OT - doing anything productive this summer | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT - doing anything productive this summer

Doing some more of that photography stuff - found a cooperative yellow warbler:
 

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KnightBridgeAZ said:
Can't match all the production - but if you want to call education of a sort being productive - my wife and I are watching the documentaries of Ken Burns, more or less in order. Started with Brooklyn Bridge, and recently made it to "The War" (WWII). Every one was absolutely fascinating, many only 2 episodes long. Learned things I didn't know from every one of them. A whole bunch more to go.

I personally started reading mysteries (again) a while back and recently did the Peter Wimsey stories, just finishing up the last 2 (the last 4 in the collection were not written by the original author but are considered more or less canonical, apparently). Moving on to a few "suggested" novels next.

And my wife and I are mostly staying home, but continue to do selected Monday night concerts (tribute shows) at our local melodrama theatre (George Straight tribute next week) and an occasional movie. Plus Aqua Zumba 3 mornings a
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The Panama Canal episode was fantastic. Also I would highly recommend Silcon Valley if you did not watch that one. It tells the history of Silcon Valley and the start up of Intel.
 
My wife and I traveled to Prague then took a Viking cruise down the Danube to Budapest. We absolutely loved Prague, Vienna and Budapest. I never thought that I would get on a cruise boat but we loved it. The river boats only have about 190 guests and we never felt like it was crowded. We are heading back to Ireland soon , my wife’s happy place, for two weeks.
I love what I do and I m just not mentally ready to retire yet at 63. I work about 25 hours a week and I can take as much vacation time as I desire to travel. Someday, I will throw in the towel and call it a career.
 
I retired 25 years ago last January. I have a boatload of doing productive things. We did lots of travel (I no longer fly it's too much like riding a NY subway) , and completed total renovation of our house and built a new garage. Unfortunately the boat is now taking on water. I currently consider productivity sitting on my deck with a chilled beverage and swearing at the deer as they eat all of our plants.
 
I'm recovering from some years of a medical ordeal (found out in my early 70's that I have a hereditary disorder called ATTR that resulted in a heart transplant followed by 3 bouts with prostate cancer). Gained a lot of weight, up to 210 lbs for a 5'9" guy. Now at 79 have now lost about 20 lbs, looking to lose 40 more: I'm supposed to be going on a bike ride with friends in WI in Sept, so working out and losing weight are my present goals. We'll be riding about 40 miles daily, so have to lose weight so I can handle those hills. Other activities (other than daily bike rides) are working on computers for friends, getting back into photography, and learning Chinese so I can converse with my wife's family in China. Also working on CEU's to get my psychology license current for some part time online work. All keeps me pretty busy.
 
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I retired 8 years ago. It lasted all of four months, and then I tried to find some kind of work. Having spent my whole like in writing/marketing/PR/communications, I had little hope of finding anything in small-town Florida where we moved. Then saw an ad from the local Boys & Girls, Club, which was looking for a grant writer. Managed to get the job and taught myself the trade, and have been working ever since. No idea how long I'll go, but I figure I've got another year or two in me.
 
meyers7 said:
Yep and nothing to look forward to. No days off, no vacations, no weekends. Sound terrible to me. But I'll probably have to retire someday, unless I can die before then.
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Not entirely true. We’re going on vacation Saturday. Been “retired” since 2019.
 
Magy Cannon said:
Not yet retired. Spending the summer taking care of cattle, which I love; growing grass for hay; and baling hay, which is agony (old baler).
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Did a little bit of that when I was young, way too old for that now.
 
Magy Cannon said:
Not yet retired. Spending the summer taking care of cattle, which I love; growing grass for hay; and baling hay, which is agony (old baler).
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I don't have to bale the hay, but about once a month, I go to my hay guy, he loads some small bales (35) into my pickup and I bring them to the farm. Even though my wife does most of the stacking, it's getting tougher and tougher to unload them, especially during these warm weather days in NC.
Can't imagine how my hay guy cuts, bales and stores thousands of bales twice, sometimes three times, year in and year out.
 
