Hello all,
This evening, I wanted to talk about one of the very first projects that helped me really begin my interest in woodworking. It helped me begin to think there was a future in the hobby as a potential business to make money. A friend of mine from my local wood club, Central Jersey Woodworkers Association, and I took a class together and began talking. He said he built bird house and bird feeder kits with pre-drilled nail holes so that kids can learn to use tools like hammers and put them together. He said upon occasion, he would make them for family and friends. I told him I’d be interested in learning how he did them. He made some connections and was able to get us into a local community festival. We made 25 bird houses and 25 bird feeders. Our first 2 hours, we did absolutely nothing. This was probably the most BORING 2 hours of my life. We stood there by ourselves, and I thought the next 6 hours are going to be LONG. Well, then we had our first customer and time just FLEW by. We had lines of people putting together bird houses and feeders, wow, just amazing.
Our second show was done by the NJ Forestry Service. They were gracious enough to offer some recently cut down and milled pine trees for us to make into these kits. This was my first introduction into green wood. My safety glasses were literally soaked with pine sap after milling the wood into kits. This time, we made 75 bird houses and 75 bird feeders.
This is going to be my third show I am doing with my friend and I am thoroughly looking forward to building the houses and feeders. My wife and I are avid nature lovers. As much as I know that technology helps our day to day lives, I often find that it numbs our senses, and desensitizes us to the living. I enjoy watching the kids (and sometimes adults) learn how to use hammers and nails. I think there are far too many school systems that are doing away with shop programs (metal shop, wood shop, etc.) in favor of stuff like athletic programs. Unfortunately, we can’t all be starting pitchers and quarterbacks. But then again, when you’re making shavings and sawdust, and you walk inside the house covered in some un-Godly mix of wood waste and sweat, and you’re wife says “UGH! What the hell have you been doing?” – wouldn’t trade that for the world. Hee hee. I’m not sure how many kits are going to be milled tomorrow, but I’m planning to be covered in the wood waste for that ride home.