Be a Sponsor! This space can be yours for 59.99 per month! You will also occupy a prominent position on our Home Page. Please Donate to The Wounded Warriors     Video of the Week Wounded Warrior Project Profile of Shilo Harris. Click on the video to view Mr Harris and his story, he is one of our Wounded Warriors Representatives. He will also be receiving our Challenge Coin Displays to hand out to our troops at Brooke Army Medical Center. Weekly digest time, folks! Who's signing up, who's making waves and what's new? We're looking for a member to feature next week so get in touch if you know of someone you'd like to see highlighted! Don't forget to invite friends, colleagues and clients to the site - it's all about sharing! People to welcome Lots of new members signing up this week, special note going to the following: SQ or Suzie from Donald Oregon, she's on frequently and a pleasure to know! Arlin Eastman a Veteran and a woodworker with a cause, please check his page. Casey Capaz Active Duty Army, woodworker, and teacher at West Point. Say hello and get connected and see all our latest members here. Best of the week's CONTENT Rolling Pins Parts 1 through 7 - Lew Kauffman brings back his Rolling Pin Blogs and makes a big splash with his great photography and detailed "How To". Check out Lew's Celtic Knot Pins, they are way cool and a great project to add to your arsenal. Allen Worsham got some great tips on spraying General Finishes Endurovar. Karl Taylor has a really nice video on how to Use A Scrollsaw To Make A Decorative Box, make sure you see both parts of this series, 1 and 2! Fred Wilson's Chimes of Normandy will knock your socks off for the Photo of the Week. Charles Nichols discussion about taming his difficult bandsaw is very informative with his post titled Friday's Pain-Cutting Straight With a Bandsaw.   in focus My Wife Mrs.Tonya Morris  I asked my site hosts about who should be "In Focus" this week, and one of them suggested I feature my lovely wife Tonya. I must admit, I felt like a heel that I did not think of her for this spot. And the reason why I hadn't thought of her, is because like loved ones in our lives, day to day, we can sometimes take for granted the fact that they are there, everyday by our side. Tonya has been a Saint in all of this, she has put up with our site being a part of our daily lives for over a year now since I built The Patriot Woodworker. And she has put up with her husband on the phone with our members for sometimes hours a day addressing concerns about our site, helping folks get around, and collaborating with our site hosts on new ideas and projects for our site. She has sometimes become emotionally involved in the background when things were not going so well, and she has paid a price for her husband not being available at her beck and call as it was before our site was created. Sometimes I am sure Tonya has felt like she was second in line with the time I have spent on The Patriot Woodworker while building and improving our site. And she has soldiered through the whole ordeal knowing ultimately that her husband and the folks that help me daily on this site, are in it for the long haul, and we are here ultimately to help our Wounded Warriors anyway we can. You see, Tonya came to our great country the hard way, she immigrated as did millions of our ancestors, she waited in line, we paid the monetary price and the emotional toll it took on both of us as we were apart for months on end awaiting her Visa to be approved to arrive at the gates of our country. 15 years later in 2005 Tonya took the Oath of Citizenship and it was one of her proudest moments and mine. Tonya does not take her new country for granted, she knows what oppression looks like, she knows what a dictator can do to a people, she has seen poverty unlike any of us have ever seen, and she has personally witnessed brutality thrown upon a people by a ruthless dictator, and for this, she loves America, and for this, I can honestly say she appreciates The United States of America more then most natural born citizens could ever appreciate our land. Now to come back around why this is all important, Tonya is a fanatical supporter of our troops just as I am and just as our members here at The Patriot Woodworker are. For this, she gives her blessing for her husband to spend a little time each day away from family, and to be with my second family, our site hosts and the members here at The Patriot Woodworker, to help our troops and Wounded Warriors. For this Tonya, my wonderful wife, is "In Focus" Thank you my wife, I am a blessed man to have you by my side, and I am grateful you allowed me into your life 20 years ago that one wonderful day when I was a young soldier in your country. I am a lucky man indeed and our children are lucky to have a mother like you honey. Your the best! Do you know of a member that should be IN FOCUS? Contact Us. ANNOUNCEMENTS As you all know, we are in full swing with our 1000th member contest. Don't forget to invite all your friends, we have prizes for the members who invite the most friends over! The Challenge Coin Display Campaign No 3 is here and in full swing. If you would like to see how you can help us build these special displays for our Wounded Warriors please click on the following links. The Wounded Warrior Challenge Coin Display Build No.3 and Ways to Help Us During Our Challenge Coin Build. Thursday in the Woodshed was a success once again! The topic was Shop Safety and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We are in the process of fine tuning the hosting skills at The Woodshed, we are throwing around ideas on how to make the discussions more seamless. Being a Chat Host is one of the most difficult tasks a person can do, it takes all parts of the hosts brain to fire off all the time while they are fielding multiple Q and A's simultaneously. We have the best chat hosts on the net working on this. We are currently discussing what the next subject will be for The Woodshed coming on September 1st at 8pm Central time. I would like to give a big special thanks to Ron Dudelston and Wayne Mahler for hosting this really cool down home "Speak Easy"! Have a great week folks.   John Morris The Patriot Woodworker Â

 

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

Thanks for the very kind words, John!

 

Lew

Your blog is very informative Lew, it's our pleasure that you posted it here on The Patriot Woodworker! Thanks for your great work!


Lewis Kauffman said:

Thanks for the very kind words, John!

 

Lew

 

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

Very nice insight about your wife John. That is something we don't see the side of at all. It takes a alot to run this site as the owner and to have a wife who tolerates the hours you put in is really something. Thank you to your wife and family for letting you do this. bob

 

---

Bob Kloes
www.bobkloes.com

Great newsletter John. Give our best to Tonya.

---

John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Thanks guys, yes she is special indeed. One thing I forgot to highlite about my wife is she loves to turn pottery, so the arts and crafts bloodline runs deep in our family. When I can get up an inventory of crafts and woodworking, and Tonya can accumulate several pieces of pottery, we would like to experiment at our local open air market and see what we can move. I'd love to work side by side with my wife on this. Thanks for your kind comments. 

 

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker