Slapshot

For those of you who know me, not just here but in the real world, you know I have a tendency to repeat myself. Well, here I go again. Back in January 2015, I wrote about seeing the world through "New Eyes" and I seem to have landed there all over again. It could be the time of the year, but as all of this crossed my mind again, I knew I needed to share it.

These thoughts started for me during the Christmas season as I watched children open Christmas gifts. The genuine unbridled joy of watching someone open a gift they had never considered getting is great for the soul. Although this happens with people later in our lives, the experience with children is incomparable. The most enjoyable gift for me to watch being opened was a small oil tanker we gave to my grandson. It wasn't a big gift at all, but at that moment in time, it grabbed his attention and all of his thoughts. And, for a few moments, as I watched him, there was nothing else in the world more important to him or to me.

I hope you have all experienced the joy of Christmas through the eyes of a child. Although I would say there is nothing like it, I discovered Saturday night before last there might be an experience which rivals the feeling. That evening, I had the opportunity to go to a hockey game with my company and we had really good seats. In fact, we were in one of the suites on the ice. We were extremely well cared for, with food and beverage, but the joy for me was watching people who had either rarely been or never attended a hockey game. They saw the game in a way you rarely get to watch, from just on the other side of the glass. When somebody gets body checked into the ice in front of you, it is literally right there, inches, not even feet away.

While watching this, I found myself thinking of moments in life that have this type of affect on all of us. As we go through our day-in, day-out experiences, what really takes our breath away? There are times these pass by and I tend to discount them as no big deal, rather than recognizing them for what they are. As I think about the last year, the kind of things come to mind are: Watching my daughter graduate from the University of Iowa, holding my granddaughter, Daisy, for the first time, running errands one day with my son, listening to the joy of my daughter's voice when she announced she'd been admitted to law school, watching Sara at the hockey game, and lately, for me, when I finished a quilt top, and laid down my first welding bead.

All of these things are special, once in a lifetime events, but for myself, I know I don't always recognize and celebrate them as they come by. To make it even more confusing for those around me, I tend to "celebrate" events like this very quietly, often times by myself. For many of the moments I listed above, nobody even knew were important to me until they read that last paragraph.

I guess I come to the question - what will I do with this? If this causes a moment of thought for you, what will you do with this? As I start the year, I think I need to acknowledge more of the truly wonderful things happening to me, and learn to share them out loud. I've actually become more comfortable in some ways talking to you about these things. I need to make a change there.

Okay, on the shop front. I am having a ball with the new CNC router. The accuracy it adds to the work I do is amazing. Things I have struggled with in the past are so much easier. I will admit to being surprised by the amount of time things take to be produced, but I'm even finding ways to speed up this process. I am also learning that when a project feels like a failure, it isn't. It is just a step toward success. While this isn't new for any of us, it is really good to remember it once in a while. The nice thing about what I am doing with the CNC right now is I can run something, look at how it worked and then go back and adjust the inputs and the results. There is already more success than challenge and over time this will only get better.

I already see that in the future this CNC will be for sale as I move to a more high capacity unit. Not today, but soon I'll have pictures of some of the successes I've already experienced.

Enough for today. We are facing bitter cold in the next few days. If you are in any area with challenging weather, be safe and be careful.

2019 Begins

As is typically the case, January is a time of reflection and introspection. Be clear, I am not a "New Year's resolution" person. I haven't had success over the years with stating on one given day the things I will change about myself in the coming year. It just hasn't worked for me. If it works for you, I applaud your ability to use this time of the year to determine your upcoming course of action and then do something with it. For myself, I've always had to kind of sneak up on something, starting a new habit or activity without the fanfare and public announcement of a New Year's resolution. Then some great deal of time down the road, I will either admit to what I have been working on, or my friends and family will just notice it.

