hobbies

blu3ree

i am looking for a hobby i can spend some of my time with something constructive i can do in the morning hours 4am-12am. i live in michigan in a small town surrounded by forests.

ive been considering buying a nice bike and or a sailboat. but it is cooling off rather quickly and cant really use them in the winter.

so if you have a constructive hobby id love to hear it. shoot.

karasti

You could use a bike in winter if you wanted, they do sell studded snow tires for bikes. In the winter we enjoy snowshoeing, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it in the dark because depth perception can be a problem even with a flashlight or headlamp. You could cross country ski, which is fun and great exercise. There are probably some trails not far from where you are.

Most of my hobbies are exercise related, I bike, rollerblade, snowshoe, box, and other things. Are you looking for something specific to outside? Indoors during the winter I enjoy working on wood carving and doing puzzles (not terribly constructive, though we do hang some of them). My husband is very into photography, all year long, but it can get really expensive.

blu3ree

outside or inside. i used to be active but now there is no one to do any activities with as everyone has a job. cant really ski in michigan as the only hills are made up of abandoned landfills most of it is really flat. more or less would like to get better aquainted with the plants and such around locally. is there a class or does that kind of thing have a name? i am not looking for a college course just some kind of course where people run it and show whats in our "backyards".

excuse my deliriousness as i have not slept in over 20 hours.

Chaz

blu3ree said:

i am looking for a hobby i can spend some of my time with something constructive i can do in the morning hours 4am-12am. i live in michigan in a small town surrounded by forests.

ive been considering buying a nice bike and or a sailboat. but it is cooling off rather quickly and cant really use them in the winter.

so if you have a constructive hobby id love to hear it. shoot.

The bike idea is a good one. They now have bikes called "fatbikes" because the the 4" - wide tires they use. You can ride one year round especially if you want to spend time in the woods - the fat tires work better in snow and mud than mountain bike tires do.


Something to think about

karasti

Cross country skiing is not for hills Well you can do it on hills but you don't need hills to do it.

Contact your state DNR or check their page, and look for MI Naturalists online. Often state DNRs offer a lot of classes for free or very small charge, for everything from collecting specimens, identifying plants and animals, to geocaching and archery. Naturalists usually have to pay to take a class, but then you volunteer for things like cleaning up river banks, planting trees/plants, and so on. Minnesota has what is a naturalist but it entirely plants, not animals and biomes, so you might want to look that up. I think here it is just called Master Gardener, while the naturalist is called Master Naturalist.

lobster

bike + phone = geocaching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching

you can create your own dharma caches . . .

misterCope

Geocaching is a great idea! Also, if you're looking for some kind of outdoorsy class, a lot of universities (especially community colleges) offer non-credited classes that are far less expensive than credited ones (usually about 50 bucks for 5 classes). They'll also have a lot of other hobby-type classes you could choose from, like drawing or writing or crocheting, even.

Good luck!

ysmael

why not learn doing "bonsai" :thumbsup:

Jeffrey

I enjoy painting with watercolors and watercolor pencils, cooking, and role playing video games.

ThailandTom

ysmael said:

why not learn doing "bonsai" :thumbsup:

This is a good idea if you have the money and patience.

Anything that is constructive is rewarding as you end up with an outcome for your efforts, it could be something simple like Jeffery said, water colour painting, or something intricate like making sculptures from matchsticks. I'm sure if you google something along the lines of 'creative hobby ideas' you will get a load of sites.

blu3ree

ysmael said:

why not learn doing "bonsai" :thumbsup:

that is actually something that i may very well do as it could be a source of extra income and be a fun learning process. do you have any links to websites or further info on where to get started?

are bonsai trees adaptable to climates? in my house it can get pretty cool sometimes as low a 50 degrees inside.

