For Declan's last birthday we bought him a wood carving kit from Lee Valley. We also got him a book "Carving for Kids". The book lists a dozen types of wood it recommends for carving. When my mom was visiting she took this list to the local Rona - yes, Powell River has a Rona but it's a wee Rona - just ask my mom. The staff at Rona wasn't helpful and we were left with the impression that we were going to have a hard time finding any of the recommended woods. So I spoke with my neighbour, Blair, who works at Valley Builders - a Rona-like store and asked him if Valley Builders has any of the woods. Blair happened to be on his way out at the time but said he'd look at the list, I left the book with him. He did mention that he works with woods allot, he does have an awesome woodshop in his backyard so this didn't surprise. If he had any of the wood that was recommended, Declan was welcome to any scraps he has around - perfect. My instructions were that the next time I saw him working in his shop just stop by and he'd let me know what he found out. Well, I hadn't seen him for over a month until today!!! He had only one of the woods and gave me some scarp pieces - none of the other woods are available around here - the book obviously being written by an easterner he said.
So when Declan came home from school I let him know we had some wood for him to start carving. He was thrilled. So I set him up outside, he starts carving his name, Ella wants to be around, I explain to her that this is not something she can be involved with, when my eyes were on Ella having a fit Declan gave himself a nasty stab. Blood everywhere! I didn't see what happened but he explained later, had I been paying attention I could have prevented it for sure. His finger is still attached and it eventually stopped bleeding. I was on the verge of taking him to hospital when it finally stopped. I think he learned a lesson though so all is good. I learned a lesson too!
