
There were two old guys, Abe and Sol, sitting on a bench in a park feeding pigeons and talking about baseball, just like they did every day. Abe turns to Sol and says, “Do you think there’s baseball in heaven?”
Soloman thinks about it for a minute and replies, “I dunno, Abe. But let’s make a deal: If I die first, I will come back and tell you, and if you die first, you come back and tell me, if there is baseball in heaven.”
They shake on it and, sadly, a few months later poor Abe passes on.
One day soon afterward, Sol is sitting there feeding the pigeons by himself when he hears a voice whisper, “Sol… Sol….”
Sol responds, “Abe! Is that you?”
“Yes it is Sol,” whispers the spirit of Abe.
Sol, still amazed, asks, “So, is there baseball in heaven?”
“Well,” says Abe says, “I got good news and I got bad news.”
“Gimme the good news first,” says Sol.
Abe says, “Well… there is baseball in heaven.”
Sol says, “That’s great! What news could be bad enough to ruin that!?”
Abe sighs and whispers, “You’re pitching on Friday.”
WoodWorks Issue – 04 Nov 2025
Welcome
Greetings from your WoodWorks team. Why can’t we build New Zealand hospitals like this? The Cowichan District Hospital Replacement Project in Duncan, B.C., is setting a precedent for the use of mass timber in healthcare facilities. We are currently running the WoodWorks Conference, 4-5 November in Rotorua. We look forward to seeing many of our current WoodWorks.news subscribers there. Other stories in this issue:
- A recent New Zealand mass timber building in Lincoln makes the shortlist for international award from ‘Built-by-Nature’.
- The new Ronald McDonald House Willow at Woodrise, which is going to be a cool 12-story all-wood tower with some unique design features.
- Are we there yet? Well, it’s a journey rather than a destination, but the most recent ‘good sign’ for mass timber becoming mainstream is the plans by Amazon with a new warehouse/dispatch facility in Indiana, USA.


Why can’t we build New Zealand’s new hospitals like this

New Zealand mass timber building in Lincoln

New Ronald McDonald house

Amazon goes with mass timber for Indiana delivery centre

