Little Journeys
Getting – and Keeping – Good Workers
November 9, 2020Last week I overheard two people complaining about the quality of repair work they had been getting, along with the problem they were having persuading workers to come back to their homes. As you may have noticed, I’ve recently had more than a typical number of workers helping …
Read More...Up On The Roof
November 3, 2020If you happened to see last week’s column, you know I have been taking advantage of our beautiful and dry fall weather to make some improvements to our horse barn. When I bought this farm twenty years ago, what we now call our barn was actually a pole shed. …
Read More...An Aging Giant
October 26, 2020When you have fifteen acres of farmland in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it means you have trees. Lots of them. I grew up in Illinois where we had six trees in our yard, every one of which we climbed, tried to build tree houses …
Read More...Celebrating An Arts and Crafts Transformation: A Preview of Craftsman Live and the Craftsman Gala
October 19, 2020by Kate Nixon This article has been updated to include the link to the online catalog of the Craftsman Gala Silent Auction. This week in lieu of one of Bruce’s Little Journeys, we decided to give our space to highlight a pair of virtual celebrations happening the night of …
Read More...Arts and Crafts Garden Therapy: Part Two
October 12, 2020Anytime someone suggests that you build a retaining wall out of wood, politely smile, nod once, turn — and run. Trust me, I have constructed retaining walls short and tall from creosoted railroad ties, pressure-treated wood, landscape timbers, even tree trunks, and one thing was always the same: they …
Read More...The Certainty of Uncertainty
October 5, 2020by Bruce Johnson As you well know, we were fortunate to have been able to celebrate the 33rd National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn last February, just before the Covid-19 pandemic changed all of our lives. Nevertheless, here in our office and at the Omni …
Read More...Arts and Crafts Therapy
September 29, 2020Elbert Hubbard once advised: “Work your grief into art — and it is gone.” I modified it into my own motto: “Work your frustration into a project — and it is gone.” Like yourself, the Covid-19 restrictions and fears have frustrated me, especially as we have …
Read More...Searching For Solutions
September 22, 2020For the past 33 years, the National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn has been a major part of my life. My oldest son was born just three months after the inaugural Arts and Crafts Conference, and my youngest the month after our fifth annual meeting …
Read More...A Love Affair With Chairs
September 14, 2020Sometimes it’s the smallest comment that sticks with you the longest. My brother, who lives in Illinois, came to visit this past summer. When he stepped into our two-story ranch house, he slowly surveyed our rooms before announcing, “Boy, you sure like chairs.” I thought it seemed perfectly normal …
Read More...Falling Into a Black Hole of Projects
September 9, 2020This week, Bruce has plenty of projects to keep him busy, so we’re pulling this Little Journeys out of the archive as a reminder of how projects can stack up in our quest for a simpler life. See the irony? Enjoy this gem first published in July of 2013. Date …
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Bruce Johnson
Author, Columnist and Director of the National Arts & Crafts Conference at The Grove Park Inn since 1988
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