Good and bad.

Boy oh boy,

Has it really been since April 27 that I have been here? No wonder the Artist has been asking me to write something.

I wish I could give the excuses that I have been gone on fishing opener, or that the Artist and I went on our every 3^rd weekend in May long weekend camping get-away. Well sadly, neither of those happened. We have said many times that this blog is an insight to a small business with all of the good and the bad. …

The good always goes with the bad. Maybe I shouldn’t call them good and bad. Maybe they should just be called…that’s the way it is. When you work for yourself, you never take any work for granted. When it is there, you, or at least I, have a very hard time leaving it. When the work is not there, I never want to spend the money on fun. It’s a quandary. When you are busy, you have no time, when you are not busy, you don’t want to spend the money.

I also feel a strong commitment to my customers once we sign the contract. Yes I know we have talked schedules by now, and I know everyone knows that their job is serviced on first come first served basis, with of course the usual cross overs. It is almost impossible to start a job and finish it complete without have a couple others overlapping each other. I have talked before about the balancing act of scheduling subs, missing time because of weather, changing schedules to accommodate employee vacations, time off, sick time etc. It is always very fluid, and sometimes challenging, but it always works out. I seem to enjoy the challenge of it all. If I wanted consistency, I would have chosen a different occupation.

Ships Ladder thoughts.

What a fun job. It was some long days in the shop, and some really long days at the cabin during the install, but all very rewarding. The only thing I will miss is the owners’ expression on their face when they actually see it for the first time in person.

I will put this job in probably my top three I have ever done as far as creativity, and the craft of woodworking. Years ago I built a redwood pergola that needed bent wood. We laminated many thin pieces together and bent them around custom made bending forms. Another job was custom cabinet work for a retail store that also needed a lot of bent wood, curved frames, curved glass, a real custom job.

The ships ladder and railing required us to build a very unique ladder and handrail system. Unique in the fact that every piece was made in our shop. Nothing was purchased or ordered. It all started with a pile of almost 300 board feet of gnarly splintery rough grade hickory in the back of my truck. Many hours later it became what you can see on our Facebook album showing the completed job. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.666375013449681.1073741903.342655239154995&type=3

Very very rewarding.

~The Carpenter