Jim McDonald

In December, I posted here that it was time to put the saw and associated tools away for the winter and that I would welcome spring and warmer weather with a renewed passion and an armload of patterns waiting to be cut.

Yesterday, I needed a couple of things from the shed and ventured out through the snow--we still have about four inches on the ground--to retrieve some dowels and my glue guns. As I stood there in the small garden shed that has been re-purposed to store the wood working...

It's the 27th of December--four days to go in this trip around the Sun--and as the snow gently falls and begins to cover the grass, I'm brought to remember this year in scrolling.

Since the Christmas tree is over my left shoulder and I spent a few minutes this morning retrieving and dating all the ornaments I received in this year's swap, I began to think of all the wonderful people on this board who give so freely of their knowledge and come together as a community to advance one another....

Around here in central Indiana, December brings a lot of things, not the least of which is colder temperatures.

So, with Tuesday (Dec. 1) being predicted as the last day for a while with temps anywhere near where I like to have my fingers exposed while cutting, I hurried up and cut four small stacks of Volker Arnold angels for an order, sprayed the last coats of lacquer on a name plate and made preparations for putting the saw away for the season.

It's always a bit depressing...

As per custom, I took the dog out ASAP after awakening and then started to troll the news sites when I saw that Soupy Sales had died.

Now for many of us on the board, Soupy was a childhood diversion and good for a few laughs, but I have a different story.

Back in 1976, I was a student at Marshall University studying journalism and had already been working full time for the small town paper where I grew up, so I had a little more experience than the normal "Woodward...

Went outside a few minutes ago and the sun was slowly rising in the east-southeast and the frost crystals clinging to the grass split the light into a thousand little rainbows and it was so quiet you could hear the multi-colored leaves fluttering and hitting the ground.

This is said to be the best week of the year for autumn color here in Indiana, but I won't be making any major journeys to become a "leaf peeper" since there are plenty of spots within five miles that will...