OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

137432 Richard Lye <rlye@m...> 2004‑10‑04 Bio
Hi

I have been lurking for the past 2 or 3 years and finally, following 
the urging of Peter McBride have decided to post my Bio.
I live in Gardenvale, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia and I am a Pom.  
This means that I migrated here from England and in
my case came with my parents at the age of 10.  We lived in tents for a 
year or so while my father built our house, which might
have something to do with my interest in woodworking.
I completed an apprenticeship as a hand compositor in the printing 
trade and later went back to school and uni to become a
biology/science teacher. I am now more or less retired and just teach 
one class of electronics.
The first house that I bought was an old orchard pickers cottage and 
was condemned as unfit for human habitation and to this
  I brought my young bride and we started restoring the house.  The 
first job was picking up all the moveable materials in the
garden and in the house and burning them and spraying everything in 
sight as the previous owner had kept greyhounds and
  the greyhounds passengers were hungry.  Boy did we have a lot of bites.
When I finished that house we sold and moved to a bigger one which 30 
years later I am still restoring but I suppose that that
is par for the course.
I have tended to be a Normite and subscribed to another list which is 
quite happy to burn up helpless little electrons until
I found this list some 2-3 years back and since then St Paul on the 
road to Damascus has nothing on me. I will admit however that
when working on the house I am quite happy to backslide as work on the 
house only keeps me away from projects and tool building
and tool cleaning and tool fettling and just plain pottering in the 
shed.
I just love working with beautiful, tactile, real wood and to me the 
king of woods is River Red Gum, the tree itself with its huge
trunk and its white bark and grey/green leaves against a blue summer 
sky is the epitome of my adopted land.
I have loved listening to the tales told on the porch, to the help 
shown to both old hands and beginners alike.  The trouble some
people go to and the erudition shown are both eye opening and heart 
warming.
I would be most grateful if I would be allowed to move away from the 
fence post that I have been propping up and up to the porch
where I can against a verandah post and maybe toss a comment or 
question into the conversation.  Anyone for a Cascade
(a beer to anyone who does not walk upside down)
Now let's hope that I read the FAQ and formatted this correctly.

regards

Richard



Recent Bios FAQ