karasti

They vary quite a lot. The types we have had require a dormant period and actually did better when put in a cooler, dark, dry spot over the winter. Some of them can go outside in the ground in the winter and do quite well. Not here, but many places. It can be quite a complex hobby because there are so many different types and some are harder to care for than others. We had junipers. They tend to grow very slowly so starting them from seed is pretty hard. If you buy small plants, they can take many years to be to a good size for selling them. We got ours from a lady in our neighborhood, and I think they were $30 or so each, they were maybe 8 inches tall and I think she said they were 3-4 years old. The really big ones she had for sale that were so ornately trimmed were like $400 and were 10 years old. There are a lot of good websites for care, but you have to know what kind you are getting, or interested in, before you'll find good care information. I actually found our local garden center to be pretty helpful, as the women we bought them from did not speak much English and we did not understand her directions. Unfortunately they died after about 2 years. I am horrible at keeping house plants alive, despite my ability to grow a good garden, lol. The only house plants I can keep alive are spider plants and aloe plants!

blu3ree

another thing is i dont get much sun at all in my house we have 2 grown trees in front of it so they blot out much of the after noon sun their is still dormant light coming in and in the daytime we dont have to use lights but some plants need a good amount of sun. do bonsai trees vary in the amount of sun they require while in the spring summer and fall months?

karasti

This site has pretty good information, but you'll note how extensive the list is. The most common type (I think?) in the US is the evergreen juniper. But for 9 months a year they do require pretty much daily sun. If you don't get sun indoors, you'd have to put it in a place outside where it could get sun. In the winter, basically Nov-Feb you put them in a dormant state, but still have to water them or they will die. Also, for plants to grow properly, they need access to the rays of the sun, not just through a window. Some plants do ok with that, like my spider plant, but most of them need the uva and uvb rays from the sun and windows block some of those rays. So no matter how much sun you get through the window, the right rays will not reach the plant.

My son grows coffee trees and their care is somewhat similar. The care is not hard as long as you have the proper stuff and know what to do, when. Just like most other trees

http://www.bonsaiboy.com/catalog/bonsaicare.html

wrathfuldeity

blu3ree said:

i am looking for a hobby i can spend some of my time with something constructive i can do in the morning hours 4am-12am. i live in michigan in a small town surrounded by forests.

1st thought, 4am making donuts
2nd thought, eating donuts
3rd thought, exercise to burn off donuts

Jeffrey

Donuts are my weakness though I haven't had a box of them for over a year.

DaltheJigsaw

blu3ree said:

i am looking for a hobby i can spend some of my time with something constructive i can do in the morning hours 4am-12am. i live in michigan in a small town surrounded by forests.

ive been considering buying a nice bike and or a sailboat. but it is cooling off rather quickly and cant really use them in the winter.

so if you have a constructive hobby id love to hear it. shoot.

I'm also trying to do the same thing. For me it's 8AM to 3PM - I'm going to be volunteering - Second Food Harvest - Health Ambassador - Office. I was going to suggest something that the Michael store offers? Do you have any stores like that there? (http://www.michaels.com/).

oceancaldera207

garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201111-edible
You can grow edible mushrooms indoors during the winter. Its a very interesting process and gives insight into the secret life of fungi, and just how incredibly diverse and weird micro life in the forest is.
like others were saying, Bonsai is very cool also, but prepare to do tons and tons of reading... (It's worth it just to find out the ways and quirks of trees in general. )

blu3ree

oceancaldera207 said:

garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201111-edible
You can grow edible mushrooms indoors during the winter. Its a very interesting process and gives insight into the secret life of fungi, and just how incredibly diverse and weird micro life in the forest is.
like others were saying, Bonsai is very cool also, but prepare to do tons and tons of reading... (It's worth it just to find out the ways and quirks of trees in general. )

that is actually a very cool idea something ill definatly do research on.

are there any fungi that can live with very limited light? im thinking of putting it in my room and my windows are covered bc i sleep during days.

of course i asked before i clicked on your link thanks for linking greatly appreciated! _/\_

im gunna save a couple more weeks of pay to build a growing tray.

have you grown mushrooms yourself and do you know of any website/places to get the spores?

oceancaldera207

blu3ree said:

oceancaldera207 said:

garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201111-edible
You can grow edible mushrooms indoors during the winter. Its a very interesting process and gives insight into the secret life of fungi, and just how incredibly diverse and weird micro life in the forest is.
like others were saying, Bonsai is very cool also, but prepare to do tons and tons of reading... (It's worth it just to find out the ways and quirks of trees in general. )

that is actually a very cool idea something ill definatly do research on.

are there any fungi that can live with very limited light? im thinking of putting it in my room and my windows are covered bc i sleep during days.

