Dean Oestreich knows that he won’t always get instant results from his efforts to oversee operations at Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. By contrast, his leisure activities – gardening and woodworking – produce very immediate and tangible rewards, he said.

“In the work environment, especially at a management level, it is much less precise than it is if you’re working at your garden and you can tell that the plants and flowers are doing well, or the woodworking project is something you like,” said Oestreich, the president of Pioneer.

Oestreich admits that he is not one to sit idle, an attitude that can be traced back to his upbringing on his family’s farm in Southwestern Minnesota, where he learned to use tools from an early age. He also recognizes the immense value of having interests outside work, he said.

“With both gardening and woodworking, they’re enjoyable, but also engage you fully with what you’re doing at that moment in time, which really creates a partition between work and other things,” he said.

Oestreich said he also likes having something to show for his leisure activities, which he alternates in evening and weekend hours throughout the year, “gardening during warm weather and making sawdust fly in the garage on cold nights and weekends.”

“I like to do something that is really constructive,” he said. “Both of these things that I enjoy produce something of substance, and you can see it today. They have a very specific set of outcomes, which you can absolutely see, feel and touch.”

Recently, Oestreich and his wife, Joni, started tying up the gardening season by moving plants and flowers into their solarium, which they built onto their home to accommodate their interest in and commitment to their 5,000-plus-square-foot garden. Now, he says, he will hand over the reins of the garden to Joni for the winter, and transition back into his wood shop to start on some furniture creations. He is leaving his options open right now as to for what projects he’ll tackle.

“With woodworking, I say that I can make about any sort of furniture that one can imagine,” Oestreich said. “I have done woodworking since high school, and I would say that I’m an accomplished and skilled woodworker, although not very fast.”

Speed usually isn’t an issue for Oestreich, who says the hobby is “much more enjoyable without the time-driven deadlines.” But for good causes, such as charity events and for special gifts, he doesn’t mind setting a timeline for completing an assignment.

“I’ve done a lot of Christmas projects and pieces for charities where you have specific timelines and very specific goals for when you need to finish it, and if I do, I try to get started months in advance, because your shop time isn’t necessarily as well-prescribed as work and other priorities,” he said.

His last two major creations, he says, have been chairs he designed and crafted for charity auctions for the Young Women’s Resource Center. He built the chairs to his specifications, although he doesn’t go so far as to call himself an artist.

“Woodworking in some respects is an art form, and I will not label myself as an artist,” said. “Most of what I am able to do today is self-taught. I read a lot and I’m part of a woodworkers’ club in town with people who share information and ideas, but it is also a lot of trial and error.”

Artwork or not, Oestreich’s wife, Joni, wouldn’t mind having some of his original furniture for herself.

“In both cases lately when I’ve made the chairs for charity, my wife would look at them and say, ‘Those are very nice. Maybe you should make a different one for the charity,’” he said. “I’ve told her that I’ll make another one for her someday.”