I know we are all well into holiday plans, holiday parties and holiday gift shopping. That’s going to be on the radar for the next crazy few weeks as we approach the end of December.

And, while I can repeat what I have done for the past three holiday seasons and harp on the gift-building/gift-giving process, what I want to do is use today’s column as a sort of a to-do list. Besides giving you a little break from the holiday hubbub, it will give you a little something to look forward to once the presents are unwrapped and we’re back to normal.

On January 28, Heritage Village, my county’s historical park, is hosting its annual Folk Festival. This event has always proven to be one of the most popular on the calendar. They have music, food and craft demonstrations featuring weavers, blacksmiths and other skilled trades from back in the county’s pioneer past. The only craft I really have yet to see at the event is – surprisingly – woodworking.

That’s why I have asked the St. Petersburg Woodcrafter’s Guild to help me remedy this situation. We’re working on a plan to bring a number of guild members up to Heritage Village that day to build a workbench. Well, maybe ‘build’ is too ambitious of a term. We may need to mill all of the components to size in advance and then bring them to the site to cut the final joinery and assemble it. I’m working now to get some southern yellow pine donated to the effort, and I hope to get over to the park soon to check out any antique fixtures (vises, holdfasts, etc.) that we can use for the project.

Oh… and I guess I’m going to need a plan for a workbench appropriate for – say the 1920s in the deep south… 

The week of February 5 – 11, I’m hoping to get some other woodworkers involved in the first ever Get Woodworking Week. Modeled after Marc Spagnuolo’s successful Woodworker Safety Week, this event is an opportunity for woodworking bloggers – and hopefully, more people, companies and publications out in the woodworking community – to encourage others to give the craft a try. I want this to be an open-ended effort with everyone participating having free reign to publicize whatever they want. Some of the ideas would be:

• Teach a youngster (or group of youngsters) about the craft
• Share the story of how you got started in woodworking
• Discuss what a budding woodworker should have in his or her tool kit
• Design and build some projects a novice could handle with a minimum amount of tools
• Challenge yourself to build something with basic tools

Basically, anything that can create a buzz about our craft, with an emphasis on sharing your story with others. Offer encouragement for the wannabe woodworker to get off the couch and explore the world of woodworking on their own.

I also have the big art contest coming up in January. Since I’m planning on taking a week off between Christmas and New Years, I’m going to have to get on the stick and start building something to enter. Maybe my first chair? Who knows!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States – the day of huge gut-busting meals and finalizing strategies for the big Black Friday shopping events…

But, it’s so much more than that.  It’s a time to pause and think about what we are thankful for. And, if there has ever been a year I’ve been thankful for things, it’s 2011. It’s been a year of challenges, but it has also been a year of great success. Without further ado, here the 2011 version of what I’m thankful for…

I am thankful for my health.  Seems like a small and odd thing to start off with, but I’m beginning to appreciate just how important that truly is.

I am thankful for my wife – the silent partner at Tom’s Workbench who helps make all of this possible through her encouragement, advice and patience.

I am thankful for my two sons, who are growing so fast, impressing me with their academic prowess and are starting to take an interest in what dad is doing in the shop.

I am thankful that I was able to change the grooming habits of so many people in the woodworking community.

I am thankful for my supporters, Bell Forest Products, Tormek tools and Infinity Cutting Tools. Your  guys’ faith in me helps keep the doors open and the lights on here at Tom’s Workbench.

I am thankful to be part of a lively and vibrant online woodworking community helping to keep the craft alive. Check out the links in my blogroll to the right of this article and see for yourself.

I am thankful that Marc and Nicole Spagnuolo’s son Mateo was born this year and is doing well- despite some of the challenges he has faced. I’m also thankful Aaron Marshall and his wife were able to adopt a baby girl this year. Heck, I’m just thankful for healthy little ones and the new parents out there.

I am thankful that there are people like David Wert who are selflessly serving our country overseas. I know they would give anything to be home with their families and back in their shops.  I will be praying for their safety and for a quick return and reunion with their loved ones.

I am thankful that I am still creative enough to find new ways to foul things up in my shop, and even more thankful I can find ways to fix those mess ups.

I am thankful that I met so many fellow woodworkers at the Woodworking Show in Tampa this past March and at the Woodworking in America conference in October. Even though I say this every year, I am STILL amazed by how funny, creative and talented each of you is.

I am thankful that Wood Magazine continues to believe in the Shop Monkey and wants my hairy counterpart to continue writing articles for their magazine. Sometimes, I really do have to pinch myself…

I am thankful that I was able to repair my grandfather’s desk chair and put it to use in my office. It helps me  remember my relatives and their guidance while I was growing up.  I only hope that I am able to positively influence my sons and their offspring in the same way.

I am thankful that woodworker Kyle Barton shared the difficult story of the loss of his shop to help teach an important lesson about how to prepare for disasters and how to recover from them.

