Mon 19 Jul 2010
Determination.
Posted by kenneth under Musings, Projects, Uncategorized
[10] Comments
Life has really gotten in the way of woodworking in the last month, but will give way to much more woodworking in the coming months. I suddenly find myself with some temporary “shop” space (a small room), no car, and some energy/creativity/angst/brain juice to burn. As you may have noticed by now, no obstacle is too great for me when I am determined.
Today marked my first trip to my hardwood dealer to get stock for small projects that will help to keep me occupied as I gear up to finally tackle my tool cabinet project. The good news is that I will also be networked in my “shop” and will be streaming my progress, if anyone’s interested. I’ll set up a link here in case anyone wants to pop in.
Back to the quickie, an example of determination follows: If you suddenly find yourself without a car, without a real shop, without a pep squad, and with a deep need to make some stuff, what do you do? Do you give up and sit around and watch TV? Do you complain that it’s too much trouble? Do you *assume* that it’s too much trouble? Or do you cowboy up and make it happen? I generally choose to cowboy up.
Here I am getting ready to hop on my bike to go get some walnut, complete with a ryoba sticking out of my bike courier bag. I call this “urban samurai woodworker.”
I managed to get 10′ of rough-cut walnut back home on my bike:
Incidentally, the walnut is for some small speaker stands, which may or may not double as floor lamps. Maybe there’s another post in that, but I’m still tinkering.
The point is: soldier on, friends. Life is unpredictable. Find your center, find your way, and don’t let anyone or anything get in your way.
Side note: I got a chance to use The Woodshop Widget for the first time at the hardwood dealer where I was originally inspired to build it, and it was pretty awesome…
I love the attitude. If life gives us lemons, make a lemon holding device out of some nice walnut.
I look forward to watching your progress.
That’s the spirit! I would (wood? ha!) expect nothing less from you!
You might want to look into zipcar if you’ve got that around you. They’ve got trucks and stuff. Though I didn’t have a car for the longest time, I have to admit that it has helped a lot when getting wood. Come to think of it, though, I didn’t need it to get quite a bit of my current inventory. A big chunk of that came via a fellow BAG’s truck, and the other bits I got Dumpster diving.
Power on, my friend. I’m glad to hear you’re keeping the wood work going though the distraction of life. I could stand to do more of that myself these days.
Please enjoy the walnut.
Thanks Brian. I actually signed up for Zipcar today.
Thanks Dyami.
I have a lot of sharpening to do, then I’m off to the races.
Very cool post, and I LOVE that you’re picking up material on your bike! That’s awesome.
Urban Samurai is a term that needs developed further, so the more you can ride around with a Japanese saw sticking out of your pack, the better.
Thanks Adam.
I’ll most likely be adapting my home in unorthodox ways to make my woodworking work in better ways, so I’m sure there will be more term coinage to come.
Kenneth,
I’m really late to this post but I love it. Carrying home wood on your bike is brilliant. I think your situation with little to no shop space and no transportation just screams for a reason to use hand tools. I’m working on some videos about minimalist hand tool woodworking for this exact reason. I think we have come to feel we need a tool for every little process and if we don’t have that tool then we can’t work. Your attitude is a great one!
Thanks Shannon. I think we’ve long forgotten what determination really means, and one of the results has been specialized tools and even more manufacturing… People got along with a few saws, a few planes and some sweat for quite a long time. Of course, it doesn’t take as much sweat these days, but the gray area is quite wide! Best of luck with those videos.