The wheels go round and round

            For a long time I have heard the saying: if you want something done, give the task to a busy person. It seems that I am that “busy” person!

            I’m behind in my blogging, but have more stuff listed on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RockRabbitEnterprise and have gotten a fair amount of feedback and will be making new projects in the near future based on that feedback. Look for more toys, both the durable, “play with them every day”, kind and the higher end, “looks good on dad’s bookshelf” version.

            Currently I’m working pretty much full time on the Toys for Tots toys so they will be done before I have to be in the field doing archaeology. (assuming I find a Job doing archaeology that is). A friend of a friend, soon to be my friend I’m sure, has volunteered to take over building the block truck so that takes some of the load off me. I have most of the parts cut for the doll cradle and the bulldozer. The parts for the tool box I’ll cut today and the tools for the tool box are an on-going process as I get scraps to cut them from.

            The job I was working on last fall has been shut down again so it is not looking like I will be going back to NE Montana in the spring to work there. I am in contact with the Portland Oregon office of the same company but currently there is no work there either. Time will tell.

            Next week is training in Salem OR so I will be a qualified “consultant” for ODOT projects. That should give me one more tool that I can use to get a job as an archaeologist in Oregon. If the economy will just improve a bit more I think that might happen.

            The trip will also allow us to visit with my sister who has had some health issues lately and to see Lynn’s dad while he is in the hospital to have one of his recently replaced knee joints replaced again. There was some kind of issue with the joint and they are having to put in a different one.

            With so much into such a short time we will not be able to visit with everyone we want to, but will try to at least touch bases with everyone we can while we are down there. If we are not able to visit with you, please do not take it personally, there are too many of you and too little time!

            As one last item of interest…. Why didn’t someone tell me that Pinterest was such an addictive thing? Please to take a look at some of my board there and share or re-pin some of my stuff on one of your boards. http://www.pinterest.com/llamanter/

Updated site & Toys for Tots.

            It’s been a fun week, depending on how you define fun of course. The Etsy site https://www.etsy.com/shop/RockRabbitEnterprise now has over 50 items listed and I continue to add a few more each day if possible. I have a few more of the mid size bowls to list and then I’m moving on to the bread troughs. Mostly made out of Walnut but there is one made from Russian Olive. Once those are up it only leaves a few of the individual pieces.

            Yesterday I spent the whole day doing cradles for the Toys for Tots program. I have enough sides cut out and trimmed to size for 50 doll cradles and 45 of the rockers. I’ll cut the rest of the rockers from scraps that are left from making the 25 tool boxes or the 25 block trucks. The 15 bulldozers don’t take much 1” materials so they won’t have enough scrap left to make the rockers. For those that have not seen them before I’ll post photos of each toy below. Last year the Toys for Tots program had over 1,800 families come though and they gave out just over 9,000 toys. Only a small percentage of those were wooden thank goodness! Our group of 5 guys made right around 500 toys and there were airplanes and helicopters made by a couple of local high school. I don’t know how many. One branch of the local hardware store, Western Building Center, made a big batch of rocking horses. The rest of the toys were those donated by kind people from all over the area and gathered up by the Marine Corp (active and retired) here in the Flathead Valley.

            Should anyone in the area want to stop by and help me make toys, just let me know. I’ll find something that needs done to put you to doing! Did I mention that I took over the coordinating of our group of 5 for the Toys for Tots? It’s now up to me to make sure everyone gets the materials they need and get the toys made on time to deliver by the end of November? The man that was doing it just turned 86 and decided that he was ready to slow down just a Bit he said.

            Anyway, here are photos of the stuff I’m making, I need to get back down to the shop and get to making them! 

Direction!

            Well, for good or bad, I have decided on a direction for my business. Forward! Ok okay, I know that’s more than a bit cliché’ but it was either go forward or Stop. This seems like the better choice.

            The task over the next couple of days is to organize my shelves of turned and carved items. I’m finding that I have far more bowls than I thought I had and not at many plates or boxes. Once I have them organized, I’ll make up listing sheets for each item and then make sure I have photos before listing them on my Etsy site. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RockRabbitEnterprise

            I’ll also put notice out via email and twitter https://twitter.com/RockRabbitEnt

And ‘pin’ them to the board “my stuff” on Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com/llamanter/

            After a conversation a few days ago with a nice couple that sell their stuff on Ebay, I decided that my lack of sales was not because I was not making a quality product, but because I was not pushing my sites enough and not getting word out to the right people. With your help I’ll be able to reach more people and then if they spread the word as well, even More people. Word of mouth is the best system I have available to me at this time so Please help me spread the word to the sites above and to my new website as well. http://rockrabbits.wix.com/rockrabbit

            Then just because I think it helps to have some visual aids in all this, here are some photos of my work to help inspire you to help me spread the word.