Several years ago, probably four or five, I came across an article about ten essential DIY skills. At the time, I had seven of the ten. I can't remember what all of them were, but I knew there were three I still needed to acquire. The first of these was to build a computer from scratch.  I tackled. With the help of my son Andrew, and Newegg.com, I acquired and built a computer that still functions in my basement today. To be completely honest, Andrew did much of the work and all of the tricky parts, just telling me what I needed to do next. But, with that experience, I knocked "Build a Computer from scratch" off the list and had eight of the ten in hand. Then, as so often happens, time passed. A lot of time passed. Then, out of left field, my daughter Megan entered and helped me pick up the next skill.

Apparently, somewhere along the line, I had mentioned that I didn't know how to sew and would like to learn. In my household, this is really not something I need to be able to do as both Sara and Megan are quite accomplished, but it was on the list, so, I wanted to learn the basics. For my birthday / Christmas Megan gave me a jelly roll of fabric and the time and direction to turn it into a quilt top. For those of you who quilt a lot, you already know that a jelly roll race isn't the most complex quilting project ever taken on, but for me, it was big. Thanks to my daughter, I have now completed a quilt top. She and Sara will quilt and finish it. With my jelly roll race quilt top complete, I checked sewing off the list I was working from.

One skill was left. Welding.

I had considered taking a class through adult education several times, but always talked myself out of it. Typically, because the class was held on two different weeknights starting right at the end of my workday. Since I'm not good at leaving work on time, I knew it would be a problem, and I'd end up missing too many classes. But this year, they offered a Saturday morning class. This is perfect. If I were home, I'd just be paying bills or sorting paperwork, but now, for the next eleven weeks, I will learn to weld. Last Saturday was the first class, and yes, I learned to melt metal with electricity. This may not be for all of you, but I can't even tell you how cool this is. I know I will enjoy this experience.

If, after this class is finished, I never weld or sew again, it is like so many things. This is learning nobody will ever take from me.

Now, I thought the other thing I should do is to go out and look at the current list of essential DIY skills. Like so many other things, it seems this list has changed over time. Below is the list I found through Google today:
1. Emergency Preparedness
2. Jailbreaking/Rooting your phone
3. Building a computer from scratch
4. Photo Editing
5. Cooking
6. Home Repair
7. Auto Maintenance
8. Sewing
9. Working with Electronics
10. Coding

Well, it looks like there are a couple of things on this list that aren't skills I possess. I will need to decide if those are things I need to take on as a challenge or not. Where are you with this list?  Are you adding to your individual skill set? Do you have any good recommendations as to where to learn some of these things? Let me know your thoughts.

As you can tell, I am excited about 2019 on a personal basis.  I sometimes start the year not looking forward, but not this year.  I am excited about what lies ahead and I hope each of you feel the same way.

Happy New Year.

Flood

Every now and then a moment, or an item, causes a flood of emotions within me.  Now, that being said, those of you who really know me, know this happens more often than may be the norm for the rest of the world. I admit this, so now we can move on.

This year will be the fifty-fourth year I haven't had my father around. I don't tell you this so you will feel sorry for me. No, we all have things we carry in our lives seen by others as pluses or minuses. This is something I tell you as it strikes me that at this point, I have very few things left that belonged to him. The other day when I was cleaning up the shop, using the hand duster that I've used so many times, I was struck by the fact that it was my father's. Then I was noticed it was stamped with the sale price of $1.00.  An item that had been manufactured many years ago, produced and sold for a mere dollar, was still effectively doing its job. I actually laughed as I've purchased at least three refrigerators in the years that I can remember, at costs significantly more than one dollar.

The thing that I am really getting at here is that for me there are so many little things that help me to remember those who are no longer with us. Sometimes it can be a song, or a fragrance, or in this case a hand duster. And as I said, often it comes back as a flood. There you have it. A hand duster brought back all sorts of memories.

On to more current business. During the last few months I've been busy in the shop. I finished another library project for a unit in town that helps to protect young men and women. This time it was about twenty-five running feet of bookcases and a standing desk used to check out the books. All in all it looked very nice. I also completed four cutting boards for a dear friend and then, for another friend, I created a rack for hair ribbons for his daughter. I finished a Christmas present for my daughter, but I can't tell you about that  Not necessarily because she might read it here, but, one of you might tell her.  Along with these projects, I also completed card/literature holders for YESS, and a retirement box for my cousin's son. I started working on the kitchen cabinets for the house again, but I'm a little intimidated by those right now. I have the design work done, and the cut list complete, but the naming convention for the parts is a little confusing. I need to find the time to sit down and sort it out.  One of these days ...

The biggest excitement right now is that I just purchased a CNC router for the shop. This is completely a "hobbyist" level piece of equipment, but it will give me a good start at discovering all the ways I can use it to move my woodworking forward.  Maybe it will even allow me to add curves to my woodworking. Only time will tell. I am, however, very excited about it. I expect it to ship in the next week or so. There is about ten hours of assembly before I can test drive it. Additionally, there is a new software I will have to learn, so that will take time as well.  This is going to be a fun journey and I hope that you will be excited to go along with me.

Well, I finish this thinking about the fact that my daughter is just about to finish her first semester in law school. We had everyone home for Thanksgiving and it looks like we may have everyone around Christmas. Business and work have been good this year, and I have much to appreciate.  I hope that this finds you and all of your family and friends healthy and happy. 

Have a good week.

Introspection

It has been a couple of interesting weeks for me, and in looking back, I find I've been asking more questions about myself lately than usual. This may be because of the time of the year, or because things have been slow at work.

Then, as if by fate, I came across an old blogpost from Seth Godin and it spoke to me. I am including most of it here.

Some of the things to ask(myself):

            What am I better at?
            Have I asked a difficult question lately?
            Do people trust me more than they did?
            Am I hiding more (or less) than I did the last time I checked?
            Is my list of insightful, useful and frightening stats about my work, my budgets and my challenges complete? And have I shared it with someone I trust?
            If selling ideas is a skill, am I more skilled at it than I was?
            Who have I developed?
            Have I had any significant failures (learning opportunities) lately, and what have I learned?
            What predictions have I made that have come to pass? Am I better at seeing what's going to happen next?
            Who have I helped? Especially when there was no upside for me...         
            Am I more likely to be leading or following?

The overall article was about the lack of value of the annual review; the post suggesting these are the questions we should ask and answer about ourselves and the way we run our life.

This really spoke to me as we enter the fourth quarter of the year. This is the time I have a tendency to really look at the year we are completing and look forward to next year. What are the successes and the failures? What do I want to do again, and what would I like not to repeat. Are there big directional changes coming in the next year, or will it be mostly status quo?

Honestly, I don't have answers to these questions, but I still know the questions are worth asking, and worth thinking about. I know next year, or the year after will not be better if I don't process on these questions today. I'm sure each of you have a technique you use to look inside and think about these types of things.

On top of all of this, I have an unbelievable opportunity each month to speak to and learn from really smart people. This business round table occurred last week. Roughly once a year, each member of the group presents a challenge or opportunity they are facing, personally or business wise. The group works to process the information, often providing insights not obvious without their input. With that said, three or four people in this group continually astound me.

I have the ability to ask the questions above, or others like them, and assess where I am. I can even on occasion know what I need to do to be more effective. But some folks on this round table who have the next step locked down, which is where I struggle. The people I watch with fascination are those who can develop a plan on how to make the necessary changes, and then set about and just do it. I have a tendency to know which way I want to move, and if I get closer to my goal, I am satisfied with the outcome. These folks make plans and then commit to personal changes in their lives and the way they lead, and then move forward to accomplish it. Wow. I keep listening and learning, and know I continue to strengthen this part of myself, but there is always more to do.

Okay, kind of deep and personal. Let's move on.

The Toybox is currently packed, but only hours from changing. Saturday morning, I will install bookcases I have been working on for a group of kids. This is the moment in time where I find I am a bundle of nerves. I know I've done a good job on construction and finishing. I am proud of the project. The bundle of nerves comes from considering the installation itself. Since I've seen the room a total of one time, there could be small issues I may need to work around. When I say small, they will all be bigger than they should be as I am trying to install and get out of the way of the people working there. I know it will be fine, but sleep will not come  easy tonight. If you are up and around in the wee hours of the night, reach out and say "Hi". I may be there.

On the teardrop trailer front - the one I am building for my sister 0 I have finally overcome a hurdle I've been wrestling with. I wasn't sure how to finish the outside of the trailer to make it as impervious to weather as I wanted it to be. I finally landed on looking at boat builders, which almost instantly took me to epoxy finishes. Why had I not thought of that before?  Then to just make me laugh, when I figured out the right epoxy system to use, I discovered it in stock at the Woodsmith Store. I must have walked by it a hundred times, but never needed it. I was in there last night for one of their seminars and there on an end-cap, was everything I could possibly need. Excellent. I can hardly wait to tell you how it goes.

Finally, I'm thinking about something a little different. I am considering doing some writing about basic tool information, through my eyes. We will see where this idea goes. If there is anything you would really like to see me write about, let me know. Like I said, I'm still thinking about this.

Have a great weekend. Think good thoughts for me as I undertake the installation of these shelves.

Summer Heat

For any of you who don't live in Iowa, let me tell you about the way we do summer weather. We know there will be hot times in the summer and they will come with high humidity, but we are poised for those "dog days' of summer in late July and in August. In a typical Iowa year, this couple of weeks, people literally get through one day at a time. This year, though, we experienced this type of weather throughout the entire summer. Now it wasn't for long periods, but it cropped up in small chunks every now and then. None of us were ready for. So, with this heat comes some really interesting things.

First, we carry on with all sorts of additional discussion about the crops. This discussion topic receives plenty of air-time already, but in a year like this it garners even more attention. All summer there were discussions about how well the corn was developing, what everyone thought the yield would be, and when everyone would be in the fields. Early on, predictions spun out around the second week in August. As we enter the last week in September with much of the crop still in the field, it would appear that arm-chair analysts weren't completely correct.

Conversation now turns to "stand-ability." Will the corn be all right long enough to harvest without large losses? The feeling was a little different with beans. The people I've talked to put beans in later than they would have liked and aren't as optimistic as they are about corn. I'm sure you noticed I didn't speak in absolutes in the last few sentences. As an Iowan, my entire life (even when I was living somewhere else), I know there is always some part of the state, or some group of farmers experiencing the exact opposite as the majority. I am in no way trying to speak in absolutes here, as I know there are none.

Second, when you get high temperatures like this, everyone just gets a little edgy. You see it in the way people drive. You can tell it in the way team members interact with each other. "Iowa Nice" has just a little more of an edge than it usually does. I work every day with people doing very physical work, almost completely in the weather - either the hot of summer, or the bitter cold of winter. The heat of summer is the time of the year that gets to them the most. Things that wouldn't even be bothered with the rest of the year are BIG and need to be fixed right now. The depths of the summer are the times we have to take the most care of others as everyone is at the end of their rope.

Third, and this is my favorite, people talk about how severe the winter will be. Some believe a severe summer means you will have a equally severe, or worse winter. Some believe if you survive the heat of a really wicked summer, you will be rewarded with a moderate winter. In the middle of nearly every conversation, out comes predictions from the Farmer's Almanac - the true go-to for everything weather and planting related for the agricultural community.

IT only takes a few moments looking at "The Old Farmer's Almanac" https://www.almanac.com/, and we discover the word is, our first frost in this area should be around October 8 and the winter will be the mild side. One interesting note: I've already had people tell me they  read the Almanac and it calls for a very cold winter. Are there multiple Farmer's Almanacs?

