Where to even start. I grew up an Army brat so we moved quite a bit through the years and when I was 17 I enlisted as an Infantryman and spent 7 years on active duty followed by 3 in the National Guard. This was all pre September 11th. After my service I worked as a craps and poker dealer at Harrah's Casino for just under 4 years. However I began to grow tired of breathing second hand smoke among other issues and decided to use my GI Bill and go to school. While working on a degree in History I took a part time job as a waiter in a small Brewpub and one thing led to another and I ended up working as the assistant brewer for about 18 months before becoming the head brewer. I loved being in the brewery, not because there was beer to drink but because I loved the creative side of it all. Taking raw materials such as malted barley, hops and so forth and creating so many different things really appealed to me. We had 12 beers on tap of which 7 were rotating seasonals and that meant a lot of recipe formulation and trying new stuff. Before that point I had no idea that I was capable of creating things like I was doing and that led to me trying other hobbies. I took up crocheting & quilting as well experimenting with electronics such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduinos. However about 4 years into running the pub I developed a spinal cord injury which required fairly extensive surgery to repair and meant no more brewing as I needed at least 12 months of recovery during which time I developed an autoimmune disorder called Adhesive Arachnoiditis. Thankfully my wife works from home and has always been the real breadwinner. In 2009 my parents moved from the KC area to Sparta and we came down to visit. Whole we were here we feel in love with the area as well wanted out youngest to be near his grandparents. So when our oldest graduated the following year and enlisted in the Army, we packed up and moved to Sparta, where we currently reside down the hill from my parents. At some point I started watching YouTube videos of woodworking and starting seeing a lot of people working on lathes, which always seemed interesting to me. After doing some research I bought a small 10x18 lathe to get started and put together a small workshop under the house. It's only been about 8 months since I bought the lathe but I've happily been turning away and trying to learn as much as possible while I save to buy a larger lathe at some point.
I'm looking forward to meeting and learning from everyone here.
I'm looking forward to meeting and learning from everyone here.
