What are your other hobbies besides Woodworking?

[Jim Fox]

Responding to another post got me thinking what other hobbies do you partake in? The one specific that made peaked my curiosity as if to others did it..........Scale Model Building

Now I did take a long hiatus from this hobby, but got back into in 2019 heavy and built a lot as a kid, teen and young adult. But scale plastic models. Anyone else build these? I specifically do WWII Aircraft. Airbrush paint jobs, fine details, etc.

Also am big into Photography, shot lots of Middle/High School Sports when my kids were of that age. Lots of landscape, etc. Gotten really lazy over the past few years about shooting. Youtube content creators have all ruined that for me with their beautiful locations. Most the time Michigan (except fall and early spring with leaves are popping) is just boring so I tend to be lazy and not go out.

3 years ago the Kayaking bug bit when some friends invited me to go down the river with them. Not white water......a lazy slow meandering scenic river with lots of trout, salmon and steelhead in the right season. Float all day, drink, eat, drink......did I mention drink. It's a 4 hour round trip just to get to the river, but we stay at their cabin. 2019 we went 8 times and in 2020 I went 13 times in 16 weekends (twice in one weekend). Not sure I can ever top that!

And this year because we are forced to stay home and not go to the office, I upped my bird feeding game. Got stuff I've never seen before. So I guess that's a hobby now.

I tend to swap back and fourth between WW and Model Building by season. Even though my shop has AC (basement advantage) I tend not to build in the warmer months. I hate heat and some switch in my brain goes off and I don't work in the shop as much.

What do you all do for fun besides WW?

[Lisa Starr]

My other "big" hobby is perennial gardening. Every year I design and install another small garden. I find that once you win the initial weed battle, caring for the established beds is very easy and takes minimal time each week. Of course, I have drip irrigation installed in all my beds, so no watering chores and only the plants get water, not the surrounding areas.

I also enjoy kayaking, hiking and antique shopping.

[Rod Sheridan]

Like Lisa, I love gardening, and in the winter, enjoy the birds that visit.

We have many cardinals which are striking against the snow, Ckickadees, Nuthatches, and Junko’s.

We have 2 seed feeders, a suet feeder and a heated birdbath. We have several woodpeckers who hang upside down to eat, and completely ignore the dog.

I also motorcycle, this is my 47th consecutive year of riding, I have the following bikes

- 1930 James, 500cc single with hand shift and acetylene lighting

- 1975 Norton Commando, original owner

- 1976 R90/6 BMW, 5000:000 Km

- 2013 BMW F700GS

Regards, Rod

[Bill Carey]

I used to fly fish a lot and cover local news and sports as a freelance photographer, but have pretty much given them up to focus on the woodworking. I'm sometimes in the shop till 10 or 11 at night. The only other hobby I still pursue is shooting pool and collecting pool cues. Other than that I'm pretty boring.......

[Mike Henderson]

I do beekeeping - four hives in my backyard. Also play pickleball.

Mike

[Jon Grider]

I like film photography. Mostly B&W street photography and some landscapes too when I'm doing my other interest, backpacking and hiking. Love reading as well.

[ChrisA Edwards]

I've had a go at a few things, Wind Surfing, Scuba Diving, Hang Gliding, Moto Crossing, Dirt Biking and street and track riding motorcycles.


The last two, street and track riding motorcycles, has been my main hobby for the last 20+ years.

Just a little taste of some of my fun, recorded a few years ago at the Circuit of the America's (COTA).




Played a few racket sports, Tennis, Badminton, Squash and Raquetball.

Also, being of English origin, was a big soccer (come on it's Football) player and still a fan.

[roger wiegand]

Collecting, restoring, and exhibiting antique mechanical musical instruments:
IMG_1925 (1).jpg

(I have phonographs, juke boxes, player pianos, barrel, roll, and book operated organs, a violin playing machine, and more)

Worldwide travel -- cancelled a month in Australia and a month in Europe last year :-( (but that left lots more shop time) I try to do serious photography when I travel.

Fly fishing, both saltwater and for trout. Have gotten out pitifully few times this year. I do better when I travel to a destination for the sole purpose of fishing. Any given day at home the to do list is too long.

Model rocketry is on hiatus for the moment, I just don't have time. Playing tuba in the community band is also on hiatus.

House rebuilding (between projects for now, thankfully-- next one will probably be when/if my daughter decides to settle down)

DW is a master gardener. My hobby in that regard is to dig holes and say "yes dear" each time some enormous plant needs to be moved. I also battle the bittersweet as we try to rehabilitate our meadow as wildlife habitat. The orchard is my purview, as is nesting box maintenance, and keeping the feeders filled.