With all of this said and thought about, the greatest thing right now is that today we are in one of the two perfect weather patterns the State of Iowa has to offer. Of course that's a completely personal, subjective opinion. Weather like we're having right now - with highs in the seventies and lows in the forties is just great. It offers the best. The good days are bright, clear and comfortable, and the nights are perfect for sleeping. The only way to improve it would be an early frost to take all of the allergens, pollen, and mosquitoes away. October 8th isn't very far away, so maybe it's right around the corner. We'll have to wait and see.

Things in the Toybox have been busy. I am working to finish another library space here in Des Moines, working with a person I have worked on in the past to do this type of work. This time we are doing twenty four feet of shelving, each section with five shelves. It should work great. Then I need to finish a project I am working on for YESS and finish the Arts and Crafts inspired bed frame I built for my daughter. At that point, I will try to get back to the Teardrop trailer as I need to move that project forward.

I hope all things are good with each of you. Enjoy the fall, winter is coming.

Buy Once

Well, I am facing a bit of a crisis at the Toybox. For ten to fifteen years now I have watched computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment push from the large commercial shops into the smaller home and hobbyist shops. When I first started looking at this type of equipment, the Epilogue lasers were my top choice. This equipment used a laser to either cut out or etch product. You could use them to do laser engraving to decorate projects, or use them to cut through some material. I was absolutely hooked, but the better part of $20,000 would need to be laid out to purchase this kind of equipment. I figured that the thing to do was wait and let the price come down. In the years since I saw the first one, the capabilities have increased exponentially, and the price has come down by about half.

So, while I was biding my time, along came 3D printers. Early on, I told friends that I believed this would be one of the most disruptive technologies we could see in our lifetime. The time will come when rather than going through the manufacturing processes that we have all known, an item will just be loaded into a printer and appear before us. I actually talked about this in another post here. For a while, I paid a great deal of attention to where these were going, at one point even discussing with Andrew that we should buy one together. Again however, I figured that with time would come more capability and lower price. That is exactly what has happened.

Then, the final straw. In all of the time that I worked in the industrial sheetgoods and hardwood business, one of the things that I just loved was watching a CNC router cut parts out with an accuracy that would be almost impossible to duplicate with traditional woodworking techniques. Between the software that drives these machines and the way the cutting works, parts are virtually perfect and duplicate parts are exact. I was always fascinated but never really thought about it, as this type of equipment is tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and need to be used continuously to make the economics of the purchase make sense. Until now. At this point, it is possible to get a shop-sized CNC router for under $2,000. One that I have seen is available for around $500.

So you ask, what is the crisis?  Most of it comes from experience and listening to others that I respect in woodworking and other crafts. The first table saw that I bought was used and I gave $400 for it. I used that Delta Contractor saw for over twenty years, moving it at least seven times. It was a good piece of equipment and I built several very nice projects with it. A little over a year ago, I bought a new table saw, and paid nearly six times as much. I would not tell you that it is six times as good a saw, but I would tell you that it is three or four times as good. The accuracy and the manner that you can repeat the same setup with accuracy is incredible. It is an amazing addition to my shop. Thanks to the people at Powermatic. If I could have done it all over, I would have bought the saw that I now have the first time. As Alec Steele says in his vlog, "Buy once, Cry once." What he means is that you should buy the absolute best equipment that you can the first time. You will be happy and your work will be better.

So, still getting to the crisis, right?  Now that CNC routers have gotten down to the place that I can afford to add one to the shop, I am second guessing myself. Should I figure out how to invest more money and buy better equipment right off the bat? I am supremely conflicted. I know that I will add this capability to the shop and it will allow me to add new dimensions to my woodworking. But am I looking at buying something that even though it is in the several thousand dollar range is too low in its quality and capabilities. Should I just suck it up and find more to invest in a better piece of equipment, or bring this in as a way to get to know what is possible?

