My godson called me the other day. He wanted me to build him something. Or, more accurately he wanted me to build something for the parents of his girlfriend. Andy (both my godson and my nephew) knows how to motivate people, or at least he knows how to motivate me. I think he might have learned how to do it by watching his mother try to motivate my brother. The answer is unrelenting pressure. You just can't let up, you have to keep pushing, keep asking, keep checking-in to the point where the person you're wanting to motivate will do what you want just to get you off their back, or to not have to face any more 1. e-mails; 2. text messages; 3. phone calls; 4. and, endless repetitions of the first three. Andy knows how to motivate people partly because he is a very successful men's basketball coach. Now that the project is done, I'm really glad Andy forced me to do it! No, I think it turned out great. It's just the kind of thing I like to do. A one of a kind project where I can sit in my shop and play around until a solution comes to me. I also like the fact that it is recycling used materials, (in this case an old wine barrel from Rex Hill Vineyards.)The problem this week was that my day off was the same day there was four inches of snow on the ground and the temperature dipped to 20 degrees! I'm not a wimp when it comes to the weather, but my shop is outside. Today the weather broke for a few hours and I was able to get it done. I like that the cribbage board looks like a piece of mission furniture. Necessity was the reason for this. My drill press is currently in a barn in Sheridan where my colleague is using it to make a wooden boat (you can see his blog about the process at: http://stevemaccoop.wordpress.com/
So, all I had was a dedicated mortising machine. I love the look of the square holes and the square pegs. I made the pegs out of some hardwood I had purchased from the estate of my former member Elmer Olson. Elmer reminded me a lot of my dad--a woodworker with a lot more attention to detail, and ability to work on those kinds of projects. I'm not that woodworker. I like projects that look just a bit hand crafted. I like the fact that the holes don't perfectly line up in this project. Maybe I just have to like that because I'm not a very good precision woodworker. But, in my defense, I simply like the look of it. It seems more organic, and almost flows with the shape of the barrel stave. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.
Back to my godson. I think he too is motivated. This must be a pretty special young woman that he's willing to even try and motivate his uncle to get them a hand crafted present. I hope it works, she must be a keeper.