Jay Gourley
I started working with wood at a very young age. I can’t even remember when I started going to work with my dad; he was a small-town carpenter, but I remember loving it. I would get up early to go to work with him–to this day, some of my best and most vivid memories of my dad are on the jobsite. When I was really little I used to crawl in the cab of the truck in the afternoon and take a nap. He’d come check on me once in a while, and when I woke up, I was back on the job. I carried nails and small pieces of wood. I remember the first time I carried shingles to the roof. I don’t know how old I was, but I could only lift about 3 at a time. I would feel so sad when my dad had to carry a couple of bundles up because I couldn’t keep up with the workers. My dad died of leukemia when I was in college, but still today, when I cut into a piece of pine, the smell brings back memories of him that flood my mind. My uncle worked with him, my brother also loves woodworking, as does my cousin, so I believe it is in the Gourley DNA. If I had been a boy, I might have been a carpenter from the beginning – it just wasn’t something chicks did. So I went off to college to be a teacher – a very respectable job for a small town girl from central Illinois.
Upon graduation, instead of teaching, I joined the Air Force. I loved being an Airman! It fit me like a glove — structure, organization, discipline, and pride in my uniform. I loved serving my country. I wasn’t able to do a lot of woodworking – a few little projects here and there, but all the moving made it difficult to have a real shop of any kind. I retired after 20 years and took a job as a civil servant working at the Air Force Research Labs and the Air Force Nuclear Weapon Center on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM. In my free time, I built myself a workshop in my two-car garage (my truck wouldn’t fit – really!), and I spent every weekend in that shop building. After about three years of dusting off my craft and learning new skills, Jules built me my first website, I started an LLC, and I began to build projects for dollar bills. People paid me to do what I loved doing – who knew? And that’s how I got here – I love woodworking!
Check out my website- FroggyBuilder.com