MrDougStowe

The advantage for me is that it would allow me to livestream demonstrations to my students at the Clear Spring School directly to students at home or through the classroom TV. Just 10 more and we're there.

The subscribers on my youtube channel have been growing steadily, so no need to subscribe unless you are interested in the content.

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

The Culture of Craft

Architects discuss the relationship of craft to their work. Interesting. But the closer they're brought together, the better.

Make, fix, and create...

I'm trying to understand...

We know that masks and social distancing help prevent the spread of coronavirus. If common sense was not enough to bring one to this understanding, there's plenty of evidence from scientific studies to confirm that masks work to keep us safe and to keep safe those we love as well.

And yet, there's a strong ideological resistance among some against being required to wear masks. These folks want the economy to open up wide with no restrictions in place. And those same folks are active in state legislatures and in the courts to prevent governors, mayors and county administrators from having the power to require masks and social distancing. The callousness of these folks is beyond measure.

Can they not stand up for their rights and urge the safety of others at the same time? For example, they might ask that folks be allowed to choose whether or not to wear masks, while also admitting risk of refusing to do so? While advocating for freedom, could they not also advocate for responsibility exercised for the protection of each other?

We are braced for a Thanksgiving like no other. Had we shut down for an additional two weeks in the spring, as painful as that would have been, it would have saved well over 200,000 lives and would have allowed us to move at this point, much closer to normal life.

I know that many people I care about are planning to share Thanksgiving with family and friends who will be put at risk by each other. Scott Atlas says that folks should just go ahead and enjoy Thanksgiving because for some it may be their last. Are you the one who wants to make sure that someone has their last Thanksgiving? Or can we look forward to next year with the knowledge that you've done your part to keep others safe?

There's a bit of common sense that comes from hands-on learning... Today I'm working on cedar boxes in the wood shop. The box in the photo is one I sold the other day on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/shop/DougStowe

Make, fix and create. 

Every now and then

Every now and then I get inquiries from folks wondering where to buy my work. So here's a list.

• The Jewel Box, 40 Spring St, Eureka Springs, AR 72632
• Made in Eureka Springs Pop Up Holiday Store, 87 Spring St. Eureka Springs, AR 72632
• Eurekan Art Studio and Shop, 150 N Main St, Eureka Springs, AR 72632 
• Historic Arkansas Museum Store, 200 E 3rd St, Little Rock, AR 72201
• Crystal Bridges Museum Store, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, AR 72712   

In addition, I've loaded a number of pieces on my ETSY website. https://www.etsy.com/shop/DougStowe I've plenty of time to ship before the holidays.

Make, fix, and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Some may remember...

 A man with strong ties to Eureka Springs was featured in an interview on CNN concerning the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Ben Hovland is the son of Barbara Harmony, a woman that many here knew from her work as an environmental activist and as a founder of the National Water Center here in Eureka Springs.

Ben Hovland is a elections specialist and attorney appointed by Donald Trump to oversee election security, his specialty. His interesting interview can be found here: https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/11/14/ben-hovland-chairman-election-assistance-commission-vpx.cnn

I knew Ben many years ago when he was just a very small child. He's grown and I'm sure Barbara who passed away this year would have been proud to have seen him on TV. I was.

Long before Barbara and I met, she had been an exchange student for a year in Sweden and had studied Sloyd.

Make, fix and create...

Making a chess board

This is a new video that I made today showing how to make a chessboard using walnut and maple tiles cut from solid wood. I've been making pieces for our 5th and 6th grade students to make their own chess boards. 

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise. 

Currents Magazine - Winter 2020

Currents Magazine, a quarterly publication by the Carroll County News came out with an article about me yesterday. It's a free publication available in our local community at a variety of locations.  It will be available later online.

 https://www.carrollconews.com/reader/currents 

Online watch for the Winter 2020 edition. Or look for it when you go grocery shopping in Eureka Springs or Holiday Island. 

