The year in review

            While it’s a cliché’ I know, I also know it’s pretty easy to be focused on the bad things in your life. The things that you perceive as preventing you from going the direct you desire or think you should be going.

            As a way to prevent that I have spent the morning thinking about all the things that have went my way this year. The things that show that my life is pretty great and that while I may not have reached the goals that I put in my sights, I am still doing pretty good.

            My shop may not be the giant space I would like, it’s far better than some of the shop spaces I have had in the past. In Anchorage I had a 10x12 storage shed out back, no heat, etc… I put up plastic sheeting on the walls in the dining room space and used a shop vacuum to keep the dust down and turned there. Not ideal, but it does make the heated space I have in my shop now seem a lot better when used as a reference.

            Now every time I think to myself that I could sure use X or Y tool, I look around at all the tools there and remember that many others are coming to my shop to use my tools, and that I have been told I must have every tool already…  (I don’t, but I can get things done).

            My wood working business has not taken off in the manner I wish it would, but it has grown considerably over the last year. Much of the issue I know is from my lack of pushing my work. From my own slacking on pushing my work and then after that, pushing it even more.

            I know that if I don’t sell my stuff, than I can’t expect anyone else to do so.  To that end, next year, well starting Now, I will be pushing my own stuff more, to a variety of places and working on stock piling product of a variety of types to show that I am serious about making this work and become profitable. 

Found history, not written history.

We all know historic archaeology is just about validating the documented history of the American west, or do we? The important things that happened in history are all written about, but almost always that is just the highlights, the important moments in time.

Seldom are those important times what life was really about. Those are just the short blips of time that happened between the long periods of simply living. The day-to-day aspects of what was required to be alive when those important events happened.

 The reality is that when we do an archaeological dig, we are far more likely to find the items of everyday life than the items used during that short period of excitement. All those items were noted for their importance and picked up at the time. What is more likely to be left behind are the items considered mundane at the time. The trick is that those items may not be mundane now. Depending on what the location was, what trade the person may have been engaged in, etc…, those mundane items will vary, but always give us more info about what happened on the site.

Think of the stereotypical photo of the “prospector” you see in all the Western movies. Name off as many of those items as you can… Great, now did you list a pocket knife? How about a fixed blade belt knife? How about a salt dish? How about a spatula? Or a Spoon, fork, bread pans, the staples of life? All the items that once you think about your own life, know that the prospector had with him, but are seldom if ever listed as items that would be found at a site.

And don’t forget about the many items that were easily procured at the local hardware store, but became very precious the farther one went from civilization: Nails, hammers, pliers, files, copper rivets, even thread and needles.

If we compare the list of items sold in a general store to the list of items that prospector is said to have, you will see a lot of missing items on the second list. It’s not that the prospector didn’t have or use those items; it’s just that those items were considered mundane at the time and unworthy of being written down. Those same items though tell us a considerable amount about the prospector. How long he might have been planning on staying (10 lbs worth of nails verses a hand full), his financial status when he set out (new knives verses well worn knives), what his drink  preferences were (lots of whiskey versus bottles for root beer), the list is long.

The size of pans could tell us if it was a single person, a small group, or an organized party with a designated cook making food for many.

So, while the “important” items might make the history books, it’s the everyday items that will tell us about who the person (people) were at any given site. 

Rehash

 I know my readers have been here before. I know because I have, and yet the solution has yet to make itself known to me…

Few artists are good at promoting, and even fewer are good at self-promotion. I fall into that category. What needs to be done to sell more of my wood working, well more of it must be presented to those that would purchase said wood work. Best way to do that, well that is a good question. A web site is one option, but a web site is only as good as the person promoting it and keeping it up to date. The same goes for other sites, Etsy, EBay, etc., they all require time spent getting items listed and following up on those listings. Like most artists, I’d rather be making items than selling items.

Where is this leading you asked? Well, I’m on the idea that there must be a better way to make this happen. I’m a small time artist so most professional promoters are not interested, there simply is not enough money in it for them. However, if I can round up enough other artists perhaps we as a unit can make it worth the person’s time and effort?

