Weekly Editorial
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Heading South
By the time you read this missive, I will be wandering through the primeval forests of central Arkansas (with a bona-fide forest ranger) — looking for the much-coveted bobwhite quail. (Who, by the way, convene in coveys.) From there, I will mosey on down to Texas, where according to my friends from the Lone Star State, “we’ll be fixin’ to shoot some birds.” Although to my Yankee ears it sounds a bit more like “burrrds”. My bird dog, who for the last month or so has either been freezing outdoors in twenty-below temperatures or lounging on the sofa, is in for a big and a pleasant surprise. She will go to sleep in a dog box in the back of my Blazer, with dreams of snowdrifts and wind-chill, and wake up in big woods and sunshine.
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FREE Plan Bonanza!
OK, this might be one of those “good news”/ bad news” situations. The good news is that we have featured not one, not two, but three high quality, four-color woodworking plans in our regular free plans department. These are the style of plan that we put in the Premium section of the eZine each issue. They are, of course, more expensive and complicated to produce … but they are much prettier to look at. Download these PDFs to your hard drive, and they are yours forever — electronically speaking. The bad news is that this is a one-time event.
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Cheers For the New Year
Recently it occurred to me that life is a lot like driving in a Minnesota ice storm: the road is indeed treacherous, but some folks will get through just fine. Others will slide off — but with a bit of help they’ll get back on track, moving forward with more determination and increased caution. And of course some will spin-out and take others with them, while a few will simply not make it.
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Important Confession
In considering recent events, and in the interest of allowing overworked former Senators to have a clear calendar during the holiday season, I have a confession to make. I have used and continue to use a performance enhancing substance while producing this eZine. (And yes, wise guys, I understand that the terms performance and enhanced are applied in their broadest possible usages in my case.)
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Woodworking Inspiration
One question that I often ask fellow woodworkers is “How do you choose your next project?” The most common answer I get is that a home-improvement project has shouldered its way into their workshop. And if it is not home-improvement per se, it is often a piece of furniture or a project that will improve their home life in some fashion or the home life of someone they care about.
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Age-Old Carving Techniques Pass to New Generation
Woodcarving is movement. By nature, it is more physical than cerebral.
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Innovatively Yours
On Thursday night, November 1st, you, faithful reader, became a winner of a prestigious award. On that evening, Woodworker’s Journal was selected from a very competitive group of magazines and awarded the MMPA’s Innovation Award. We were primarily recognized for our online efforts, from our Online Survey Group, to our Resource Digest Online, travel blogs … but specifically noted as one of our successful and innovative products was the eZine and its new sister, the Premium eZine pages.
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Here We Go!
It’s possible you may remember that, in the early days of the eZine, I would come up with random contests, most of them at least tangentially related to the world of woodworking. We had the messiest shop contest — that one actually frightened me. The weirdest project contest was an eye-opener. We had the woodworking poetry contest: I laughed, I cried … I was perplexed. (But I loved the poems, I still have many of them on my computer.)
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Shop Projects Sharing Time
Last time out, I asked what sort of woodworking projects you all were working on this fall. Thanks for sharing – you’ll find some of the answers I received in the Feedback section. It used to be called Reader’s Response, but with the recent redesigning of the eZine, we changed the name. (I mean, come on, there’s more than one reader of this thing!)
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Fired Up for Fall?
Autumn is, without question, my favorite time of year. The cooling temperatures, the turning colors — the free candy at Halloween celebrations — what’s not to like? (I know that a lot of folks look at it as a harbinger of the winter to come, but that’s like saying a birth is a sad story because it means death is inevitable. Grab a little perspective here: if you can’t live for the moment, how about a whole season?)
