Clean-Up!

Between Christmas and New year is often a good time for reflection and the best way for reflection is a really good cleanup! I was so busy in the last month trying to meet all of the deadlines and making sure I wasn't the bottleneck to others completing their work and keeping to schedule.

Putting tools away sharp and ready, sweeping my work areas, office and so on is probably one of my greatest rewards. Fewer emails and phone calls, calls from others I work with, gave me a freedom to be thorough and I recalled a year ago doing exactly the same thing. Emptying waste bins, bagging shavings and scraps for the chicken coup and the fireplaces of friends and neighbours is actually fun for me.

I even like to deliver them. If I don't have time I leave them outside the house leaning against the brick wall with a sign and four or five bags are all gone within just a few minutes. When I had a woodstove I fuelled my winter heat for free every year and kept my family warm without using a log saw or splitting stems and branches (which I always enjoyed too).

I think that this year has been an empowering year in so many years. Despite the restrictions, my workload increased by 25% at least. Making sure we kept people 'in school' was a challenge. I ended up doing my own videoing for a season and that was a learning curve for me, but I was driven and drive took me through. I face new challenges for this coming year but with so many hundreds of foundational videos under our belt, we have a sure and solid training library for everyone to learn from. This too amazes me. I recall making our first video series in my back garden in June 2012. It was yet another one of those, "We didn't know we couldn't do it so we did it!" We had two inexpensive camcorders to work with and we just did it! Over the 11-part series it's had over three million views and I remember at some point, when I saw that 25 people had viewed it, saying to Joseph, "Is this really a good way to reach people!" Hmm!

Of course, my goal then wasn't numbers but outreach with a message -- Yes you can make anything from wood with just a few hand tools. That has been my message for thirty-plus years to date and now, with almost half a million followers on YouTube and of course, my woodworking masterclasses courses, common woodworking and so on we are now able to reach many millions in a month around the world. Marvellous to think my work is so unending!

As I close my year with a good clean-up and session on tool maintenance my mind is racing ahead to 2021. I am about to start another rocking chair in January. A brand new design unseen anywhere except in my head and on my rough plans will come together over the coming weeks. This design is specifically for the houseful of furniture, a one-of-a-kind-design and a first in a series of dozens of pieces planned to become known shortly as Sellers home! I will be bringing you on the journey with me so don't worry about missing a step. Planification is not commonly used outside of French speakers. Planify and planifying are also used but minimally. The verb, planify simply means to plan but as I understand it also includes strategising. Planification is a noun refers simply to the actual process of planning and organising, a sort of economic organisation if you will; strategising! So here I am on my own in the workshop planifying my economic moves through the coming weeks as best I can. I am sure you will understand!