Above the door of his workshop entrance, David Good hangs a small haphazardly constructed wooden box with a note tacked underneath of it. The laminated note explains that this box may be one of the earliest pieces of his showmanship, dating back to 1958 when he wanted to "accommodate" the family's Monopoly set.

Good's love of woodworking began when he played with Tinker Toys as a small child.

"I did more stuff with Tinker Toys than anyone in the block -- in the county, probably," he said.

In high school Good took courses related to agriculture where many of his classmates learned to weld, but he spent much of his time finding woodworking projects. Throughout his adulthood, he worked for Tom Seely and managed a furniture store. He has built, sold, and refurbished furniture.

It wasn't until he and his wife had their sixth child, though, that he even considered developing any carving skills. The couple was in their mid-forties and unsure whether or not they would have any more children. When they added another to the family, Good began to think of changing his professional direction. He'd been reading a book about carving trinket-size horses and decided to enlarge the project to a rocking horse for his son.

"I looked at the instructions and just blew them up," he said.

Blowing up the project enabled Good to minimize all the special tools he would need for a smaller project. Because he'd always worked with wood, he only needed a few carving tools for fine-tuning. Once his youngest son got a horse all the other children had to have one for their houses.

"Carving is a different world," Good said. "It's more of a folk art with a lot finer work -- especially the heads of horses. That takes more time and you have to be very precise."

Now Good sells these custom handmade rocking horses in his small retail store on Route 94 just north of Dalton.

"I enjoy it part-time. I wouldn't want to do a horse head every day, but I guess that's how a lot of artists might feel about it. Norman Rockwell probably didn't want to have to work on a face all the time either," Good said.

When Good started carving horses he initially thought using a steel brush would make the horse more realistic, but after trial and error he found that letting the wood grain show as much as possible attracted customers because it looked like hair and reminded them that their play ponies were indeed solid wood. Some of his customers who fall in love with the horses, but want a smaller version pick up his doll-size models.

Bunker Hill Furniture sells furniture, upholstery and specialty items. Since Good has scaled back his operation, he only keeps the store open "by chance or by appointment."

"I'm still a woodworker at heart," he said. "But I've been getting into a lot of things I've never done before now."

Recently Good custom-built a deck for even though he had no previous experience. Antiques scattered about the shop also reveal another of Good's interests. In addition to occasionally carving horses and waterfowl, Good also restores antique furniture and he said he loves to help people pick out fabric when he sells upholstery.

"It's great to have variety, especially in this stage of life," he said.

Though Bunker Hill Furniture is only open by chance or appointment, Good said he's pleasantly surprised by how many people will make the effort to meet with him to discuss their needs.

"One person can make a great day for me and that's not going to happen at Wal-Mart," he said.