We think of our workshop as an opportunity to experience the tension between man and his machines. Most of what we have and do here also doesn't fit at home very well. This first shot is a typical lineup from 2007 with Dylan, our shop clown. A few years later ... Just so you don't think we never finish anything, the next two shots are of rigs we created and took on life-changing road trips: Carlson's Caddy at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo (with my two sons, Dylan and Steve) and Road Ready, our RV firetruck, at Arches National Park in Nevada.. Next is "Despatcher," a 1928 RCMP patrol boat that we resurrected in BC Canada.It shows a crew of my wife, Roslyn, our daughter, Diane, and Roslyn's best friend, Karen, about to embark on a trip through the Gulf Islands. Three cooks and a Captain - not bad sea duty. ha ha. Stories about these and other rigs are on separate pages.

The workshop has evolved over time as projects have been conceived and completed. The narratives are in present tense as the experiences are being lived. This adds an ethereal feel to our site since you can't tell where in time you are. In reality the whole landscape is evolving in time with no particular rudder. Next is us in 09 under a fish we cought in Cabo; Then a workshop lineup from 09 with VW Thing, Studebaker pickup, MGB, Vespa, Chopper pedal trike, Baja Bug and the butt end of our completed Firetruck RV (featured in Jan 2009 Bus conversion Magazine). The lineup, of course, is constantly changing. Even the shop itself changed to a nicer building in 2011 although there are no pictures of the new digs. Maybe later. Next is a shot of Mick and me with a wooden speedboat we restored. Anyway, we've now introduced most of the players at the shop, except Darius, who bought the big house and has a nice garage at home now.

Update: At present (2014) the shop has morphed down to a one-man show again. The other players found better things to do for the most part. I still hear the beating drum and march on, wondering what the next project will be.

Skipping about 8-10 years and a shop from hell that got swept up in a development fenzy. As bottom feeders, we tend to sell if anything we buy ever floats to the surface. .....

These last couple of pics are from the latest shop. As you can see, Dylan has sort of grown up. We call him "sir" now, for obvious reasons. The last pic domonstrates that Dylan has also evolved his own concept of what a shop is good for. How about some sort of headphone-driven karaoke dance thing? I never did really understand what came down that night. No broken bones....all good.

Before encouraging you to browse the project folders, I'd like to mention that creating the shop and this web site motivated me to write down some of what I've learned from working on cars and boats over the years. The resulting "story" is primarily for our kids, Diane, Dylan and Steve - in hopes they might gain some appreciation for how a hobby enriches your life. Anyway, if you're interested in this story you can click on the link and receive a PDF - absolutely free. It encapsulates the first forty years or so of my tinkering on vehicles. As Dylan, the youngest, grows up, which is close to almost over, I hope he's paying better attention to the things that happen to him than I was at his age. My story of twenty-two cars and a boat contains a few holes that had to be filled in with frog DNA or some such a thing, but that's OK.

Download of a story: What I've learned from working on .. 22 Cars and a Boat