We have a small farm that keeps us busy during the spring and summer and provides much of our food as well as some to sell. We also sell bedding plants in the spring and a few perennials in the autumn.
I've never really had any hobbies unless playing guitar counts, which I've been doing for around 45 years. I guess I wouldn't call it a hobby though -- it's a continuing learning process that only ends when you draw your last breath.
Hello Bruce, When I was a child I dreamed about learning how to play the banjo. So my mom and I walked from our home to the boulevard to the music store. There in the window was a banjo. My mom asked the proprietor about purchasing the instrument. The man told my mother that girls don’t play banjo. My hope was crushed. But one day in my 40’s, my children and husband surprised me with a brand new banjo. But I made many excuses why I never learned. Something inside me was afraid to try to learn, more like afraid to learn, and fail. I still have this pristine banjo in my walk in closet. I’m debating to give it away or sell it.
Heh, I actually started out on the 5-string before I started the guitar. Played around for years (bluegrass) with a lot of friends at parties, bars, picnics, had a great time -- it was my social life for many years. This was mostly through the '80s into the early '90s. Then people moved out of the area, some died, some got divorced, and the gang dissolved. Since then there really haven't been any bluegrassers around so the banjo became dormant. But around 2010 there were a couple of people around I played guitar with, so I got the banjo out again and tried to get back up to where I had left off -- it took several months of nightly playing. But it all petered out, the other people weren't really serious about playing. Then I got sudden, severe arthritis in my wrists and hands in April. I ended up selling everything I had in June except for a Takamine acoustic/electric guitar. I still play it a little but it hurts to do it. I sold two banjos, an electric guitar, a mandolin, an amplifier, and probably something else that I can't remember. What kind of banjo do you have -- tenor or 5 string? I had a '50s era Gibson Mastertone and a '30s era Vega Tubaphone that was originally a tenor, but when I bought it it had been converted to a 5 string. That was the best of the two.
What sort of things are you interested in? Even if you have no prior experience, retirement gives you a chance to learn new things.
Don't know if a person would call it a hobby, but professional rodeo is what we love to watch both in-person and on tv (Cowboy Channel). I spent 15 years in it and wife and I still love it. Other than rodeo, photography. Rodeo action, mountain wildlife, snow blizzards and farm/ranch lifestyles. I process all of our photography at home on our desktop. We also like to do a little gambling. We were at a Dodge City, Kansas casino a few weeks ago and highly look forward to flying to Vegas in December for a major rodeo and some gambling fun.
Current Hobbies Spanish nylon-string guitar playing Designing and sewing repurposed clothes Being a comedian Walking Bikini Tai Chi on my patio at 3 AM Discussing past interest on this forum Past Hobbies Classical and Flamenco guitar playing and making Designing vintage-style tube broadcast shortwave transmitters and receivers Amateur radio Designing tube audio amplifiers Designing and making sports bikinis Designing and making unusual outfits Senior Modeling Women's fitness Hosting vestibular disability forums and groups Writing novels and technical articles Writing poetry Composing music Electric guitar and playing old instrumentals Woodworking making furniture and cabinetry Chainsaw sculpture Livestock judge for 4 H and FFA Leatherwork Tanning hides and making buckskins Making muzzleloading rifles, throwing knives, and tomahawks. Riding at roundup time Roping and doing rope tricks Rodeo bison hide races Fast draw with 6 shot revolvers, mainly Colt Building log cabins and splitting shakes Collecting old tools Mountain biking Skiing downhill and cross-country Windsurfing Beach volleyball Hot rods and old pickups Chuckwagon and Dutch oven cookouts Chili contest Collecting depression glass and kitchen antiques Spinning and weaving wool from my sheep Showing livestock Standup comedy Cowboy poetry reading ETC.,
I forgot to mention art as in pencil drawings and acrylic painting that I have done for the last 50 years. I have really slacked off and I only did one acrylic painting in the last two years.
@Faye Fox Even after perusing your impressive list, I cannot help but suspect a little something is being "held back"........ Frank
Many great videos about learning banjo on YouTube and since you have a banjo, why not take lessons? You have only failed if you don't try. There is no failure in learning to play an instrument. Once you learn to tune it, it will be fun and a challenge. I had an old OME 5 string banjo that I wish I had kept. I taught myself to play it and even had Foggy Mountain Break Down and the theme from Beverly Hillbillies, down, but little time for banjo in those days.
You can lay around with your tongue hangin' out and play 5-string banjo along with your Bluegrass or Country buddies, or you could learn some Real New Orleans Jazz Chords and buy a 4-string Tenor or Plectrum Banjo and get in the groove with a real Jazz Combo! Hal