My name is Ron Southard and our museum/shop/gallery is Moser Legacy.  I am 70 years old.  My wife Carole and I have been together for 26 years and we live in central Colorado very near the Continental Divide at 8,000 ft above sea level and geographically almost directly in the center of the state.   I am not a veteran of military service but have a deep admiration, appreciation and respect for those who are.   Nor am I, really, a woodworker although I aspire to be one.  What I am perhaps is a compulsive artist, designer and entrepreneur.   But a woodworker?? … at best a hobby woodworker, a beginning wood carver, and a furniture making wannabe.   We are trying to operate as a  sustainable business, it would be nice to at least be able to pay the overhead!  

After having been introduced to woodworking in my father's basement shop on the farm in Iowa, and taking the standard "shop classes" in high school, I spent 5 years at Iowa State, and the next 45+ years doing my career thing.   Career consisted of +/-20 years in the heavy and highway construction business and another 25+ years in the architectural and engineering design and business development.   We retired in 1991 … and several times since; “retirement†per se apparently isn’t going to “takeâ€. 

When we acquired the Moser shop, I promised my wife that I would do my best to extract myself from all the other businesses and ventures and spend the rest of my life doing just Moser Legacy. It is our mission to do whatever we can to preserve the craft and trade of woodworking and furniture making.   Our shop is a 1915 vintage furniture manufacturing shop (the L. O. Moser Furniture Company from Lynchburg, VA).  We acquired and moved the entire shop business to Buena Vista, Colorado in 2005.  It took us a while (4 yrs +/- part time effort) to set it up as close to identical to the original shop as possible.  And we wanted to preserve the historical essence of the shop and intact remnants of its product to every degree within our capabilities.  I have been working in the shop now for about 4 years, much of the time is still spent restoring equipment, sorting through memorabilia from the company archives, organizing artifacts and documentation, and hosting museum tours of the showroom and shop.  And a substantial amount of time is spent simply trying to learn the craft required to operate the shop authentically.

Thank you very much for allowing me to be a part of your group.

A hearty welcome, Ron.

Lovely country you've moved to. 

Best of luck in your worthy endeavors. 

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

We are all so glad you're here, Ron! Looking forward to seeing photographs of the shop/museum.

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Ron - welcome aboard.  We would love to see some pictures of the shop you are restoring.

Hmmmmmmmm, you living on the Western Continental Divide and I live on the Easter Continental Divide, we have something in common.  And to think that every member living between you and me dump into the Gulf of Mexico ! ! !  Just a little trivia there.

Again, welcome

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

Hello there Ron. Sounds like you have quite a bit of work ahead, but when it's something you love doing, it makes it a lot less like work and a lot more like a hobby

After trying conventional wood carving when i was in my teens, I decided that it just wasn't for me. It was only after a friend had sent me a pen that he had made in 2009/10, that i found my passion, a passion for wood turning, and have been at it ever since . I don't just do pens anymore, I was warned by Lew and a few others that it would be like that

After spending many years in Greeley, Steamboat Springs and Aurora I now find myself in Central Arkansas. I really liked Colorado, but after being snowed in 2 years straight in 2001 and 2002, I decided that it was time to put myself in an area that didn't see as much snow. I moved here to Arkansas in the spring of 2003 and have been here since. There may be one more move sometime in the future to FL. but that remains to be seen.

Looking forward to seeing pictures from the museum. Thank you again for joining us.

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Ron, we are so glad you joined us, that is such cool thing you have done! Maintaining that ol shop and all.

Ron, is this the same family that perhaps produced famed furniture maker Thomas Moser?

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

Apparently only a distant relative if at all.   When I asked the Lynchburg Mosers about it, they said they thought there was a relationship but very distant and not commonly known among their family.   

John Morris said:

Ron, we are so glad you joined us, that is such cool thing you have done! Maintaining that ol shop and all.

Ron, is this the same family that perhaps produced famed furniture maker Thomas Moser?

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker