Hello Galoots,

I looked up my old bio, and it's 4 years old!  Guess I should update it a 
bit, even though not much has changed.

I'm still retired, but have had a couple of life changing events since then. 
Thanks to my alert GP, I discovered I had prostate cancer, early stage. 
Thanks to Mayo Clinic, I had effective surgery, and so far, 2 cancer free 
years.  Last year, I lost my son to pancreatic cancer.  He came home from 
his tour in Afghanistan, his cancer was discovered five days later.  Walter 
Reed did their best, but it was too far advanced, he died 37 days later. 
I'm only now finding my energy and zest returning.

My basic stock of user tools is fairly complete, but I keep finding 
interesting ones to bring home.  I have several sitting around waiting 
refurbishing and fettling, and more sitting around that I need to use enough 
to say that I have mastered the rudiments their use.  I continue to sharpen 
saws, and and have finally taught myself how to saw a straight, plumb cut.

Never in my life did I think I would want to hand cut dovetails--but I 
finally caved in to the discussions on the porch, and tried them.  Much to 
my surprise, after I had cut about 4 or 5 joints, I found that the tails 
slipped into the pins with almost no paring.  Of course that meant that I 
had to find a good tenon and dovetail saw, and get them sharpened.   Now, I 
have to develop a bit more skill to reduce the amount of chipping and open 
joints, but I am pleased with my efforts.

I've somehow acquired five wooden planes of various types, and am trying 
figure out how to use them effectively.

My lathe continues to be my joy.  I keep turning firewood into bowls, of 
varying quality.  Some are actually pretty good, some are designer firewood. 
Fortunately friends and relatives are glad to get them as presents, and I 
found a museum store that will sell some.  Otherwise I'd have to rent 
storage space for them.  Friends keep finding interesting wood for me, which 
is nice.

This spring I had the fun of building a bench with my grandson, and getting 
him started on hand tools.  It wasn't complicated, but it did involve 
several mortise and tenon joints.  We made it from construction lumber with 
a 4-ply particle board top.  Brian had never used a hand saw before, but he 
cut all the tenons, and made the mortises.  I did the marking, and didn't 
goof up too much.  Out of 12 joints, 6 fit the first try, and only 3 of the 
others needed serious trimming.  Of course there were some issues about 
tight shoulders, etc, but it was after all a bench.  We used a few tools 
with tails, but most of the important work was hand done.  We were both very 
pleased with the result, and he really had fun learning to use a few of the 
basic tools.

The porch continues to be my meeting place of choice.  I thoroughly enjoy 
the conversations from the more experienced and vocal galoots.  Always new 
ideas there, and a joy of work and craftsmanship I cherish.

May your holiday season be joyful--and next year be as challenging as you 
want it to be.

Walt Cheever
in snowy Minnesota 

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