Our other hobbies

[Gary]

Books. Got 17 bookcases all packed with books. Why so many? Because TV is boring and I've been doing research into the blackpowder era. 3 six shelf bookcases alone are on the American Civil War.

Also have the biggest "little" model ship collection in the neighborhood. In excess of 500 1/1200 scale ship models.

 

[Musketeer]

Also have the biggest "little" model ship collection in the neighborhood. In excess of 500 1/1200 scale ship models.

Gary, that's not a collection, it's an armada! :: :crackup: :thumbsup:

 

[Holley]

No...that is a dust collection. How do you clean or keep clean those TINY ships :: Are they under glass?

 

[Gary]

5 1/2 foot glass & wood display case houses most of the larger ships. The case came from a gunstore that closed.

The smaller ships (destroyers, destroyer escorts, frigates, corvettes, tugs, subchasers, submarines, PT/E-boats/MGB) are in 50 drawer cabinets. There's also two desktop display cases that house some of the larger ships (including the museum quality German made ships). Do a search on E-bay under "1/1200" or "1/1250" if you want to see what those ships look like.

 

[Musketeer]

Tipis, Gary keeps his tiny ships dust free by having a group of trained ants (in tiny sailor outfits, of course) swab the decks! :: :thumbsup:

 

[Rebel]

Fly Fishing for trout and steelhead and just fishing, mostly for bass. Used to be in to motorcycles, but my old back ain't up to it any more. Gettin' old sucks.

 

Gettin' old sucks.

Yeah but the alternative sucks worse! :haha:

 

[leadball]

Fishing!! love Fishing. walleyes, panfish, northern pike, perch, saugers. I also love grouse hunting and i sort of permanetly "borrowed" an old spanish made sxs 20 guage hammer gun from my father in law. It was sitting in his gun cabinet so I got new firing pins and opened the chokes to IC both barrels. it shoots regular shells and have enjoyed many a grouse dinner this year because of it.

 

[leadball]

[/quote] Actually, I believe you's right, Huntinfool! ::A hobby is something you might eventually lose interest in, in favor of something else. Somehow, I don't see myself losin' interest in women! :: :shocking: :crackup: :thumbsup: [/quote]

your not married, are you :winking: :crackup: :crackup: :haha: :crackup:
when your single, its this---> ::
when your married, its this----> :yakyak:
:crackup: :crackup:

 

My interests are mainly within the 1800's; cookwares, utensils, beads and silver ornaments.

I have a bunch of wooden spoons and stirring paddles, two sets of mortars & pestles of hickory, river cane winnowing and sifting baskets. I also collect cast iron pots, kettles, ovens and skillets from the early 1800's. I have 3 skillets w/lids, 2 Dutch ovens, 6 pots, and one 45 gallon cauldron complete with stand. I only use a few of these, and will mainly be for my kids. Last night I picked up a 1/2 gallon pot for $6.00 at an antique shop.

I also have a few strands of old fur trade era beads. I bet I've made a few truck payments for Chuck Leonard with all the silver I've bought from him! LOL Well worth the investment though.

Pare-

 

[CG6018]

I grew up in the hills of WV, and showing an interest in birding raised some eyebrows. My Granddad could identify two different hawks, "big chicken hawks" and "small chicken hawks", and he shot both. I've always enjoyed hunting and fishing, but over the years my year round pleasure is birding, especially birds of prey.

Here in Berks Co., PA., we are fortunate to have Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and there is nothing more serene and mind-clearing than sitting on the North Lookout at Hawk Mt. in late November watching the migrating Red-tails, Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, etc., soaring along the Blue Mountain coming from somewhere Northeast and heading somewhere South and Southwest.

There are a few more days to hunt here in PA. during the regular buck season, and I'll get in another day or two with my flintlock. Then, after Christmas, we have our own special flintlock season for a couple of weeks, and I have a couple of tags left for that, but following those outings, I'll be out every day filling the feeders (for the birds, and the deer), and the wife and I will sit back with a hot cup of tea and watch winter do its thing.

 

[ryoung14]

Hey Patriot,
A question. Since I was a kid 50 years ago there's been a big resurgence in the numbers of crows and hawks in this area. Both were relatively rare back in the 50's and early 60's. Now they're everywhere. Big redtail hawks circlin' overhead are a common sight anytime during the day.

