Nothing makes other folks more human than learning interests other than the one or two that got you in contact.

I love this thread! Thanks to all for sharing.

My other interests include computers, smoking beef and pork, fly fishing, reading about stuff, wood working, chili styles and making ice cream.
Dave

I always seem to be building something.  I have been collecting traditional tools forever, not to look at but to use.  I have a little cabin in the middle of nowhere in NM that I built.  Recently I built a sheep wagon that I can tow on the highway complete with a wood burning stove.  I do some shooting of classic firearms like Martinis, Rolling Blocks and a CPA schuetzen rifle.  I have chickens, fruit trees and a large vegetable garden.

chili styles and making ice cream.
Dave

I'll bet that that surprises those pesky kids...... :)

my hobbies come and go, but wood working and metal working always rise back to the top. other than that, i cast my own bullets, paper wrap and reload for my .303s. i also always seem to be building / renovating kitchens, i move a lot ( Military)and always never like the kitchen. getting sick of kitchens. but i do build my own cabinets from scratch. wood carving, pencil sketching, stuff like that for the winter. 

my wife is a stamping up demonstrator in her spare time, her first endeavour into the crafty stuff. i am pretty sure that in time, it will open up more of her talents. i do get to build the cabinets and work tables for her.

Beekeeping!

 

But my primary hobby at this time of my life is beating depression. Everything I do now is aimed towards that.

 

I used to have problems with depression, still do but not to the same scale. What I discovered really helped me when I was down was to just do nice things for folk, complete strangers worked best. Just giving someone a hand loading their groceries in the parking lot, holding a door, etc. Nothing fancy just the simplest little random acts of nice. Every one seemed to lift a little of the weight and a smile was like gold to my soul.

 

I don't know if any of that will help but it couldn't hurt could it?

 

We're here for you Brother, if we can help we sure will. Heck, I could even be enticed to say something silly! <grin>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Interesting Woody, that your wife is a piano tuner/repairer/teacher. Talented lady. We have had so many old pianos at my workplace that we've given several away and two recently got fed to our steam engine. A big old Ruston Proctor portable will run all day on a piano.
And yes, interesting how so many of our partners are crafty people. My wife is into glasswork - copper foiling, leadlighting, that sort of thing. Lends itself well to combining metal work in creating decorative lamps etc. She also likes historical things and is learning to drive trains on our local line. We also hold pilot licences but haven't flown for a few years now. Aviation funds were redirected!
I also enjoy woodworking - especially since we have some beautiful cabinet timbers here in North Queensland. And old cars, vintage machinery and racecars.

I find the notion that our spouses tend to be crafty people about as surprising as if you mentioned that blacksmiths tend to have a scrap pile...

 

But then that was a requirement I had when I was looking for a spouse---that they had at least 1 craft that they were passionate about.  I thought that they would then *understand* why I needed more anvils, more rusty metal, more shop!  I was also happy that my spouse  was not into smithing as well; we had to split the entertainment budget but my tools were all MINE *MINE* BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA and I didn't have to share.

 

I'm into historical reenactment and my wife is a skilled calligrapher, knitter, tatter, crocheter as well as a spinster...

I am doing a lot of fly fishing and fly tying lately. I also carve, sculpt, leatherwork, faux paint and take great photos! This is a picture of a long-eared sunfish. These are truly beautiful fishes! Usually a bit smallish for the frying pan though. They do fight as if they weighed three times what they do!

Wow, now that's a pretty fish! Doesn't the aquarium mind you fishing in their tanks? :D

Ever since reading Robinson Crusoe as a kid, I've been keen on learning how to do things with my hands.  Green woodworking of all sorts, trying to work through the Ashley Book of Knots, braintanning hides for leather, flint knapping, the list is endless.  

 

I like basket weaving but don't have a source of good european/british willow to try making proper wicker kit.  Dabbled in pine needle baskets once or twice and really enjoyed the meditative state it brings.  And it doesn't smell as bad as tanning hides does.

 

And who could forget shooting.  I love traditional archery but haven't practiced in a decade or so.  I really got into shooting modern boomsticks and would spend my days off at the range making tiny little clusters of holes with my Remington 597.  I even built a custom stock for it so I could shoot from the bench more comfortably.  Cheap, fun, and very meditative.

 

Lately, I've got a real hankering to get into bowl-making.  I don't know why, but I think my house would do well with a few big bowls and dough troughs sitting around.  Of course, that will mean forging a few adzes and chisels. 

 

Don't have a wife to share the fun with, but I do know a bit about the depression thing.  I think that's why I choose hobbies that keep me isolated to one degree or another.

