Introducing Tumblewood

My name is Andy, and if you’re reading this, chances are good you already know that. If you didn’t, that’s me on the right. I’m the one with the hat. The fish was returned to the water from whence he came and none the worse for wear I might add…with the possible exception of some confusion regarding the events that had most recently taken place in his life. Or her life…I wouldn’t care to hazard a guess. I mean, it’s a fish, right? As long as they are doing whichever 50% is their part of making more fish, let’s not be splitting hairs. The point is, that’s me in the hat.

This is an introductory blog post about Tumblewood, my home and business and a wide-ranging collection of ideals and dreams with a lot of hard reality. So this post may wander a bit, but hey, it’s a blog; not the next great American novel or anything that comes close to it. So, bear with me, because I’m writing my brain here, and trust me, that sucker runs off the rails on a regular basis.

I have made my living for over 35 years working in the emergency medical services (EMS is the initialism for those of you new to the verbiage.) I simultaneously have managed a secondary career with the Army, serving in all three of the components: Active, Reserve, and National Guard. I still do both. That’s a long time to spend responding to other people’s emergencies. Really, that’s a total of 66 years of service in one form or another. I should probably be dead right now, but I’m not. Did I mention that’s me in the hat?

I have always loved wood as a medium for whatever idea hits my rather convoluted mess of a brain. Wood is organic, approachable, and renewable. Quite frankly, I don’t see any other material that comes close to its combination of beauty and versatility. If you work with wood, if you’ve ever screwed two 2x4s together in a DIY project, or ever gazed upon a fine Windsor chair, or a finely crafted cabriole leg on a bureau or table, or even a barn built by the Amish, you know what I’m talking about.

Ever since I watched my first episode of “The New Yankee Workshop” I have wanted to do more woodworking. Norm Abram inspired thousands if not hundreds of thousands and he did it by convincing all of us that we could do it too, whether we actually could or not. It was not till I relocated to Wyoming that I had my first chance to establish a real shop, and Wyoming is where I really got the Tumblewood concept in my head: could I find a way to do something different than what I have always done? Could I build a business and make things that people wanted? What would that look like and how do I get there? I didn’t know the answer to those questions, but dammit, I was going to find out. Tumblewood was really born in Wyoming, an homage to the tumbleweeds that frequent the vast prairie of Wyoming. I considered Antelopewood, but it didn’t seem to roll off the tongue.

My “real” work carried me back to the south; to Georgia, and through a series of very fortunate circumstances, I found I had the opportunity to really bring Tumblewood to life. I found an acreage with a shop (still in need of a tremendous amount of work) and about 43 acres, including a small lake of about three acres. You can see the lake behind me in the first picture. I’m the one with the hat, by the way.

Tumblewood, as a concept, has now grown exponentially beyond a business and my woodshop. Yes, I want to grow it into a business, but the things that influence my thinking about what I want that business to be, have grown into ideas themselves, due in no small part to my own evolution as a person.

That’s a lot to unpack, and to do that all here would be more than the reader could bear…even though I distinctly asked you to bear with me. Tolerance of such wanderings has its limits, I realize.

Suffice it to say, I don’t want to just make stuff. I want a bunch of things to be reflected in what I am trying to do. I want my business to support local, circular economies. I want people to understand the beauty of wood, and all that it is. I want to protect trees and create wildlife habitat. I want to encourage people to move away from our consumerist driven, disposable, nightmare of furniture. I want Tumblewood to be open to those who think similarly. I want to learn more myself about trees, forest and property management, and how to turn trees into practical, useful, and beautiful things that will outlast my time on earth and maybe theirs as well. I want to support the work of other makers and artisans of all types. I hope that in the coming years, you will see all of that from Tumblewood. There’s lots of ideas in there, and it’s a lot. But to those who think you can’t do it all…well…I say you haven’t failed until you give up. Change my mind.

