The #OldManInTheWoods has a new hobby/past-time/obsession. When I was still working but planning for retirement, I envisioned how I would spend my time. I assumed I would continue programming, building database systems, and Excel spreadsheets as I had during my 13 years of consulting. I had even developed a business plan in my head. I would offer my services remotely (no travel!!). If the client was a non-profit, they would get a 50% discount, and any work for a church would be free. Most importantly, I would limit myself to no more than 2-3 days per week. We’ll…turns out that last “retirement rule” would be no problem!
IIf you’re curious about the one project I did in retirement you can read about it here.
I finally retired in July 2019 and #ShoppingBeauty took us on a magical trip up the Rhône river in France. Then it was hunting season (don’t let work get in the way) and the holidays. Before you know it, it’s 2020 and we all know what happened then – the world shut down. Oh well, maybe we’ll start the mini-consulting business after the “2 weeks to slow the spread”. By the time the world woke up, the #OldManInTheWoods had moved on!
What’s with that ball?
I don’t know how you coped with the lockdowns but one thing I did was walk. Nearly every day! One day I was out on one of my favorite routes and noticed this group of people banging what looked like a whiffle ball on the tennis court!?! I stopped to watch and learned that Pickleball was “the fastest-growing sport in the country”. They seemed like a happy group and they weren’t afraid to be together outside. Before long, I had bought a paddle and was playing regularly. I’m sure you know about pickleball and how it’s taken off since then, with tournaments all around the country and professional leagues.
I enjoyed playing, but soon the courts became crowded and people were really getting competitive. The fun moved in inverse proportion to the crowd size/competition focus for me, so I pretty much quit until we found a new group at the lake that was more fun to be around.
But… pickleball is not the focus of this story. I was cruising YouTube (something else people did a lot of during the China Flu shutdown) one day and discovered this guy who carved signs freehand using a router. I was intrigued and watched another episode and another. Before long I bought a carving bit and some letter templates to try my hand. I’m not an artist, but this process uses a template to layout the artwork and lettering and you just carve out the piece.
Here is an example of one of my early attempts. The sign is a cedar fence picket cut in the shape of a boat paddle. I used letter templates to lay out the wording and downloaded a map of the lake that I sized and glued onto the board. Then I just carved the lake outline through the paper and peeled the paper off. If you look veeerrrry closely you’ll see we still had water in the lake. This year has been dry – we have a beach instead. I’m always reminded of one of my father-in-law’s favorite sayings about the lake. “You know it’s a good year if you can get your boat out after the 4th of July.” We were able to this year, but not much. Still a good year, Dad
Most of my carving has used fence pickets. I’m sure you’re aware of what inflation and the China Flu did to lumber prices, but fence pickets have stayed pretty reasonable and they’re easy enough to work with. The biggest problem I have is finding nice-looking wood. They can be pretty rough and knots will wreak havoc with the router. So, it’s just a matter of spending time in the store and sorting through the ragged pieces to find something that looks good. Looking back at the boat paddle, I like how the knot near the handle and the grain pattern below the knot gives the piece character. I wish I could say I planned that but hey, the #OldManInTheWoods will take a stroke of good luck when it comes.
The Old Man at the Arboretum
I think I mentioned previously that #ShoppingBeauty and I volunteer at the Longview Arboretum. She is a much more dedicated volunteer so is often up there without me. One day she told the director that I had taken up woodworking – you see where this is going, right? This actually led to a couple of interesting projects. The first is a bookshelf made from a jonboat. Wait…what?!? Here is the result. It was interesting in that the boat is leaning up against the wall, so to keep the shelves level, I had to match the tilt angle from the boat transom. It’s still there today, so I guess we can call this a win. The next project was a little simpler. It’s called a finger labyrinth. The idea is that you start at the outer entry point and trace your finger to the center – it’s some form of meditation or relaxation. This was another example of free-hand routing using a pattern downloaded and glued to the top of a slice from a pine tree. I’ve adapted this idea to create an outdoor tic-tac-toe game for my grandkids
YAS – Yet Another Sign
I’ve done a few more signs as gifts for friends and (finally) got a commission. I started doing welcome signs that lean on your front porch. The first I did for our house. That led to another for a friend’s birthday. Each of these had a little different artwork on them. This fall #ShoppingBeauty had a big high school reunion so I did a welcome sign that incorporated the rocking L logo for them to use as part of the decoration. Someone saw this sign and offered to pay for one for their house – what could I say? Sure!
I thought I’d try something new with this post – imbedded YouTube video. I guess an old dog can still learn a trick.
So… now that the #OldManInTheWoods is a professional, what should I do next? Ah… well that is a story for another day