Adventures in Woodworking

I would never dream of referring to myself as a carpenter. To me, a carpenter is an artist that creates beauty out of wood. A few strokes with their magical saw (wand) and POOF: Gorgeous furniture.
No, I am not a carpenter, but merely the lowly undeserving level of woodworker. I can work in wood and create things. That is about it.
I find wood to be easier to gravel with than fiberglass. You start with a product before you that brings its own strengths and properties. Fiberglass seems like black magic where you throw a soft cloth and a wet goop together to create a solid structure! I prefer wood. Mechanical fasteners present the results faster than waiting for resins to cure, and the structure comes to life before your eyes.
Best of all, and my favorite part, is when you oil the wood to bring out the grain. The hidden patterns in the blonde wood, where winter and summer rings all blend together in the blah ness of the woods face spring to life! The light and dark rings are accentuated and run among the surface of the board with fanciful patterns. Once the oil has been soaked in and the wood seems happy, the ast step is to apply spar varnish. Real varnish. The kind that is made out of tree resins that are dissolved in oils. The kind of stuff that is made from trees for the specific purpose of being put back into trees once they have been processed into furniture. The kind that belongs in wood.
I know the head will never see the light of day, its only access to the outside will be through a tiny hatch in the cabintop which lets air into this small room in the boat. While it will never be outside in this beautiful world we are traveling, it will get to travel this beautiful world. Every time I need to use the head, I will get to look at the structure that we made from trees grown in the Azores, and built in Terceira, our home for a year.