So what inspires me? Well, this does. That tree. The big one. On the right hand side of the picture. Unfortunately, it’s not wearing a hat. That monster of a tree is located here on the Tumblewood property. I am pretty certain it’s a black oak, which is a type of red oak. Why we have to relegate a “black oak” to the “red oak” family is beyond me. I think we humans just got lazy and couldn’t be bothered with an entire other family of oaks. Whatever. I’m sure there is some sciencey explanation for this, but I can’t be bothered with the minutia. I have 66 years of career behind me, and I’m running out of time. I can’t get lost in the details. It’s also possible that this is some other type of red oak, or possibly a naturally cross-bred oak, since oaks are very capable of cross breeding. This particular black and yet somehow red oak might be the largest tree on the Tumblewood property. It is most certainly one of my favorite trees. Estimating the height of trees is a difficult proposition, but my guess is that it is over 100 feet tall. Maybe, 130 feet. It measures about 174 inches in circumference at the base. That’s about 14.5 feet in circumference for those of you who rely on others to do the math for you. At chest height (the standard level for measuring a tree) I guesstimate it to be about 48 inches through the middle. For those of you doing the math who actually know the calculation for determining circumference from diameter and are about to tell me there’s no way those two numbers add up, keep in mind that a tree is a living, growing thing that is often bigger at the base and doesn’t grow symmetrically. And it doesn’t really matter. That tree is huge and it is a wonder to behold.

What makes it a wonder? Well, consider this: a red oak can grow up to two feet per year in the first 20 years, and can add about 2 inches in diameter each year. At 2ft per year in height for the first 20 years, (and growth slows way down after the first 20) it would only be 40 feet tall and this tree is way beyond that. If I am right that the tree is in excess of 100 ft tall, then that easily puts the tree in excess of 100 years old. The diameter is even more telling, as a hardwood tree takes 5-10 years to add one inch of diameter. At 173 inches in circumference, that’s 55 inches in diameter. If we use the conservative calculation of 1 inch in diameter added every 5 years, that tree is 275 years old. There’s also a really good chance I am underestimating all of this. 275 years ago would be the year 1747 in case you’re wondering. How amazing is that?! And……that tree has been sequestering carbon and storing it its entire life. It probably has around 16,000 lbs of carbon stored (give or take a ton or two). That’s an equivalent of about 28-30 tons of carbon dioxide, something we have way too much of on this planet. It would take about 35 replacement trees to capture that much carbon. By the way….I don’t really “know” all this stuff. I was a liberal arts major. What do you expect of me? Google is a great companion.

As far as I am concerned, that tree can remain where it is as long as it is able. That one tree would make lots of nice stuff, but I don’t need it. Let it stay. There are plenty of trees that come down naturally due to disease or storms, or threatening infrastructure. Let’s turn those trees into products so the carbon stays fixed, our landfills are not taken up with a renewable resource, and while I’m at it...let’s start turning some of the open fields of Tumblewood back to forest.

Are you starting to get the picture?

What is Tumblewood? All of this. It’s everything I want to spend the rest of my life doing, building, and passing on to the next generations. Yeah, you can buy a cheap, compressed wood chip table or shelf online. It will be delivered in two to three weeks or even the next day. You’ll spend a frustrating hour trying to read directions and assemble it. Will you look at it and say proudly to your family, “someday you will inherit this thing?” Nope. It will last a few years, and then it will start to fall apart. Or you’ll decide it’s ugly and replace it and it will go to a dump, and you’ll forget all about it. I only know this because I have done it too. And I’m not going to do it anymore.

Or you can support Tumblewood. Or other makers and artists who are trying to do something that will carry on for generations. Trust me: they are out there.

This is the beginning. It won’t happen overnight, and I need your help. You can support me by following my social media accounts and supporting me through my Patreon.

So that’s Tumblewood. Or at least it’s some of Tumblewood. It’s me. It’s the business. It’s a concept. It’s about trying to do something different. It’s all of those things and probably some things I haven’t thought of yet.

It’s also about hats, but we’ll get to those eventually.

Thanks for reading!