The New Digs

No, you don't want to do it. There just ain't much fun in moving a workshop. While I kept reminding myself that I have very few tools compared to a "power" woodworker, it was still difficult to see all of my tools go into travel mode. But as Helen Keller said "Life is either a daring adventure, or it's nothing at all".

This is what it looked like when they all landed in my new shop. The space is actually larger than my shop in NY, with a full second story for storage. I had to take a deep breath and shut the door to go help Sue to get the house in order first, but on day 2, I was able to sneak out and bring some order to the chaos.

This move has been a wonderful reminder of what is truly important to me. I have my family, my animals, my shop and all the experience (read mistakes) that I've had as a woodworker. As the dust from the move settles, I am chomping at the bit to get in there an make some shavings.

Here is the lathe room. I am very excited to have a separate space for this notorious mess maker. It's an old horse stall complete with the horses names on the door.

This shows the proximity to the benchroom. And right off the back of the shop is the chicken coop and goat loafing shed. I'm not one for omens, but finding a place in a single morning that we could rent that had all these amenities sure seemed like we were being called here. The place even came with 5 more chickens. Here is the rooster up high checking me out. I went in yesterday to pull out a dozen brown and green eggs!

Thanks to everyone who has written and called to show support and offer help. This transition has been challenging to say the least, but now that we've made it, I'm just plain excited for the potential here. Next week I'll be preparing to go to Kelly Mehler's in Kentucky. Kelly runs a top notch program and frankly, two weeks of chairmaking sounds pretty good to me.