Thanks for your Service to Our Nation Tom, Both Military and Civil...

Dave is the man when it comes to wood working. He'll steer you right. Since he won't toot his own horn I'll do it for him.

You might check out his new book.

http://store.finewoodworking.com/fine-woodworkings-google-sketchup-guide-for-woodworkers-basics-download-067125.html

Although this is a little more on the refined side.

Also you might check out the textures in the Shop here on the site.
http://sketchucation.com/shop/textures

Once you have some textures and you want to make a "collection" look on your material browser window on the far right of the window there is a small arrow directly to the right of the drop down menu, this will allow you to save a library or collection of materials to your materials folder.

Now since you're working in what looks to be a more rustic form of carving, if this is indeed a typical example of your work, I will suggest two plugins that will be of great help to you.

Thomthom's Vertex Tools which is available here in the shop or on his website.
http://www.thomthom.net/software/vertex_tools/

and Artisan
http://artisan4sketchup.com/