Greetings esteemed and gentle Galoots,

I've procrastinated posting my bio long enough so here it is.  Since
talking about me is one of my favorite topics, I suspect this post will be
ridiculously long and a potent cure for insomnia before it's finished.

My desire to make things from wood started a long time before I ever even
considered the term woodworker.  Growing up on a small farm, my brother
and I spent many hours in the local woods building forts and tree houses
from whatever pieces of wood we could gather from the forest floor or chop
down with a hatchet.  The first project I set out to build from real
lumber was a simple set of stairs for the side door of my Mom's garage. 
Nothing complicated, just three steps to replace the cinderblock we used
to get in and out of the garage.  I soon learned that building things
takes patience and planning and, although I didn't realize it at the time,
I now appreciate the utility of the geometry and trigonometry classes that
I gave about 10% effort in when I took them in high school.  The stairs
ended up being kind of ugly and required some shimming under the base to
make them level but, all-in-all, it proved to be a huge improvement from
the cinderblock step it replaced and gave me some sense of accomplishment.

For the next 20 or so years, every project I took on was sort of based on
this utilitarian aspect; mostly shelves for this or that.  During that
time, I slowly developed an appreciation for fine craftsmanship and
somewhere in the back of my mind I always new that someday I'd set up a
shop for all kinds of projects.  My original vision of a dream shop came
from Roy Underhill's Woodwrights Shop program on PBS.  I absolutely loved
that show from the first time I saw it, especially the beginning of the
show when he walked out to his rustic shop and slid that big door open.  A
lot of time has passed since those initial ideas for a shop and there's a
world of difference between the rural area of Ohio where I first started
dreaming and the Southern California planned community I find myself in
now.  So, my dream shop has been modified slightly but the goal is still
the same; to have an area suitable for projects but also a place where I
can simply escape and ponder life's mysteries while accomplishing nothing
of measure.

My start down the slope started like many others'.  At first I wanted a
shop full of the biggest and bestest wood-shredding machines available,
but I had neither the space nor the funds for that.  I don't remember what
the impetus was, but for some reason I decided to hit some garage sales
one Saturday to look for used tools.  I guess you could call it beginner's
luck as I did pretty well that day bringing home an 8" sweep Millers Falls
bit brace and a Type 15 Bailey #4 (iron smooth plane, Jeff)).  That
afternoon, I sat in my gar..err...shop admiring the tools and
contemplating where they'd been and what they'd built.  There was no doubt
about it; I was hooked.  That was a little over a year ago and, thanks to
TSGFH, ;^> I've managed to accumulate a nice assortment of tools of all
manner and even use some of them.  I've made a lot of progress builing a
reasonble facsimile of a real woodworking bench and hope to be dazzling
LOML in the not-to-distant future with fine, hand-crafted trinkets.

I spend my weekdays as a biochemist working on esoteric problems that
don't have a whole lot to do with biochemistry, per se.  In my spare time
(what spare time?), I accumulate old tools (surprise!), spend lots of time
doing yard work/landscaping, occasionally dabble in old tool usage, and
surf as much as possible (preferably in the ocean rather than on the net).
 I love to hike and camp and climb rocks and trees and all of that Huck
Finn kinda stuff but don't seem to get 'round to it anymore.  But my shop
is coming along and there is a peace found there that is a rare treasure
nowadays.

Finally, I am grateful that I stumbled onto the Porch that fateful day
about a year or so ago.  I didn't know diddly about old tools, or
woodworking for that matter, but was welcomed nonetheless.  I don't
suppose I need to go on about this since you all know what I'm talking
about but I want to say "thank you all" for providing such a warm and
thought-provoking place to put down my rocking chair and sit a spell. 
It's been a pleasure.

Best regards,
Mike Lietzow, Carlsbad, CA