Burro Viejo Woodworking

Burro Viejo Newsletter        September 2010

Welcome to the Burro Viejo Newsletter.

 Ol' Burro's Almanack

Dear Readers,

Your Ol' Burro has gone gallivanting about the countryside, To see about finding new ideas for my customers, says he, but I know with a certainty, that more often than not, he will be a-wasting time with his woodworking friends, and swapping shop stories.

He left his manuscript for this month's newsletter, sealed in an envelope, and asked me as he was scampering out the door, to send it to his typist. I got a whiff of something suspicious about this, and once he was down the road, dancing a merry jig I might add, opened it to see if he had scurrilous things to say about me.  

Sure enough, I was proven correct! Right there in his preface, he said that I, his most beloved, adored, and wonderful wife was this, that, and the other! What a prime catch of malarkey! Can I not have a tiny fault or two, but that all of his readers must see them in print?! They have already been told that I am proud, that I can be a bit loud, but now of all things, that now I have taken a liking to good coffee. I had gotten some as a gift last Christmas (from himself no less!), what was I to do, throw it out?

In short, I thought that this month's almanack was not worth the typing, and scribbled it all out. I had designs to make other changes to the almanack than this, as I have had the horrible luck to have broken my reading glasses, and which obliges me to give you the rest of the almanack as he had written it, and conclude,

                             your loving friend,

                                Mrs. Ol' Burro

Ol' Burro's Poser

Since eclipses take up so little space, I have room to comply with the new requests and propse a mathematical question to the sons and daughters of woodworking. It is this....

A certain rich man had 100 farms, each farm was 100 acres, on each acre are 100 white oak trees, each white oak tree was large enough to yield 100 boards. Question, how many were quatersawn? The answer to this question won't be accepted without the solution.

 Ol' Burro's Advice

Buy what you have no need for,

and before long, you will be selling

your necessaries.

If you would not be forgotten,

as soon as you are dead and rotten,

take as many photos as thou wilt,

to prove what you have built.

If you cut as you should not,

you will have a part you won't want.

Time is the herb that cures all finishes.

There is much difference between

imitating a master woodworker,

and counterfieting him.

Wink at the small faults of others,

for thou hast made great ones.

After wasting a great amount of lumber,

pause for a while.

He that falls in love with his own work,

will soon have no rivals.

Let your first workshop lesson be caution,

and the second may be what you want.

Be not cheap, of what costs you nothing.

Ol' Burro's 10 Shop Virtues

1. Temperance - drink not, prior to working in your shop.

2. Silence - shout not, upon entering a shop, as one may be using the table saw.

3. Order - let all of your tools have their place, and each part of your project have it's time.

4. Resolution - resolve to perform a set number of tasks, perform without fail, what you resolve to do.

5. Frugality - waste not the least offcut, it may come in use elsewhere.

6. Industry - waste no time contemplating a future project, while working on the one at hand.

7. Sincerity - use no hurtful deciet in dealing with customers, or suppliers.

8. Cleanliness - a tidy shop, is an efficient shop.

9. Tranquility - be not disturbed at trifles, or miscuts common, or unavoidable.

10. Humility - always remember to accept praise humbly, as there will always be somone else's work you will be in awe of.