I especially enjoyed hearing from Dave Godlewski in Spokane recently. Turns out he’s another hiker/traveler/cook…and woodworker. We’re brothers in sawdust! (Though his projects seem more ambitious than mine.)
Dave’s lifelong adventure starts after getting his MA in geology, soon after Hamilton, and landing a job as a young field geologist working for a Canadian mining company.
“The best job in the world!” he says. “They gave me the keys to a 4WD pickup and an expense check, and turned me loose in the American West to find something.” Click on the photos to enlarge them. Hover to reveal a caption or two.
Dave retired in 2014 “after 30 years of tramping around the world for Teck, LTD.” After retiring, Betsy (still “the love of my life” after 34 years) promoted Dave to chief cook in the family kitchen, where he is perfecting his Paella and deliberating over the next mountain peak he will climb.
On Woodworking...
"My woodworking springs from [my need to] build a set of kitchen cabinets for my first house back in the early ‘80s. They turned out pretty well and I was hooked. (Unfortunately, I was transferred to Reno soon thereafter, never getting to really enjoy the cabinets!)
"I built up some tools but with a growing family and not much cash I could not afford to buy a lot, so I turned to used hand tools which were pretty cheap in those days. I still favor hand tools but I am a hybrid woodworker in fact (ripping a board by hand is a real pain).
One of my first projects was a workbench. I wanted a real European style bench with tail and face vises. Again I could not afford quality hardwood so I scavenged old pallets for oak. I was able to get the trestle base and the end vise finished before being transferred again to Spokane. The bench sat unfinished for almost 20 years as work and family consumed time and energy.
To make a long story shorter, I finally finished the bench when retired. I then thought that I needed a chest to hold my handtools, so I built that next. Now I build small furniture for ourselves and the kids, but mostly what I do is make sawdust.
One signature event in my evolution was a gift from my family to Tom Moser’s Customer in Residence program. You get a week at Tom’s workshop in Maine working with one of his cabinet makers to build a piece of furniture. It turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, I highly recommend it if one is interested in woodworking.