Tag Archives: master craftsman

Ghost Ranch, Day 2: Lessons from A Renovation Project

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Striving

January 9, 2024, Ghost Ranch- Little things are often huge.

 The biggest thing I did today was a tiny one-bordering an area that was 1/5″ wide, 15′ from ceiling to floor. This was prep for the caulking of a small gap. Otherwise, I was running an oscillating sander to smooth the walls we will paint. Speaking of the sander. It has two handles for a reason. Hold onto both, when operating a sander, much as you would with a chainsaw. Unplug the tool, before changing the sandpaper.

Not enough can be said, in renovating, as in living, for a place for everything and everything in its place. It’d be all too easy to leave rolls of masking tape, boxes of screws, hammers, screwdrivers and cardboard boxes lying in any old spot. I am a control freak, in that regard, tending to foresee a co-worker falling on the floor, if the area is not kept clear.

Turning a sink upside down is the best way to trace its outline on a paper template, for matching sink with countertop. Those who try to just push the sink into a cut-out countertop have been known to waste $150. My co-workers turned the sink upside down and traced its outline on the template. Tomorrow, they will match sink with countertop, in the only way that works.

When cleaning a paint brush, use a painter’s comb, running it through the brush, whilst rinsing it under warm running water. Then scrub the handle, brush girdle and the brush fibers with a wire scrubber. Clean all the paint, even that which was left from previous projects, off the brush. Scrub the stir stick with the wire scrubber, the same way. Include the sides of the brush handle and stir stick, in this cleaning. Pat the brush and stir stick dry, before using them again.

These are things one can learn from a master craftsman. These are things that I once knew, but needed to be reminded. These are things that are among those that I need to know, if the direction I sense my life is going, is what pans out. It was a good day.

Carmine

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Striving

August 17, 2022- It was the Spring of 1976. The nation, and the community of my youth, were in the aftermath of the upheavals of the VietNam War, the Civil Rights struggle-which by then included campaigns for the rights of women, gay people and the disabled, and Watergate. I was a newly graduated, minted and struggling substitute teacher-working mostly in the schools that I had attended in my childhood.

One morning, a small group of male students had completed their assignments and were quietly playing cards in the middle of the room. The door opened, and an authoritative voice instructed me to take the deck of cards, and that there would be no more such activity in that high school. I was told later that allowing such activity in a classroom diminished my worth to the school district, and “of course, will not happen again.” A lesser man might have let me go; but he knew that I needed to build my skills, not fade away in a heap of disrepute.

The quiet, traditionalist man who was the Assistant Principal at that time was not a roving dictator, out to quash personal freedom. He was, arguably, one of the most engaged school administrators I’ve ever known, and served as a model for my own efforts in that field, later in my career.

He was a master woodworker, a true craftsman, who believed that details matter. His furniture pieces and carpentry are known today as worthy of emulation by young craftsmen in the Boston area and beyond. His homes, and those of his two daughters, are replete with that quality work, as are Saugus Town Hall and Public Library. He built a vacation home for his family, from scratch, refining his welding and plumbing skills in the process. Until very recently, he used his nonagenarian years to teach other senior citizens the skills of craftsmanship.

The worth of a human being is not fully realized until it is time for the soul to go on. Carmine C. Moschella was, in the true sense, a father figure to many rising young people, craftsmen and educators alike. Funny, he actually resembled my own father, in appearance and in demeanor. His worth was, and is, enormous-as my Dad’s was.

Rest in plenitude, diligent servant.