At the same time there's been a big drop in the number of songbirds. Where I live now I can remember as a kid being unable to sleep past 5:30 am during the summer due to the racket the songbirds made. Now it's crows cawing.

Are these things related? Does it have anything to do with the DDT ban? Or is it because someone cut down Grandma's cherry tree?

Just askin'
Bob

 

[CG6018]

Bob,
I guess one of the reasons for more birds of prey is the fact that they are all now protected, and have been for several years. Back in the '30's, local farmers would gather on Hawk Mt. and using live pigeons for decoys, would get the hawks in close to the ridge above the Little Schuylkill River, and shoot them by the hundreds. The history of Hawk Mt. can be found at[url] HawkMountainSanctuary.org[/url]. There is a lot of information there along with many pictures from the past.

They end their migration count on the mountain on Dec. 15, and I see that yesterday they had 16 red-tails, 4 golden eagles, and 9 bald eagles soar past the lookout. I should have been there.

I agree about the lack of song birds, and I don't know why other than more housing developments causing the loss of nesting habitat perhaps. My wife says that my problem is that I don't hear for squat anymore and crows are louder than song birds!

 

[tna]

Musketeer and I must be the young guys on the block, I too am 34.

not quite. just turned 25 and my other hobbies would have to include my 67 cougar, and bird hunting with my dog. i use a rem. 870 for that. i don't have a ml shot gun...yet. and spending time w/ my 4 month old daughter, Haley, which kinda trumps everything else.

 

[JeffinNZ]

Can't get enough of my mountain bike (cross country) on the Port Hills close to where I live here. Used to fish a bit but that's very secondary now.
Just had a new baby, Kiera, so she is now a hobbie too. And then there is my lovely wife Sheryl.....

 

[Birdwatcher]

Well I've look at birds through binos a time or two....

The population of raptors (and fish-eating birds like brown pelicans) HAS rebounded in recent decades. As folks have written, banning DDT likely helped, as well as a change in public perceptions. Although golden eagle do still get hammered in sheep country.

With respect to the continuing songbird decline, likely the best yardstick are the radar returns form the Gulf Coast. As many as half of all songbirds breeding in the US probably cross the Gulf of Mexico twice each year. On peak migration nights their numbers are such that their flocks register on radar.

See... http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/birdrad/

As well as American breeding birds we get all of those millions from the relatively undisturbed North Woods of Canada. Even so, radar returns indicate that songbird numbers are down by half since the '60's (probably most of those losses occurring in the Lower 48).

Habitat destruction of course, reportedly even worse on their wintering grounds than it is up here. DDT too is still widely used in the Tropics.

1776... one day I MUST make it down to see the mother of all hawk watches; Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico, five million hawks a season, and hawks counted on clickers by lots of one thousand per click.

http://veracruzhawkwatch.blogspot.com/

Birdwatcher

 

[Birdwatcher]

Oh yeah, my other hobbies? It was motorcycles for many years (for more than a decade my only form of transportation), now I like mountain bikes better.

Reading, especially history, and especially frontier history.

Birdwatcher

 

Birdwatcher

One the most interesting things I ever saw on a field trip with the Hiawatha Valley Audubon Society was over 800 Bald Eagles in one sighting. 4 kettles contained most of them but there were 180 immatures on the shoreline in Wisconsin, opposite our position in Reed's Landing, Minnesota. I am not much of a birder and never considered it a hobby but I am an organizer/enabler so I served the club as Publicity Chariman, VP and then 2 years as President and declined any other jobs after that. Very time consuming! Technutz was our webmaster and created the club's first website. Both of us have moved on to other things now but I still feed the birds and between my wife and I, and birders from the club, we have identified almost 100 species around our home.

 

[strand]

My hobbies are dog training and trialing with my chocolate lab, Jake, some taxidermy, camping, fishing, woodworking (mostly building new contraptions for hunting and fishing) all types of wing shooting, but my passion falls in pheasant hunting, I simply can't get enough of it...and of course my girlfriend, as I am still in college and still want to wait a couple years for marriage...yikes I can't believe I just said that maybe we'll wait more like ten years, lol.

It's really interesting reading everybody's hobbies, great post!!!

 

[Birdwatcher]

Smoked... I write a monthly column for our own local Audubon newsletter and am buddies with most of the club officials, so I know first-hand how time consuming it can be.

I will say that it is very cool to be out in the woods and know most every bird call you hear, and bird watching is a LOT like hunting.

Birdwatcher