Well, for those of you who follow Tom’s Workbench, you may have noticed that there was no quick poll yesterday.  That’s because I had to spend the better part of my Sunday stuck in the Atlanta airport due to very heavy weather.

I was traveling home from a great weekend trip to celebrate a special birthday with my Dad.  He and my step-mom were on a road trip through North Carolina, and were spending some time with my younger brother and his family in Raleigh.  I flew up to surprise him, and boy, was he ever surprised when I walked out into the main terminal.

We spent Saturday over in Durham, North Carolina near where the Durham Bulls play baseball. It’s a gorgeous ballfield, and I’m sure in the spring it must be great to get out and take in a game there.

Immediately adjacent to the field is the American Tobacco Campus. This is where Lucky Strike cigarettes were made for decades before their production moved.  The old facilities, as in many other cities, were converted from their industrial use to a mixed-use office, entertainment and retail location.

While we were eating lunch in a place called Tyler’s Taproom.  While the smells of the food were mesmerizing and the selection of more than 50 microbrews was impressive, what really struck me was the woodwork.

Tyler’s is located in an old tobacco storage bay, which was little more than a warehouse for the leaves.  So, as you can imagine, the interior was built and left to weather.  The walls were the old brick, featuring the rich patina of age.  The ceiling and beams were all made of old-growth heart pine.

Now, we’re talking.

To keep the appearance, the posts that supported the ceiling beams were kept intact.  One must have rotted, because it was replaced by a steel post clad with wood to make it appear old.

The really amazing thing to see were the benches that were outside the restaurant.  Under the overhangs that shielded the working areas from the scorching summer sun (completely unnecessary in the cooler January air), a series of benches were set out for visitors to rest during their day.

The wood on these babies was impressive.  Sawn from beams taken from the renovation of the warehouses, these pine benches featured six inch thick slabs complete with original bolt holes.  These were mounted on some impressive looking ironwork. Just sitting on these benches gave me a sense of appreciation for how difficult it must have been to fell these large trees and the the care shown in how the wood was reworked into its present form.

We all had a great time celebrating with dad, and he was very happy to be spending his birthday with all three of his sons.

Now, the trip back to Tampa… let’s just say that I got home this morning at 3 a.m.  I should have been on the ground 7 p.m. last night.  But, hey, that’s what happens when you fly with winter weather…

I moved to Florida from Maryland 18 years ago.  In fact, by the end of this year, I will have lived in Florida longer than I lived in my home state of New Jersey.

Does that make me a native Floridian yet?

I’m not sure about the time requirement to be considered a Florida native, but there’s another sure-fire test you can use to determine that I have become one – how I tolerate cold.

Now, in most Florida winters, we get a few days of blustery weather that brings some cool temperatures calling.  Those days may struggle to get to the 60’s Fahrenheit and can dip into the low 40’s and maybe the upper 30’s.

However, this year has not been typical.  Since New Year’s Day, our temperatures have been well below average.  In fact, we have recently broken the all time low maximum temperature record this past weekend.  The last time our area saw temperatures this cold for this long was back in the late 1980s.  We are currently running an average of 17 degrees lower than average for the month of January. (Just a note:  This cold stretch has already broken records — with nine consecutive days colder than 60 degrees. The last recorded stretch under 60 degrees for the Tampa Bay area was seven days in 1956)

No, these temperatures are not New York, Chicago or Detroit cold.  They are not Minneapolis, Toronto or Stockholm cold.  And, they are certainly not Calgary, Moscow or Duluth cold.

But, it’s safe to say that in my home, built to withstand long periods of high temperatures, it’s colder than a well digger’s posterior.  It’s colder than part of the thoracic anatomy of a witch. And, yes, it’s cold enough to freeze the spherical objects off a brass monkey.

I had this great weekend of work in the shop planned.  I was going to plow through a few projects that have been sitting on the bench for a while and bring them to completion.  So, I started my shop day by dressing in clothes that don’t normally get pulled out of the closet.  I put on a pair of work jeans, two pairs  of socks and my boots.  I layered a T-shirt, a thermal woven shirt and hooded sweatshirt over that.  I even put on a warm hat I had to buy on a trip to Maryland one February a few years back.

Come heck or high-water, I was going to do some work in the shop.

That’s when I took my first step out.  It was bracing.

My shop is normally so hot and humid, I easily move from tool to tool with little or no trouble.  Sure, I end up squishing in my boots from time to time, but no big deal.  I know how to handle the heat.

