The occupation thread and fear's thread got me curious... What else do you all do for fun if you are not hunting, thinking about hunting, or working on hunting gear?
I have to many things I enjoy doing, and, well, a jack of all trades is a master of none they say... But it sure is fun.
Family time, reading, cycling on the roads and mountain biking, fly fishing for anything with fins and tying flies, hiking/snow shoeing/xc skiing, and strength training being high on my list.
Hunting/bowhunting is at the top of the list as far as passions, but beyond that I’ve got a few other hobbies. Golf is probably the next biggest one. I also am pretty into guns and shooting (more from a tactical perspective). Fishing and skiing round out my personal hobbies, though admittedly those two have taken a backseat the last few years! Too many hobbies, not enough time!
Beyond those hobbies, if I think about my passions that get a lot of my money I’d add food and travel. I’m blessed to live in New Orleans and South LA from a culinary perspective and I take advantage of it. The better half and I usually take a few overseas trips a year together as well.
Weight training at the Koko Fit Club. I also fish, and love to cook. I rifle hunt as well as bowhunt. On the board of a foundation that does free mediation using a new method, with a very good success rate. I also work on my own cars. And I spend as much time with my grandson as possible.
Year round, I'm a spinning instructor. Snowshoe in winter, hike in summer Like to travel Golf when I can (used to actually be decent, not get frustrated :-) )
Bass fishing, Camping with the RV, Golf, Hunting for arrowheads and fossils, shoot my guns but not that often. Walking and hiking for exercise, lift weights occasionally.
I used to bass fish a lot, but my business gets in the way, so now I do a bit of metal detecting, on dry ground and in the water. Business drops off during hunting season....yaaayyy. I used to fur trap, but quit that a couple years ago, though I have a hard time seeing an animal track and not wanting to set some steel for it.
Mechanic/sponsor for my son’s motocross racing. Do a lot of travel for business and pleasure. Building a shop with a 2nd floor mother-in-law suite for the last year. Too up most of my free time. Do a lot of DIY projects. I wish my wife would stop watch HGTV...ugh.
1.golf. 2.golf 3.mid stakes poker 4.building stuff 5.fishing 6.exploring canyons and climbing mountains with my sons. 7.watching bachelorette with my wife
All types of hunting. Fishing as well. Preferably small mouth bass. Everything I do outside my life serving God and my family revolves around those two things really.
Golf once or twice a week, I also coach baseball and football and I’ve been doing TM for a few years now and I’m getting certification to teach it to vets w PTSD at the VA Hospital.
I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse to have as many passions as I have; as the saying goes, there's only so many hours in a day!
If I'm not in the woods I'm probably wetting a line somewhere, either with spinning gear, or when feeling brave (and having a desire to provide some fellow fisherman with a laugh or two) a fly rod. I do like hiking for the pure pleasure of taking in nature in all her glory as well.
Having played football, basketball and baseball in High School I'm still a sports nut but nowadays it's bowling, tennis, racquetball, and in the winter I lace up the hockey skates and race around the rink (or the pond with "the boys")
I play guitar (as Kyle can attest) and piano and can spend hours playing one or the other or both.
I'm not the voracious reader I was in days gone by but I still love a great page-turner of a novel and the past couple of years I've been revisiting the classics like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations and the like.
I enjoy a good movie (and of course a bowl of popcorn, which I've discovered is great when you use olive oil instead of butter and then just the right amount of salt.
Lastly, I love listening to music-all varieties; everything from classic to pop to country to hard rock.
During the week work takes up most of my time, I'm up at 4:30am or 5:00am then work out for about 45 minutes and then I'm driving to one of our warehouses in NJ or if going to the corporate office in NYC I take the train. Lately the earliest I'm getting home is around 8:30pm at night so that pretty much takes care of the week. On the weekends I like to BBQ on Saturday and usually some project around the house or I spend the day with my wife doing something she wants to do. On Sunday I'm at my archery club that has 22 acres of woods and a permanent 40 target 3D course. I shoot a recurve or longbow so I need to practice at least once a week to stay proficient. Sunday afternoon I'll do a variety of things and looking forward to some snapper fishing.
Florida is a great place to enjoy the saltwater. I get to fish on both coasts for all kinds of species as well as make the short boat ride to the Bahamas. Other than that I jocky two girls to rodeos twice a month.
Hog hunting, summer salmon fishing, winter steelhead fishing, bow building, arrow smithing and building flintlock rifles and smoothbores are among the number of things I enjoy doing.
My second passion the martial arts, Aikijutsu and karate. Have my own school and still attend/teach at my grand masters school on occasion. Played two sports in college (football and wrestling). I used to lift weights and run a lot (one or the other every day for the past 45 +years) but not so much in the past year or so as the additional 15 pounds will attest.
Fly fishing for trout and tying flies in winter and spring take up a bunch of time .
I also enjoy time spent gardening. I don't drink or smoke, never have.
