FIRE - Ideas for Staying Active

[friar1610]

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC

I just picked up this little guy to foster from our shelter on Friday--Mojo is his name.

What a cute little guy! Looks a little bit like my GMS. If I can ever figure out how to change the avatars I will try to put Duncan's (the GMS) picture up in place of Charlotte's (the BC).

BTW, we previously owned an Irish Setter and an English Springer Spaniel. Both survived about 13 years each with us. But maybe because we're older and more relaxed and maybe because this GMS is happy to be rescued, this has been the best human-dog relationship we've had.

[JoeDreaming]

Originally Posted by chinaco

... Can you name two regular occurring activities that keep you somewhat engaged and busy at times when you are not traveling.

• reading this board
• volunteer work for local arts organization

(not retired yet, but close)

[Dawg54]

I play golf 5 days a week. That's the core of my retirement schedule. But I have plenty of other things to do to fill the rest of my time. Rarely bored.

[enfp]

Originally Posted by mh

here's a link that may interest you.. about building kayaks

Cool Tool: Kayaks You Can Build

Thanks for the info about Kayaks. I think they are so cool. Off to investigate.

[enfp]

Originally Posted by ls99

enfp

Building a kayak is mostly patience. The first one I worked on was for a friend of mine when I was 14 or 15. That was built based on a photo we saw. It had a lot of errors, but it floated and tracked straight. We had no fiberglass then, used rivets we made from copper wire. it had ribs, to hold the strips of pine with the rivets. Wood was pine, and a lot of shellac.

This one modeled after a rough plan I saw in a magazine. It is made of spruce strips epoxied, then covered in fiberglass cloth saturated with epoxy. It is fairly heavy at about 70 lb.

There are kits available with detailed instructions. You'll need a lot of clamps, to go with patience. It is tedious work, best done in winter if in northern latitudes. Having some woodworking experience helps. I'm no woodsmith by any stretch, prefer to work with metals and electrons.

I think one company selling kits is CLC, beleive they are in Maryland, though I'm guessing.

thanks for the info. I don't know if I would do this, but I might. I'm only 40, so I've got time. Also my brother is a boat fiend, maybe I could talk him into doing it for me for the fun of it.

[walkinwood]

Reading, exercising, cooking, checking out the neighbourhood (which in our case includes NYC)

I have been reading a lot. I find that now that I'm not working, I can read non-fiction books that I used to have a very hard time finishing.

And I run, bicycle or do yoga quite regularly.

The only 'structured' activity we have is a once a week house clean up.

[UncleHoney]

For me it's a never ending procession of projects that keep me busy. Since the monsoons have stopped and grass quit growing I've been entertaining myself with things like refinishing our 24 year old patio set. It took about a week to clean up and spray paint all nine pieces. Fixed a bunch of hail dings and repainted my garage door.

Last week I discovered some really neat extruded vinyl molding at the lumberyard. So I hauled about 500 feet of it home and started replacing all the old wood trim around our windows. So far I've finished all the windows on the first floor. This week it's time get the extension ladders out and start the second floor. Sure wish they had the vinyl stuff 20 years ago when I replaced all the siding. I'm still engineering how to replace the molding around the attic vents, about 30 feet above the driveway.

When the windows are finished I may go back and get the vinyl 1 x 6 trim boards and start replacing the wood corner and band boards all around the house. The ultimate goal is no painting outside.

The list of fun things to do gets longer everyday.

[ls99]

Originally Posted by UncleHoney

The ultimate goal is no painting outside.

The list of fun things to do gets longer everyday.

Solved the painting problem by only buying stone or brick houses. I do hate to paint.

Spent a good bit of last two years landscaping around new house, in particular solving some drainage issues where after heavy rains way too much water came close to house. Dug some drainage troughs at the edge of the property to divert water to storm drains. This cut sump pump run time way down.

Next fun project, chimney sweep before the fall. Have brush will sweep. This time remember to wear a face mask. Don't care for the smell of creosote in the morning.

Firewood is cut and stacked, that's another off the list.
And so it goes..... (Kurt Vonnegut)

Planned to go kayaking this morning, somehow 55 degrees in August is not conducive to that, though in October 55 feels warm on the water. Nice part of being retired, unless conditions fit the mood, I'll pass on the activity.