Forrest

 Meet Forrest, the shop mascot.  He's slowly coming back into the shop.  A few months ago, he slipped on the concrete and tweaked a leg, and ever since then he will only sit by the door and whine.  So a couple days ago I got serious about getting him back.  Straight up bribery, in the form of milk bones. And it seems to be working, hopefully.  I love having him in the shop.  He used to sleep under the lathe, he'd get covered but he loved it.

The milk bones box reminded me of a conversation I had a few years ago.  In another life I ran dry kilns, drying pine, maple, birch and some ash.  I was in the control room, and a couple guys who knew the owner were visiting, and he was showing them around.  The kilns are controlled with a two-pen circle charts that regulate and track the temperature and humidity in the kilns.  Dry too fast, and the wood cracks and checks and develops tension.  Dry too slow, and you can get mold and waste time.  Anyway, one guy recognized the circle charts, and said that he used to run an oven that dried dog bones in Alberta, big long 100' oven.  And he also had to control the temperature and humidity in the oven, dry too fast, and only the outside dries, and the inside will rot on the shelves.  Dry too slow, and time is wasted.  I thought it was cool that he and I dried very different things with the exact same controller.  Anyway, meet  Forrest.