My Woodfinder page This will not be half as interesting as you'd hoped. Born and raised in St. Louis since 1957, I discovered woodworking by buying an unfurnished house. A neighbor had a nice table that Susan and I both complimented; he said he "made" it from a kit. I assembled and finished more than a dozen furniture kits from Bartley's Collection and Shaker Workshops (both which I can recommend) before it occurred to me to make the components myself first. My learning has all come from those museum reproductions, books and sites like this one. When it came time to build my workbench, the dust generated convinced LOML that ww'g is an outdoor sport. So I moved into our two bay detached garage and make the occasional small item or two. Shop time has decreased since I founded Lumber Logs, St. Louis' urban log recycler. As I searched and learned about sourcing lumber, I found out how much waste occurred with urban timber. I bought a log truck and partnered up with Joe, who spends full time picking up downed logs ("free log disposal" for the local tree care industry) and we see that the wood gets a more noble end than being buried or burned. I kept my day job as an investment broker. Maybe 97% of what we get is pallet or blocking grade, while a portion of the rest gets sawn for us and we sell as lumber. This has turned out to be a very effective way of improving my wood stash. ;-)