New Appreciation for groups!

After working to garner some interest in starting a wood working group(s) in the area I have a new appreciation of what others have done to start the various groups I have been a member of over the years.

All of those I helped with one way or another. Either by doing demos, helping with fundraisers, or just helping to recruit members and generally help run them. With all of them though, they were already “groups” by the time I joined. Some bigger and more active than others, but all of them had been going for several years.

Many people here have expressed interest in being a member of a group should I get one going, but no one has offered to help get one started, or put up a location to get them recognized in the community.

The local Arts Center has offered up their studio space for Tuesday evenings from March to June for us to hold a carving group and I’ll be putting out word on that shortly.

Not one to give up easily, perhaps even when I should, I have decided to go a different direction. I’m going to start doing a meeting with just a couple other people (family members) and put out notice that we are meeting at X time at Y location and see if anyone shows up.

If enough people show up, we can discuss which way we want to go. If it stays just two or three of us, that’s ok too, it simply means less opinions need to be heard when we move forward.

In the end, like most other things, it’s going to be a group effort to make this a true “group” and it is a relief to know that it’s out of my direct control and a true community effort.

In the future I either will be reporting on how there is now a Carving, turning, or flat wood working group(s) in town, or there isn’t. 

Welcome to Home ownership!

Well, it’s been a fun few weeks. We moved in the end of January, Thanks to all those that came and helped us! It is nice to have all our stuff in “our” house, but it will be weeks if not months before we have everything put away. We Are gaining though, a little here and a little there when we are not working.

The doggy door is now installed making JJ a “happy dog” that can come and go as he pleases. That makes us happy as well, we no longer have to get up to let him in and out and I won’t have to stop working and go upstairs to do the same during working hours.

The funny event so far, well funny to us, perhaps not so much for the furnace guy. Our furnace stopped working a week after the furnace guy had been here to talk to us about a gas line that goes through the air intake duct. (its fine). We called him again and he was here the next day. After he and his apprentice worked on the furnace for over two hours he declared it a bad circuit board and ordered in a new one. Since we had a portable propane heated and the weather was not too cold we made due for the two days it took to get the part. He showed up with the part, changed it out, but the furnace failed to come on as he expected. Again he worked on it for a couple hours and managed to get it to work. Well, for a few hours at least. I called him again that afternoon and he told me he would warrantee the board and have a new one again in two more days.

True to his word, he showed up on the morning of the second day with the new board and was on hold with the furnace company. One of the first things he told me is that in the middle of the night he had woken up with an idea that the problem might not be the board. He proceeded to check out a pressure switch (one of two) and found that it was not wired correctly. Apparently in the past someone had worked on the furnace and rather than fix the problem had simply bypassed one of the switches. He hooked them up the way they should have been, cleaned a bit of moisture out of lines and the furnace fired up just like it was supposed to do…. An hour later he had the original board back in place and the furnace was still working like it is supposed to… When I tried to at least pay him for his time! When I pressed him he said it was a “learning experience” for him and not my fault he couldn't find the problem to start with.

One thing is certain, I will be recommending him to anyone in the area that needs furnace work done!