OsBlog

This post begins a weekly series on some of the legs that customers have sent us finished pictures on, or that we think deserve a little extra attention. In the catalog or on the website, it can be difficult to envision what your finished product will look like. Hopefully, this series will serve to flesh out the possibilities available to our customers that may not bee seen when looking at one unfinished leg.

The leg I wanted to feature this week is the 1322 or Old World Coffee Table Leg. The reason is this: I never really thought much of this leg. I did not dislike it, I just never really thought much about it at all. Then, one day, I was given a task that entailed going through all of the pictures of finished products that customers have sent us, renaming them by part number and date of receipt. I stumbled onto the pictures you will see below, and instantly this leg became a favorite of mine. Set in its proper setting, with the right table and table skirt, the beauty of this leg jumped out at me. I realized that other people might have looked at any single leg in our catalog and had difficulty seeing it in any other than its individual and unfinished state. So, I decided to highlight certain legs on a weekly basis, asking my coworkers for their insight into the matter as well.

The title, “Old World” denotes a certain strong, traditional elegance. And that is precisely what one finds in the Old World Coffee Table Leg. It certainly looks sturdy, but it also possesses an air of the medieval, with the fluting and the lovely tulip-shaped foot. Here is a picture of the Old World leg from our website:

It looks quite nice already, though I can understand how it might be difficult to instantly envision the perfect table for this leg. Here is a picture sent to us by a customer. This picture was sent to us by Terry Stroud of Alpine Wood Products, Inc.

With the beautiful canted corners and the battlement parapet-like design trimming the top of the table skirt, this table looks like it belongs in the home of nobility of the early 14th century, and not in a modern day living room. Particularly with the beautiful inlaid marble top, it is easy to understand why this leg was titled, “Old World.”

This post is long overdue, but I found it in the drafts and realized that we did, indeed, need a blog-release of this product, since we haven’t done one, yet! I guess Ashley had written a draft of this post some time ago.

Osborne Wood Products, Inc. is now offering three of its current legs in a larger size. The new height is 36” for all three legs; 8” Wilmington (# 1808), 8” Islander (# 1850), and 8” Concord (#1871). These three legs are offered in all ten of our standard wood types (not listed on that page are Hickory and Mahogany).

We got a lovely letter the other day, from Shiloh Christian Children’s Ranch, complete with a cute picture of a tiny tot curled up on the couch with a book! They thanked us for the table legs we sent them. Here is the picture:

I cannot wait for the promised picture of kids around their finished table! It is not often that you actually get to witness the fruit of something you participate in, and I’m so glad that the folks at Shiloh are intent on letting us see the finished product! By that I do not mean just the table, but the smiling faces of kids who got to learn a new skill and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Osborne Wood Products, Inc. participated in the KBIS show in Chicago this last weekend! I just got some photos of our booth from Christian, who was there along with Martha, Cindy, Leon, Jeremy, and Carl. The display looked great!

Here’s Jeremy, hard at work preparing for the show.

In the back left, we have Martha, Cindy, Jeremy and Carl, with Christian up in the front.

In this shot, Jeremy is helping an inquirer learn more about our Island Legs and Corbels.

Here Christian and a lovely passer-by draw the winner of our free iPod drawing. Our winner is Natasha Chatkin. Congratulations, Natasha!

Recently, we’ve had a couple new employees here at Osborne Wood Products, Inc. We have a new Drafting Engineer and a new Lathe Worker. A little while back we brought on an additional “Tim” (we already have one, so now we have another!) to man one of the lathes. Shortly after that, Haden came on board to fill our drafting position.

Some of you may have the chance to greet Haden this week, as he’ll be helping Jason and me cover phones while Martha and Cindy enjoy the show we’re going to this weekend. Be sure to make him feel welcome!

(Haden, enjoying a brief break from training with Jason)

(We’ll have to get a face picture later, but this is Tim-2 working away on the lathe)

Once again we were able to support Stephens Educational-Literacy Foundation, Inc. (SELF) in their annual Bee Smart spelling and trivia bee! SELF was able to raise over $7,000 to sustain and promote literacy programs in the community. This is such a great cause and we are so glad to be able to contribute in meaningful ways to the community around us!

