What other things "turn your crank?" What other hobbies do you feel strongly about? For me it's football. College and Pro. Love the Packers and the Badgers. I also enjoy beer a lot. Doesn't matter what kind. As long as it's cold. I'll drink the craft brews all the the way to the Busch Light's. No complaining on my end. Grouse hunting is another passion I have. I love my family.... but so does everyone else. No news here. Camping is a big part of my life. We have a 27' Jayco TT but it doesn't matter to me. Tent, TT, sleeping under the stars. Don't care. So basically, I go to work everyday to provide for my family and do the above things. I think I just summarized my life.
I love riding ATV's, it's right up there with hunting to be honest, two different times of the year makes it possible to do both. Should have a new video after this weekend, if all goes well as planned. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHo31YJ0JcU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDzGyO56sww&feature=related
Dog Rescue and Weightlifting. My wife writes more money in checks to animal rescue each year than I spend on hunting altogether. Our company matches our donations and we donate a lot of time, somewhere in the hundreds of hours yearly. We have a local shelter we each are putting in 50 hours volunteering at so our company will donate an additional $750.00. I also hit the gym about 4 days a week for a little lifting.
Of course, hunting is top of the list for me. BUT When I can not hunt, I'm into home improvement. Just finished building a 500' picket fence for the mutt (be on the lookout for my upcoming thread). Built a storage shed last year that I'm very proud of. I'm running out of stuff to build around the house though. Guess I'll be moving inside and install new floors, remodel baths, and such. I'm also getting into building homebrew cams. Just finished my second one and can't wait to put it out.
Trout fishing, if there were some really good trout streams around the area that had good populations year round.... I would probably nearly give up hunting. My other passion is photography...
Jason, were the toad and the caterpillar taken with a macro lens? VERY nice post and set of pics buddy.
Greg, those were actually taken with a Nikon Coolpix P90, just a simple to use SLR type camera with a 24X optical zoom. The camera has been good to me, but I am currently doing some research and looking as several true digital SLR cameras like the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G3, the Nikon D5100, Pentax K20D, and the Cannon EOS Rebel T2i. This summer I plan on making the plunge and investing in a higher end camera with high end lenses.
Forgot to mention that they were taken with the "macro" setting on the camera, I also captured this frog with the same camera on the macro setting.
Those are some awesome pics....I remember some from a previous post. That's considered a "super-zoom" camera if I'm not mistaken. I picked up a Panasonic Lumix FZ35 but I'm also considering an upgrade. I fear that I'd have a nice DSLR but keep the setting on Auto.
Besides hunting or doing anything outdoors I love throwing darts. Been throwing darts for 15 years In dart leagues. Won allot of single's and doubles tournaments and our dart league team has finished 1st In league a handful of times. I've competed at the state level In darts, finished In the top 5 three different times. I qualified to go to Las Vegas and compete nationally back In 2001 but had to back out the day before my flight as one of my employee's quit on me. I also take a ton of pride In how I do my job. I take It very seriously, my dairy farmers will be the 1st to tell anyone that. I'm damn good at what I do and I'm not one to brag. Most Importantly though, I love being a dad to my daughter. I know I'm not the perfect dad but I can tell you this I'm giving It the best I can.
Steve... Back in the dating days... :D HA, Had to Steve, just kidding with you of course. :D :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Dx-hri_x8
My kids and their development are huge to me. I am also passionate about supporting my wife as she tries to accomplish her goals. I used to really be into playing poker and also training/fighting in mma stuff. But those passions had to die in order for me to the best dad I can be. I know that sounds boring but my loyalty lies with my family.
Becoming self reliant. Currently produce as much of our family's food as possible (hunting fits in nicely with this). I would like to start producing our own electricity at some point but, for now, the food part is consuming most of our resources and time. We likely will start home schooling our daughter this year.
My job for one... I have been on leave between commands and feel somewhat lost lately. But I have been making up for it. Woodworking, home repair and gun smithing/shooting (I am leaving out family and church but they are in a unique category that surpasses normal hobbies). Pen turning and turkey call turning have been obsessing me. So I mixed my gun smithing and my turning with this: AK-47 stock for the wood. Made a few with deer antler also, neat stuff... working on a turkey pot call for one of my wounded warrior friends, wood is purple heart, and I am mounting a gold plated Sergeant chevron, a Combat Action Ribbon and Purple Heart (mini's) on the sound board. I love being in my wood shop.
Currently just tomatos, peppers, cucumbers and onions as we can the tomatos, pickles, hot peppers and will be able to store the onions. A lot of this spring has been prepping a new field where we will be able to plant enough potatos, beans, corn, squash and other vegetables that we will either can or be able to store over winter. Our major concentration has been on "producing" meat products but this spring marked a major movement in the vegetable direction and big shift in an attempt to maximize our food production. We just finished processing 23 broilers and are getting another 25 today or tomorrow. They cost us approximately a dollar a pound and we got an average of 6 lb dressed birds out of it. We will get our female rabbit in the next week and begin the process of seeing how it will cost per pound to produce rabbit meat. Next spring we add meat goats to the mix. We are over producing some in the meat area but we have been "trading" for services in a sense. I will not have a tractor until next year and my neighbor has been kind enough to help us with our small field using his. He also gives me permission to hunt his land and, since it is just him and me, there is a lot of venison to be had from it. We give them chickens, some of the deer I kill, eggs and other stuff. Hard work but some of the most rewarding stuff I have ever done.
trail running backpacking kayaking wood crafting keeping my yard perfect donuts good food/beer good music/movies
