I wish I could be this talented....

So I needed to show off a bit in this post -- show off a bit of my grandpa's talent. At 75 years old my grandpa has lived a wonderful life in the outdoors and loving to do things with his hands. Since retiring he has always searched for ways to entertain himself. In that search, the back section of his second garage has become his own little Wood Shop. He has purchased a few different valuable tools, but also has made some very neat tools (like his homemade electric sander) with scrap pieces of things that were laying around. He has always loved being in the outdoors, and between the woods in the back yard, as well as the 80 acres at his camp he has access to a lot of trees. To decrease costs he cuts and plains his own wood and builds many different things. In fact, some nights when he is tossing and turning in bed, he just thinks of what else he can build. By 4:30 am he is out in the Wood Shop crafting a new creation. He's made my sister a dresser, hope chest, rocking chair for Cayden, as well as shelving for her basement. It's not as easy to get things out to Seattle but here are some things that he's made for us:



This is a clock that he makes (other than the face). Once he discovered how to make these he practically started mass producing them.


This is made with 5 different types of wood. It is a utensil holder for our kitchen. Typically it holds spatulas and wooden spoons - including this spoon that is shown which Grandpa made. He wasn't sure how to get the curve into the spoon at first, but I'd say he did a great job.

To match the utensil holder, we asked if he could possibly make us a little candy jar. This has always been one of Sarah's favorites - both because they look really nice together in our kitchen and, probably most importantly, it typically always has chocolate in it. Again, this piece was made with 5 different kinds of wood.



This is a pencil holder for our desk. This was during a time when he was running low on ideas so he started to think of different things that we could possibly use. He told me it could also work as a beer mug, but I'm not so sure I'd like the flavor of the beer when it mixes with the varnish.

These pieces are very similar so I'm posting them together. We now have a toilet paper roll holder and paper towel holder.



This latest piece is awesome. One day my mom called and asked if I had any ideas for grandpa. Of course Sarah and I would love to have a hope chest and a dresser, but how would we get it out here? But then one day Sarah mentioned to me that a jewelry box would be nice. However, she said she didn't want to disregard grandpa's talent, but she wouldn't just want a box, but would want it to look nice on the inside and outside. When Grandpa heard about this he said to my mom, "I don't know what a jewelry box looks like. How am I supposed to do something like that?" Well he is one of the strongest men that I know and you can't tell him he can't do something. As it was, I'm sure he was tossing and turning in bed that night trying to think of how to make this jewelry thing. Luckily the next day he and Grandma were going to Fleet Farm and Sam's Club so he figured between the 2 he could probably find one that was for sale to envision the design. I'd say he did quite well! Sarah loves this piece.