Last night I was thrilled to check my message inbox on kickstarter to find they had approved the project!

Thanks Kickstarter!

And thanks to my brooklynite friend Lee, who intrested me in Kickstarter in December. And, thanks to my wife Amy who did editing kung fu on my proposal while caring for our little daughter at the same time!
I'm super excited to switch into a higher gear as the project goes live, around next week sometime. I'm working on the video and doing sketch sessions for the mini book and top level incentives right now. The sun is out and my shop is humming with pre-production.

A friend recommended I try out Kickstarter. I am really excited and think it is the perfect way to really get my personal shop ideas off the ground. I mean really off the ground. For years I have taken an extreme DIY approach to building my shop in many many stages, with reclaimed materials and gifted tools from neighbors and family. I have taken steps that are scary for me and I've reached a point of no return in some ways, so I think finding kickstarter now is just perfect.
I am going to focus on a handful of different childrens toys, plus small art frames. I make everything with reclaimed wood I get from construction sites, the side of the road, or peoples' garages. Often times it is really good quality first growth wood, deemed unusable becuase taking the time to clean it up and figure out how best to use it is apparently not worth our time. The way I look at it is that we had better find a way to use useful materials so that we can save our future generations some real headaches when they grow up and find out we've dumped a huge problem on their hands. Landfills in my area are expected to fill to capacity in my lifetime, which makes it not so much my problem, but my children's problem.

thinking about the approach to developing the hands-on classroom development, I have been dwelling on the problem of how teachers will train for industrial and career/tech classrooms. The student demand is there, but even if most of the administrators wanted to open more "shop classes", there is a shortage of teachers properly trained to be safe and effective in a shop setting.
When the boomers leave public school shops, we need to take action now to capture the vast wealth of information and know-how these teachers are hard pressed to pass on for lack of administative support, and teacher training programs suitable for shop teachers to take their places.
It's a tough problem from any angle, but today I struck me that a good starting place for developing these shops is not at first building student demand, finding administrative support, or training teachers properly. It struck me that even if the perfect storm of all of these came together, the state of most public school shops is less that state of the art. In a lot of cases they are pretty dangerous places, with tons of old, out of tune, tools and machines. But it's nothing that can't be fixed and maintained.

These are rough measurements to within .5 inch.

Playset(see attached image file)-

Beams
3.5"x11"x6' -2
3.5"x11"x2.75' -3
3.5"x11"x1' -1
4"x6"x10' -1
4"x6"x3.5' -1
5"x8"x5.5' -1
4"x4"x3', 45 degree foot on both ends, steel -2

boards
1"x5"x6', doug fir -15
2"x8"x34" -3
2"x4"x7', fine old growth redwood -1
3/8"x2"x30", oak flooring, varnish one side, -70+
3/8"x2"x<20" -30+

shiplap
6"x3' -10
6"x2' -7
6"x7' -1

doors
hollow core -1
glass window inlay, solid wood -2

rounds
.5"x2'dia, laminated wood, -5
.5"x1.5', laminated, particle, -1
.5"x3.5", laminted, particle -1

I was not one of the millions who watched Obamas state of the union last night, but I did readthe state of the union soon afterwards. It was inspiring, but some of the policy insight was depressingly conventional. Instead of bitching, I'll offer some of my thoughts on redeveloping our nation. I like to focuss on my local situation, and how I can make the deepest impact, while remaining local and small. as I develop my business ideas and aspirations, I keep this in mind.
When redeveloping a house, a new community focus must be kept in mind. Development for walking to services and work. Development for inter-generational living. development with passive solar planning. development for education to mix with community surrounding school campuses. develop a new systems relationship between education and industry. development for locally sourced and built goods/fixing services. Development for terrestrial wireless gateway technology in the building system of each redeveloped structure.
This last one is something I want to focus on explaining a little more. It has been hiding out in the recesses of my brain for a while and it needs some attention.

Terrestrial wireless