Spotlite on Caleb Packard

Caleb is 12 years old and a Deacon in the church.  As most of the family knows, Caleb loves to play and of all the grandkids, he is probably the most like me.  Sorry Caleb, but, the facts are the facts.   It is hard to get him interested in the kinds of stuff that we all would like him to be interested in.  B U T- Some changes are happening that started about a month ago and maybe a little before that.   Caleb came to me and asked if I would let him come to the barn and teach him to do a little wood work---WOW!!  was I excited to hear this.......So, we talked about what kind of project that he would like to do.  He decided that he would like to make a small  (about 8" X 10" X 6")   junk box for a friend of his and put his friends initials on it.  So I picked him up one morning and we went to Riverside to the hardwood store.  Him and I looked at all the hardwood from the comon stuff like maple, oak, mohagany, cherry, walnut and we looked at all the specialty woods from other countries.  We felt the wood and smelled the wood and looked at the different grains.  Caleb picked out some African Paduak (bright orange wood) and some Cedar.  He wanted to combine the woods to make this box.  Then we went back to the barn and got to work.

Caleb learned all the safety issues and how to use the table saw, the radial arm saw, the scrol saw, belt sanders, the 12' disc sander, the orbital spindal sander and all the hand tools--he learned very quickly and I think he has quit a tallent for wood.  I told him that a large part of wood work is enjoying the smell of the fresh cut wood and the saw dust on the floor and these things are very important parts of wood work.

Caleb learned to use the router to make dovetail joints for the corners of his box and did very well.  he learned how to glue and put the sides and end pieces together using clamps.  He also learned the  importance of the different grits of sang paper and the effects they have on the wood.
Caleb learned how to in-set the initials of his friend into the lid of the box and using a different kind of wood so that it kinda stood out.   He also wanted a 1" strip of cedar wood in the sides and ends of the box for contrast and it looked very nice.

You can't see them very well, but caleb made feet to go on the bottom of the box that raised the box off the surface about 1 inch.  Then he put a little brass knob on the lid and brass hinges.  This is the finished product and I thought he did a great job in only 2 days in the barn.

N O W  I will tell you a little about Calebs other exciting things that he is doing.  Caleb went to Wrestling Camp at Chapman University in Fullerton.  He checked in and started workouts and spent 5 days learning all he could about wrestling (Caleb is very strong for his size and age).   Then after a gruling week, he competed in the tournament.  There was about 200 other wrestlers.  Caleb pined his first two matches but lost the last one and got a 2nd place ribbons.  Not too bad for his very first tournament and we were all very proud.  He competed like a champion and held his head up high.  I think he will be a great wrestler with a little more experience.  I hope he sticks with it and competes in high school in a year or two.

Caleb Has just started his first year of football.  He should be a real asset to the team and we can hardly wait to see him play.

GO GET EM CALEB!!!!!