Is Rural Living a Hobby?

[Locoweed]

What my wife calls "Tractor Therapy" reduced my blood pressure & stress levels. I enjoy being outdoors & doing things. Learning to ignore the media & politics will further reduce your stress & let you enjoy living more. I have a neighbor that gets wrapped around the axle over politics. I tried to talk to him a few years ago & explained that I was trying to enjoy what time I had left & he was concentrating on getting himself worked up over things he had no control over. Sadly he doesn't get it.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

how many women you know have a real hobby?

once in a while........my mom was a golf addict

I know a lot of women with hobbies. Horses. Beading. Animal rescue. Music. This woman and I have been friends for 50 years. She has never been a professional musician, but loves the hobby. She also does cat rescue.

 

[Hay Dude]

Be thankful. We went into FW because my 20 y/o son got passed out drunk and scared the gf with whom he has been living. Not threatening, just worried and scared. He lost his way in HS and will barely talk to me. When he does, it is usually to tell me how awful my beliefs are. The other 3 kids are squared away, but this one was the most like me and I don't know how to help him. My gut reaction was to tell the gf to call the cops. Instead, the home boss decided we would get him. Now, instead of going to my property and visiting with some dealers, I am here to make sure he doesn't hurt himself.

Be thankful?
My son is thriving and playing a D-1 college sport and has a 3.9GPA.
Im very thankful
But yeah, the crime and the awful leadership in that city is frightening

 

[beowulf]

Oh, OK, i wondered if it was something contagious.....

Well, it is a bit contagious. . . I mean the lifestyle.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I know a lot of women with hobbies. Horses. Beading. Animal rescue. Music. This woman and I have been friends for 50 years. She has never been a professional musician, but loves the hobby. She also does cat rescue.

yea, i knew that comment would generate examples exceptions, and thank goodness for the exceptions.

in the end, it don't matter although i find people with true hobby's to be interesting people.....to me.

just 1 example, i've been going to music festivals for 50 years.....90 % of the musicians are men

 

[Frankenkubota]

Pretty much every woman I know has at least one, if not several hobbies.

Jewelry making. Art restoration. Pottery. Basket making. Quilting. Sewing. Crocheting. Travel. Craft beer. Wine. Art in general. Egyptology. Fossil hunting. Photography. Collections (things, not money from deadbeats). Vintage motorcycles. Gardening and landscaping. And, of course, CATS!

And that list is just my female siblings! All retired except for 1.

good for them, i know they are out there.

my definition of a hobby is probably much more limiting than most.

and as usual, don't matter.

 

[Hay Dude]

Gave up my hobbies to spend more time with my kids when they needed me.
Used to go to the gym 5 days a week, hunted, a little golf, too.
Once they started running around, I coached or watched their games.
I am lucky in that my job satisfies me also as a hobby.

 

[Oaktree]

What my wife calls "Tractor Therapy" reduced my blood pressure & stress levels. I enjoy being outdoors & doing things. Learning to ignore the media & politics will further reduce your stress & let you enjoy living more. I have a neighbor that gets wrapped around the axle over politics. I tried to talk to him a few years ago & explained that I was trying to enjoy what time I had left & he was concentrating on getting himself worked up over things he had no control over. Sadly he doesn't get it.

I avoid conversations about politics (or religion) for that reason...no minds are ever changed, and all you do is get upset. Personally, I find both sides equally vile anyway.

As far as "tractor therapy" goes, yeah I noticed that when I bought my first house back in the 70s. More "country suburbia" than rural, but the house was 100 years old and I had about 8 acres so there was always something to do. I was getting awfully antsy living in an apartment, hopefully I'll never need to go back to one.

 

[s219]

I don't know if I'd call it a hobby, but it sure eats up all my spare time! There is never nothing to do, and I am never caught up. But I enjoy it, so it's all good. I'd probably get bored and into trouble if we lived in town.

 

[beowulf]

Not for us. We own a working farm.

5030, I totally agree and should have made that distinction in my post. And I know the difference - I have (had) over a dozen uncles and aunts who farmed in the midwest and it was not easy and not always profitable. I recall making 25 cents an hour cutting weeds out of the bean fields on my uncle's farm when the beans were nearly as tall as I was - my first ever paying job. I can still hear him saying "make sure you get the cockleburrs" - I wouldn't recognize them now. And I recall lugging buckets of slop for the hogs - hated that part - it took both my cousin and me to lift and pour those buckets. And for the wheat, no combines then - they had these huge (to me, then) threshing machines - fascinating to think about that.

Yeah, there is a major difference.