VT - As soon as he tidies up his shop, toy maker Ed Loewenton plans to toss his saxophone into the back seat of his Ford Taurus and head 26 miles to Montpelier to let off some steam. That's to be expected, though. As owner of Elwood Turner Co., maker of hand-crafted wooden toys, he has not had a break from work since October.
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He said he sold nearly 10,000 of those this year, but won't divulge the sales figures for his other toys. He does all this from a tiny, unmarked building that overlooks sprawling farm fields and snow-capped Mount Mansfield. It is heated only by a wood stove and doubles as his home, where he lives alone. For small toy makers like him, Christmas can be a blur of production, especially since he does not have the space to hold much inventory. You're always running out of something.