After a couple of months here, Nigel has slotted in like a hand in a glove. He takes Granville for a walk along the road daily. He chats with many people during those walks. I guess you could say that he is becoming a bit of a fixture.
On some of those walks his destination is the wood-working shed where he has been working on crafting a table. He is not working at great speed because there are other tasks around the shed that needed attention.
When it rained, the water leaked in under a gap at the door.
This is not good when there is plenty of electrical equipment in use, with their power cords lying on the floor.
To alleviate the situation, Nigel fashioned a length of wood into a water-dam.
Using some blue-skin, which is a rubbery, sticky adhesive that helps hold things in place and makes a really good seal against water, he fashioned a way to secure the wood at the door. This required careful and precise measuring. Surveyors can measure with accuracy. It seems that it’s a transferrable skill.
A blue-skin spray-on adhesive on the concrete made that surface tacky enough to secure a strip of fabric blue-skin to which he attached the length of wood.
It worked. At the next rain storm, the water did not leak under the door. It has remained water-tight since. The workshop has a dry floor, making it a safer place to work.
To ensure the water drained away from the door, Nigel and his buddy, William, dug a channel around the concrete slab at the entrance to the wood-working shed diverting the water to the sides of the building.
There’s more. Nigel borrowed a whipper-snipper from the ground-keepers and cleared the long grass from around the wood-working shed. It makes the front look neater, and a more receptive place to visit.
On a roll, he and William cleared the back of the wood-working shed, making it into a more enticing, neater place to work outside.
That’s where they sand the wood. It’s a creative spot, with the view towards the river.
On a grassy ledge just below the workshop there is a roughly styled fire pit.
The back of the wood-working shed is beginning to look like a relaxation and inspiration oasis while definitely remaining a work area- a necessary combination when creating artistic and precision work.
Both Nigel and William are working on projects,. William has several commissions for furniture, which he decorates with wood-burned etches of flora and fauna typical of the Great Bear Rainforest where we live.
Nigel is working on furniture for us. At the moment he is making a small table.
A small commission for a picture frame came his way. Perhaps there will be more commissions and our framing shingle will hang again.
He and William will work together on various projects from time to time. They are working on a gate requested by the day-care centre. Nigel has been working on the slats.
Together, they are rationalising their workplace. The inside is getting neater as the two men make sense of how the place can work effectively and efficiently. A couple of others have expressed interest in joining the two of them. Slowly, slowly a wood artisan workshop will develop here.
As Nigel settles in to daily life in Wuikinuxv, he is having fun, making pals, and he will come away with a new skill. All ’round excellent start I’d say.
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