Ended Official BYC Mini Contest - "WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY?"

[Blooie]

Ah Blooie, you did it to me again...you brought tears to my eyes with the story of Maxie and Jim. How amazing and what an impact, not just to those that knew them, but for the many that do not.

Shoot, I brought tears to my own eyes with just the memories of them. I loved them heart and soul, the entire family. It broke my heart to leave them when we moved.

I guess that's why I get so mad when I see folks who try to pass off everything from a camel to a goldfish as Service Animals. I learned first hand what kind of intensive socialization and training it takes to get a dog to the degree Maxie achieved, and the training never stopped. I firmly believe that Service Dog trainers should be registered and licensed, and that only dogs which have been trained by them should ever be considered Service Dogs. Those dogs and trainers should be in a centralized National system, re-certified regularly, and the dogs should wear an ID vest that's uniform nationally. The owner should carry and produce when asked a valid ID card with the dog's information, the degree of the disability, and the name of the physician and dog trainer. There should be a clear distinction between a true Service Dog and Fluffy or Hei Hei as Comfort Dogs. While there is no doubt that untrained animals can assist their owners with building confidence to go out in public, to comfort, or to act as more than companions, I simply can't equate that in my mind with dogs like Maxie, dogs that can detect seizures, or dogs that detect diabetic crises. Funny thing is, if those regulations had been in place at the time of Maxie's demonstration, he still could not have been certified. I was not a registered trainer of Service Dogs, so he could never officially be a Service Dog. Ironic, isn't it? I would have sunk my own ship if those regs had just been in place.

 

[N F C]

x100 on your thoughts of licensing, registration, etc. of service animals and their trainers.

Big difference between a service animal and a comfort animal. My cats comfort me but no way could they ever be considered service animals. Much as I love them, even I know that!

 

[Fluffy&Cutie]

Official BYC Contest
"WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY?"
This contest is brought to you by our BYC Sponsors
(click to view & support them)

This is a RANDOM Winner Contest...
Post up to 3 of your Hobbies and your name will be entered up to 3 times for the final drawing for a chance to win 1 of 5 (that's right, FIVE)
2019 BYC Calendars! ​

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The rules are simple:​

All entries must be submitted as replies to this thread,

Only 3 Hobby Entries per member, PLEASE NUMBER YOUR ENTRIES!
Please add a short description with your IMAGES IN YOUR POSTS, examples....​

• What is is that you love about this hobby?

• When do you do the Hobby?

• What sacrifices do you make to be able to practice your hobby?

• Are you an amateur? An adept? An expert?

• Are you lucky enough that this hobby is part of your job/income?

These are just examples of how to create your post, you don´t have to talk about all of them and you can add other things you want, those are just a few guidelines in case you don´t know how to make your post!

SO ENTER UP TO 3 HOBBIES
for a chance to win 1 of 5 (that's right, FIVE)
2019 BYC Calendars!
We will use a random number generator to select our winners for this Contest.​

Prizes:
FIVE winning members will be awarded a
beautiful 2019 BYC Chicken Calendar!​

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We will be accepting entries until Friday the 30th of November

If you would like a calendar, without entering the contest, please see how to purchase one HERE



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I will start with one of my own hobbies! ​

My Hobby #1

We all know chicken math right? Yep, been there done that, well I moved on to goat math, that’s right my love for Nigerian dwarf goats and their milk drove my math skills up to an advanced class!
I enjoy my goats so much, they are almost like dogs, but less work.

I began milking after our first stressful kidding, everything went well it was the newbie thing and I stressed myself out with the unknown! It wasn’t long after I fell in love with these little kids as well as the goat milk.

I had way too much milk, I was giving it away and even to people to feed to their meat chickens to help fatten them up quicker! I learned how to make wonderful chocolate pudding pies, cajeta a fantastic mexian carmel, fudge is always amazing, yogurt is delish too! I made a few cheeses and that really started to use the milk quickly, and just as quick I realized I am no cheesemaker! Just wasn’t for me, so I thought,“well I can try soap”. And I did!

Goat Milk soap is amazing soap! I had never used goat milk soap before and it was such a difference I couldn’t believe it! So I started to research and take notes. We all know how I can take some notes!  Anyway, I bought book after book, whodathunk I would learn chemistry in the process! I educated myself on healthy skin and on and on….

I started to get addicted to making soap so I gave a few bars away and quickly they had asked for more and more, and then their friends and family wanted to try it as well, and that’s how and why I started Lil Swatara Soap LLC. It is now a business and with the holidays quickly coming up I am putting way too many hours into making and packing soap but it is quickly paying off!

In fact, I am going to GIVE AWAY 8 BARS OF my Goat milk SOAP! That’s right, we will draw an extra 8 numbers after the calendars and I will send out soap to each of those 8 winning number draws!