My thanks to staff writer Haley Schichtl for writing a nice piece.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

Crystal Bridges Gift Guide 2020

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has published a holiday gift guide with the featured objects being selected by museum store staff. My boxes are among the objects selected and you can find the Museum Store Gift Guide for 2020 here: https://crystalbridges.org/blog/the-2020-museum-store-holiday-gift-guide-staff-picks/ 

Staff member Lee who chose my work for the guide said, "Talk about win-win. Not only are Doug Stowe wooden, hand-carved boxes handsome AND functional, but they will blend in beautifully in any decor. All your items will be so much happier nestled in a Doug Stowe box."

I am also taking part in a pop-up store in Eureka Springs that will open on Thursday and be open during the next two months. In the old location of Zarks, at 67 Spring St. My smaller boxes can be found this Christmas at The Jewel Box also on Spring St. and at Eurekan Art Co. on North Main. The boxes are unique, original and with a limited supply at all locations.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

democracy...

Early proponents of manual arts training, particularly of Educational Sloyd, and including John Dewey, believed that manual arts training was essential for all students, including those students from the upper class. These educators feared that a two-tier educational system would  perpetuate a two-tier society that would spell the end to democracy.

Woodrow Wilson before he became president of the US had been president of Princeton University and promoted the idea that we needed a small intellectual elite, and a much larger class or workers well trained to support them. So, as president, he signed the Smith-Hughes Act into law which set up separate manual training schools for that purpose, dividing the education of the hands from the education of the mind, making  folks less sensitive in both directions. The Smith-Hughes Act funded separate manual training schools and divided most schools along the lines of college prep and vocational training tracks.

One of the ideals proposed by Otto Salomon and others was that by all education building upon real experiences in manual arts, all students would gain a respect for the dignity of all labor. Wilson's approach turned labor into a commodity, to be bought and paid for while the pockets of the rich filled to bursting beyond any reasonable notion of real usefulness. The rich, not knowing the value of the working class, could not give a flip about their needs. So we have deep anger in America. And with Trump's refusal to concede the loss of the election, we witness the failure of education to provide deeper understanding. 

With a change of administrations, I hope we can again note and promote the value of manual arts training, not just to develop workers, but to develop a populace in which we show care for each other. 

The photo shows teachers in training at Salomon's teacher training academy in Nääs, Sweden. I want all to note the high proportion of women training to be teachers of woodworking sloyd.

Make, fix and create...

Greta Thunberg Hears Your Excuses. She Is Not Impressed.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/02/magazine/greta-thunberg-interview.html

This is a great interview with Greta Thunberg, climate activist.

On my morning walk, with Rosie, I was thinking about a few things, largely in response to what I read. First off, changing our relationship with the environment and the damages human activities are causing to the global climate, thereby inflicting harm on every ecosystem and every populace, is never talked about in terms of conservation. 

We must learn to exercise thrift, even when the exercise of thrift curtails the flow of cash. Politicians want to buy our way out of the harm we inflict by investing in new stuff that's intended to allow us to consume planetary resources at an undiminished rate.

Secondly, woodworkers are sometimes thought of as being anti-environmental because we use wood as an alternative to plastic. And yet, I've always thought of myself as an environmentalist attempting to point out the beauty and value of our forests... thus hoping to awaken the urge to protect. My own efforts are certainly not enough but I've met many woodworkers who share my concerns.

Some of what's called for is a withdrawal when possible from our world's economy and a reinsertion of our resources into our local environments, asking those who can make from what grows here and there to make for us what we need. Or better yet, make for ourselves.

If you can't make it, perhaps you don't need it is a challenge none of us are capable of meeting yet. But Greta, in her clear way, uncluttered by the emotion we don't have time to indulge in, suggested that one of the most powerful tools we have comes in the comparison of ourselves with our neighbors. We need that level of competition. To be able to tell others, I only used this many kilowatts because I've chosen to limit my use of resources could help us to make real change. We live in an information age in which it is easy to be overwhelmed. But given the state of things, we need more information, not less. And this is particularly true with regard to our Covid-19 pandemic. We need more testing and more localized application of information. With that we could shut down only those parts of the economy that offer the greatest safe harbor for the deadly disease. With more localized information we would be better equipped to assess risk.