They sent us an article, with these pictures of people participating in the Bee:

Tomorrow is Rachel’s birthday! Rachel is fantastic and frequently provides us with sweets (except for the cupcake scandal you can read about below!), so of course we want to be sweet to her on her special day. Will, loving husband that he is, got her an ice cream cake!

Here are some pictures of the fun:

Doesn’t Rachel have a fantastic smile? And here she is smiling with my predecessor, the wonderful Mary Beth:

Will, an astute observer of all-things-birthday, knew that Rachel needed a tiara to properly mark her as the birthday-girl:

Rachel, I hope your birthday is wonderful! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Recently we had the opportunity to partner with local farmers in placing an ad to that effect. Here is a picture of the ad:

Because of the ability of commercial farms to put out vast quantities of dairy, meats, and produce, they get the majority of consumers. Consequently, local farmers often struggle to make a living, and the economies of many small farm towns are in a downward trend. But supporting local farmers is actually a better choice than going commercial, for nearly everyone involved.

Why support local farmers? According to http://www.foodroutes.org, in supporting local farmers you will, “get exceptional taste and freshness, strengthen your local economy, support endangered family farms, safeguard your family’s health, and protect the environment.”

How does shopping and eating locally do all of these things? Well, the taste and freshness are better because product is usually able to ripen on the vine (or branch). In commercial farming, fruits and vegetables are often picked just before ripening, so that they do not go bad on long freight hauls across the country. Instead, they ripen on long freight hauls across the country. If you buy locally grown produce, it is picked when it ripens and therefore, has more flavor because it has been nourished by the vine longer.

In addition, the people benefiting from your choice to buy their products are friends and neighbors, and you get to strengthen the economy of your own community, instead of sending all your resources (money) to someone else’s.

Many local farmers are able to grow healthy crops without the use of harsh commercial pesticides, which is one way that shopping locally can safeguard your health. Another way is that meats and milk which come from local farms are much less prone to contain growth hormones, which can be detrimental to your health.

Local farms help protect the environment, because they have less impact on the earth. The byproducts of local farms are less than those of commercial farms and therefore easier to manage in ways that do not pollute. Beyond that, local farmers do not overproduce or over-press their land for product in ways that overtax the soil, and the fertilizer is not used in quantities that will pollute the water systems. Also, fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel are not used in transporting produce across the country when you buy locally grown produce.

We were blessed, this last week, with the opportunity to invest in a group of people doing amazing things. Shiloh Christian Children’s Ranch is a place that many formerly abused and neglected children are able to call home. It is a place where they can find healing, and learn many of the skills needed to excel in life. Children who come to Shiloh are placed in homes with two loving and dedicated home parents and several other children (Both the home parents biological children and also other children who have come to Shiloh). They are given opportunities to experience not only a healthy family life, education, and even extracurricular activities; but also the love of Jesus Christ. The ranch has seen some amazingly positive results, and I was excited to come across such a ministry! It reminds me of a Scripture that says, “God sets the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6).” I’m so glad that there are couples willing to devote their lives to being a source of healing in the lives of broken children.

While they are expanding some of their property, we were given opportunity to bless them with some supplies for furnishing the new building, namely, some much-needed table legs. They needed legs that would be sturdy, because — as you can imagine — when you’re seating such a large group of children, you need a big table! We were able to send some their way at no cost! This also provided an opportunity for some of the children to work with their home-parents on some woodworking projects! Our point-person out at the ranch says that as soon as they have the table done they are going to send us a picture with all the boys (who worked on it) around it! I can hardly wait (I hope they work quickly, I’m already scanning the mail for the picture and they have hardly had a chance to get started working)!

I love an opportunity to be so involved in the work that ministries like this are able to do, and I’m glad it is one of the things that this company loves to do, as well!