What do you do for a Living while Wood Working

[Holly Mosser]

Hello everyone, I started this thread back in July and never thought it would get the response it did. It has been super reading what people do for a living while wood working.
I worked from June 20th to Sept 3rd on the rig but our last month was solid rain and could not get in to much wood work as my outdoor shop was a little wet.
I am not sure if the picture worked but this was what it looked like when I left. They could not even move the rig as the roads were to muddy. I ended up going home for 2 months, which was great, seen my new grand daughter and was good to see all the family.
Well I am back to my Medic job, all schooled up for another 2 years. The hole we are drilling now is about 50 days, we started on the 8th of November and should be moving right around Christmas.
Our next hole is about 130 klms from where we are now and about 80 days. Should just about take us to break up. There are another 2 more holes scheduled so may not get break-up, working right through the summer.
My wood working days are over till the warm weather again in the spring so I am taking lessons on the lap top to learn some of the programs I have. About time, they have been installed on my laptop since I bought it a year ago.
Here is a picture of our new location as they are setting up the rig, it takes about 5 days to rig in and drill surface hole. Hopefully the pictures work and enough about me lets here some more about all the wonderful people on the Saw Mill Creek.
Bye for now.

[Kevin Arceneaux]

The Glomar Coral Sea - my rig

[Jim O'Dell]

I guess I'll chime in too.
I graduated from Baylor University in 1979, majored in Church Recreation. (Wanted to play the rest of my life!!) Worked retail sales and installing stereos for CMC from 79 to 87. Sold and repaired telephones for National Phone Center for 3 years. Back to stereos, insurance replacement and rebuilds of cars from thefts, usually stereo, and then dispatching for electronic installs at car dealerships with a company called PCI (aka Hawk Electronics) from 90 to 99. Last almost 5 years as a service advisor for Mac Churchill, and now Manuel Lincoln/Mercury. My wife and I just purchased a new to us house west of Ft. Worth that has a separate shop. It's 20 X 24 with a 12 X 14 covered porch that will be enclosed as a finishing room/quarantine room (for the occasional rescue dog that must be separated from the others for medical reasons). If it would stop raining, I could start cleaning out the former owners left overs, and start rebuilding so I can work some dust again!
This has been a very intersting thread. Not sure why I missed it back in July when it started. Thanks Holly! Jim.

(Betsy, I hadn't noticed that you were from Foat Wuth before.)

[Mike Tempel]

Well, I suppose I will chime in too. I am an operator at a chemical company on the Houston ship channel. I work 12 hour shifts and have found it to be a good living and I work with a pretty good bunch of guys (and gals). I have to say that although I have to work some nights and weekends it is really great - working 12 hour shifts means that if I don't work any overtime I only have to work 14 days (7 days and 7 nights) a month and get a weeks vacation once a month (long change we call it). Been here for almost 12 years, before that I worked as a firefighter/paramedic. Gave up the medic part but I am an Incident Commander on our fire brigade and do some instructing for our company at Texas A&M fire school. I have been woodworking since junior high off and on and have now graduated to a detached 2 car garage for my shop (Garage Mahal or the He-Man Woman Hater's Club depending on the audience - no offense intended to any of the ladies as it is just something one of my neighbors came up with since none of the ladies will come over to visit while the guys are milling around in Garage Mahal). I still consider myself an amatuer but I work hard to build something that I can be proud to show off and like to make what I call heirloom furniture. My grandfather, a trim carpenter, used to tell me that the difference between a carpenter and a cabinet maker was that one used nails and the other used joinery. I like to use joinery and as few mechanical fasteners as possible.

Sorry this is so long but I read each and every reply to this and wanted to toss my two cents in. Very interesting responses and a wide variety of folks here all with one thing in common - a passion for one another's hobby.

