Other hobbies?

[Bullfrog]

Besides ponds, I know that some of you have other hobbies that you really enjoy. I like to take my metal detector out and find things that have been lost. Through a lot of research and sweat (I had to hike three miles through the woods and it took three times looking at old maps), I found the campsite of Spaight's Battallion when they camped on the bank of the Neches river in 1862 gaurding against an imminent yankee invasion.

I found their fire pit where they melted down lead to make bullets, mini balls. There was the ring of a stump of a tree that had died and fallen down and rotted away. In the center of the ring I found four really old bullets about 40 caliber. In the rut of the decomposed tree I found the other 2.

Somebody, a rebel soldier, had fired 6 shots into the tree for target practice. As the center of the tree rotted, four of the slugs fell to the ground. Then the tree fell and the othe 2 were about four feet away. I couldn't believe what I was holding in my hand, a connection to history.

Here's a two hour trip to the elementary school playground that I attended, over a hundred coins.



More coins and a small crucifix that I found the day before Easter, now that gave me the chills when I dug it up, it was like Jesus was saying, "Hello, remember me?"



We also love to kayak and we have a really fine creek just five minutes from our house. Nice clear water and a lot of obstacles like fallen trees to manuver around. When the creek is flowing fast, you don't have a lot of time to line up and duck under a fallen tree or dodge it before the next one comes up as the creek twists really quick.

At one point, there is an island and the creek splits. We know that the left fork is a lot faster and more of a challenge, we always go left and my wife loves to lead. After beating chemo it is great to hear her screaming "extreme left!" as she dodges the trees and has to immediately line up for the next dodge, "Extreme Right!!"

Finally, the two branches converge right before the exit. She said "That was so much fun, why don't we paddle back up the other side and do it again?" I was game, so upstream we went. Now mind you we are paddling against the current and she comes up against this.



Most women would have thought SNAKE and turned around, but not my baby, she did this...



Forcing me to follow.



But I love her. Remember that old song?

I will follow herrrr..

Follow her wherever she gooooeesss..

There isn't a log jamb to hiiighhh..

Or a creek to deep..

Too deep, to keep me awayyyyy.

Now, tell me about your hobbies.

[Esther]

Well most everybody knows my two obsessions other than ponding. But the newbies don't. Go to the DIY side of this forum and see my PVC stuff. I don't know if PVC is so much the attraction or if DIY is. DH is a plumber so I see him working with it all the time and it is easy to handle and cut.  http://www.americanponders.com/forum/index.php?topic=819.0

Machine embroidery is the other thing I stay busy with. Mostly I give it away for birthdays etc. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v336/estherwaayenberg/embroidery%20sewing/

[luvmyasagis]

Well for me I am a huge Nascar fan and I love to collect Antiques. I do crochet dollies and make beaded christmas balls. I guess the Nascar over rules the Antiques since on race day if there was an Antique auction I would be tuned in to the race.

[PondmaninAL]

Other than ponding, my hobbies are woodworking and building electronic circuits. I built troughs for my pond and adding to them every year. I recycle second-hand wood whenever I can.

Scott

[Bullfrog]

Esther, I've never seen stitching like that, is it a computer programmed software? Great work.

luvmyasagis, do you have any pictures? Show us.

PondmaninFL , I'm into woodworking too. I have a really great woodshop since hurricane Rita flattened my old shop. I have a new planer, bandsaw, drill depress, scroll saw, compound mitre saw, router and table, belt and disc sander and table saw, I love working with wood

[livetogarden]

Gardening is tops with me!!!!! But in addition to that I collect Jewel Tea Autumn Leaf dishes. My mom got me started by giving me a couple bowls when she realized she was using antique bowls for everyday serving bowls. I love to collect antiques in general. My latest acquisition was a cedar chest that was the first new furniture item my in-laws bought after they were married 58 years ago and my mother-in-laws wedding dress. My SIL didn't want her own mom's dress so I got it by default.  I love any antique but the ones that belonged to family members or loved ones are the most precious.
I also collect elephants, have so many now I only go for ones that are totally different than any I already have.
Probably my favorite pastime (not sure it is actually a hobby), our 2 dogs are registered therapy pets and we visit nursing homes, hospitals, children's special needs centers, retirement apartment centers, etc. with them. They love it, we love it and the people we visit REALLY love it.
Cath

[Marilyn C]

Very cool, Bullfrog!   Very cool!

There are 3 or 4 old homesites on this place.   One back in the woods, via a dirt road, was where a blacksmith lived and this was on a stagecoach line.   I don't know when he died, but I know in 1900, they were living here and had two sons.
His wife lived alone here in the 1920's and maybe into the '30's.   Their house fell down and the woods grew up all around it.   Many people had gone bottle hunting back before we bought the place, and I have looked a little but not found much.   About all I found was a hand hammered latch that would have been on the old barn, and some wagon wheels laying about....trees grown up through them.

The ground here is very hard clay...and I haven't had much luck getting anyone to dig with me.   My husband went out to feed the horses one time and found an old clay marble.   I collect marbles, so I was happy...even with just that one.