And, I’m thankful that my shop wasn’t destroyed – or my family hurt – by the tornadoes that ripped through my neighborhood on March 31. Looking at the destruction in places like Tuscaloosa and Joplin, I am counting my blessings.

I am thankful that my band saw can forgive me for the years of bad treatment I have given it.

Most importantly, I am thankful for each of you who come to my site to read my sometimes nonsensical ramblings. Without your comments, your support, your encouragement AND your humor, I don’t think I would be able to keep up the pace of my postings.

Tomorrow, when I raise a glass of wine to toast what I am thankful for, understand that I will be toasting each of you. My friends, I wish you nothing but peace and happiness this holiday season.

I can remember exactly where I was. Work had just started for me at my office in Clearwater, Florida, and a few of my co-workers and I walked next door to the convenience store to get some coffee. As I walked in, there was some confusion between myself and the guy who was walking out… I walked in when he thought he should have been walking out, and as he passed, under his breath, he muttered what kind of a rude son of a bitch I was. I dunno why I remember this so vividly, but that’s just how crazy the memories of that day are.

After that, I came back to my desk to get started with the work of the day, when the lady who worked one just beyond the wall of the next cubicle said loudly enough for everyone to hear that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. That split second before I turned the corner into the office’s conference room that had the television was the end of something.  The end of the thought that the United States was invulnerable. The end of the period of relative peace that we had been living in.

An awful lot changed that morning as I  – and hundreds of millions around the country and the world – sat transfixed, watching the deadly terrorist attacks unfold. As the towers burned, my mind flashed back to a church youth group trip I had taken back in the summer of 1985 to New York City. We had seen Wall Street,  the South Street Seaport, had a late lunch in Little Italy on Mulberry Street, and, the last trip of the day was an elevator ride to the observation deck of the World Trade Center. As the bright summer sun started to fade into the west, I gazed down upon Manhattan and New York harbor.  Billy Joel’s song New York State of Mind was on my Walkman, and I was humming along to it.  As a tall skinny kid from across the Hudson River in New Jersey, I felt a connection to the city I had never really felt before.

And, as I blinked back the tears in my eyes that morning, I knew that peaceful memory was being taken away from me. It would never be the same.

As that fateful Tuesday wore on to the end of the day, my co-workers and I spent a lot of time talking about what was going to be different. We talked about living in a new world, where friends and family in the military were going to be thrust into warfare in a far-away land, removed from their loved ones. We talked about how we would never feel truly safe again inside the borders or our country. And we vowed that we were going to take the time every single day to love our families more, work to bring more beauty into our lives and the lives of those around us, and how we were going to pull together as a nation, putting aside our differences to realize that ultimately – at our core – we are all Americans.

Today is the tenth anniversary of those terrible moments in New York City, Arlington, Virginia and Shanskville, Pennsylvania.  And, as I look back on that terrible day one decade ago, I wonder if I have been keeping my promise.

Have I done everything possible to show my family how much I love them? I feel like I have, but I think today is the time to redouble my efforts to do so. My two sons were three years old and six months old when the attack happened… what have they learned over this past decade? Have I done everything I could to show them how much I love them and spend the time with them? Have I taken the time to show everyone else how much they mean to me? Or, were those words an empty promise that I made?

Have I done what I can to bring more beauty into my life and the lives of others? Somehow, I feel that woodworking – my fledgling hobby back in 2001, has done so. The pieces I have built have not only brought happiness to me and the people who have received them, but it has also allowed me to meet dozens – if not hundreds of other woodworkers I would have never met before who have inspired me through the years. Not only by their woodworking ability, but by the obstacles they have overcome, the determination they have shown and the friendships we have shared.

Have we pulled together as a nation? I think – tragically – that we haven’t. The partisan bickering today  in Washington D.C. is a far cry from the can-do spirit that existed after the attacks. When everyone – Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative pulled together to tell the world in one voice that we are Americans, and no cowardly act is going to make us forget that.  I hope and pray that our leaders will find ways to make our country the place we envisioned after that horrible day.

Today, we think back at the loss of that day ten years ago and feel the strong pangs of loss and sorrow. But, I can guarantee you, I am asking myself I have kept the promise I made in my office’s conference room ten years ago.

And, I hope I have.

It’s the interval of time between Olympic Games (well, between two summer or two winter Olympic games, to be accurate). Or the time it takes an average college student to get a Bachelor’s degree. Or the length of time you spend in high school… if you don’t get held back. Or the interval between World Cup soccer tournaments. Or one presidential term for the United States of America.

It’s four years. And, today, Tom’s Workbench has been up and running for four years.

Sure, we officially got off the ground in January, 2008. But, it was four years ago today that Marc Spagnuolo published the first article for his very old ‘Wood Talk Online’ website. It described the symptoms a Wood-A-Holic might experience. You know, to this day, I still experience those symptoms.

