Mike Gibbons sits on a bench he built with the help of his wife.
There are many things you can mention to me. If any of this is bad, please keep it to yourself. But few people call me a carpenter.
I've never been good. When I was in seventh grade, I had a workshop. Our big class project is to build a type of old wagon. They gave me a chair.
I had no idea what a backboard was, and Google was 25 years away, so I had to go the old-fashioned way and ask my teacher, Mr. Scanlon, a simple question: "Now what?" He said "laurel wood, "As if I'm the only one in the world who doesn't know what it is. Since I was born in 1972 and not 1872, I guess it makes sense that I didn't know this when I was 13.
I finally discovered that the handle was a small horse-drawn carriage. After a few weeks of working on the project, I produced what I thought could technically be a board. But let's put it this way: If you get the contract to build the wagon before the westward expansion, we have an opportunity to go to Ohio.
Because of this experience, I have not worked as a carpenter since. I didn't like it and was horrified. This is great news for hobby skippers.
You may be wondering what brought me to this woodworking project I volunteered for. We have a cabin in the woods that we love to visit, hike the trails, and enjoy the outdoors. My dad said he would like to have benches along the various trails as great places to stop, relax and enjoy the nature around us. He said a Leopold bench would be a nice touch. Like the chair, I don't know what Leopold's chair is. However, from the start of Google, I quickly learned that it is a fairly simple ornament idea popularized by the well-known environmentalist Aldo Leopold.
A quick internet search reveals many bench plans and they actually look pretty simple. I told my wife we should build it. The response was: "We?" His skepticism is understandable. He has seen me work on various home improvement projects over the years. For what it's worth, my DIY skills aren't much better than my carpentry skills. I said, "I promise I won't be angry at all." He looked at me with a suspicious smile. But he accepts.
We went to buy various things needed to make benches. I had my husband read the instructions, measure the wood and mark where the cuts needed to be made. I do it because my wife is very good at it. I'm a "one size fits all, two people, get off the project" person.
We cut firewood in no time. After a while, we packed everything. And just like that, boom, Leopolds Bank.
OK, this is not a short order. It took us a few hours as we had to figure a few things out along the way and might have to make a few more trips to the hardware store to pick up a few things. He gave me a gold star for not getting angry when we hit some bumps along the way.
The first bench was one meter wide. After we brought him to our country, it became clear that he was the perfect match and that we needed more. So my wife and I decided to go back to work. We were visiting my parents and had an unplanned afternoon. I went to the hardware store and bought some plywood and we started building. We built three more benches, each taking less time than the previous one. One is five feet, two is four feet. Now they are waiting for hikers in the forest to give them some time to relax and enjoy nature.
I'm glad we were able to build a bench, and I've made some progress in my carpentry skills over the past three decades. Admittedly, I'm still a long way from stick fighting.
Mike Gibbons was born and raised in Aiken and currently resides in Mount Pleasant. A graduate of the University of Alabama, you can email him at sccmgibbons@gmail.com.
