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

[fisherlady]

Had to get my phone for pictures the vets sent me after trips...

 

[Akrnaf2]

beautiful work Benny do you use an old file for your blank... They are the perfect hardness...

deb

Thakns Deb.
I used a leaf spring that I have heat treated it, and now I am making a single beveled Gyuto chef knife from a saw. I find this hobby very satisfying, but it takes a lot of time, and I am diving in lether working too now, have ordered some tools from ebay and made some on my own, and bought a veg tan leathers sheet so guess time will be rare even more.

 

[Akrnaf2]

And this was the last fishing trip
A bullet tuna almost 10 kg ( if I remember correctly....)

 

[feathermaid]

I haven't read this whole thread yet... it's way too interesting and I must comment now...

I am most proud of one singular achievement...Maxie. Out of the blue one day I got a call from a gentleman who happened to be a quadriplegic, and he asked if I could train a service dog for him. I told him I had no personal experience in that kind of training, but I said that if he was willing, we could all learn together. I helped him select the perfect puppy - Maxie - and we got started. Maxie started right out with his owner, Jim, in my puppy class. If Maxie was going to work successfully with Jim, I wanted him to learn that there would always be other people and distractions around and he’d darn well better get used to that from the start. Jim’s determination - even getting his power chair through deep snowdrifts to get to class - was only overshadowed by his love for Maxie. We worked tirelessly, training, refreshing, adding increasingly complex things, even teaching deliberate disobedience, where the handler gives a command the dog knows isn’t safe and refuses that command. That was a tough one. We made mistakes, we started over. Some things worked,some didn’t. But over time - a long time - we learned and Maxie became not only their best friend but a dog with incredible abilities.

Jim said from the start that somebody needed to go to the South Dakota state legislature (where we lived at the time) and show them what a service dog could do. He became that “somebody” when a by-then fully trained adult Maxie, Jim and his wife were made to leave a restaurant. At that time only Guide Dogs for the Blind were allowed by law in public places. Jim took Maxie to the legislature and demonstrated Maxie’s value first in simple things, like retrieving dropped objects for Jim or taking a phone off the hook and dropping it in Jim’s lap. (Jim did not have the ability to reach out for something, but he could pick it up from his lap and get the phone to his ear.) Maxie could also dial 911 on a special pad rigged to Jim’s home phone or seek help if they were out and about, which stunned the legislators when they saw that demonstration. But when they saw Jim’s wife help Jim to the floor, then watched Maxie assist Jim in getting back into his chair, the legislation to allow Service Dogs into public places in South Dakota was written and passed without a single dissenting vote. I am extremely proud of that - and of Jim and Maxie. And I can’t forget Chris, Jim’s loving wife and primary care provider for both Jim and Maxie. Her devotion to the entire project was incredible.

Oh Blooie... this story...
I had to read it twice because the first time my eyes were just too blurry with tears. What a truly amazing accomplishment! And with such an absolutely wonderful outcome... beautiful story.
I also love to train dogs (and horses, but don't have them anymore) and I really enjoy trying to figure out what makes each one tick and how to help them achieve their greatest potential... more like a partnership. They're so individual and not every technique works the same on every animal, if at all. I think that training animals is a great way to challenge your own creativity and discover more about your own self, probably making you a better person in the process. If I ever have any troubles, now I know who to come to for advice!

By the way, your quilts are gorgeous! And your granddaughters' too.
Thank you for sharing. I always love reading your posts!

 

[Blooie]

I haven't read this whole thread yet... it's way too interesting and I must comment now...


Oh Blooie... this story...
I had to read it twice because the first time my eyes were just too blurry with tears. What a truly amazing accomplishment! And with such an absolutely wonderful outcome... beautiful story.
I also love to train dogs (and horses, but don't have them anymore) and I really enjoy trying to figure out what makes each one tick and how to help them achieve their greatest potential... more like a partnership. They're so individual and not every technique works the same on every animal, if at all. I think that training animals is a great way to challenge your own creativity and discover more about your own self, probably making you a better person in the process. If I ever have any troubles, now I know who to come to for advice!

By the way, your quilts are gorgeous! And your granddaughters' too.
Thank you for sharing. I always love reading your posts!

Thank you so much. That means a lot to me....obviously my hobbies are posted among an incredible variety of skills and hobbies. I know who I wanna go fishing with, with a basket full of baked goods and finishing the day with a little of Sally’s soap in the shower when I get home!!

I could never train a horse. Truth be told, I’m afraid of them. My sister Bev is an excellent rider and instructor, and I admire you, Bev, and anyone else who can work with them. Fiona is close enough to a horse for me!