My other hobbies....hardly have time for anything else besides taking care of the possums, but some things I have enjoyed in the past and would like to do again is grow antique or "found" roses from cuttings and I love going to flea markets, thrift shops, auctions, estate sales, etc.   I collect just about anything old, but have so much stuff that I mostly just collect things for the garden...plant stands, pots, statuary, etc.

[happyoutsidegirl]

I to am an antique buff. My house is full of them and many about the yard. I love Pottery by Rosville and Weller, I also have a ton of Hull. I have lots of old furniture pieces also. I collected bottles for years so I have tons of them also. I have old enamial ware pots with flowers in them out side and all my planters on the deck are old pots  and tubs etc. If it has a hole it has a flower in it. I also have an elephant collection and a unicorn collection. My real love tho still is trail ridding. I have one very old appy mare that I raised from 1 week old, a 7 year old mare that is now my ridding horse, and a small verry verry fat burrow that is mostly a pet.
Marilyn I really understand about getting too much stuff! I too am to the point of getting very picky with what I drag home. and then I have DH

[luvmyasagis]

Okay I will post a few. Pic. one is a bed that I got grom my grandpa, it goes back in his family to the 1800's he was born on it and his dad was born on it and his dads dad.The old pic on the wall on the left of the bed is a house that this bed was in many, many, many years ago. The quilt on it was made by my granny and her granny when she was a girl. The table in the foyer also is as old as the bed and came from pawpaw as well. The self with all the dishes well some I have bought and some was passed down from granny and pawpaw as you can see I like carnival glass and Fenton glass. The old Bible  on the shelf with the dishes is dated 1857 and was a great yard sale buy at 2.00. The table is set with dishes given to me from my mom, the teapot I got from a neighbor who was throwing it away. I also have some Hull pottery from dish ware to planters. I love some of the Limoge stuff but the stuff I like my pocketbook can not afford.

[luvmyasagis]

Okay you wanted pics so here is more I am putting the table in the Foyer pic on this post. The pic of the wood bowl it belonged to my great granny it was her bread bowl. The Guitar we have been working on since 1999 all of the signatures belong to Nascar drivers except two and one of them are Sam Bass he does alot of Nascar artwork, the other is Dewight Moody he is a fiddle player and noticed us at the race track waiting to get an autograph he son was a big todo for the drivers sponser so he got us in front of the line to meet the driver and we let him sign it . He was a very nice man. Yes the strings are off the Guitar till we get done with it. The list is the drivers and dates autographs were got. The only two you can not see belong to Tony Stewart gotten in Nov.1999 and Ned Jarrett in Nov. 2000.

[Esther]

Yah, the one way the sewing machine is programmed to do what it does is by instructions given by a purchased memory card that has maybe 20 designs on it. They are horribly expensive and often I only want one of the designs so won't buy them.

The other way is to find designs, either free or purchased on the internet and download them to my computer and then when I want to use it they are downloaded to a memory card and then put  in the sewing machine. There are gobs of embroidery design sites out there and even the ones that charge for their designs will have some free ones and on some sites they are all free. I have around 11,000 designs in 262 categories in my computer. So I guess part of my hobby is collecting machine embroidery designs and cataloging them. 

[Ky Kim]

Hmmmmmmmmm well, my 3 children.  Then I would say any kind of plant either land or pond.  I like to work with wood, paint things.  I've made a couple of quilts, working on my third.  Its kind of the back burner since its pretty outside.  I spend alot of my time just out on my deck.  I can crochet, I just like crafts.

Kim

[Rocmon]

In my former life—before wife and child, I used to be a kayaker (whitewater and ocean wave surfing), back-country skier, and backpacker. I used to teach kayaking and was a yoga teaching assistant. I still backpack, about once a year get my skies on the snow, and this past year got a canoe so the whole family can get on the water. If you know kayaks, this pic really dates me...



I now spend a good deal of time around the pond and garden.

[Marilyn C]

Luvmyasagis, I have that identical bed...everything the same, except mine doesn't have that little part in the middle on the headboard...the part that is higher than the rest.   I got mine at an estate auction in 1978.   I sat there from 9 a.m. until nearly 5 p.m., watching a lot of nice things sell, saving my money for the bed.   I've always called it an Eastlake...or at least, that is the type of bed it is.   It came from an old estate in Houston...the mother of the lady of the house's bed.   Enjoyed seeing your pictures.

[LeeAnne151]

Gardening is tops, really, plant collecting.
I love horses and recently returned to riding. I also collect horse art and horse Christmas ornaments.
I am a big reader too. Fiction and non fiction. I have tons of horse and gardening books.
I'm very fond of the Internet too, belong to gardening and horse racing message boards as well as eBay's.

My garden albums are here, work in progress:
http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p162/LeeAnne151/My%20Garden/

[luvmyasagis]

Marilyn C I would love to see pics . I love mine , it will go to my son when I get way older and I know him and if he ever gets married will respect it and its history. Hope you got a good deal on it.

[Marilyn C]

I have one pic of it...my daughter sitting on it when she was little.   Will see if I can find it.

I paid $420 for it, plus buyer's premium, in 1978, plus tax.  I imagine buyer's premium was only about 5% back then.  So, it was less than $500.   I bought a couple of antique heaters at the same sale...think I spent about $500 in all.