I'm pretty sure that Alec would tell me to get better equipment, but those of you that know me the best know that I'm a little tight with money, so... there's my crisis. It will be interesting to watch this one play out. I have no idea what will happen.

On a side note, I have been tasked again with a couple of projects for kids' shelters here in the community. I am always so glad that I can be helpful in making it better for children and young adults who really need a little extra help. I will keep you posted as this goes. Hope that all is great with each of you and that you are working on all of the things that bring you joy.

Have a great week.

Out Back

In an average week, I think we often deal with things that could be called double-edged swords. These are of course the things that could either be good or bad; positive or negative.  I've had a couple of conversations lately that have really reinforced this around the openness and honesty that people use in their day to day conversation.

A couple of months ago, Sara decided she wanted to do something with the patio behind our house. She got an estimate for concrete work from a contractor that was working in the area. When we talked about the work and the amount of the estimate, we decided to look for another option. I know a gentleman who has done concrete work for my company for decades. His work is always top notch, and the fact that I've seen the way that his work stands up over the years told me that he is someone I'd be glad to have do work for us.

With that in mind, I called him. The project wasn't a big deal, only a yard or so of concrete. It's the kind of job that if you know what you were doing, there's an opportunity to make a little quick cash. 

When we finished catching up, and then talked about everything, he said, "Well Jim, you lost me at Out Back."

I'd told him that the work was "out back," behind our townhouse. He explained that he had decided somewhere along the line to be semi-retired and didn't take jobs any longer that involved moving concrete further than the truck could take care of it.

I have to tell you, I have never been rejected and felt better about it. I appreciated the fact that he was just honest and straightforward and told me how things were from his perspective. He could have gone the other way, told me a little story, or led me on with the idea that maybe he could get to it but that he was really busy, but he did none of this. He just told me the facts, from his perspective. I liked that approach.

Now fast forward to this week. I've had the opportunity to see both approaches to this kind of situation. The first is just wonderful. I called a company that repairs RVs as I need to get some work done. He was delightful, very nice, and explained to me that with the number of campers and RVs at the State Fair right now, this was his "Black Friday." As much as he would like to help me, unless I was on the State Fair grounds, there was no way he had time to get at the work I needed done. He also told me that he'd love to take care of the issue, and that if I could wait until after the fair was over, he'd be more than happy to come and take a look. I came off the phone call laughing, so appreciative of the honest, straightforward approach that he took. And heck, I can appreciate that when you are in the middle of whatever is your BIG time of the year, you take advantage of it.

Now, contrast that with another example from this week. 

I've been trying to get someone to look at an alarm system for a month now. The alarm has been going off intermittently, of course, most often in the middle of the night. I believed that I had scheduled someone to come out and look at this two or three times already, each time with nobody coming or calling. So, yesterday, I nailed down a plan whereby I would make sure to be in the office instead of out and about, and agreed to meet the service tech at eight o'clock in the morning. That time came and went. An hour and a half later, I called to see what was going on. I was met with a surprised response. The person I was talking to thought that the tech had already been there. Interestingly enough, a few minutes later someone showed up. They took a look at my system and declared that I had suffered a lightning strike and they would have to order a new board. As an interesting aside, I had been told weeks ago that they could see in the system that this is what had happened and they would need to order a new board.  I thought that today was the day that this would be installed, but instead today was just the day to look at it and make sure the right thing was ordered. Apparently there were a many examples of double meaning words in this whole conversation.

I prefer landing on the side of that double-edged sword that deals with honesty and openness. It's so much easier to have respect for the person you're dealing with.

On a final note, those of you that are heading for the Iowa State Fair, have a blast.  It looks as thought there are a lot of really great things going on there, and of course, the food is not to even be believed.  Gather friends, eat, drink, and have fun.