GET THOSE HOBBIES POSTED!
​

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omg!!! that's AMAZING SOAP!!!!!!!!!!
you have literally taken my breath away!

 

[Fluffy&Cutie]

This will probably be a long post - I tend to get wordy and post lots of photos! Hobby number one is quilting. I love it. I started quilting long before the "quilt resurgence" in 1976, which was the time of the Nation's Bicentennial when everyone suddenly seemed to want to get back to the old ways. In fact, the neighbors used to refer to me as "that poor lady down the street who has to make her own blankets." Yeah.

I don't have room in this old trailer house for all my quilting stuff, so a good friend gave me a full sized travel trailer that she used to use to house her temporary hired farm workers. It sat in a barley field for many years, so I had some evicting to do - in fact I came down with Hanta Virus from evicting those little critters and cleaning up after them. Then I had to mouseproof it so that I wouldn't get more after we moved it to my house. It sits in the back, behind the garage, and is my sanctuary.
View attachment 1577943 View attachment 1577944 View attachment 1577945
My Sanctuary

I don't know what I'd be considered. I've won several ribbons in quilt shows, have sold a few, and used one in a raffle for a dear friend who's daughter was almost killed in an ATV accident. I've also got one quilt that has been featured in a quilt magazine. I made it memory of my mother, who loved to garden and who we buried on a Christmas Eve. It's official name is "I Remember Mama" but somewhere in it's construction it became known as "The Albatross" and the name stuck. Most of them I give away, with strict instructions that they are not for show if they are bed or baby sized - I want them used and loved to death. Here are few of them:

View attachment 1577946 Moonlit Garden - a wallhanging for my sister Linda, who we lost to kidney failure last summer.


View attachment 1577947 Hidden in Plain Sight That's a real pheasant feather sewn into the quilt. Ken's favorite. Made with 2 inch squares.

View attachment 1577951 Love from Auntie A heart quilt for one of my great-nieces.

View attachment 1577953 Still Fishing in But in Heaven, Dad This was made for my brother and his SO after the death of their 8 year old son Coty in a house fire. The day I gave it to them, Connie had just been released from the hospital from the injuries she suffered trying to get Coty out. Coty was severely autisic, and his big thing was fishing, anywhere, anytime, or just pretending in the play boat my brother had built for him in the back yard. One of the songs at his service was "Fishing in the Dark." He was such a love, always wearing either bib overalls during the colder months or bib shorts in summer.

View attachment 1577954 Ribbons Just a quilt trying to better learn color values.

View attachment 1577957 Winter in the Field Made for my sister Lori (pictured), who wanted a wallhanging for her new house. Again, 2 inch squares making up that scene.

View attachment 1577959 The Albatross - this is just a closeup of the stitches, each one put in by hand, in a mostly forgotten technique called Broderie Perse. I used black silk thread, the quilt was black polished cotton. I was fine when I started - 4 years later I was wearing tri-focals to finish it. This quilt was never touched by a sewing machine. Every single thing was done by entirely by hand, from seaming the panels together to the applique to the quilt and the binding.

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The Albatross - this is not quite a full shot..the dove at the bottom is cut off. But the quilt is really too big to get a complete head on shot of it. It's huge. I'll post one more shot of it so you can see how big is really is.

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The Albatross - in a quilt show.
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My latest project. You can get some idea of the small size of the "flowers" by comparing them to the spool of thread. Dunno why I started this one but now I have to finish it. I don't work on it very often anymore. After my botched neck fusion, it's hard to hold my head down long enough to sew. The papers with the hexagons on them? I have to cut each of them out, baste the little fabric hexagons to it, sew them together into a flower, then use the flowers in the quilt. I only need 500 of them. <sigh>

I have many more photos of other quilts I've done over the last 48 years, but I think I've bored you and taken up enough space on the thread.

wow! you all are so talented!!!!!

 

[Fluffy&Cutie]

i am amazed by all your talents!!!!
ONE of my hobbies is gardening/garden design. 7 years ago we purchased a home with a big dead backyard. Each season i pick an area and try to make it beautiful. I start by sitting in the area and let the space speak to me...that is why it takes so long! The birds, butterflies, and rocks have a lot to say. I love connecting to nature and the space of Earth I inhabit. It's a dance I do with the spirit Earth. That's my favorite part of this hobby. I "garden" whenever I can, but, usually it is when I have larger chunks of time. Spring break and Summer is when I do the fingers in the dirt part and the rest of the year I do the researching, planning, and building. I am an amateur, so I have a lot of research to find the right plants to grow in my area. I have been having more success lately and it has given me courage to continue. My artistic garden style is over grown natural, where as my husband's style is "pavers". In the end he loves what i do and how I change the energy of our backyard. It's my piece of heaven. The photo I will put is of the new butterfly garden and path to the veggie garden. I try to use as much recycled materials as I can find. That is important to me. The rocks are gifts from the Earth. Over the past 7 years they have "floated" up to the backyard soil. I just collected them and made them into the path. Weirdly...since the path was completed last year, no more rocks have surfaced.
i don't have pictures (i ll have to take later) but i have also created 3 sitting nooks, a secret garden, & a child's nook.