Lately I've been foster dad for a herd of feral cats. Years ago they would have been "euthanized". Now I "TNR" Trap/Neuter/Release. Im getting soft. I actually have taken a liking to some of them.
A bit of a history buff especially civil war and American old west.
I fish 12 months of the year. Hunt a lot. Riding my gator through the woods and neighbor's fields shooting ground hogs. I love handgun hunting and killing deer with a 50 cal muzzle loading piston. It's a single shot and I use 100 grains of black powder and a 300 grain bullet. Also have killed deer with a .357 mag handgun, .44 mag handgun and a .460 S&W revolver. The deer killed with .44 mag were a Ruger revolver and a Thompson Center single shot. I do a lot of gardening and grow a whole lot of our vegetables. I have a big garden and a tiller and a 29 HP diesel tractor to work the ground. It also has a 5 foot mower for clearing woods roads. I live in a 40 acre woods and can drive my Gator or tractor all around and through it. Tough keeping to woods road open this time of the year. Keeping the deer out of my garden can be a problem but they pay the price when Fall comes. Caught a whole bunch of channel catfish yesterday. Too damn hot to do anything outside to day. Had to quit playing guitar and bass due to problems with the fingers on my left hand cramping up. My wife sold her banjo, gave our son her Martin, Gibson, my five string bass and amp. She still plays her Fender Stratocaster.
I’m a happy, involved Dad and husband. Beyond that, I’ve become an n=1 tweaker. I monkey around with anything that makes sense to improve in my life. The home gym looks like a dungeon of homemade steel and wooden apparatuses and my work shed is a graveyard of near misses.
My current obsession is to maintain a sub 90 post workout blood glucose while anaerobically grinding myself into a nubbin. All for a couple of hunts this fall.
We fish, actually, bought a new to me boat this year. The wife enjoys it as well. We golf when we can. We have a "blended" family and hang with the kids and grand babies as often as possible. Looking forward to retirement in the near future.
Some of my non-hunting hobbies include fishing, golf, tennis. The problem is I enjoy these more during cooler weather, which usually means hunting season!
I also enjoy the extended times with family and friends during the holidays, especially as I get older.
With 3 kids and a fourth coming any day you can guess what I do with my spare time.... My second job (non paying) is farming/ranching with my brothers. Any money made goes into expansion, more land, newer equipment. That takes more time than my paying job. I used to golf and fish but what time is left after work these days, I feel is owed to my family. Bow hunting is a given.
I enjoy bowhunting, I don't obsess about it. I keep it on an even keel. Ice fishing, fishing, spring turkey with my 870, golfing with my wife, yard work, and watching our granddaughters when needed, trips to the casino. Retired a year and a half, plenty of things to keep me busy.
Pretty much everything I do revolves around fishing or hunting and spending time outdoors. the more remote the spot the better. I also spend a lot of time reloading and shooting. I am a physical fitness freak as well and spend a ridiculous amount of time exercising......at least 5 hours a week but as much as 12-15 when I'm getting ready for a race. I also try and donate a couple hundred hours a year of my time and as much money as I can afford to veteran's causes.
I live a full life. Hunting and fishing are my passion, but here's some more: 1. Reading on deer stand - Bible, history, novels. 2. Spending time with family and friends. 3. Cooking - game and fish 4. Hiking, bird watching 5. Biking 6. I'm also a coin collector
In 1973, I co-founded the first ever Ducks Unlimited Chapter on a military base.
After I left the USAF, I was heavily involved in DU for a great many years, to include chairing the auction and then the banquet of one of the Top Ten DU Chapters in the country.
In 2001, I founded the CA Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation and am still actively involved.
In 2007, I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Wild sheep Foundation and was re-elected twice.
I was term-limited out of the WSF Board in 2016, but still serve on the WSF Legislative Affairs Committee.
I've also been a Big Brother and served on the Board of Big Brothers of the SF East Bay.
Until my wife and I took our Great Granddaughter to raise, I blacksmithed all the time. Made pretty much everything and anything we needed. Now that we have a two and a half year old running us in the ground, I dusted off my Lionel trains, and have started collecting them again. I built a layout, and that keeps her occupied.
My family and my grandchildren in particular. Their wish is my command. I will not allow a minute to pass without a thought of them. Nothing else that I have encountered on this earth comes close to that sensation when I make them smile or from their perspective, they laugh AT me. NOTHING. I have been blessed that they both reside within twenty five minutes of our home and are in their company constantly.
I enjoy being with my wife of over 49 years. Other things are flower gardening, using my wood working equipment to make furniture, make my own animal pedestals, shoot an assortment of pistols, work on my own vehicles and spend time with our two kids and four grandchildren. Forgot to mention that I put the fear of dying in squirrels, rabbits and raccoons. I am a Life member of the RMBS and past BOD of that fantastic organization. My wife and I attend GSCO, CBA, SCI and RMBS banquets. I guess you could call us World Travelers because we have toured South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, France and Germany so far along with most of the USA. We really enjoy taking longboat trips on all of the rivers in Europe and will probably back there again in 2019.