About Me.

For over thirty years, I have made my living by working in the emergency medical services. It was all I wanted to do. I was only 18 years old when I first became an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and no one would hire me because I was too young to be added to their liability insurance…or at least that’s what I was told over and over. That led me to enlist in the Army (as a medic of course) and after my first assignment to Germany, I returned to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and finally found employment in EMS. I worked in the Chattanooga area as a paramedic for 17 years, and maintained my Army career as well, serving in the Army National Guard, to include two deployments to Iraq. In 2010, I accepted a position as the State EMS Director for Wyoming. After nearly 11 years in Wyoming, I accepted a position in Georgia, and relocated. Through a fortuitous set of circumstances, I resigned that position and now have been able to pursue a new career as an independent EMS consultant. That is affording me the opportunity to try my hand at turning Tumblewood into a real place of growth, peace, and sustainability

About My Woodworking.

I have always had a love of building things and I think I have always held a tool of some sort all my life. That doesn’t mean I was great at whatever I was working on, but I sure have had a lot of fun doing it! It wasn’t until my time in Wyoming that I had a real chance to set up a woodshop and start accumulating some nicer tools and really challenge myself with starting to build actual furniture and other projects. 

After 30 years of responding to other people’s emergencies and leading many groups of people along the way, going to the shop became a retreat and happy place for me. What I found was that the physical act of working on a project was so completely opposite of what I did for a living, that I could completely flush my brain of the stresses and concerns of the day job, and replace it with the stress of trying to figure out how in the world I managed to cut a board wrong for the umpteenth time…. It’s great! 

I have tried my hand at many types of projects, and all types of techniques. Many of my projects are pictured somewhere [in the gallery?] on this website. Most of my projects are built or at least started using other woodworker’s plans and designs. I have tried to give them credit where credit is due, but one of aspects my woodworking that I would like to round out is design. There is nothing like having your own idea and being able to bring it to life!

About Tumblewood.

About three years ago, when I was still in Wyoming, I decided my shop needed a name. Much hilarity ensued as my adult children (who are still all very childish) used a dry erase board in my shop to propose different names….most of which are not fit for public consumption. 

Out of that mess, Tumblewood rose to the top. It fit the point of the shop and managed to pay homage to the tumbleweeds that periodically blew through the Wyoming property. And when I say “periodically”, I mean every day. And when I say “blew through” I mean at 90 miles an hour. If you haven’t experienced Wyoming wind, you haven’t lived. When I moved to Wyoming, the humble tumbleweed was certainly one of the things I immediately grew to love….the first time one blew in front of my truck very much causing a, “What the ____ was that?!” moment. After my heart rate slowed down, it became clear to me what Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers meant about “…drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.” I certainly have drifted around over the years. 

It was [how many years?] when my kids designed the Tumblewood brand and logo for me, and presented me with a custom made branding iron for a Christmas gift. I think I got something in my eye when I opened that present. Things got pretty watery and blurry for a bit. 

Tumblewood is now more than a shop. It is nearly 43 acres of rural Georgia, featuring pastures, standing oaks and hickories, and a 2.75 acre fish pond.