Other hobby

[RC3]

I wish I was good with photos. But thats a nice engine on the E series I am guessing. From the look of the engine bay, I am inclined to say late 80's early 90's, but I could be mistaken. 

[10-Ring]

For me it's photography and motorcycles.  I seem to collect cameras, camera equipment and motorcycles, I have 6 at the moment.  I have a motard for the twisty stuff and dual sporting purposes.  Another DS project bike.  I really like to tour and have a touring bike but haven't been able to much due to life and having a full time job.  I also race mini bikes in a local league.  Never been into the cruiser bar hopping thing, nor will I ever be, I have no desire to own a heavy, poor handling, underpowered bike that doesn't out perform my old touring bike in any form or fashion.  

[Mike A]

Damn!! I feel like a pure-d slug with all the macho outdoorsy stuff you guys do. 

I'm with you.  Cigars and pipes (to a lesser extent).  Occasionally a card game.  Lots of sedentary activities. 

[Joe357]

Mine is flyfishing and fly tying

[Fivestring63]

I've been picking on the banjo for going on 40 years now. Yea, I started young. Been on the Cas Walker Show a few times back in the day.

[Spots]

Blacksmithing, wood working, good old fashioned hand and horse powered farming. Motorcycles have been a passion for years, all manner of dirt bikes and now a cruiser to commute on. It used to be cars. I had an 05 GMC Duramax that laid down 613 whp and 1200+ ft lbs of tq and it went to the drag strip every weekend. Sold it and bought a 2004 WRX wagon that ended up with a ton of mods and was either at an autocross, gymkahan event or canyon run every weekend.

Tapatalk ate my spelling

[Raoul]

Mine's gardening. Might as well let my hobby feed me.

[mav]

Mine's gardening. Might as well let my hobby feed me.

 

That is on my list too.  I just can't do everything.  :)

[tnguy]

I've done a garden on-and-off the last few years with very mixed success. I seem to get everything in too early or too late. I think I should have planted the pepper seeds a couple of weeks ago.

[TrickyNicky]

I've done a garden on-and-off the last few years with very mixed success. I seem to get everything in too early or too late. I think I should have planted the pepper seeds a couple of weeks ago.

You'll be fine, I'm not putting anything out until at least the 15th. A late frost bit me in the butt last year and took out a lot of starts. I bet we're clear by now, but I still picked the 15th to be sure a while back and see no reason to worry about going out earlier, especially if you buy established starts from a greenhouse nursery.

I like to garden some too.

[Raoul]

That is on my list too.  I just can't do everything.  :)

Build a raised bed and plant salad greens and a couple of tomatoes. It's a good way to get started and it's not labor intensive.

[RC3]

I thought mine was a bit odd until someone said gardening. You should meet my mom. Ran over her petunia once, and lets just say being 17 at the time and not being able to drive your truck might make you not enjoy the finer and delicate beauty of plants. 

[tnguy]

You'll be fine, I'm not putting anything out until at least the 15th. A late frost bit me in the butt last year and took out a lot of starts. I bet we're clear by now, but I still picked the 15th to be sure a while back and see no reason to worry about going out earlier, especially if you buy established starts from a greenhouse nursery.

I like to garden some too.

The pepper seeds are special ones and aren't generally available. So I kinda want to make them count. Stuff like tomatoes etc I'm not so fussed about.

[tnguy]

Build a raised bed and plant salad greens and a couple of tomatoes. It's a good way to get started and it's not labor intensive.

 

I did a raised bed last year. Threw in some watermellon seeds and had it take over everything (the other stuff wasn't doing so well so I let it).

[wk05]

Bikes....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photography....

 

 

 

 

 

If it's got two wells and can fit through single-track then its good enough for me!  Love trail riding on the KTM and single track mountain biking!  

[RC3]

If it's got two wells and can fit through single-track then its good enough for me!  Love trail riding on the KTM and single track mountain biking!  

Nice bike, and awesome shots. 

[glowdotGlock]

I have been metal detecting for a few years. I use a Garret 250 now but am saving funds for an AT Pro. I want to do more water finds and maybe buy a go pro and do some youtube videos. I like to geocache and if it has anything to do with my jeep or getting wet I am in.

[enfield]

I've gardened a lot, but have given up on it at my current location.  All I need to be successful here is soil and rain.  Don't have the first and the second is unpredictable.

[Guest PapaB]

I've gardened a lot, but have given up on it at my current location.  All I need to be successful here is soil and rain.  Don't have the first and the second is unpredictable.

 

Try container gardening. I use the big black rope handled tubs from wally world. I've even found a sweet corn that does well in containers. This year I'm growing corn, 3 kinds of tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, 2 types of beans, onions and potatoes.

[Ted S.]

Takin' pictures, detailing when I have a few days and the motivation to do so (so self defeating when it rains or the birds take up residency...). Driving just for the sake of driving (away from the interstate and city). Reading when I have the time.