So, this is a call to all my artist friends who would like to possibly join forces. I’m not sure how much it will cost each artist, if the cost is a percentage of sales or a certain fee per month; I need to have a few people on board first to get that information. Nothing will be set until all the details are worked out of course.

If you have an interest, please let me know and we can go forward with finding a promoter and get some details on the cost and type of payment. 

Importance

            We have all heard it, most have at one time or another thought about it… what is important in our lives. I know I know, somewhat cliché, but so be it, I’m still going to ramble on about it

.

            My wood working tends to happen in spurts. Some months it’s the main thing I do in my off time. Than all of a sudden I realize I have not been in the shop for a month or more. There are many factors in that, temperature, other things I’m doing, calls for my time from other people or for other projects, the list in long and varied as I’m sure yours is as well.

            What it really comes down to is how much priority or how important a project is or how important we think the time is spent in the shop. If it’s not thought of as important, we won’t do it… now that word could mean a lot of different things to different people.

            Is it important because someone wants one? Or important because it’s time spent relaxing? How about because there is an order, or it’s to replace an item that sold in a shop? It could be important for a lot of reason to many different people. The one that matter though is the one that gets you out into the shop in the first place.

            For instance, it’s very important that I get in the shop today, right after the wash is done and the lawn is mown, oh, and the hand rail at my niece’s house is re-welded… importance also has to sometimes take a back seat to things that need to happen Now.

            In the end though, what’s truly important is that you are spending time with loved ones, and enjoying life. If you are not doing that then your priorities are all messed up anyway! 

Promote, Promote, PROMOTE!

As you, my faithful readers know, I have two “at home” businesses that I’m trying to turn into something that makes something in the resemblance of an income. While one really Needs to do so, and I’m gaining, the other is more of a hobby status right now.

Everyone that I talk to about this, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the Service Corp of Retired Business Executives (SCORE) says it’s is simply a matter of greater promotion, more advertising, getting my businesses Know and my product in front of people. Simple to say, not so easy to do I’m finding. I do have a meeting next week with the SBDC to work on it in greater detail. It’s a slow process it seems when I am not a slow process personality.

 To that end, I’m back to doing more blog posts, getting photos of my product up in a regular basis, and doing as much promotion as I can, with little to no budget. So, that brings me to how to do that… for now, it has to be word-0f-mouth… a.k.a., YOU!

So my friends, would you please help me with this? All I ask is that you share my blog posts, my posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram… If you have accounts on those and I am not following you, please let me know, I’ll change that Now. If you know of any online stores that might be better than Etsy, let me know. I’ll check them out. I’m finding that it takes a ton of inventory to sell in more than one place and am working on correcting that as well. If you know of someone that has mentioned having something specific built/ made, give them my contact info, I can do a lot of different projects.

Thank you for your time and, please, share my info far and wide, as often as you can!

The latest batch of darning eggs for my fiber arts customers.

A cedar post vase, with glass tube so you can add water, it's more than just a bud vase.

A few of my tea light center pieces. Making up your table for a holiday or just family dinner, these add that touch of class you need to make it a Wow event. 

Early morning memories

 Let me lead with this. I know that each of us deals with death and memories in our own way, we each have our own cycles of up and down, yin and yang; however you care to word how our feelings manifest themselves in our conscious minds and our daily lives.

Today at some early hour of the morning I awoke with the thoughts that I had forgotten what day Joe had died on. Now I know there are others that can tell you the exact time a loved one died. I, for whatever reason, can’t seem to keep even the day of Joe’s death in my mind. I have to look it up almost every time.

Giving in to the random and ever increasing urgency of my thoughts this morning I had to come downstairs and start writing about those bits and pieces of memories, or lack thereof, to get my mind to slow down. Of course I had to look up the day of Joe’s death in our book about him. March 8^th, 2013. For some reason I seem to be more in tune with his birthday which was April 11, 1989.

Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that I’m terrible about remembering birthdays. The boys learned early on to give me ‘reminders’ of their birthday starting months ahead of time or I would forget. Anytime there was a need to write their birthdays down on paperwork I would have to ask them. It wasn’t that I didn’t know the dates; it was that I was a likely to put the wrong child with the right date more often than not. It’s not that I don’t think they are important, I know they are, I understand that birthdays are very important to kids. It’s just that I guess since my own birthday is the day after Christmas that I have accepted the idea of birthdays being less important than other days? I don’t know, and that’s not an excuse, it’s me trying to understand why I seem to have a hard time remembering birthdays when I can recall phone numbers and addresses from Years ago…   

Now what does this have to do with my waking up this morning and the reason for this rambling order of words? I am not sure, blame it on early morning thoughts, recovering from the flu, you choose a rationale. For myself, I think I’ll just call it part of the whole healing process that comes from losing a child at the prime of his life. That should not happen to any parent. To the two people still reading after all this, I hope it never happens to you, and if it has, I’m truly sorry for your loss.

The death of a child brings up doubts of your parenting skills, bring up all of the memories of what you could have done differently, what you are sure led to the path your child was on (good or bad, and face it, we only take credit for the bad most of the time), and what you would give up to have your child back. It will make you regret all the time you could have taken them fishing, hunting, bike riding, whatever it was that they and you wanted to do together but put off because there was not enough time or enough money, whatever the excuse at the time.

Hum, it just occurred to me that I now use Joe’s death as an excuse to not do some of those things. Because I put off doing them with Joe I now put off doing them because he is not here to go with me. Does that make sense, no it does not, even to me in my current memory filled, rambling, crying state… but I can see that it has and is happening.

I guess that’s all a part continuing on with life after such a loss? I don’t know, I’ve never lost a child before but know I felt similar things after each of my parents died. Why is it that we miss doing things with them that we didn’t even like doing? Is it just the interaction with them that we miss or the nearness, or just having them in our lives instead of our memories?

If anyone is still reading this, I sincerely thank you for the taking of your precious time, but Please, call your child (children) and go spend time with them. It does not matter what you do, just enjoy their presence while you can because you never know when they won’t be there. 

Truth: Or who wants to hear it.

While I can’t say I never lie, most of the time what gets me in trouble is that I tell the truth. Yes, you are reading that right, more people get upset with me because I tell them my honest opinion rather than what they want to hear.

Women in my family no longer ask me if I like their new hair, or if their behind looks big in a given outfit, they have learned they might not like what I have to say. After all, they are asking my opinion, not about facts.

I have always felt that if you are asking my opinion I should give you “my” opinion, not the opinion I think you want to hear. If you want to hear what you want to hear you better tell me in advance.

I guess to be truthful what gets me in trouble is not giving my opinion when asked, but rather giving my opinion when people simply make a comment, but don’t really ask for an opinion. Now this might just be a comment about something as subjective as Ford is the best truck out there, or Harley Davidson’s are the Only motorcycle worth riding, but they are not asking me what I think, they are telling me their own opinion. Where the rub comes is when I call them on that opinion. Ask for more details: Which model and year of Ford pickup, only motorcycle worth riding on the road? In the dirt, where?

It seems that some people take offence at being asked to validate their opinion. I don’t do it to pick on them personally, but rather more in a fact gathering effort. Why do they think that, what specifically is it about X or Y that makes it the best? What sets it apart from others in their eyes? I attribute it to my being what my wife calls “a data dump.” I’m never happy with just accepting something at face value; I need to know why they think that, what makes something better in their eyes?

Now generally I have a few facts to back up my opinion, and if they have their own facts we can have an interesting conversation, perhaps even a debate. So long as tempers are kept in check we all walk away a bit better educated about what makes the other person tick. Of course, some days I just am feeling a bit ornery and I’ll voice a counter opinion just to get the other person fired up. I know I shouldn’t I know it might make them mad at me, but it will also get us both to thinking about why we have those opinions. I used to think perhaps I could change someone’s mind; I have long since given up on that. While it does occasionally happen, it’s far from the norm. But like I said, if it gets us both thinking, so much the better.

