learn carpentry

I grew up in a pretty generic middle class lifestyle, never doing much but chores that require basic manual labor. I graduated from college a couple of years ago, and since then have mostly worked office jobs or other jobs that encourage a sedentary lifestyle or generally lack of developing any specific skills.
I am very interested in learning a skill that is both marketable, but more importantly can be valuable for various community organizations.
I realized most of my actions up until now have set me down a path towards a 9-5 job thats indoors. Right now I’m working for AmeriCorps which affords me a good deal of flexibility and a variety of tasks. My job is in a one-year program (although I just signed on for another year), and I generally can’t imagine finding any kind of job like this that I could do long-term. On a side note, AmeriCorps jobs’ pay is generally pretty atrocious. At any rate, its becoming glaringly obvious that I need some sort of actual skill. Being an independent skilled laborer seems like a really appealing career choice.
It seems like its always useful to have someone who knows how to build things and fix things in the ‘movement’. More specifically, I have been tossing around the idea (and sometimes pursuing it more seriously) of forming a collective space with friends for years. First, I wanted to help create an infoshop or radical organizing & meeting space. More recently-largely due to the collapsing real estate market, especially here in Sarasota-I’ve pursued creating a collective house for organizers and like-minded radicals. Carpentry skills seems particularly useful for these types of endeavors.

So I am not really sure where to start, and how much time I need to set aside if I reasonably expect to learn these skills.
I am completely new to this site, but already the few recent entries of other people that I’ve perused I’ve found useful and inspiring.

It seems ridiculous to have this goal on my list when I have no tools other than my extremely basic toolkit, and no room in my current home to try and build things. When I get a house – hopefully soon – I will get some basic equipment and start picking up a few odd carpentry jobs, but for now this goal is just a waste of space on my list. Hopefully I can add this back on my list in a year!

i want to learn carpentry

Something about being able to build something from scratch…Hmmm. I’ve always wanted to learn carpentry. Don’t really know how to go about it. I can’t just buy myself a saw and start, can I? That would be wrong. Is there any online help you can find? Because I already have a carpentry kit at home (which is old, but can make do with it).

I want to be good with hand tools so i can make things

Not quite carpentry, but along the lines of what I want to learn. Basic stuff that everyone should know but because we sit behind computers all day we don’t. I wish I could have taken a shop class and home ec. That would have been great. Suprisingly the fan took about two and a half hours. Thank god my dad’s a carpenter.

I’ve had a couple of different carpentry-related goals, including building my own workbench, and I’m going to combine them.

I’m addicted to the shows on DIY, TLC and PBS that have carpentry. Unfortunately it’s winter here in Wisconsin and my garage is freezing, so I’m jonesing to get into the workshop.

would be nice to see an actual, physical thing i designed and made.

I want to be one of those people. Ideally, I want to make as many as I can of the things I own, and they will not be perfect but they will be personal and exactly “me”.
I don’t have a plan to follow on this yet.