We recently instigated a community work group. A work-force at the ready, so to speak. It was cast from the cauldron of hell-fire and brimstone that was the Q-hut crew. That bunch o’ pension-collecting rough-and-wrinkled necks that gather every Wednesday just a-lookin’ for trouble.

Yes, that would be the same group that is barely half-way through renovating an empty shell (Q-hut) into a cleaner empty shell for working in later. Someday. Maybe.

There does seem to be a vagueness to it all but we see progress. We just don’t know in which direction……….? At this point in time we are pointed in the direction of the Bunkhouse.

We are going to build the deck extensions and roofs for the community bunkhouse and I am fairly confident we can do this. After all, these are people who have single-handedly built their own homes from scratch, developed homesteads in the rainforest and who build boats by first falling the trees and then milling the planks. They can do just about anything if they put their minds to it.

Cash is, however, a bit of an insurmountable.

And ironically, we seem a bit lean on tools. I guess cash and tools are related. Anyway, we need some tools. Or cash.

I am quite sure that we are not actually lacking tools. That would be impossible, given the history. But we are lacking extra tools, tools for the common good, community tools-for-sharing. Because people around here rely heavily on their own personal tools and because community projects tend to treat tools poorly, not many are brought to community projects.

Not enough, anyway. We are consistently faced with willing volunteers who can’t participate fully for lack of enough implements. It is also understandable from a logistics point of view – who wants to schlep a hundredweight of tools to a volunteer work-party that requires you to hike and boat ten miles to get there?

I am going to make an effort to fix that.

That is where you might come in. You are second.

The first call, of course, was to the community itself by way of our very own media, the SNOT Rag. “If you have a good duplicate hand tool that can be left at the Q-hut, please consider donating it to the community tool chest”.

We need: Hammers: 4+ ,pry-bars: 2 ,level: 2+ , chalk-line: 2
Shovels: 2+ , rake, nail-pullers: 2+ , sledge: 1
saw-horse/workmate: 2+
Pick:1, big/medium crescent wrenches: 3, axe: 1,
come-along (not cheap Chinese-made ones):1
Ladder: 1 step-ladder: 1
pipe wrench: 1 Hacksaw: 1 (blades, too)
Handsaws (sharp): 2+ tape measures: 4 square: 2 vice-grips: 4+

Of course, we could use much more and the following list of wished-for tools are more expensive and really should be new or very near-new:

18.8v drill/driver with battery and charger (ideally a Rigid with the lifetime batteries). Two of them. Maybe three. Good skill saw (2), battery-powered sawz-all, mini-grinder, cement mixer, heavy-duty hammer drill, BIG vice, medium vice. Wood-vice. Bench top drill press. Portable belt sander. Bandsaw. Clamps of all kinds. Planes, files, sandpaper and block.

“So why tell me, Dave? I am just a reader of the blog. I don’t live there.”

Good point. I am putting this out there because I know what happens to ‘stuff’. We all get ‘stuff’ and then we have a garage sale and give away the ‘stuff’ a few years later. It’s what we do in this consumer society. Sal and I did it. Big time. I remember putting out on the ‘garage-sale’ driveway decades of collected ‘stuff’ that must have cost us thousands of dollars and dollops of time and selling it all for pennies. My BBQ went for $1.67.

So, if any of you on Vancouver Island or in the Vancouver area have ‘practically new’ hand-tools or even really great power tools and you are looking to find them a good home, please save them for my next trip south. Likely within a month or so.

I am not asking for sacrifice – if you are using them, keep ’em. And I am not asking for junk. Can’t use junk. I am asking for good, new, usable tools and I really just expect to get a few hand tools. Bandsaws, routers and such would be a very pleasant surprise and cash?!

Well, a cash donation is an option for the rich and foolish.

Mind you, we are already paying for a portion of our new $35B fighter jets. Maybe if we can afford to do that, we can afford to send money to a little village for tools. If cash is sent, send it to me. But, if you want a tax receipt and an assurance I don’t keep it to buy scotch, send me a cheque made out to the Surge Narrows Community Association.

“I am not going to read this blog anymore if you ask for money!”

I don’t blame you. Won’t happen again. At least not soon. Not in 2011, anyway. Probably. I am pretty sure. Depends, ya know?