I was thrown into woodworking as a teenager, not willingly, I might add. My dad, was an incredible woodworker. He remodeled our basement into the absolute coolest man cave of the 70's, complete with strobe lights, a pool table, a custom bar with fridge and an unprecedented wine rack and TV built into the wall. We sprayed the unfinished ceiling black and wrapped the support poles in yarn. And I helped. Unwillingly.

He also redesigned the kitchen cabinets from scratch, complete with newly released Formica countertops. I was still a teen aged unwilling assistant. Yet I learned so much even though I wasn't particularly interested. Rabbets were the bomb for lining up cabinet sides. Formica became so easy to work with. "Just get it close and the router will take care of the rest." How he did it without 3D design software, I will never know.

We took all the Mahogany off of our Rhodes 19 sailboat, and refinished it to make a beautiful sailboat that I will never forget. Added a spinnaker too, but that's another day's worth of remembrance that isn't really relevant to woodworking.

The unwilling assistant learned a lot from these projects. It sat in my soul for about three decades.

And then the spark ignited. I can't tell you the date, or why. It just got lit.

It started with some simple WOOD Magazine DIY articles.

The Candle Holder was a simple three candle holder made out of 2x4 pine lumber and a bit of dark stain. The project made me buy a set of Ryobi Forstner bits and a tabletop drill press from Harbor Freight. I bought them in 2013 and still have both.

The jewelry box project gave me an appreciation for working with real (aka expensive) nice wood. The box was mostly Mahogany with lots of special angled cuts. My daughter uses it to this day.

The Porch Bench, 2014, is still in front of my house today. In 2014, my beautiful wife, Lisa was admitted in the hospital for H1N1 flu. I had just started this project. In retrospect, if I didn't have this silly little project to focus on, I think I would have gone insane. She was in ICU for 30 days, intubated and on propophol, thankfully. It was a rough time for everyone, especially her.

When she got out of the hospital, she went to physical therapy rehab, I asked her permission to build a boat. She said yes. I believe she thought I was referring to a model boat. I had already purchased the study guide and was determined to build a 12 foot peapod rowing sailboat. That boat project gave me "license" to purchase lots of non-standard tools for my shop. Band saw, planer, and sander were added to my small workshop.

The boat, the" Rookie", was a beautiful boat. It was a very fast rowboat, though a bit tippy, which was due to its rounder design. It would work great as a tender for an agile sailor. But unfortunately it was too small for me. (I'm kind of a big guy) I tried to sell it, but ended up donating her to BoatAngels.com. I hope she is still alive and well and in the water.

That's the story behind getting the juices flowing.