Through these four years, I hope that I have made you laugh, I may have made some of you cry and I certainly wanted to make you look beyond your mistakes and see the great project you are building.

Through these four years, I have made so many friends along the way. People like David Life who never let his disability stand in the way of doing awesome woodwork. People like David Wert who are serving our country thousands of miles away who miss their families, friends and shops. Woodworkers such as John Lucas and Niki Avrahami who left their knowledge for  us before they shuffled off their mortal coil.  My supporters Bell Forest Products and Eagle America tools.

And, then the friends… OH the friends! Marc Spagnuolo, Matt Vanderlist, Matt Gradwhol, Shannon Rogers, Ron Hock, Eric Poirier, Kari Hultman, Dyami Plotke (Yes, the article still needs to be written!), Dan Bean, Doug Stowe, Gail O’Rourke… Dude, I will NEVER name everyone I have to thank… Please, everyone,  accept those thanks!

My plans? Heck… I plan on coming back strong… for at least four more years.  Yes, you are stuck with me and you will have me to kick around!

Well, today’s post is late.  That’s because my wife an I just got back from a wonderful evening in downtown St. Petersburg celebrating our – wait for it- 18th anniversary. The woman is a saint.  Dinner last night at The Moon Under Water was great (If you get there, try the green curry and get it HOT!  It burned, boy BOY was it good), and breakfast at the Hangar Restaurant and Flight Lounge overlooking Albert Whitted Airport were amazing. And, if you ever need to stay downtown, the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel is a charming piece of history and  a great place to kick back, relax and enjoy yourself.

But, that’s not the only thing that happened this weekend.  No sir. There was a lot more that happened, and here’s a look at some of the activities:

First, after my out of square experiences of the past weeks, Chris Wong of Flair Woodworks and I worked out a trade. He had a slew of Jevons 3D assembly squares, and I had a slick that was taking up space in my tool chest. After dealing with the vagaries of international shipping (He’s in Canada, I’m here in the United States), we were able to work out a deal.  Those babies are good to go and ready to find a spot in my shop.

The next fun thing was that I got a lot of milling done on the shelves for the bookcase project I’m working on. How much work?  Well, let’s just say that a day in the shop is like a day at the beach for me…

The next really cool thing was that I got an e-mail from one of my readers named Bill Murphy. He’s a St. Petersburg based woodworker who wanted to share a project he had built.  This is a jewelry box he had built from maple and purpleheart for his wife.  Bill, I don’t want to go too far out on a limb here, but that’s some freakin’ awesome work!

Bill also let me know he is a member of the St. Petersburg Woodcrafters Guild and he wanted to invite me to come out to an upcoming meeting.  Looks to me like I’m going to have to spend some more time in the Sunshine City!

Whew, I’m spent, and I’m gonna need a few days off to recover from this weekend’s fun. I do want to give y’all a heads up – this Wednesday, I’m gonna have a pretty big announcement about an offer for Tom’s Workbench readers.  Stay tuned!

If you’ve been around the twitosphere, you’ll notice that I have had a number of Tom’s Workbench t-shirts made up.

The front features everyone’s favorite mischievous monkey:

And, on the back, I am PROUD to salute The Wood Whisperer and Bell Forest Products, the two sponsors who helped make these shirts a reality. I can’t say enough about the support they showed me, and how both have helped the online woodworking community throughout the years.

These babies are the real deal – 100% cotton Gildan gray shirts with both the front and back logos in black ink.

Now, I have a limited number of medium, large, extra large and just a few XXLs left.  And, if you would like to wear a little bit of Tom’s Workbench history, I think I can be convinced to part with ‘em at $12 each. That includes shipping and handling in the U.S.  And if you don’t call the U.S. home, well, we’ll just have to see how much that shipping runs!

Just send me an e-mail at tom@tomsworkbench.com – including your size -  and we’ll go first-come, first served basis. Hold off on payment until I can confirm I have the right size.  Just be sure to list “Yo! Shop Monkey T-Shirts Here!” as your e-mail subject line. That’s so Iggy doesn’t get too confused, alright?

There is only one problem with these shirts…

They don’t come in monkey sizes!

Oh, well, my simian friend will just have to wait until we see a reprint…

UPDATE:  I’m now out of XXL’s… And, for those who asked, the shirts were printed by an online company called Blue Cotton.  They did a very good job for a decent price… in case you want to print your own shirts!

Iggy the Trained Shop Monkey strikes again!

That’s right, he’s back with another article for the November 2010 edition of Wood Magazine.

This edition, well, ya know, some of the ugliest boards can make some of the most beautiful projects. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll take a second look at those boards you may think about burning and see if you can find the beauty within.

If you want to read even more Shop Monkey input, why not check out my blog over at the Wood Magazine forum website?  Navigate the content and read the input from your favorite bloggers.

Yes, you can even read my content if you have nothing better to do …

Now, no more monkey business… back into the shop!

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