Recently in the far western suburbs of Minneapolis, there was an odd weather event. Clouds of dust were floating over the countryside on the fresh spring winds. This dust was not soil erosion from the adjacent farm fields, nor was it generated from the gravel roads crisscrossing the region — and oddly, it smelled nice.
The source of the dust storm, as some of you may have guessed, was my annual spring-cleaning of my woodshop. This is where several months of sanding swarf, wood chips and detritus are forcefully launched out of my open overhead door by means of my leaf blower … AKA, the best shop cleaning machine ever invented.
It was an early cleaning this year. In March we usually have snow hip-high on a tall woodworker. But this year it has mostly melted away, and I could not hold myself back.
Now, back to making more sawdust!
Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal
