What are your other hobbies besides Woodworking?

[Jim Becker]

Failures should be expected with cooking anything new or unfamiliar as I find that I need to make the same thing over and over until I get it nailed down. They say the difference between a cook and a chef is whether you need to follow a recipe or not.

What's a "recipe?" I certainly wouldn't claim to be a chef, but other than a glance for an idea or to cement a technique, I typically don't use them most of the time. I really do like the "here's what I have now what can I do with it" approach to cooking and have three goals in order of importance:

1) Don't poison my family
2) make it at least taste good and have acceptable texture
3) make it look appealing

[Mike Soaper]

Would that it were true! If we had to rely on what I could grow we would very quickly starve to death. Even the simplest things fail utterly-- over the last decade I've invested a huge number of dollars in soil improvement, irrigation, and fencing and countless hours in trying to grow a decent tomato. I've gotten a grand total of three. The hornworms move in and decimate them overnight, the squirrels attack, and the vines get some sort of nasty virus, curl up and die. I've tried growing potatoes a couple times, the deer jump over the fence and chew them down to a nub; install 8 ft deer fence and the groundhogs crawl over and/or burrow under and chew them down to a nub. There's a big CSA farm right around the corner from us, they've taken to posting guard dogs 24/7 in the fields in addition to their electric fences to try to discourage the deer and other critters. Apparently it's only partially successful. The farmer's newsletter is always lamenting what won't get harvested due to the animals and bugs having eaten it. I'm afraid it's the farmer's market for me for veggies; I've surrendered on home grown.

Sounds familiar, my daughter gave me the book
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

[Jim Koepke]

Would that it were true! If we had to rely on what I could grow we would very quickly starve to death. Even the simplest things fail utterly-- over the last decade I've invested a huge number of dollars in soil improvement, irrigation, and fencing and countless hours in trying to grow a decent tomato. I've gotten a grand total of three. The hornworms move in and decimate them overnight, the squirrels attack, and the vines get some sort of nasty virus, curl up and die. I've tried growing potatoes a couple times, the deer jump over the fence and chew them down to a nub; install 8 ft deer fence and the groundhogs crawl over and/or burrow under and chew them down to a nub. There's a big CSA farm right around the corner from us, they've taken to posting guard dogs 24/7 in the fields in addition to their electric fences to try to discourage the deer and other critters. Apparently it's only partially successful. The farmer's newsletter is always lamenting what won't get harvested due to the animals and bugs having eaten it. I'm afraid it's the farmer's market for me for veggies; I've surrendered on home grown.

Sounds familiar, my daughter gave me the book
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

When living in California most years my tomatoes and zucchini were so plentiful they would be taken to work by the grocery bag full to be given away.

Now in a different climate it is a different story. Fortunately the property came with a greenhouse. The deer haven't figured out how to break in to that yet.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Sounds familiar, my daughter gave me the book
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

Is there one about fishing? I read once how much each fish cost an typical fisherman once you consider license, gear, boat, trailer. Don't even consider the time "invested".

Our gardening over the years has been fairly successful, usually corn, beans, cushaws, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, greens, peppers, okra, carrots. Always have fresh produce in season and put plenty in the freezer for later. My fertilizer-factory (the llamas) help.

I figured out how to keep the deer out.

[Jim Koepke]

I figured out how to keep the deer out.

Care to share?

We have deer walking through our yard all the time.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Care to share?

We have deer walking through our yard all the time.

jtk

There are a LOT of deer in our area - we live with woods all around. A whitetail deer can easily jump a 6 or 8' tall fence. But they don't get into my garden with a 4' fence.

I put a the welded wire fence around my garden plot (50'x150') when I put in the garden about 15 years ago. The fence has a single electrified wire on the top. In the growing season I periodically walk around the garden with a jar of peanut butter and a plastic fork. I put small globs of peanut butter on the wire every 4 to 6 feet. If a deer approaches the garden it will smell and then taste the peanut butter and THAT ONE will never come near the garden again. I do this every year and with the exception of one year when I was too busy (er, negligent and lazy) I never saw evidence of a deer in the garden. Rabbits and raccoons, yes, but no deer.

Deer often jump over the electric fence around the horse pasture to get to the grass inside. I once watched one stretch out its neck and touch the fence with its nose. I wish I had a video of that. The deer jumped up and back and almost flipped over then ran wide open across the pasture. When it got near the fence on the other side it slowed and stopped and turned and ran back across. It repeated the traversal several times. I had to go in then but the last I saw the deer was tiptoeing up and down the fence trying to figure out how to get out!

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

Care to share?

We have deer walking through our yard all the time.

jtk

. Buy some Bitrex on eBay. It’s the worlds most bitter taste. It has no smell, so you need to mix in something that does.
That will stop the varmits from useing your garden as a salad bar.

[Clifford McGuire]

Downhill skiing and mountain biking. At least as long as my health lets me.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

At one time, I lived and breathed match shooting with muskets.. My eyes started to get bad and then a fire burned everything up. I lost all the target guns and equipment. I took up turning again a year after the fire. I also have a 50 acre farm where I raise cattle, hay and berries. We have black berries, blue berries, wineberries, high bush cranberries, Aronia and Josta berries. We also raise a few Cape Gooseberries every few years.

[Bob Andre]

What a diverse and talented group we have. .You all have such amazing talent. I thought I'd add my hobbies beside woodworking which does produce a little income and savings since I have built most of our furniture and other items-currently building a 4 panel stave core door for our soon to be new house that needs work.
Hunting, shooting, reloading, fly fishing
Mountain biking, kayaking
Enjoy logging and milling on my band mill
Carriage driving, riding
Had a pack of fox hounds and Hunt recognized by Masters of Fox hounds
Have a small horse farm
Long time National Ski Patroller
How have we found time to do all this?

[John K Jordan]

...
Carriage driving, riding
...

One horse carriage? Do you train?
I have three horses, one blind and the second old. One buckskin is wonderful, eager, sensitive, trained for Reining. A young friend comes and works with him every week.

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Olivia_seq_s.jpg

I have some friends who drive carts with llamas. I'd be interested but I'm not sure I have a suitable llama.
I do have an Amish-made miniature horse cart and all the fixings and would love to train a young miniature donkey gelding who seems to be agreeable, far more than the two female minis I have. Problem is I need a second person with enough spare time.

donkeys_IMG_20151127_133448.jpg

JKJ

[Pat Rice]

Photography and woodworking have been my passion for many years. Woodworking took a back seat to photography for many years but that started reversing several years ago. It is hard to pursue both at the same time and work full time. I have done a lot of sports photography freelancing for several newspapers over the years but also enjoy travel and other types of photography.
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[Bob Andre]

John
We, my wife, trained all our own horses over the years, many were bred and foaled here on the farm. For foxhunting, combined training, dresage, and driving.We drive for pleasure and combined driving with several different vehicles, antique and contemporary.

[Jim Becker]

Good stuff, Bob. That was a lot of hard work, but equines are wonderful, empathetic beasts. I miss our two quite a bit some days, but they are right around the corner and I have visitation rights if I need a "fix"...

[Don Orr]

Other than woodworking, I enjoy hiking, snowshoeing, XC skiing (was out today and yesterday), canoeing, kayaking-both calm and whitewater (mostly whitewater) and trying to get back into bicycling.