[Arnie Grammon]

I guess I'd better join the fray......great idea Holly

By profession and education, I am a rangeland ecologist currently working in noxious weed management (BS and MS in Rangeland Management from the other OSU......Oregon State University...go Beavs!). My job is a little of everything....lots of outside work on a fourwheeler in very remote locations of Eastern Oregon. I also integrate GIS mapping and remote sensing into my job. Unlike many of you stress-filled geeks, I actually get to have fun while calling it work . Don't get paid the super-big bucks, though .

My wife (of 24 years) and I have five children (one girl, four boys, ranging in age from 23 to 7), the older two are bio, the younger three are special gifts from God (adopted). Kids are a kick in the pants.....and sometimes the pocketbook .

I worked out of high school as a carpenter until the 1978 recession hit.....then worked for ten stress-filled years as a commercial web pressman. I hit the wall and we decided to change horses one more time......went to school and learned how much I don't know.

Most of my woodworking takes place in the winter...I watch very little TV and it's getting dark at 4:30, so out to the shop I go. I have mostly 'newish' tools, and a dedicated shop for woodworking; i.e., no bicycles, skateboards, or lawnmowers allowed . I love my shop.....I leave the natural gas heater set to 65 degrees.....perfect temp for putzing.

Holly....right about now life in interior BC should be a getting a little on the 'coolish' side. Do you plan on staying there over the winter?

Thanks to all for some very interesting posts.......very worthwhile.

AG

[Holly Mosser]

What a beautiful picture Kevin, and how do I become a medic on that rig , no just joking. In your post you mentioned my rig please fill us in on what you do, and thanks again for the picture.

The Glomar Coral Sea - my rig

[Holly Mosser]

Thanks Arnie for the reply to the thread. I am able to do wood working weather permitting while I am at work. The great outdoors is my shop so yes the weather has put a close on my saw dust making. I live a little farther north than the interior of B.C., but you are close. Our weather has been just beutiful for this time of the year, no snow to speak of and the temp has ranged for -10c to +10c which is very unusual for this far north. Thanks again and have a great day.

I guess I'd better join the fray......great idea Holly

By profession and education, I am a rangeland ecologist currently working in noxious weed management (BS and MS in Rangeland Management from the other OSU......Oregon State University...go Beavs!). My job is a little of everything....lots of outside work on a fourwheeler in very remote locations of Eastern Oregon. I also integrate GIS mapping and remote sensing into my job. Unlike many of you stress-filled geeks, I actually get to have fun while calling it work . Don't get paid the super-big bucks, though .

My wife (of 24 years) and I have five children (one girl, four boys, ranging in age from 23 to 7), the older two are bio, the younger three are special gifts from God (adopted). Kids are a kick in the pants.....and sometimes the pocketbook .

I worked out of high school as a carpenter until the 1978 recession hit.....then worked for ten stress-filled years as a commercial web pressman. I hit the wall and we decided to change horses one more time......went to school and learned how much I don't know.

Most of my woodworking takes place in the winter...I watch very little TV and it's getting dark at 4:30, so out to the shop I go. I have mostly 'newish' tools, and a dedicated shop for woodworking; i.e., no bicycles, skateboards, or lawnmowers allowed . I love my shop.....I leave the natural gas heater set to 65 degrees.....perfect temp for putzing.

Holly....right about now life in interior BC should be a getting a little on the 'coolish' side. Do you plan on staying there over the winter?

Thanks to all for some very interesting posts.......very worthwhile.

AG

[Keith Christopher]

Thought I'd add to this list. I have been in the computer field since 1988 working with UNIX and it's variants. I worked my way up the ladder to senior managment in 24x7 operations field. I have also worked as a Systems Architect for many places. I still work in the UNIX field but I can't be more specific sry.

I have been making more and more money woodworking and with a little money managment and debt payoff I may just reduce my drive from 45minutes each way to a walk out the back to my shop for work.


Keith

[Kevin Arceneaux]

Can't. They broke it up a few years ago. The sister ship, the Java Sea, went down in a typoon off of China in the 80's. Good rig and a really good crew. You haven't had fun till you are tripping pipe in a storm with 20' seas. Or you have to go over the side in a basket to unload a crew or workboat in that weather.