Great thread.
This is a partial list of what I do.
photographer with studio
beekeeper
am inflicted with a bad version of Castironitis
enjoy cast iron cooking
bread baking
am a practitioner of remote euthanasia for groundhogs
firefighter and recently dropped my EMT after 27 years (always felt the need to help others in times of distress)
shooting flintlocks, both Pa rifle and musket

The Ozarks is like one giant, open aquarium, and lots of people fish here!  That's one that my wife caught... in Bull Shoals... I think.  Some days we catch six or seven species of fish... other days we'll bring 200 fish to the boat in 5 hours on the water!!!  Most are released but we keep a few to eat sometimes.  It's usually relaxing and peaceful on the water with lots of wildlife to watch... ospreys, otters, mink, wood ducks, geese, great blue and green herons, deer, etc.   We usually take our three dogs on the boat.  My wife likes to tease them by asking if they really want to go!  They have developed a little dance performance in answer... it involves a lot of jumping and whining and little anxious barks!!!

When younger I enjoyed reading Robinson Crusoe, Swiss family Robinson, (get a good translation that goes into the details and not a version that skips all the good stuff!), Mysterious Island, etc.  Nowadays I'm more likely to read the modern version: post apocalypse stories.

 

However as I've tried things out myself  some of the stories have some glaring errors:  case in point: Robinson Crusoe making shelves by taking a good sized log and hewing both sides down to a "plank" in the middle---massive amount of work when I once went out and with 1 steel wedge and a couple of gluts split a plank out of an ash log in an hour and was ready to smooth it down---and I had lots of log left to make others!

 

Luckily one of my daughters likes P-A stories too and so we can discuss them together when she's home from college;  unfortunately these days I fall under the case I first read in "Alas Babylon" where the diabetics go fairly quickly after a collapse...

 

Rereading Swiss F R as an adult I noticed that it was full of "shoot some new weird animal and then try to eat it...with descriptions of the taste!"

Thomas that is the difference between a Northern zoo and a Southern one: a Northern zoo cage has a plaque with the common name, Latin species name and habitat range.

 

The Southern zoo has all that, plus recipes!

I always joke that I love all of the arts that involve Fire: blacksmithing, glass blowing, lamp work beads, silver smithing, ceramics, copper enamel. I also love cooking, baking, and of course eating. I have made cheese, yogurt, ice cream. Used to do Historical recreation from 6th century Irish, to 16th century Elizabethian. Used to do leatherworking and make armour. Used to do armoured combat and light contact jousting, and mounted archery.

The wife is very talented, she has done vitrified painted stained glass, as well as copper foil, and lead came stained glass. She was a very talented seamstress and costumer. Did some saddle and harness making, as well as casting stirrup irons. She used to make folk wines and still makes cheeses and goats milk soap. We try and do a big garden each year, and have been adding fruit trees and berries to our farm. We raise most of our own meat a couple of cows and pigs get butchered each year, and we have chicken, ducks, and turkeys, for eggs and meat.

She has also been reading the PA dystopian novels, and has been slowly "prepping" for the black swan event that collapses our modern society. We are more prepared than most people but still not ready. I might find myself in the same boat with Thomas, while I am not diabetic my digestion is somewhat fragile and I need a lot of supplements to be comfortable...

Besides smithing, lots get done here.   I run a Christmas tree farm.  Saw logs on a large mill, and sell hardwoods.  Do lots of woodturning and woodworking.  And run the Fisher & Norris Factory Museum.  And did all of this while raising a family and teaching for 37 years.  Now retired from teaching, but still busy and active in all of the above.

This was an interesting thread, I certainly enjoyed it, I also enjoyed the 'insight ' into 'familiar strangers' lives any of the newbies or old familiars care to add?

I like to grow things when I am not in the shop.  Here is my rose garden from last spring, so not a lot in bloom yet, my shop is to the left.  In winter I have the indoor "garden".. its a bit wetter with over 50 fish and over 100 live plants in 75 gallons with computer controlled high intensity LED lighting and CO2 injection to aid in photosynthesis. There are no plastic plants in this tank

As a diabetic I'm trying to NOT grow things, however lots of things like the sweet....I never had problems with mosquitos until I became diabetic; now they will circle around my wife to get to me...

I wood carve. Here are some pictures. Note, the blacksmith shop is a work in progress picture.

I am a little envious of the projects that I see here. I used to like to carve wood, and build flintlock guns. Lately my hobby seems to be going to the doctors. What happened to my golden years, I think that they rusted out.

"Golden Years" is just a reference to the pile of gold you better have tucked away for the doctor bills!!

I'm with you Bud, I'm seeing some darned talented hobbyists. Before the accident I had a little free money to spend on hobbies besides beating on steel. Now I can afford TV and cooking, neither worth posting pics of. Deb has the dogs in various classes but is also teaching a couple so I don't know if they can be called hobbies.

Dealing with problems home ownership incur don't count as hobbies.

I think I used up my pile of gold too. Nope, no hobbies here. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

2 hours ago, SpankySmith said:

"Golden Years" is just a reference to the pile of gold you better have tucked away for the doctor bills!!

AMEN on that one. 

My other interests are getting to be memories of what I use to do, Shooting Competition  local Regional and National levels, Trap shooting. Horses, Carriages restoration, Photos Historic Research esp. on Blacksmith shops & Barns, Farming.  Writing a couple books now.  Love to read and tend my Library of books.