I keep trying to focus so that I can actually get something done. The urge to add new hobbies is overwhelming. I'm always trying to do/learn too many things at once in my woodworking.

[Tom M King]

Woodworking is not a hobby for me. Main hobbies are sailboat racing, and horses. But with those two things as hobbies, my main "hobby" is maintaining the horse farm on a nice lake. Trails do cross duty for dirt bikes.

[Michael Weber]

I used to do beekeeping but stopped after several years. Amazing creatures. I also used to make neon as a hobby. Self taught, I scrounged or built a lot of the needed equipment but bought various burners and the big bombarding transformer and choke. Installed in half a two car garage. The garage door had orange tinted glass windows and my daughter said coming home at night with the burners going it looked like the garage from hell. It was a potentially dangerous and even deadly hobby. 15 thousand volts, huge electromagnetic fields and working with Mercury vapor. What could go wrong! Like everything else I’ve been involved with I got tired of it once I learned the process. Currently have a sidecar rig and the last two years we have taken multi week trips staying on two lanes almost exclusively and to heck with fall rain, snow and cold. Wife’s a trooper and has an electric blanket if needed. Last years trip from Arkansas through Dakotas to Oregon. Wife in the snow in Yellowstone. They closed the park the next day due to ice.

[Lee Schierer]

I have quite a few activities that keep me going seasonally. In the summer, we go camping, hiking, fishing, boating and traveling. We do day trips in our 1996 Miata with just the two of us or our local Miata club. In the fall hunting season takes priority, I help with two youth pheasant hunts every year and then take my dog out with friends to chase the birds. Then deer hunting comes in. I do home repairs and remodeling for my house and for our two children as needed. I do some woodworking still, though most of the furniture making is behind me until the grand kids start wanting some. I like to walk and ride my road bike in the spring and summer. I did beekeeping for over 30 years, but sold all my equipment last year. I like capturing special moments and wild life with my camera as well as documenting our trips. We go on cruises when we can. I also used to fly radio controlled airplanes but that has become more difficult in recent years due to increased numbers of houses. We used to grow 90% of our vegetables when the kids were at home, but we've found that trips and gardening don't mix as the weeds win. We make home made sauerkraut every couple of years for the family. We feed the birds in the winter and the occasional bear in the spring if we leave our feeders out too long. I also help Habit build houses when the covid doesn't shut us down. We barbque and picnic even in the winter. I cross country ski when the snow allows.

[Bill Dufour]

Reading internet forums about wood working?

[Ole Anderson]

I snowmobile a bit. A bit of saltwater fishing when we are in FL, in our RV for 3 months a year, we have an older 19' center console there. A pontoon at home gets lots of use in the summer. I enjoy blowing snow and mowing the lawn. The single biggest "hobby" is tinkering around the church, I am the chair of the property committee and also head up our livestreaming tech team, running the video switcher most Sundays I am home, a well as recommending and installing new tech equipment.

[Derek Cohen]

My day job (clinical psychologist in private practice) takes up a great deal of time, plus I sit on a few professional committees. I would not call it a hobby, but I have a large-ish collection of vintage fountain pens which are fun to use and make note taking less of a drudgery. I’ve always tended to burn the candle at both ends, with much competitive sport in the past: tennis, squash and I windsurfed on the state and national circuit for 20+ years. Now I just run on a treadmill every evening after work. Outside of the physical side of woodworking, I run the occasional workshop and teach/demonstrate at woodshows, and write and maintain a website/blog. I spend 12 years restoring a 1957 Porsche 356. I miss that one. I am something of a Porsche fan, and enjoy touring the local vineyards and countryside top down in my old Boxster S. Travel is my wife’s joy, and we generally spent a few weeks somewhere in the world each year.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bruce King]

I like repairing electronics but in recent years there is less that needs repair. Bicycling turned into ebiking which is actually more exercise because we do it more often and longer distances. Boating got too hard here with the wind so we sold it. Scuba diving and private pilot are items from the past. Home improvement is a common activity and bird watching. Some photography. Used to have three BMW’s that I did all the repairs and maintenance on but sold them and now just a 2003 truck and 2019 X5 that doesn’t need much work. Before covid we took our ebikes every month to islands or mountains to ride. Also like to try new restaurants but not going to pay $60 for takeout so now we get takeout from regular restaurants and park somewhere scenic to eat. I did an electronics invention years ago that is now saving the airlines around the world a massive amount of energy. I’m feeling the need to do some more electronic design but cutting wood is more fun. I didn’t get rich off the patent because after selling to a few companies it was stolen by probably all others and even the US govt pilot training facilities. If anyone wants to patent something contact me first.