Bob Hutton
Nutcrackers, you say? Well, in season, of course!
Holiday season is coming right up! Okay, it may not seem like it when it’s 100 degrees outside or rainy, but time flies.
If you’ve been around the Agave Lounge in SaddleBrooke One for the holiday season, you’ve seen them by the fireplace, Herman and Klaus, standing guard, which is about all they do—just look pretty. They were showing signs of severe neglect. Actually, a haggard mess they were after (how many?) years of being stuffed into storage each year after their tour of duty. Battered, bumped and bruised, chipped and scuffed—about how I feel some mornings.
Last year they were made sparkly-fresh. Many, many hours were spent stripping and sanding them, repairing and renewing their worn exteriors, and painstakingly painting them. Now they look like new, standing there so proud! That much work must have cost a fortune!
And it would have, except for the SaddleBrooke One and TWO Woodworkers Club. Their members, and particularly two of their members (Mark Erickson and John Hardin), donated their time and the materials needed to do this magic, sanding decades of paint and filling ugly defects, weeks of work, bringing them back to their original beauty, or surpassing their original luster—I wouldn’t know. Not many of us have been here as long as these holiday sentries have been on duty.
So, this year, give the old soldiers their due. Enjoy them standing there, working so hard.
And if you get a chance, thank the Woodworkers Club in your own way. Just think what that club will be able to accomplish when they actually have a woodshop! “They don’t have a workplace?” you ask. That’s right, not only was this project carried out for a “free-to-you” cost, it was all done in a private home workshop. The SaddleBrooke One Board is actively working to remedy this overlooked situation by building a woodshop in the near future. The several hundred interested men and women woodworkers in SaddleBrooke One and TWO say, “Yay!”
Maybe I could get the club to spruce me up a bit? No, that’s way beyond their abilities!
The club meets in the Saguaro Room in the Mountainview complex the first Tuesday of each month at 2 p.m. Come join us if you’re interested. For more info about the club, email [email protected].