I was very pleased to have spent some time with Bill Coperthwaite a few years back, which I've mentioned in this earlier blog post. http://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/2012/06/grit.html The photo is of Bill's 4 story yurt taken from the trail leading up to his home. Bill, a PhD from Harvard was drawn to buy his property by the potential of abundant free electric power generation. In the process, he discovered the power of his own body and opted for a simpler life.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in living likewise.

LBJ

President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, 

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

And so in that you can find the essence of our political divide. Race has been used as a means to divide us and for political parties to manipulate us and hold power. 

I'm reminded of a story from Zen. A man's wife had died and he offered money to the monks if they would recite the sutras in his wife's honor. But before he would give the money he asked for their guarantee that she would be the recipient of their blessings. The monks replied that when the sutras are recited all beings benefit. And so he man asked, can't you recite the sutras without benefitting that woman who lives across the street? And so, people often live narrow lives that hurt themselves and others at the same time.

At some point, I hope we can learn to see and feel the commonalities of humanity in each other regardless of religion and race. This is a day of joy for me. I know there are many who feel hurt by the outcome of this election. I hope we all can put our feet in other people's shoes and walk.

Make, fix and create...

Latvian TV

Jean and I were in Latvia just over two years ago and visited the KGB headquarters museum where they tortured and killed Latvian citizens in their effort to control the society. Latvia still has a large Russian populace, perhaps as many as 25% so Latvia has long been a target of Russian disinformation intended to disrupt their democracy and bring their small country back into the Russian State. 

The Latvians have a popular prime-time television program called "Theory of Lies" that attempts to debunk the popular lies coming from Russia. As we recover from this election, we need something similar in the US to counter the deliberate campaign of disinformation, the aim of which is to tear us apart and destroy our society. A translation of the program's website can be found here:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=lv&u=https://skaties.lv/tema/melu-teorija/

With the election nearly over let's find new ways to feel kindly toward each other.

Make, fix and create.

Lathe tool racks, full circle

Tool racks like I made for the Clear Spring School and then years later at ESSA will be featured in the December issue of American Woodturner. If you want an introduction to that project you can find it here: 

https://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/2017/05/funny-development.html

There's kind of a funny story involved.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Rosie, wonder dog.

Rosie is my 75 lb. therapy dog, demonstrating the value of woodworking for keeping one's head on straight and one's nerves soothed. In case the video doesn't link on facebook, you can view here: https://youtu.be/c-uGN_I9qSI

Make, fix and create. When enduring stressful times, get busy doing something real. It helps.

The little dog toto moment

Do you remember that moment in the Wizard of Oz when little dog Toto pulled back the curtain to reveal the almighty wizard to be a short man quaking in his shiny shoes? With millions of voters going to the polls and millions casting their votes for the first time, and with the grace of god and with justice at our sides, we hope for the best. Take that mean man and his evil minions out of office and let us get on with our lives.

Forgive me for not writing much in my blog of late. Forgive me for paying less attention to simple things. With Covid-19 having been allowed loose, cases are rising dramatically everywhere that I know folks dear to me. And it has felt like I've been living and struggling to breathe under one of those vests they put on you when you're getting X-rays at the dentist's office. I know we are all trying to catch our breath at the end of such an outrageous time that's far from over yet. I'm bracing myself. There are the Russians trying to interfere as they did in the election of Donald Trump in 2016. There are Republicans working every angle to suppress the vote that they've known, if large, would not be in their favor. We have an Attorney General who will stop at nothing in his support of Trump and a Supreme Court that's lost all credibility.

My dog Rosie has been my saving grace. She makes me smile many times each day. She watches the woods for squirrels and brings branches in from the woods to chew and maintain a blissful state. To sit on the front porch with her reminds me that there are very many things right with the world.  And I remind myself that things can get better only if we act.

Do your work dear Toto, but we're not counting on just you. We vote.