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Thread: What are your other hobbies besides Woodworking?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Posts
    280

    What are your other hobbies besides Woodworking?

    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?
    If over thinking was an Olympic event, I'd win Gold every time!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Waterford, PA
    Posts
    1,225
    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.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto Ontario
    Posts
    11,247
    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
    Last edited by Rod Sheridan; 02-12-2021 at 11:51 AM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Ingleside, IL
    Posts
    1,417
    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.......
    Stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Location
    Overbrook KS
    Posts
    24
    I enjoy fishing and hunting with the grandkids. I used to be the 4H shooting sports instructor for our county, so when the grandkids are around and the weather is nice we usually end up with the guns or bows out for a little range time. Before I retired I was a certified law enforcement firearms instructor and range master. So I do a lot of shooting when I can find and afford the ammo. I build and repair fishing rods mostly for the kids and grandkids. My shop is multi purpose I have my fishing stuff in one corner, my sharpening shop in another, and my woodworking equipment in the other half. My kids are all scared that I will kick the bucket and they will have to help their mom clean out the shop.

  6. #6
    I do beekeeping - four hives in my backyard. Also play pickleball.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    SW Michigan
    Posts
    668
    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.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Wayland, MA
    Posts
    3,655
    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.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
    Posts
    8,973
    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.
    Last edited by Tom M King; 02-12-2021 at 1:05 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Grand Forks, ND
    Posts
    2,336
    Restoring old motorcycles is my other main hobby, getting near the end on this 37 WL IMG_20210110_190241604.jpg
    A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Lebanon, TN
    Posts
    1,719
    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.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Mt Pleasant SC
    Posts
    721
    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.
    Last edited by Bruce King; 02-12-2021 at 1:08 PM.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Fort Smith, Arkansas
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    1,985
    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.
    My three favorite things are the Oxford comma, irony and missed opportunities

    The problem with humanity is: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and God-like technology. Edward O. Wilson

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    NE Iowa
    Posts
    1,217
    I'm impressed with all the other things folks here find time to do. I'm a homebody with, at least until I retire later this year, 50+ hrs/week job. By the time I manage that, and all the work associated with our little farm and its animals, woodcutting, gardening (mostly for food), orchard management, and general upkeep, finding time for more than woodworking as a pastime seems impossible. But I've got a list of things to get to when I do retire. Two at the top of the list are to get back to some plant breeding experiments I abandoned for lack of time 25 years ago, and building some robotic/AI driven mechanisms useful around the farm.

    And maybe, if the God's smile on me, someday, some grandkids ... although we're pretty close to running out of runway on that one.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    McKean, PA
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    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.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

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