[Jonnin]

I am too inactive --- my other hobbies include chess, reading, and video games.  I have many hundreds of physical books and now, another 100 or so electronic as well.  I spend as much time doing things with my wife as I can as well -- we both play LOTRO together, shoot together, and so on. 

[Guest Lester Weevils]

My collections tend to be self-limiting, because I usually have goals and once the goals are met, can quit the addiction. Even the gun collection is "near complete" because there isn't much else am that much interested in.

 

Have a small collection of slide rules. Condition doesn't matter as long as they are functional, and I don't care about acquiring every color or model variation. Just certain high points in the history. There are only two additional Picketts I might like, the N300 pocket model and there is a huge N3/N4 sized electronic model (ie, vector scales customized for electronics) but apparently they were rare and haven't seen a good price on one. OTOH there was also a neat aviation-navigation pocket rule, some artillery oriented models, and a pocket model for aerial photograph calculations that would be kewl maybe, at the right price. Then again, there were several other slide rule manufacturers who made iconic rules, but tend to be more expensive than Picketts.

 

I keep meaning to make a wall display case, with a little brass hammer on a chain and a sign, "In case of power failure, break glass." :)

 

 

From top: K&E 4054, Pickett N515 Electronic, N3 Power Log Exponential, N4 Vector Log Log, N531 Electronic, N902 Simplex Trig, N600 Log Log, Simple Circular Rule.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Lester Weevils

[enfield]

Try container gardening. I use the big black rope handled tubs from wally world. I've even found a sweet corn that does well in containers. This year I'm growing corn, 3 kinds of tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, 2 types of beans, onions and potatoes.

 

I did some gardening in a raised bed for a couple of years, and then the Amish bought an old farm a mile south of me and they run a vegetable stand all summer.  I let them do the work now!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I do some thumb-fingered wood work and read a lot of old mind-rot science fiction. Do not enjoy much modern SF. Used to do electronics but very rarely sniff solder fumes any more.

 

Computers and music gear but that is more business than hobby, and haven't acquired much new in that area for some years. Had a bunch of cluttered crap in the old studio in the shop. About a year ago moved the office into the house, tried to set up an ergonomic small subset of all the old junk. This pic is a year old and have made some additions since, but am resisting the urge to pile in so much crap that it is inconvenient to use. Added one more old keyboard on top of the 88 and another flat panel between the speakers. Need to make a swing-out mouse pad on the right under the keyboard stand. Am still cleaning out the old studio, testing old gadgets to either store on a shelf, give away, or discard if no longer functional.

 

 

I like gadgets and gizmos. The astro-nerd stuff almost got out of hand for awhile, but a few years ago finally got the set-up "good enough" and don't do much with it any more except occasionally go out in the back yard and look at the sky. Mars is good at the moment if the sky is clear.

 

Eyepieces. A couple were early mis-judgements not very good quality, then finally got a range of focal lengths of "good enough" eyepieces, and don't need any more. Focal length 5mm to 38mm.

 

 

For visual observing, laws of physics limit the max brightness that an eyepiece can focus into the eye, regardless of the size of a telescope. Big wide-field telescopes can be made, but for visual use it gets real expensive and isn't significantly brighter (to the eye) than smaller wide-field telescopes. However, big scopes are advantageous at narrow fields of view (high magnifications). If they get too big they become cumbersome in addition to costly. Astro-photographers can get good use from huge wide-field scopes, because the physics rules work different focusing an image on a sensor.

 

So the 11" CPC is about as big as I want to deal with. Biggest practical field of view about 1 degree, useful magnification up to about 500X if viewing conditions allow (much narrower field of view at higher magnifications). The small scope on the left is good for up to 3 or 4 degrees field of view, and the smallest scope on the right is good for up to 7 or 8 degrees field of view. Small scopes get too dim at high magnification, and you have to throw a LOT of money at a small scope to get decent quality at higher magnification, so modest-quality small scopes are perfect for wide-field views.

 

You use different eyepieces to adjust the magnification and field of view of each scope. I customized the small scopes and machined the mounting adapters. The little gadget on top is a green laser for gross aiming. Green lasers make a bright line in the sky after dark, lighting up the air.

 

The basic idea is to view a piece of sky at three different scales without having to mess with constantly changing eyepieces and re-focusing. Point at an asterism or planet, and see a fairly "wide neighborhood" in the smallest scope, see the "near neighborhood" in the middle-sized scope, and high-magnification with the big scope.

 

 

[dct09]

Well that was weird.

I'm a 9%er motorcycler ('96 Goldwing). Garden all summer. Am a fan of legos, fast cars, and a big music lover, but the one post that I stopped and read the most about was the slide rules. Funny ain't it.  Sorry, I'm at work so I don't have any pictures here to post.