SPLINTERS

Tennessee Valley Woodworkers
 

   Vol. 20/ Issue 12                    December 2005                       Editor: Tom Gillard Jr. 


Meeting Notice:
The next meeting of the TN Valley Woodworkers
Will be held, December 20th. at 7:00 p.m. in the
 Duck River Electric Building, Decherd, TN
All interested woodworkers are invited!


The following people have agreed to serve as contacts for their particular skills.  If you have questions, suggestions for activities, or other comments relating to these skills, please call these folks.  Their interest is to help the club better serve their area of expertise.  Your participation with them will help them achieve that goal.

  Tom Cowan    967-4835    Design       Phil Bishop         967-4626    Finishing
Tom Church   967-4460   Turning           Harry May          962-0215     Carving
Bob Reese      728-7974   Sharpening       Ross Roepke   455-9140       Jointery
Maurice Ryan  962-1555   Health and Safety

List of Club Officers

                                                                        President:          Loyd Ackerman
                                                                       V. President:        Tom Cowan
                                                                        Secretary:          Chuck Taylor
                                                                        Treasurer:          Henry Davis
                                                                        Publicity:          Larry Bowers
                                                                        Webmaster:    Richard Gulley
                                                                        Newsletter Editor:  Tom Gillard Jr.

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Please remember, in your thoughts and prayers, all of the Military Troops serving our country.


Calendar of Events:

Coming next month


NEW BUSINESS:
The election of officers is scheduled for this meeting. The nominating committee chairman, Henry Davis, announced the slate of officers for 2006.
They were as follows:
                                                                    President:   Loyd Ackerman
                                                                    Vice-Chairman:    Tom Cowan
                                                                    Secretary:   Bob Lowrance
                                                                    Treasurer:   Henry Davis
                                                                    Publicity:   Larry Bowers
                                                                    Newsletter Editor: Chuck Taylor

The floor was opened for nominations, resulting in no additional nominees. A motion was made by Bob Reese to elect the recommended slate of officers by acclamation. The motion was seconded by Bob Leonard. The motion passed, thus electing the 2006 slate of officers.


Notice for the Treasure:

         $$   IT'S DUES TIME  $$

It's time to pay our club dues again.  Once again because of your generous contributions to our yearly auction, some income from the coffee fund and our ever growing membership we can keep our dues at the low price of $10.00 for single membership and $15.00 for family membership.   Our Treasurer ask that when you pay your dues you sign the paid list, this way he has a record that you have paid.  He also wants to thank the 95% of you that pay your dues in a timely manner.  To the 5%  that just don't get around to taking care of their dues, along about March you are endanger of being dropped from the membership list, so if for some reason you cannot pay your dues before next March please contact our Treasurer.  If you wish you can mail your dues to our Treasurer.  His address is:
 Henry Davis
247 Delight Lane
Tullahoma, Tn 37388


NEED A NAME TAG ?

Henry is getting a list together of those members that want Club name tags.
The Tags are $5.00 each.  Give Henry your name at the meeting or contact him at 393-3191 or email at hdavis@cafes.net .


SHOW AND TELL:

Maurice Ryan brought a spalted maple bowl (his first one) and a cedar box that he made for a friend.

Chuck Taylor brought a series of small turned lidded boxes and a potpourri bowl he made for family gifts.

Henry Davis displayed two bowls. One of the bowls was made from a piece of Atlas cedar from the Belvedere area, given to him by Tom Gillard. The other bowl was spalted maple from his back yard.

Bob Leonard showed a detailed fire truck made from twenty different species of wood. He also brought a small paper rack.

Karen Kerce brought a spalted red maple bowl and a sampling of pens made from red maple scrap.

Jim Van Cleave displayed a birdhouse, a cherry serving tray and a carving (utilizing wood filler).

Doyle McConnell brought a “scroll saw” mirror made from curly maple, a compact with a maple inlay and oak burl pens made for Christmas gifts.

Steve Shores brought some carved/burned feathers and a detailed basswood carving.

Bryan King displayed a series of hand planes he had made from “kits”.

Bob Reese brought his 17th violin, taking two years for completion of the beautiful instrument. It is a copy of a 1948 instrument.

Matt Brothers showed some video clips of his latest project, a solid walnut buffet with beaded trim on the drawers.

David Matthews showed a plaque (one of forty-five made for fellow solders during his tour of Iraq) made of Purple Heart wood from Saddam’s personal supply and pictures of other projects he completed during his tour of duty. He also sang a song, “Back in the Hills of Tennessee” which he had written.


Wasn't that a wonderful Christmas Party/20 anniversary party?

Winners of the Christmas Party Door Prizes
Ross Roepke
&
Dan Maher

There was a total of 81 members and guests in attendance at the Dinner. 1       2

Richard sang the triditional " Ol Holy Night"

Pictures of some of the give-away items  1     2

Loyd presented the program
 


December Program
The program this month will be an expanded Show and Tell, where club members are encouraged to bring and show some of their early work and some of their more recent productions.  PLEASE bring something that you have made!

There is also going to be a progarm...


The Strychnine Tree
A much-maligned species that helped curb the plague

When bubonic plague, transmitted by rat-riding fleas, swept across Asia and Europe in the mid-14th century, physicians could do little but comfort the sick and dying. Before strychnine poison helped curb the epidemic by killing the rats, roughly half of Europe's population perished.

The strychnine tree (Strychnos nux vomica), native to Southeast Asia and Australia, provides benefits other than varmint control. The people of Southeast Asia used limbs and boards cut from this tree to build their huts and to fence animals. Primitive hunters made arrow poison for hunting from the bark, roots, and disc-like seeds in the tree's fleshy orange-red berries.

In the 1800s, physicians added small amounts of strychnine to tonics as a stimulant, even though it's so bitter it can be tasted in concentrations of one part per 400,000. This powerful drug may have gotten its start killing game, but today doctors prescribe controlled doses to increase muscular activity and as a antidote for alcohol and drug poisoning.

Illustration: Jim Stevenson



Planting Balled Saplings
How to plant balled and burlap saplings.

Important: Saplings should not be soaked prior to planting. In most cases you do not need to remove the burlap (remove strings/strapping) but you do need to clip roots circling the outside of the root ball and/or on bottom. Never fertilize in planting hole!
 


Illustration Courtesy of Vestavia Hills Tree Commission

   1.     Dig a hole 2 to 5 times wider than the root ball.  In the bottom and center of the hole, leave a planting base  of     undisturbed soil.
   2.     Put the root ball on undisturbed soil flush to 2" over the top of the hole.
   3.     Hold tree while backfilling with dirt and soil minus large clods.
   4.     Remove grass and weeds within 6 inches of tree bole.
   5.     With excess soil, build small berm around hole to saucer water toward roots.
   6.     Water and mulch.



See you on the 20th.
 


 
 



I want to thank everyone for all the help that I have had over the years in putting this newsletter together. I have had a good time working on it.  If you give Chuck all the help you gave me he won’t have any problems at all.
Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
Tom



 
 

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