But, the cold was so different.  Parts of me started to ache shortly after I started working.  My hands and shoulders were not used to these kinds of temperatures.  I wanted to get a reading on how cold my shop was, so I went inside to get the oven probe thermometer.  This sucker has a tremendous temperature range. It  can read the internal temperature of a roasting leg of lamb and can also tell the temperature inside your freezer.

I plugged  in the probe and turned it on.  The reading fell fast, eventually settling at 50 degrees.  That’s funny, since the outside temperature never rose above 44 on Saturday.  Brrr…

I discovered some interesting things about the shop in the cold.  For instance, neither the Titebond III or especially the bottled hide glue flowed freely.  In fact, I got to the point where I had to put the bottled hide glue inside the house and let it heat up so I could apply it to a project.  And, once I was able to coax out a bead onto the wood, it gelled so quickly that I had to hustle to get the mating piece pressed into place before it thickened to a taffy-life consistency.

As I puttered around the shop, rubbing my hands together to try to get them warm, three thoughts crossed my mind.

1. I developed a new-found appreciation for everyone who works in cold climates.  While the air conditioner in my shop makes it more comfortable in the summer, y’all must agonize over heating choices in order to just get into your shop.
2. As cold as it is in Florida, I’m still looking forward to a warming trend later this week, pretty much ending this record-breaking cold snap for the Sunshine State and bringing us back to more seasonable temps.
3. When your shop is that cold, there’s nothing wrong with calling it a day early and coming inside.  Working in that kind of cold is one heck of a distraction, and it’s probably better to just get out of the shop.

Once I was out of the shop, I got back inside and warmed up. But, did I stop working for the day?  Heck no!  I went to my other favorite work room in the house and got busy. There was a refrigerator full of food to cook, and I spent the rest of that day making chicken stock, a pot of soup and a pot roast.

Hey, it helped to keep the house warm!

What are some of those New Year’s traditions that make the holiday so special? Champagne. Noisemakers. Watching the ball drop in Time’s Square. Kissing that special someone at midnight.

Yeah, the New Year is a magical time, when we close the book on the old year and start the new one fresh again. It’s the perfect time to dedicate yourself to doing something different.

Yes, to make resolutions.

New Year’s resolutions are usually a bunch of hooey. Don’t believe me? Here’s an experiment you can conduct. Find a local gym. Could be a commercial establishment, a city-owned facility or the local ‘Y’. Now, note how many people are there on – say – January 10th, working themselves into a lather. Those are the folks who resolved to drop that extra 20 pounds they packed on with the Halloween, Thanksgiving and holiday goodies.

Go back in March. A lot fewer folks feeling the burn, hmmm… Many folks just give up because their goal suddenly seems too far away to achieve.

The people who do stick with their resolutions are the ones who make realistic, achievable goals. Going someplace new. Adding a quick lunchtime walk to the routine. Heck, calling your parents a little more frequently.

As a woodworker, part of my ‘package’ of resolutions always includes a few items around the shop. Last year, I promised to myself that I would try bent laminations, and try I did. In fact, I should be posting something very soon about a project I’ve had in the shop for a while.

“Of course, the toughest part of coming up with new woodworking resolutions is actually coming up with them,” said Tim Walter of Eagle America. “That’s also what makes woodworking such a vibrant and exciting craft… there are just so many different aspects to explore.”

To help get the pump primed, Tim offered the following suggestions:

• Build those kitchen cabinets. With the current economic picture, people are tending to stay put longer in their homes. Why struggle with a terrible kitchen design when, for a small investment in tooling, you can build a set of custom cabinets that will outperform and outlast anything you can buy at a big-box home improvement center. “With a Kreg pocket screw jig, the boxes and face frames are easy, and we have many decorative options of stile and rail bits, panel raisers and door and table edge bits to build a kitchen to suit your taste. If you are building cabinets for an average kitchen and you work at the modest pace of building one cabinet box a week, you can plan on hosting a Fourth of July party at your place and proudly show off your handiwork.”

• Cut your first dovetails. Dovetails are still looked upon as the hallmark of craftsmanship. Learning how to cut the joint should be something you consider trying. “We often look at woodworkers who make flawless hand-cut dovetails with awe, but machine cut joinery is every bit as strong and just as beautiful. We offer both Porter Cable jigs and the Chestmate, so you can take your pick. Oh, and we also sell some very high quality bits for those jigs as well.”

• Cut better mortise and tenon joints. The mortise and tenon joint is one of the most important joints to master. It’s been around since the time of the Egyptians, and can be used for small and delicate projects as well as big, burly ones. “Sure, you can buy a hollow chisel mortiser or lay out money for a set of mortising chisels, but you may not realize that your plunge router can serve as an excellent mortising machine. Carbide up-cut spiral  bits are ideal for this purpose, and router bushings can help make a mortising guide a snap to build.”

• Get your tools razor sharp. Many people just give up on hand tools after a while. No, it’s not their technique, it’s the fact that they are working with dull tools. Dull chisels require more force, can damage your work and are even more likely to hurt you than sharp ones. “We carry an extensive line of sharpening supplies for getting rough bevels ground and honing supplies to put that very fine cutting edge on the tools. The WorkSharp 3000 is a very popular sharpening system and makes honing easy even for a beginner.”

• Build a decorative box. Making small boxes is an excellent way to improve your skills without making a large investment in wood or tools. You can let your imagination run wild or go with timeless details in a more traditional form. And, they are a great way to use up those valuable bits of leftover wood just waiting for the right project. “Whatever designs you can think of, we can certainly help supply the tools. Decorative edge forming and box making bits, clamping and finishing supplies and a large number of books can help turn your vision into reality. We even sell musical movements so you can make your new box sing for a loved one.”

And, these are just some starting points. From there, the sky is truly the limit. How about building an instrument? Building a project to donate to charity? Going to a woodworking school? Heck, even starting your own woodworking blog!

One thing I have noticed as a blogger is that putting articles on Tom’s Workbench requires constant effort. I have to be thinking about six steps ahead in order to keep bringing you quality content. I have written articles in the last minute, and found most of those to be lesser quality ones.

That’s why my resolution is to continue to push myself to try new things and let you look over my shoulder while I do. Will everything I touch turn out OK? Of course not. But, in 2010, I hope to keep all of you as my constant companions on this journey.

Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope it’s a very healthy and happy one for us all.

This is always a strange time of the year for me.

From January through April, our office spends a lot of time getting ready for hurricane season.  From April through September, we do a lot of talks and other public presentations.  From September through early November, we spend a lot of time cataloging our accomplishments and making notes for the next year.

Then, from November through Christmas, my wife and I spend a large amount of time getting ready for the holidays.

Finally, after the Christmas roast is put away, I get about ten days off.

I mark this time off on my calendar very early in the year.  Those May or June nights when I drive  home sometime after 9:30 p.m. after my third hurricane talk of the day, I think about this week.  I long for it.

Now it’s here!

What should I do?

It’s always a tough decision. A whole week of free time.  I turn the work phone off, let any work pile up on the desk back at the office and just be.

Part of me wants to sleep in, play video games and just goof off with the kids.

Another part wants to get active with the family and go places we’ve never been to do things we haven’t done. Why, a visit to the Florida Craftsman Gallery sounds like it would be a fun trip.

There’s also the list of projects that has been sitting around unfinished, needing a solid block of time and effort to reach completion.  For instance, with our counter tops in, now I have to tile the back splash.  Yes, that’s on today’s agenda.

And, then there are the final touches to put on the cradle for donation. And, some finishing touches on a special art project that has been in the shop since July.

There’s football.

Oh, and yes, the shop does need to be cleaned up!

You know, this week is a great one to get most – if not all – of that stuff done…

After my next cup of coffee.

The holiday season is a time of the year when we set our expectations kind of high.  Aren’t we all supposed to have this month filled with family harmony and the holiday spirit?  Aren’t the gifts we buy supposed to be the perfect ones for the recipients?  Aren’t the cookies we bake supposed to come out of the oven looking as if they came right off the front cover of a food magazine?

Well, that’s not always the case. Sometimes reality creeps in and plays the Grinch to your season.  Just a few years ago, our minivan was stolen from in front of the city library on December 21, and we spent the entire week from Christmas through the New Year dealing with towing companies, body shops and the ever-present insurance adjusters. The officer who took our stolen vehicle report even told us, “This never happens in front of this library.  What a bummer for the season!”

This year, I had set my goals very high.  In October, I promised myself that I would slow down and try to enjoy every minute possible with my wife and my boys who seem to be growing and maturing faster than I can keep track of.

That’s when reality reared its ugly head.  What had started as building a few Christmas gifts for a few relatives became a marathon production session to build nine wine racks in time to hit the shipping deadlines.

Then we had to make a decision on our dated kitchen counter tops.  They were quickly becoming an eyesore, with gaps opening between the tile top and the wood edging.  Something had to be done, and the Thanksgiving weekend sales at Home Depot were just too good to pass up. Now, we have a beautiful counter top that just needs a little trim work and a tile back splash to come to completion.

Why tell you my tales of woe?  Well, with time ticking away until Santa makes his visit, I am going to have to admit to myself that I’m not going to get the cradle to donate done in time for Christmas.  When I found myself this Saturday bouncing between the cradle and trimming out the kitchen during a six hour shop session –  and not getting either one of them done as nicely as I needed them to be – my wife came into the shop to have a heart-to-heart.

Without realizing it, I was becoming a holiday grump.  The kids were waiting for me to call it a day in the shop so we could look at the tree and the presents that were piling up underneath.  They had also set up the Monopoly game board for a family showdown.

I had to make an executive decision.  And, that is that I’m going to have to get the kitchen in order for our big Italian fish dinner on Christmas Eve and spend the next few days enjoying the season with my boys.

Since I am taking the week between Christmas and New Years off from work, I will be able to easily finish the cradle during that off time.  And, it’s not as if the need for this cradle at the pregnancy crisis center is going to disappear because Christmas has come and gone.

I just have to remember that I’m not the world’s fastest or best woodworker… and there’s only one of me.  And that one of me still wants to ditch the stress, enjoy my family, marvel at the joy of the season and do my best on the project that I’ll be donating.

I love to cook.  Saute. Roast. Grill. Braise.  If it’s food, I can do a pretty decent job making it taste good.  In fact, if I didn’t woodwork, I would probably list cooking as my favorite hobby… and tip the scales at a much higher weight than I do already.

The only one skill I have yet to master is baking. I mean, it seems so simple.  Depending on the recipe, all you have to do is mix ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, eggs and baking powder, pop them in the oven and BAM, you have cake.

But baking is different.  If you aren’t absolutely precise on your measurements and your process, you can end up with something that looks like a modern art masterpiece and sits in your gut like a ton of bricks.  It’s completely opposite of the loosey-goosey kind of cooking  that takes place in a skillet.

The same holds true for working with wood. I like to do fine woodworking.  No, I don’t cut every dovetail by hand or thickness my boards with a classic infill smoothing plane until the surface glows.  But, I do like to carefully mark components and fit them with a great degree of precision into the project.  For me, that’s a pleasant way to while away time in the shop.

Rough carpentry, however, is a completely different animal.  My wife and I have decided that the home’s original kitchen counter top which I had tiled over when we first moved in  had seen much better days.  In fact, it is pretty darned gross and needed to be replaced.  While we were checking out the solid surface counter tops, my wife was struck with the idea of adding a high sitting bar to the existing kitchen design.  The fellow who sold us the new counter top drew a quick yet thorough design of how to add this feature with a simple 2 x 4 framed wall screwed to the existing kitchen cabinets.

“And, you look like a pretty handy guy.  I’m sure you can do it.”

Let’s just say that as with baking, rough carpentry is something I just don’t do well.  It doesn’t make any sense.  After all, isn’t it just cutting dimensional lumber to a certain length, butting it together and driving some nails.  Piece of cake, right?

Not so fast.  I soon discovered that I can’t cut a straight line with a circular saw to save my life. And, forget about hitting an exact dimension.  Some of the studs I cut were off by half an inch, requiring me to use shims to get the boards to fit properly.

And, then there was the nailing.  I’ve become a brad nailer convert, just like my power-driven fastener idol Norm Abram.  My skills with driving nails using a hammer are dodgy at best.  And, when it comes to driving 12d spikes with my 16 oz. claw hammer, let’s just say that the results can be humorous.

In fact, the toughest part of the job was framing the wall in my shop.  I had to send the family far away from me so I could practice using all of the naughty words I was told to never use when I was in grammar school.

I’m no carpenter.  I am, however, a proud CRAPenter, builder of lousy rough carpentry projects.

Eventually, I got the wall inside and properly secured to the existing cabinets.  If I walk by and try to shake it, it is actually pretty solid.  Maybe it’s just a tad out of plumb on one side, about 1/16 over its 41″ height.  Not terrible, but I’m sure I can do better next time.

The moment of truth arrived when the gentleman came in from the counter top company to template for the job.  He walked into the kitchen and looked around.  “Who framed in your wall?” he asked.

Sheepishly, I owned up to the deed.  “Not bad.  You should have seen the awful job I saw at the last house  I was at.  I told the guy he had to tear his wall out and start over again.”

OK, maybe I’m not quite as bad as I thought I was.

And, once those new counter tops go in, I’m going to have to try to learn how to bake…