how are you filling your time

[cridgie down under]

seeing that there is not much activity in the forum regarding building i thought there may be a few of you who would like to share with all members of this forum,what your hobbies or pasttimes are .
I will start off with my hobbys/pasttimes.
first of all it is autumn in australia and it is a great time of the year, average temperature in coffs harbour 15 to 23 degrees .I am 73 years young and i play lawn bowls at least three times a week.
I walk 3 to 5 klms every morning.
I am currently learning to play the ukulele (this has been on my bucket list a long time)had three lessons so far ,can play "five foot two eyes of blue" (sort of)
I fish quite regularly in my okwata and have now started a new build , a dk 11' j skiff ,all panels are cut out and joined and as soon as i can come to grips with photo bucket i will start posting my progress with pics.
I am retired and loving every minute of it ,
How about you guys ??????
regards Ray (cridgie down under)

[PiratePete]

Im in Tasmania Australia & we are now having temps from 0 to 16 Degrees C.

I havent had the opportunity to do too much fishing in either the the kayaks or our power boat.

There isnt much wind at this time of year & its magic on the water if you can get out.

We are looking to build up a camper trailer over winter ready for some more kayaking & camping adventures starting in the spring.

[goanywhere]

I don't know why but Aussies tend to appear prominently in web forums everywhere. Obviously we have far too much time on our hands!

As for me, I live in Adelaide, so it's starting to get a bit cold to fish most weekends (at least for me, I feel the cold). I'm in the middle of painting the inside of the house, but that should be finished in a few weeks, so I should be able to get started on my Sabalo build. Actually I will start by building a couple of S&G outriggers as a learning project. I've been accumulating all the bits and pieces I will need to do the job, bought a nice Bosch R/O sander this week for $89, a great buy. Only a few consumables to get now and I'll be all kitted out. It feels like for ever since I first started looking into building a yak, and I'm getting impatient!

I am thinking of ways I can enclose the one side of my carport that's open so I can heat it up enough to glass during winter. Probably some sheets of black poly sheet tapet up to make a temporary wall, and a couple of electric or gas heaters should do it.

Other than that I do intend to go bush in my Pajero 4wd for a week or so in July. Probably up the Goog's track north of Ceduna or to the Flinders Ranges, depending on how wet it gets this winter. If it's anything like last year I'm not sure.

[woodman]

Out fishing in the kayaks I built over the winter...it is nice being semi-retired..

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 1&t=154554

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 1&t=151621

[jem]

It's AAU basketball season and my daughter plays on a travel team. Lots of driving to practices, tournaments, etc, etc. Then our normal family life around that.

But I did start back working on a prototype that I hadn't touched in a while.

[olsnappa]

I've been tied up with fairly extensive house renovations (main living area and kitchen)......most of the work is being done by professionals but the chaos that it throws the house into means that my work area is otherwise occupied as storage for all sorts of things.
It's been a bit cold here in Melbourne for these old bones to go paddling......(Geeze, I envy you your Coffs Harbour climate, Cridge!)
It's been the local golf Pennant season down here so each Sunday for the last few months has seen me following my son around watching him compete.
Have also been doing some bushwalking....
I've also returned to a long held love of landscape painting...... After years of bumbling along and promising myself to get some proper instruction, I've finaly taken the plunge and enrolled in a oil painting course at the Victorian Artist Society school
Night classes held by a local artist who's work I admire.......and I'm loving every minute of it!
Despite that, I'm looking forward to getting back into finishing off my sons paddleboard and then onto a few kayak projects......all running about 6 months behind schedule!

[craiggamesh]

I have been way to busy traveling for work.

Also, I have been remodeling the kitchen. I got slowed down on that when I burned out my 3.5 HP router making raised panel doors. I bought a new one, but now I have to redo my router table since it mounts differently. I am also working on an 18.5 foot cedar strip canoe I started over 2 years ago.

I just need to sand and glass the inside, install the gunnels, and add the cane seats I bought from Matt. Oh, I forgot about all the sanding and varnishing

Also, I am currently building a strip Okwata. Other than that, I have been trying to get the Sabalo out fishing as often as possible. I went Salmon fishing last weekend, but due to all the snowfall, they have been releasing huge volumes of water from the Columbia River reservoirs to make room for the snow melt. This backed up the tributaries and completely turned off the salmon bite the day before I was able to get out. All my other Northwest Kayak Angler friends were slaying them for the two weeks prior when I was gone for work. Goanywhere, you will love the Sabalo. I am thinking of building amas for it and maybe sailing it. It tracks so well, I think it would be great for sailing. Here is my Sabalo rigged for salmon:

[Mick]

In between cleaning up my old country home for sale and finishing off the beach house, been playing in the rainforest a bit,




doin a lil fishin,





doing a lil camp cookin









takin friends paddlin





and more camp cookin





A lil explorin in the mountains





and generally, just goofing off a bit.

[craiggamesh]

Mick, it looks like you got it tough there. I love your fleet. I'm slowly building up mine.

[Whirly]

Mick, and I thought it was only those big hairy bastards with all the teeth and claws that scooped fish out of the rapids like that. You've been watching waaaaaaay too much Discovery Channel my man.......