Nutcrackers, you say?
Well in season, of course…
Holiday season is coming right up! Okay, it may not seem like it when it’s 100° or rainy, but time flies.
If you’ve been around the Agave Lounge in HOA-1 for the holiday season, you’ve seen them. There, by the fireplace, standing guard: Hermann & Klaus. Which is about all they do—just look pretty. They were showing signs of severe neglect. Actually, a haggard mess they were after (how many?) years of being stuffed into storage each year after their tour of duty. Battered, bumped and bruised, chipped and scuffed. About how I feel some mornings…
Last year, they were made sparkly-fresh. Many, many hours were spent stripping and sanding them, repairing and renewing their worn exteriors, painstakingly painting them. Look at them like new standing there so proud! That much work must have cost a fortune!
And it would have, except for the SaddleBrooke HOA-1 and HOA-2 Woodworkers Club. Their members, and particularly two of their members—Mark Erickson and John Hardin—donated their time and the materials needed to do this magic. Sanding decades of paint, filling ugly defects, weeks of work bringing them back to their original beauty. Or surpassing their original luster, I wouldn’t know. Not many of us have been here as long as these holiday sentries have been on duty.
So, this year give the old soldiers their due, enjoy them standing there working so hard.
And if you get a chance, thank the Woodworkers Club in your own way. Just think what that club will be able to accomplish when they actually have a wood shop! They don’t have a workplace, you ask? That’s right, not only was this project carried out for a ‘free-to-you’ cost. It was all done in a private home workshop. The HOA-1 board is actively working to remedy this overlooked situation by building a wood shop in the near future. The several hundred interested men and women woodworkers in SaddleBrooke HOA-1 and HOA-2 say, “Yay!”
Maybe I could get the club to spruce me up a bit? No, that’s way beyond their abilities…
The club meets in the Saguaro room in the MountainView complex the first Tuesday of each month at 2 p.m. Come join us if you’re interested. For more information about the SaddleBrooke Woodworkers Club, email sb.wood.workers@gmail.com.
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