 

[Fluffy&Cutie]

Two. Another hobby I took up was running. I did it to be a role model for my son. The full story is that i had an accident and spent two weeks in the hospital. After surgery on my leg I ve got a rod, a plate, and a bunch of screws in my left leg. Apparently after coming out of surgery i told my husband, "I'm gonna run a marathon."
So I began running marathons (26.2 miles) and was amazed that I could do it. I enjoyed training and the friendships that i found in other runners. It got me into great shape! i am not fast...i have never won, but i always finish. I prefer running half marathons because the training is less intense which means more time with my family. i have to wake up at 4:30 am to get some running in during the week & on the weekend I'm running by 6am. I sacrifice sleep, lol. My son does not like running. He complains EVERY SINGLE STEP! I do get to be a role model for the community. I have inspired many people to run. That re-inspires me. Let me try and upload a picture here.

 

[Fluffy&Cutie]

Two... me running the Disney star wars half marathon.

 

[CCUK]

Well this is something maybe a little different. I'm not much good a sewing or soap making but I can drive a tractor! I have a collection of old vintage tractors. It all started going to a show and I made an off hand comment about an old tractor we had in the barn, 'why don't we get that old thing running and bring it to a show?'. We'll it was my stepfathers and he said 'if you can get it running it's yours!' I've always liked a challenge so when I got home we dragged it out and I set about it. Turns out is is a 1938 fordson standard N. It starts with a winding handle with petrol then as it warms you switch the fuel to kerosene. There is no injection just a plate on the side of the exhaust that heats the fuel to vaporise it, the stroke of the engine sucks it into the cylinder and the spark plug ignites it! Simplicity at its finest!

This is it at a show. With a flat tyre!
I also have a 1960 fordson dexta that I use for competitive ploughing.

I also have a 1949 petrol Ferguson TEA that I fully refurbished for my DW. She wanted something a little different so instead of being painted grey I did it in Metallic Cadbury purple with glitter flake over spray!

I have a 1954 diesel ferguson in fully original condition and a1964 massy ferguson 35x in original condition.
I also have a collection of ploughs, trailers and implements! I'd put more pictures but my computer died! So I'm relying on what I have on my phone! The DWs purple ferguson looks exceptional in the sunshine as the flake makes it go almost like a rainbow! It's not original but it always draws a crowd!
Eta. I don't know what the lorry at the bottom is for!

 

[N F C]

Well this is something maybe a little different. I'm not much good a sewing or soap making but I can drive a tractor! I have a collection of old vintage tractors. It all started going to a show and I made an off hand comment about an old tractor we had in the barn, 'why don't we get that old thing running and bring it to a show?'. We'll it was my stepfathers and he said 'if you can get it running it's yours!' I've always liked a challenge so when I got home we dragged it out and I set about it. Turns out is is a 1938 fordson standard N. It starts with a winding handle with petrol then as it warms you switch the fuel to kerosene. There is no injection just a plate on the side of the exhaust that heats the fuel to vaporise it, the stroke of the engine sucks it into the cylinder and the spark plug ignites it! Simplicity at its finest!
View attachment 1579498
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This is it at a show. With a flat tyre!
I also have a 1960 fordson dexta that I use for competitive ploughing.
View attachment 1579503
View attachment 1579495
View attachment 1579514
I also have a 1949 petrol Ferguson TEA that I fully refurbished for my DW. She wanted something a little different so instead of being painted grey I did it in Metallic Cadbury purple with glitter flake over spray!
View attachment 1579515
I have a 1954 diesel ferguson in fully original condition and a1964 massy ferguson 35x in original condition.
I also have a collection of ploughs, trailers and implements! I'd put more pictures but my computer died! So I'm relying on what I have on my phone! The DWs purple ferguson looks exceptional in the sunshine as the flake makes it go almost like a rainbow! It's not original but it always draws a crowd!
Eta. I don't know what the lorry at the bottom is for!

Good looking tractors! Glad you shared them!

 

[Blooie]

Good looking tractors! Glad you shared them!

That's so cool! Hubby Ken is a Shriner, and the Shrine club he is in used to Square Dance in Parades....on Allis Chalmers antique tractors! Yep, the guys all wore bright colored green shirts, bib overalls, and red bandanas around their necks, and drive those old tractors, dancing in formations. It was something to see! 6 tractors doing alamand rights and lefts, do-se-dos...the whole bit. They were a huge hit!