 

[fisherlady]

And this was the last fishing trip
A bullet tuna almost 10 kg ( if I remember correctly....)
View attachment 1582819 View attachment 1582820 View attachment 1582821 View attachment 1582822

Nice catch! Some great looking eats there!

 

[perchie.girl]

And this was the last fishing trip
A bullet tuna almost 10 kg ( if I remember correctly....)
View attachment 1582819 View attachment 1582820 View attachment 1582821 View attachment 1582822

oh YUMMM

 

[perchie.girl]

Thank you so much. That means a lot to me....obviously my hobbies are posted among an incredible variety of skills and hobbies. I know who I wanna go fishing with, with a basket full of baked goods and finishing the day with a little of Sally’s soap in the shower when I get home!!

I could never train a horse. Truth be told, I’m afraid of them. My sister Bev is an excellent rider and instructor, and I admire you, Bev, and anyone else who can work with them. Fiona is close enough to a horse for me!

I am not a horse trainer but have trained all my horses in some way or another...

..

My last horse now in retirement home... shes a pure bred Percheron.. this is in 2002 she had been hitched for thirty days when we went to the state fair... she is now 26

I built that cart from a kit... Its all hickory those wheels are 52 inches in diameter. Its totally useless except in the show ring.

fifty years of horse ownership... I was never ever afraid of a horse... I been bit Kicked trampled dragged fallen down with tossed off over the head over the rear. Jumped out from under. You name it. never had a broken bone... But have had my bell rung quite a few times. And I Totally under4stand how that fear factor can apply comes from a sense of preservation.... LOL which I obviously dont have.

In the picture above I was trying to get her to settle from the jig she was doing... Too much too soon and she was amped... Just after the picture she reared and leaped doing a capriole.... She didn't get the cart off the ground but she sure felt like she could.

later i found that she was objecting to the bit it was too severe... and I later also found that she prefered to see behind.... I made her a happy citizen by puting a driving bridle on her that had no blinders and a very soft low ported snaffle.

deb

 

[Akrnaf2]

Nice catch! Some great looking eats there!

It was amazing! Love very much freshe sea fish!

 

[feathermaid]

Most of my hobbies are arts and crafts related. There are SO MANY THINGS that I love doing, but my first passion in life was drawing... think I started when I was old enough to hold a crayon. My parents used to enter me in coloring contests and I always took art classes in school. I really meant to go to college, but life happened, dance clubs, horses and other stuff... and after 20 years of being a florist and shop manager, I lost my job unexpectedly.

My husband and I had been trying to have a baby for years, but my workload and holiday stress level never seemed to allow it. Losing my job felt like the worst thing in the world just happened, but turned out to be the best. Unemployment paid for me to go back to school full time for graphic design. Shortly after I started school, (approaching 40 years old) I got pregnant! Then my hubby got his dream job. Anyway, after I had this lovely sweet baby girl growing up without me at the babysitter's, I never did finish my degree... just decided to be a stay at home mom.
Oh well.

Hobby #1 is Drawing

My favorite media to work with was pencil and watercolor, I think because they could be erased or easily manipulated as the work progressed. These are from junior high school.


My first and only attempt at drawing anything mechanical. At the time, my husband owned a Triumph Daytona 675 (his pride and joy) so I drew this for an anniversary gift -with a mechanical pencil.


Then I discovered charcoal, another easy-to-work-with medium, but very messy. This is a large drawing and I also used a white chalk pencil.

Here's that sweet little girl I was talking about. She was the focus of many of my school projects.


mixed media: charcoal, graphite, pen and ink.



not a drawing, but I had to draw the outline before I could cut it out of paper.



The following are a few sketches from last year. I tried doing a couple drawing challenges which required a new drawing for every day of the month.

October's challenge was called "Inktober" and was supposed to be ink only, which I never had the confidence to really try before, but I pushed through. Each drawing was based on a specific prompt word for the day. I used Sharpie, sometimes ink washes with a brush, various ink pens and also some tinted markers.



"Huevember" could be any medium, just a dominant color based on a different shade every day from a color wheel containing 30 colors for the month of November. By this point I became pretty fond of ink, and most of these drawings were ink and colored pencil.



I know this post is getting really long but I just have to share this... because I also love coloring in coloring books and it's something my daughter and I can do together. My favorite books are by Johanna Basford.


This lovely author periodically has world-wide coloring contests, so we entered one on a whim. This competition was for the release of her new book "Ivy and the Inky Butterfly." She's based in the UK and has a beautiful website.
These are my entries





And my 6 year old daughter Emily's entries



So as it turned out, Emily was one of 5 winners!
She won an enormous gift pack of art supplies and a personal note from Johanna Basford herself. Talk about a proud moment!