There are many things you can name me. And if that means, well, then please keep it to yourself. But for one thing, few people will call me a carpenter.
I've never been good at it. When I was in seventh grade, I took shopping classes. Our high school project was to build something like an old-fashioned delivery truck. They gave me advice.
Mike Gibbons sits on a bench he built with the help of his wife.
I had no idea what a whiteboard was and Google was still 25 years old, so I had to go the old-fashioned route and ask my teacher, Mr. Scanlon, a simple question. "And now?" "A plank," he said, like I was the only one on the planet who didn't know what it was. Since I was born in 1972 and not 1872, I think it's reasonable not to know when I'm 13.
At some point I learned that the board was a small horse-drawn carriage. After working on the project for a few weeks, I created what I technically consider a board. But let's put it this way. If I had been in charge of automobile manufacturing prior to westward expansion, we would have been lucky to go to Ohio.
Because of this experience, I never worked with wood again after that. I didn't find it pleasant, and I was rightly appalled. This is too good news to ignore this hobby.
You may be wondering what brought me to the latest woodworking project I volunteered for. We have a cabin in the woods that we enjoy visiting, hiking the trails and observing nature. My dad said he would like benches along the different trails to stop, rest and just enjoy the nature around us. He mentioned that he thought the Leopold benches were a good idea. I didn't know that Leopold's bench looked like a plank. However, since starting Google, I quickly realized that this was a fairly simple ornament idea made famous by the famous environmentalist Aldo Leopold.
A quick internet search turned up many deck plans, and they actually looked pretty simple. I told my wife that we should build. His answer was "we?" His skepticism was understandable. He has seen me work on various home improvement projects over the years. However, my DIY skills aren't much better than my carpentry skills. I said. "I promise I won't be disappointed at all." He looked at me with a suspicious smile. But he agreed.
We bought various things that we needed to build a bench. I had my wife read the instructions, measure the wood and mark where the cuts should be. I did it because my wife is very good at these things. However, I'm a "measure once, cut twice, abandon the project" person.
We cut wood in no time. Shortly thereafter we dismantled everything. And just like that, boom, Leopolds Bank.
Well, it wasn't a short order. It took us a couple of hours because we needed to sort out a few things along the way and maybe make a few extra trips to the hardware store to buy a few things. He gave me a gold star for not giving up when we hit a few roadblocks along the way.
The first bench was three meters wide. After bringing it to our country, it became clear that this is the perfect match and we need more. So my wife and I decided to go back to work. We were visiting my parents and spent the day without any plans. I went to a hardware store and bought triple size lumber and we started building. We ended up doing three more benches, each taking less time than the previous one. One was five feet tall and two were four feet. Now they are waiting in the forest for tourists who reward them with rest and time to enjoy nature.
I'm glad we were able to build benches and I've definitely made progress in my carpentry skills over the past three decades. Of course I can't sit anywhere else.
