The Most Valuable 10 Lessons of My Woodworking

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Patrick Olguin) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

The cycle also turns the other way....

As my father, now a widower after 56 years with my mother, has more time, we find that some of the best time we spend together is in my shop, making things and fixing things that need fixing around our homes.

When I was small, he taught me the rudiments of carpentry, and the details of concrete and masonry and tile work. He taught me to plan a job, and to come ready to work, and to finish it to the best of my abilities. He taught me that my work is a lasting reflection of my caring.

Now he's in his late 70's, and I am in my early 50's. We both have had successful (non-craft) careers, but enjoy making things that last. Over the last several years, I have picked up my tools again, as my own sons have graduated college, and I don't need to generate the same income flows as before. It is great to be able to spend shop time with Dad, building cabinets, or jewelry boxes, or frames for art glass, or whatever.

It is even nicer to be able to replace some of his disrepectable old tools with a better grade than he had. And to use some of the good oldies that came from his two brothers, who were finish carpenters by trade.

So thanks for that (re)post, as well as the earlier lessons learned.

Patriarch, who also enjoys open air woodworking, but in Northern California.