Nine days of benchwork class.

Phew! Mowed the grass for the upcoming 9-day workshop starting Friday morning. Can’t have the place looking shabby. Managed to get the box hedging trimmed and clipped in the walled garden too. Everywhere is looking good for the midday walks and that last hour before the gates shut. Flowers look stunning and will be at their peak throughout the next two months.

We just finished off the making of the dining table today so that’s always a great relief. This has been very rewarding for me as it’s been a few years since I made one of these. Soon this will be viewed by thousands of woodworkers who now distance apprentice with us around the world and just knowing that that’s happening every week has unexpectedly been one of the greatest rewards I have ever known.

It’s an amazing thing that I am still apprenticing one on one with people like John, Leah, Sam and Phil, and seeing my craft in such good hands. What a strategy! And the training directly with a class full of students every few weeks, 5,500 so far over the past 20 or so years now. More than that though, now we are also reaching around the world to many multiples of thousands. Training from my background as a mere woodworker is unbelievably special. Who would have thought when this skinny runt of a boy stood in bib and brace overalls that he would outreach using a computer when nothing he knew involved anything but chisels and planes let along there was no such thing as the world wide web. How many people do we possibly reach? We reach over a million people every month.  Wow! Now that’s the real power of power-tool woodworking at its best.

Phil’s on his way to the shop. We are both looking forward to Friday and sharing our creative workspace with yet another full class. Getting the wood ready tomorrow, shop cleanup. Love it!