Everyone Should Have a Hobby or 12. . .

Everyone should have a hobby, I have many hobbies.  I do not know if they are really hobbies but these are things that I love to do:  knit/crochet, reading, gardening, cooking, DIY (do it yourself stuff), fishing, and shooting.  I guess you could add blogging to that list too.   I have only recently learned how to knit and crochet.  I am not very good but I do enjoy it.  I do mostly scarves and shawls, I have made a hat or two.   I have found since starting to knit and crochet my eyes are really bad.   My distance vision is very good but up close I have to squint and strain, I think this is old age and I do not like it at all.

I have been painting too, this falls under the DIY section.  We have a cute wrought iron table and chair set for our back patio that has some rust and weather wear.  I decided I would steal wool the rust off and seal it with a spray to protect the iron.  Then I  sprayed in a gloss black, it's original color.  I got both chairs done but I have not done the table pedestal yet.  That is on my list to do this summer in between running the boys to and from football workouts.  I will share my chair pictures below.  

 I grew up fishing on our family vacations, I do not like lake fishing, I love salt water fishing.  The hubbs and I enjoy fishing together.  That is how I hooked my hubby.  I know corny right?  We went to the beach with some friends and he wanted to go fishing and he was surprised that I wanted to go too.  I out fished him that weekend and the next week he proposed.   Before we had the kiddos we would take little trips to the beach and go fishing all the time.   One time we even drove to the beach just to eat crab legs and drove back.   We were much more impulsive then, something about having kids that grounds you and makes you more responsible.  I would not trade our six years of impulsiveness for anything though.  That just makes me smile.  

My mom gave the gardening bug when I was little.  Mom always had a garden at the house and later she had one at the barn too.   Mom always had fresh peas, those were my favorite.  She used to get so mad at me because I would go out and sneak and pick her peas and eat them while she was busy in another part of the yard.  That has unfortunately bled over to my poor hubby, I sneak and pick his peas too and eat them before he can put them in the freezer.  I think he knows though, because each year he plants more peas.   I am so glad that my hubby caught his gardening bug from his mom and dad too.   I hope that my kids will learn from their dad and I the joys of gardening and eating fresh veggies.    Sprat loves the potatoes and he does help dig every now and then.  

My newest hobby is shooting.  My father-in-law gave me my first gun, he was worried about me being alone while the hubbs was traveling.  He was also a retired city police officer.  He knew the importance of a woman by herself being able to take care of herself.   I did not know how to shoot so I went to my dad, he took me out below our barn and taught me how to shoot my gun and a couple others.  I have since bought a new one and was in need of some refresher work with it.  I have found a great range that encourages women to learn gun safety and how to shoot well.