So, if some time in the future I make a comment on something you have said, don’t think that I’m trying to say you are wrong [if I think that I’ll tell you ;-)], I am just trying to get you to engage in conversation and get more data!  

After all, it seems that the "truth" is often a subjective thing, or in need of clarification, don't you think? ;-)

A lost skill?

 Are wood workers a finite group? After being where we are for over a year now I have tried to both find a wood working group and failing at that, tried to start one. Only one person that was not family showed up to the meeting.

Further research has given me the info that the high school has not had a wood working program since 1996 and the only wood working program is a short one in the middle school. Even the local community college does not offer wood working, a sad state of affairs.

That then begs the question, what happens in a few years when there are no qualified wood workers? Yes, I know there will always be those that start after school, those that get jobs in a cabinet making shop, etc… but think of all those that Could have been wood workers, done their own house repairs, made practical items for themselves or gifts for friends and family?

I would love to work out a way to get the youth back in the mix, any ideas that you have I’d be happy to entertain them. 

Small steps

That’s what everyone says, do things in small steps. I tend to be a jump in with both feet kind of person so passes the small steps with a big leap. Not that I don’t understand that the small steps can be best, just that I like my mom’s saying: “I still have all the patience I was ever given because I never use it.”

With my wood working that seems to be a bit messed up since my first memory of doing wood work is with my dad making me a boat out of a 2x4 when I was 5 or 6. While he was more cowboy than wood worker, he did get me started with those simple toys.

Now that I am trying to take my wood work to another level I am finding that the small steps are still hard, but I’m doing them. First small step: make small items that will sell for under $50. Second step: find places that will sell those for me. Third step: use those sells to fund the tools and equipment to make the bigger pieces, forth step: find a place to sell those bigger pieces.

Step one I am working on, I just need to have more inventory. While twenty spatulas seems like a lot when you see them in a box, spread them out on a table in two different locations and it looks pretty thin. If you think about some of those selling and you need to restock them, twenty is not nearly enough. So, add more spatulas to the “make now” list.

Step two is in the one store in Pendleton and one in Walla Walla that currently have my items for sale. With the start of ‘tourist season” here soon I hope sales go up quick.

Step three could be a bit more difficult, I have a couple of bigger “art” pieces, but still need to work on more. Need to get my portfolio finished and printed off in a professional shop so when I set up appointments with potential sales locations I have something to show them prior to hauling a lot of items to them.

I guess that might be step four, getting my portfolio to a state where not only am I happy with it, but Lynn is as well. Look for progress on that in the next few weeks.  

One of the Big items.

dream to story

I don’t know if it’s an issue or not with people that are not writers or artists, but I know sometimes it’s an issue with me. Going to bed with an idea in my head is a sure fire way of not getting enough sleep! Or worse, it leads to dreams and that dream heads me in a different direction.

The dream last night found me in an old and abandoned building… now think along the lines of Harry Potter, this building was just as it had been left, there were tables fully set for use, the books were all still on the shelves and stands, the kitchen was fully stocked, etc….

Now that’s not unheard of, sounds like a pretty boring dream you say, well, Yes if that is all that was happening. While exploring the rooms I started feeling like there were others with me, but looking around didn’t show any other people there. Simple solution you say, just say “Hello.”   And yes, I got an answer, but no, it was not a person.

And this perhaps shows you how my mind works, scary as that might be, it was one of the books that replied! Even stranger, it did not occur to me in the dream that this was an abnormal thing…. Well it did, but not in a scary way. After holding a conversation with the book I found out that this building had been a training center for centuries.

Yea, I know. There is some potential there, but I have too many other things to do today to sit at the computer and fully write this up. There is however, a long list of ideas from this dream in a Word file and I’ll be getting back to is soon trust me!

So, does this look inside my head seem interesting or does it scare you off a bit? Reply to this and let me know.