I draw alot, and build furniture in my spare time, but being in the dirt is the most prominent thing in my life. I have one dog, and he has three friends, that never go home!!! Thats why i had to put up the fence around the seedlings.

I love working with clay also, handbuilding, will get some good pics so you all can see. Working with my hands is whats kept me from strangling some of the idiots i have to deal with all-day every day! People who can't drive, act all fake, and just generally piss me off. LOL My next big purchase is either going to be a Kiln, or a Tiller... havent decided yet?

Generaly i think i can do anything, until it "explodes" in my face.
Gerard

Gerard I envy you your artistic ability. I can't draw a stick figure and have you know what it is - my stick figures look like Japanese writing!

I have the ability (and sometimes it is a negative thing) to see balance in everything, I can scissor a dog to who tied the cat but darn, can't draw a lick. I can't get the vision out of my brain, over the shoulder and around the curve in my elbow. It gets hung up somewhere around the elbow. I also can't sing, bowl or do any math that involves the alphabet!

Brooke

I am a little like Gerard in that my self confidence sometimes overloads common sense. As he says, it sometimes blows up in my face. OTOH, it is sometimes interesting what one can accomplish through plain old cussed persistence.

Hobbies: Until about my mid 20s I enjoyed hunting. Always thought I would like photography, but never had a decent camera until about my mid/late 30s. Finally, bought a good 35mm camera and several telephoto lens and enjoyed photography. I am like Brooke in that I cannot draw a stick man. Unfortunately, I don't really have the balance thing. My photography talent is so-so.

After retirement, I was interested in woodworking. However, I never had any instruction and it is a rather dangerous learn it as you go hobby. I never really got into it a lot and gave it up when I got into daylily hybridizing. Still like photography, but don't do a lot except with daylilies.

On the overconfidence thing, when I retired, I decided to build my own house. I really wanted a log home, but decided it was too tough and reqired too much maintenance. Had a guy come in and cut lumber from trees on my property. Got lucky and found a semi retired house contractor that was willing to do the house by the hour and worked as though he was working by the project. He also knew a skilled carpenter that we hired and I was the gofer. The house turned out to be simple, but very pleasing and well built. I learned enough from the house building that I was able to build my 10 x 20 foot greenhouse by myself. The only help I had was to have someone do the electrical work. I put my own computer together. Took about 40 hours and I almost gave up. Finally did it and since then have done two more. Much easier after the first one.

My latest "building" project is to build an 8 x 12 foot pumphouse. I had a well drilled last year and need a pumphouse. I have dabbled with it from time to time over the winter and have the foundation and sills completed. Sorta wish I had contracted someone to do it as I am not too enthused over doing it. However, I already bought most of the material, so guess I will do it. Right now, I am doing garden/yard winter chores. For example, I have been raking pine straw, but have now stopped. It was nearly 90 here today and snakes are probably out, or soon will be. I leave the woods to the snakes in warm weather.

heres some teapots
Gerard
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Keep in mind they are all teapots!!! LOL i miss making those things.
G

Are those all made from clay? Wow what a talented young man!

Royce - ask me sometime about helping my husband put up the trusses on our kennel building! I said that was my last building project. He built the kennel building (24 x 48')except for the concrete pouring, the heating duct work and had a plumber friend help with the plumbing. If you want to come for a visit, maybe the two of you could knock out a greenhouse for me.

Now I need to talk Gerard into making me some custom bonsai pots after he gets his kiln.

Brooke

Hobbies, let's see. Gosh, I've done just about anything. I'm not one for sitting idle.

I used to paint ceramics, cross-stitch and embroidery. I've always loved to wallpaper and have done my own house several times as well as friends' and families homes.

I used to love to bake desserts. The guys I worked with would follow me around all day if I brought in a plate of goodies. LOL

I'm also a writer. I have a BA in English and have written two romance novels and some poetry (which remain hidden in a closet), as well as eulogies and wedding vows for friends and family. I've even written garden articles for a magazine.

I've done a lot of things out of curiosity, just to see if I could do it. And that's how I ended up with a job in construction. I started out doing landscaping and ended up a carpenter's assistance, where I learned quite a bit.

Then I built my own house, with my brother's help, from the ground up. We even made our own trusses, just like they do in the truss factories. I got most of my lumber and stuff for free from different jobs we did, so my 1200 sq ft home cost me about $20,000. I did all the interior work by myself. And I built all my exterior buildings and garden structures myself.

I'm currently learning to do oil painting, something I always wanted to do. A friend died of cancer a few years ago and left me all her art supplies, and I'm finally putting them to good use.

I also do scrapbooking, and my next project is to scrapbook all of my daylily pictures kinda like a catalog. I made my brother a scrapbook of all his photos and now he wants to me to add the photos he's taken in the last two years to his scrapbook.

I honestly have more hobbies than I have time. But I hate to sit still so I'm always working on something. If I'm not working on a project, I'm out chasing butterflies. LOL

Sitting still ain't really all that bad if you do it in a recliner. lol

Gerard, do you have larger pictures? I clicked on the above pictures and for a moment it appeared larger pictures might show up, but instead only the Photobucket home page came up.

Very nice teapots Gerard! They are quite different and creative. My sister just finished up some pottery lessons and bought a gas kiln! She just had her first grandbaby born so it will be interesting to see how long it will take for her to get everything set up! I've dabbled in pottery some, very fun stuff.
Gardening is my #1 hobby, but I have many! I love making homemade cards, scrapbooking, etc. I have a never ending supply of different papers, scissors, stickers, hundreds of rubber stamps and every color of ink pad you could think of, chalks, wire, etc. I love painting with acrylics (so easy to work with) I didn't like oil painting. I buy those clear acrylic picture frames and paint many different designs on those. I seal the paint in with a clear varnish paint on top which makes the colors pop even more. I've sold several at craft fairs through friends. I've given away more tho! LOL! I love to paint!

Nancy