Youre in luck, fungi generally only need a little light to initiate pinning and to orient themselves upwards. I've seen them grow with no light guidance, they just grow all sorts of crazy directions.
But basically an hour or two of artificial light now and then should be sufficient for most species.
The challenge with fungi is usually sterility and sterile procedure.. but that depends on what you're doing. If you were pretty good, you could probably grow out grocery store species from spores collected from their caps and some agar plates. Some lab experience might be a little helpful, but not necessary

blu3ree

oceancaldera207 said:

blu3ree said:

oceancaldera207 said:

garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201111-edible
You can grow edible mushrooms indoors during the winter. Its a very interesting process and gives insight into the secret life of fungi, and just how incredibly diverse and weird micro life in the forest is.
like others were saying, Bonsai is very cool also, but prepare to do tons and tons of reading... (It's worth it just to find out the ways and quirks of trees in general. )

that is actually a very cool idea something ill definatly do research on.

are there any fungi that can live with very limited light? im thinking of putting it in my room and my windows are covered bc i sleep during days.

Youre in luck, fungi generally only need a little light to initiate pinning and to orient themselves upwards. I've seen them grow with no light guidance, they just grow all sorts of crazy directions.
But basically an hour or two of artificial light now and then should be sufficient for most species.
The challenge with fungi is usually sterility and sterile procedure.. but that depends on what you're doing. If you were pretty good, you could probably grow out grocery store species from spores collected from their caps and some agar plates. Some lab experience might be a little helpful, but not necessary

can you extract and grow the spores from the store mushrooms simply by cutting up the cap and placing it in soil?

oceancaldera207

Hmmm. You could, but more than likely your soil would be overrun with other organisms before the spores were able to germinate and the mycelium took hold. If you did inside you'd probably get a moldy bacterial mess.. if you did it outside assuming the climate and substrate were right, you *might get a few popping up.
The 'soil' would have to contain what the mushroom organism likes to eat as well...some like wood, others grain, dung.. etc.
The mushroom actually is just the part of the organism that spreads the spores, the actual plant is just a mat of soft mushroom like material under the earth.
Spawning is the way to get any real yeild..basically the organism is already growing, and you introduce it into a conditioned prime environment..like pasteurized compost or something...it has an advantage over the other organisms and will colonize quickly.
There's some good books out there about cultivating.
Oh also I've seen some interesting YouTube vids of wild bonsai collectors..one guy in particular rescues old trees from construction sites and such where they are doomed, and then grooms them into bonsai! Cool stuff if you live near woods.

wrathfuldeity

can you extract and grow the spores from the store mushrooms simply by cutting up the cap and placing it in soil?

Use agar plates. Actually you want to cut in to the stem and get a fresh interior flesh to lie on the sterile agar. Let it grow, then inoculate the proper growing medium from the agar plates, then after the mycelium is established, at the right time you expose to light to get it to pin...I used the lunar cycle. At least way back in the day, that how we did it. It was pretty easy but you had to develop a good sterile technique.

Paul Stamets out of Olympia WA is the guy.

TreeLuvr87

Dunno if you'd be willing to try some crafts, but I have really been enjoying counted cross-stitch lately. It makes the hours go by pretty quickly, whether I want them to or not, and it's a nice creative outlet, even though I'm usually just copying a pattern. Employing mindfulness during the act makes for great informal practice.

TreeLuvr87

Isn't this cuuuuuute?!?!?

footiam

blu3ree said:

i am looking for a hobby i can spend some of my time with something constructive i can do in the morning hours 4am-12am. i live in michigan in a small town surrounded by forests.

ive been considering buying a nice bike and or a sailboat. but it is cooling off rather quickly and cant really use them in the winter.

so if you have a constructive hobby id love to hear it. shoot.

Read book on dhamma?