Greetings fellow woodworkers!
With Christmas just two weeks away, it is pretty certain that many of you are feverishly working away in your workshops. (BTW…none of the North Pole crew have subscribed to this Newsletter!) Please don’t be in a hurry! Be careful. Injuries tend to occur when you are distracted, or in a rush.
Meanwhile, our Mid-Island Woodworkers’ Guild has been extremely active! During most of November we participated in a Woodwork Showcase, and partnered with the Nanaimo Quilters’ Guild to provide a beautiful display of local talent. Dan Appell from the Nanaimo Arts Council did a wonderful job of arranging the display and being on hand daily for the show. Many thanks to the Guild members who took their turns hosting the show, to Wendy Wagner who prepared treats for both Open Houses at the beginning and the end of the show, and especially to Rob Oldale for a terrific job of organizing our first show. Everyone who attended, agreed that the show display was beautiful.
Woodwork Showcase displays
Our Annual General Meeting in November provided us with the new Executive for the coming year. Tony Dobson, Steve Neil and Bob Armstrong have finished the maximum three year terms allowable, and our new Executive has Dave Workman as President, Bill Beese as Secretary, Thorne Underwood as Treasurer, Paul McCuish as Vice-President – Membership, Glen Smith as Vice-President – Programs, Ed Tremblay as Wood Recovery Chair, and Peter Clement as Librarian. (Tony Dobson will continue as “Past President” and replace Bob Armstrong, who was the elected “Member-at-Large”.)
The Wood Recovery Program has really taken off, and many members have volunteered their time to build the Wood Recovery Storage Shed along the back wall of the Frost Fields’ barn. Meanwhile many logs have been donated, and Peter Hentze has been very busy cutting varieties of sized boards for drying – assisted by more willing Guild members. With beech logs from Thorne Underwood, two spruce logs and 6 Douglas fir logs from Tony Dobson (only 3 trees actually logged, so he is still within his City required limit), and City of Nanaimo-donated maple, a large cedar, and a huge historical Arbutus (germinated in 1800, according to the ring count) we now have a very substantial supply of wood. A wood sale will probably be conducted in January. As a further bonus, Peter installed a drying kiln at Frost Fields, and was able to kiln-dry the London Plane tree, donated by Thorne Underwood to 12% moisture content in about 4 weeks! In addition, the Guild purchased a trailer load of previously air-dried wood which will be available to members or for donation to the High Schools.
Our upcoming presenters at our next two General Meetings are Steve Neil, who will be demonstrating hand-cut dovetails this Wednesday, December 12 – with the assistance of a very handy jig that he has created, and at our January 9 meeting, Warren Bailey from Saanich will be showing us the fine art of repairing old and very valuable violins.
As usual we welcome visitors to our General Meetings, and hope that your interest is heightened enough to actually join us. Just a reminder to members that the annual fee for next year is now due (a measly $50!) and for anyone considering joining with us, you will need to add an initiation fee (once only) of $25.
We hope to see many of you, your family members and friends tomorrow (this Wednesday) at Nanaimo District Secondary School – Meeting Room A at 6:30 pm. (Map is on the web site at www.miwg.ca/meetings.) If you can’t make it, well then… I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a very happy holiday season, and I will look forward to seeing you in January.
Tony Dobson, Past President