We worked 14 and 14. Some worked 21 and 21. My father-in-law worked 28 and 28 in the North Atlantic and off of Africa.

[Jalin Key]

I'm a 20 year pressman for a printing company.

[Tyler Howell]

Wow Holly,
Just checked in, has this grown. This is where I work..... (no fly boys, jet jocks and women aviators, not in the fish bowl).
I have five of these, 15 airports and about 50 remote facilities to look after.
Good work if you can get it.

[Steve Jenkins]

Interesting the folks associated with the oilfield. I'm fulltime in sawdust now but when I started ww as a hobby I was working as a commercial diver with most of the work in the oilfields. When not offshore I had nothing to do so started playing in the garage. I wish I had a schedule like 14-14 or 28-28. The company I worked for believed in sending us out until we were sent back in again. Most of our work was done from Brown and Root barges and they would keep us out for as long as the barge had work. a good example of the schedule was a "3day" job that I ended up spending 3 months offshore before getting home again. But I loved it.

[Greg Griswold]

Shop is a 24 x 24 garage shared with the garden tractor, yard tools and the occasional car.

Along with woodworking, I enjoy model train building, shooting and gardening (when I can find time from my job, kids, grandkids and dear wife). If busy hands are happy hands, my hands are the happiest hands in the world.

Worked for Ma Bell as a lineman, cable splicer and installer/repairman, spent 11 years as a packing house rat, then went to school. For 10 years after school, worked as an engineer designing control systems. For the last 12 years, I have worked for a major electronics manufacturer based in Schaumburg IL. Started as a Production Supervisor, Technical Manager, then moved into IT as Software Engineer. Moved on to Senior Software Engineer, now Staff Software Engineer. Provide support for 24/7 manufacturing facilities in Mexico, France, China and the US along with project management tasks for new processes. Keeps me out of mischief.

[Dan Gochnauer]

Hello Holly and All

Just stumbled onto this forum today and what a place. I think I'll be reading for months, but I love it.

I'm another one of the geeks from the computer business. Been part of many silicon valley startups. Got burned out so I bought a printing business, but that wasn't such a good idea. Just when I started to become excited about working in technology again, the bubble burst. The employment prospects in the valley have not been the best lately. But when you have lemons, you make lemonade. Rather than sit on my hands, I worked for a few years founding a startup (as a working volunteer), but unfortunately, that didn't pan out. So now I'm trying to figure out what I can do with my life.

I've done woodworking for 40 years or more (off and on). Mostly, I like making furniture. In the last few years, I've taken the 24'x24' space attached to my house and turned it into a nice shop. Some of my neighbors park their cars in theirs, but my cars have never seen a garage. Lately, I have gotten a hankering to build architectural art. I love Victorian Houses. So my latest endeaver is to build scale Victorian Houses (1/2"=1' scale). Great idea except for the small gingerbread. Have scroll saw but it just doesn't cut it. To solve that problem, I just bought a laser. It should arrive next week. My goal is to become a laser wizard. The laser will enable me to build some real great models and maybe make some money too. I've seen there are a few other people interested in architectural models. If so, PM me sometime. If nothing else happens, it should be an interesting career.

[Greg Narozniak]

Have been into Woodworking since the late seventies and early eighties when I was very young. My grandfather worked in the Brooklyn navy yards as a carpenter and then in the mid 50s moved to central NJ where he built a house an a small apartment complex, and two smaller housees for rental income. I can remember helping with maintenence on all of the building and it just came natural. Took 4 years on Woodworking in HS and always did very well, Wish I had that Powermatic lathe and all the free lumber now

When I am not trying to make furniture or home improvments, I am, like a lot of other, in the IT field. I do computer support for both front end (users) and Backend (servers, L.A.N., etc.) Been doing it since 1998 and it's had it's ups and downs but the day is never boring

Shop is my attached 2½ car garage, that I really need to clean and take some pics for the picture police.