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Recent Bios FAQ

87680 liz mitchell <emitch@e... 2000‑12‑18 bio
Hi again,

Thanks for the good advice everyone..and thanks for that old rocking
chair...I'll try to make this quick..

Born Chicago 1958:  Grew up on the old jazz and bagpipes.  With the
exception of the occassional furniture refinishings, there wasn't much
practical woodworking growing up.  My dad was more of a contraptionist than
woodworker.  He once hooked up a lighting system to the clock to have
different colored Christmas lights go off at different intervals of time
and then all go off on the hour...kept us entertained.  I never was really
exposed to woodworking that much and grew up in an era when girls were
assigned to Home Ec class, not shop.   

Somewhere along the line, I grew to appreciate the old crafts that took
care, love and time to learn the skill and to build.  Old wooden boats fell
in that category and having been a fisheries observer on boats in Alaska
for many years, I grew to appreciate the lifestyle of the small boat
fisherman.  I went out on many trips on the old halibut schooners and fell
in love with them.  

At one time I wanted to write a book on the ones that are still in
operation..there are dozens from the early 1900s still fishing halibut and
black cod in Alaska. My plan was to have a chapter per boat, with the
history of the crew and owners, plans if I could get them (details of some
were simply written on a piece of bar room napkin as the owners discussed
with the shipwright what he needed), details of the different types of wood
used, etc. etc...it would have been a worthy piece of history and fun to
research but funding became a problem and it is now on the back burner.

My friends in Juneau tried for years to get me up there, always tempting me
with news of the latest cool old boat for sale.  Then one day I popped in
on them on my return from a field season north of Bristol Bay, Alaska (I'm
also a wildlife technician..seabird surveys).  The plan was to stay for a
few days but then they showed me an old salmon troller and by the end of
the week I was a boat owner and was suddenly making plans for a move to
Juneau.

Fast forward to February this year in Juneau...toxic deisel fumes permeated
my everything and probably my lungs...I found myself sleeping in a freezing
van deeply fearful of my bilge.  I spent days getting to know my diesel
stove.  This involved a fair amount of cussing..if you've ever owned a
Dickenson stove you know what I'm talking about.  Slowly I gained the
courage to deal with my bilge, hauled off a couple truck loads of trash
from inside and slopped linseed oil and mineral spirits everywhere.  Day by
day, I was actually fixing things and having great satisfaction at what I
thought was rescuing a beautiful old boat from a briney grave.  My
Dickenson was actually being nice to me and life was grand for a couple of
days.  

When I managed to get her up on the grid to actually look at the ice damage
to the hull, there was double the damage I had expected under the water
line.  The killer line was from the shipwright who said he spent over
$100,000 in the last 5 years on his old schooner.  I suppose that's not too
bad if you're making enough fishing to pay for this.  In the end, the
burden of owning that beautiful old boat and actually realizing the dream
of fishing salmon in Alaska's gorgeous shores was so very far away..I had
to learn everything about the electronics, the diesel engine, not to
mention the sea, the tides, the weather, everything..everything was
life-dependant too..It not only gave me renewed respect for the knowledge
and courage (sometimes awe-inspiring stupidity) of fishermen but also gave
me a new appreciation of how difficult it is to be a non-polluting boat
owner...I decided to turn to tinkering with hand tools and small projects.  

Then I found E-bay and was sucked into the vortex of buying up all those
beautiful old molding planes...and this is where I'm at..a wannabe galoot,
still learning old tool care and use. I guess you could sum up "my thing"
as a fascination with the old crafts, so I enjoy reading the yaks back and
forth on the porch.   Eventually, I would like to make a work bench,
portable tool chest using the old patterns, become proficient at
dovetailing joints, build tables, book shelves and other practical things,
and learn more about repair and maintenance of wooden boats. 

So there you go..how's your cyber-butt holding out Scott?  Here's your
chair back..gotta go..I'm off to visit my mom, sister and aunt for
Christmas. Happy holidays, everyone!

Liz Mitchell
P.O. Box 933
Eugene, Oregon  97440


At 07:10 AM 12/18/00 -0800, you wrote:
>  Hiya Liz
>   Don't stand there squinting on the steps. Post a little bio and come on up
>under the roof. Here, take my rocker for a minute and I'll just perch here on
>the rail. Only for a minute though, my poor old butt can't take much abuse.









____________________
Elizabeth Ann Mitchell
P.O. Box 933
Eugene, Oregon  97440
Tel:  541/ 607-8838
E-mail:  emitch@e...























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