Upcoming Shop Closures & Order Notes – Please Read Carefully

First, if you think we’ve ignored an email that you sent, please check your spam or junk file because we diligently respond to all customer emails (many emails have gone astray recently). Thanks!  Head’s up…The next GW Shop Closure will be announced in the coming weeks (and will probably take place in late May or June) and we expect it to be a three-week closure, during which time the GW Webstore will be available to view, but purchasing will be turned off and we will not be responding to emails.  Golden Witch & Peak Bamboo are moving and we’ll need the downtime to shuffle our inventory from the shop and warehouses in Ephrata to our new location in western Lancaster County, Pennsylvania…almost spitting distance from the Susquehanna River.  This was a largely unexpected, but entirely positive move...the right property came on the market much closer to my wife’s job, and it’s got enough space to accommodate Golden Witch & Peak Bamboo in the outbuildings, a carriage house & barn.  In the next month or so we’ll post a ‘moving’ page and we’ll start sharing details about this great old place that we’ve purchased.  It’s going to take a lot of renovations, but it’ll be well worth the effort.  If you need ferrules, agates, bamboo, and all the rest, now is the time to order.  Stock up for your late spring & early summer rodmaking so that our moving closure doesn’t slow you down.  We’ve just posted Moving Sale prices on the Peak Bamboo inventory – stock up, have fun! Since this was an unexpected move, we have a summer closure we’re already committed to: our summer vacation.  Regardless of when we move in the May/June timeframe, the GW shop will be closed from July 22nd through August 5th, inclusive. Please order custom products – agate guides, anything that must be blued, that sort of thing – at least three weeks prior to the start of a shop closure if you want the order shipped with certainty before the closure; custom orders with shorter lead times may be completed, and often are, but no promises. Orders with only non-custom items usually ship the business day after you place the order, even in the run-up towards a shop closure; we hustle to get your orders out the door and in your hands. I tend to work non-stop when the shop is open, so I sincerely appreciate your understanding during those times when I shut down to spend time with family, especially now that the boys are out of the house and, frequently, far from home. You may notice a trend here, a new work rhythm that I’m experimenting with so I don’t burn out. Rather than pretending to take weekends off, which rarely happens, I bundle my down time and skip town so I can’t work. Despite appearances, this means the shop is only sealed up about 86 days per year vs. 124+ days per year if I actually didn’t work on weekends and took four weeks of vacation, plus Federal holidays, to match my wife’s vacation time. I offer the math because a few folks have noted that “it seems like GW is always on vacation.” Generally speaking, the shop will be open for 5-7 weeks, then closed for a week with a ramp-down Friday and ramp-up Monday on both ends of the closed week although that sort of neatly planned closure doesn’t always pan out. We’re closed on most major U.S. holidays: New Years, Ground Hog’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, & Christmas. Everyone involved here – Matt, Nikki, Drake, & I - appreciates your business and your patience with custom orders. Golden Witch & Peak Bamboo couldn’t do what we do without you. Thanks! –Russ

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Hello Rodmakers & Restorationists!