Sarah and I have been married for over 20 years and have six children. I retired from the US Army in 2012 as a Chief Warrant Officer and started teaching Junior ROTC at a high school in the Seattle, WA area. Meanwhile, my wife Sarah was creating the Shindiggityshoppe to sell her party supplies, and it quickly became one of the leading party supplies stores on Etsy.

In 2014, I came home for the weekend, and we went out to dinner with some friends. Sarah asked if anyone could make her a cake stand to display her party supplies. At the time, I had no woodworking skills, tools, or any idea how to make a cake stand. But I told her I could do it. I made the first cake stand a week later, and six months later, I resigned from my JROTC job to work full-time making cake stands and be closer to my family.

Since then, I’ve gone from using a chainsaw to an Alaska Sawmill (a chainsaw sawmill) and now a Woodmizer Bandsaw Sawmill LX 55 and a Kubota tractor. I also have a solar and an electric kiln to kiln dry my wood after air-drying them.

We are conscious about the environment and, as a result, we only use salvaged wood for woodworking. We acquire our logs from local arborists who cut down trees in town for their customers due to safety or aesthetic issues.