Centerstream said:
I don't have to bale the hay, but about once a month, I go to my hay guy, he loads some small bales (35) into my pickup and I bring them to the farm. Even though my wife does most of the stacking, it's getting tougher and tougher to unload them, especially during these warm weather days in NC.
Can't imagine how my hay guy cuts, bales and stores thousands of bales twice, sometimes three times, year in and year out.
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Amen to things getting harder and harder. Your wife is awesome. The hay guy probably has mechanized bale pickup with bundler and forklift, pallets, ect to stack the bales. Your way is harder. Have horses?
 
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Magy Cannon said:
Not yet retired. Spending the summer taking care of cattle, which I love; growing grass for hay; and baling hay, which is agony (old baler).
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I grew up on a small dairy farm. We loaded loose hay with hay forks on a hay wagon. A PITA but lots of fun jumping from the rafters in the hayloft. By the time we got a shared baler I had decided that dairy farming was not for me.
 
Magy Cannon said:
Amen to things getting harder and harder. Your wife is awesome. The hay guy probably has mechanized bale pickup with bundler and forklift, pallets, ect to stack the bales. Your way is harder. Have horses?
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He has manual helpers to load the hay onto a loooong trailer and manually unload and stack into his hay barns.
We feed the hay to our horses and miniature goaties. We only have 4 of each left.
At one point in the last 20 years, we had 70 lawn ornaments...horses, miniature goaties and llamas.
 
meyers7 said:
Did a little bit of that when I was young, way too old for that now.
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In the early 60’s I stood on a sled behind the bailer and stacked them pyramid style 7 high. When done I grabbed the straight crowbar and jammed it through the slot into the ground and held it in place to move the stack off the sled. Rinse and repeat from 7am to 2 pm. .50$ an hour
 
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Centerstream said:
I don't have to bale the hay, but about once a month, I go to my hay guy, he loads some small bales (35) into my pickup and I bring them to the farm. Even though my wife does most of the stacking, it's getting tougher and tougher to unload them, especially during these warm weather days in NC.
Can't imagine how my hay guy cuts, bales and stores thousands of bales twice, sometimes three times, year in and year out.
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We have a neighbor with large draft horses, he hays 2-3 times yearly, and he gets other neighbors to help (I help too). I hate it but he’s our neighbor, and I feel pressured to help- he’ll call & say “I’m haying the south field tomorrow”, for example. It’s always on a hot day, it’s kind of dangerous, and it’s a couple of hundred bales each time. One day someone’s going to fall off the upper hayloft floor- hope it isn’t me.
 
Magy Cannon said:
Not yet retired. Spending the summer taking care of cattle, which I love; growing grass for hay; and baling hay, which is agony (old baler).
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Interesting how this one comment generated so many replies related to putting in hay....
Probably seems a 'bit' odd, but I really enjoy putting in hay, always have.
Used to volunteer to help any time I got the chance, and I still enjoy doing it (I'm 70+).
For some reason it just seems to be good, honest work. I don't really mind the heat, even when it is brutally hot, just take in a lot of water.
Don't care to stack in the haymow, too dusty for me, I prefer to be outside.

I guess if I HAD to throw bales I might not be so enthused about it, but since it is my choice it is still something I find satisfaction in.
 
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Just played my 100th round of golf for the season. Handicap has gone from 10.8 to 8.9. Was a very wet and cool beginning of the season here in central NY but has since changed to too damn hot in July.
 
A sad update on this hay cutting. Baler wouldn't wrap the bales. Had to roll out the bale 100° + heat index. Tried unsuccessfully to fix baler. ( Did find a shade tree to park under for this.) Borrowed brother's hay baler. Baled up about 1 of 30 acres. Baler quit cutting the net wrap....
Will try again tomorrow. Mechanic due at farm at 8 a.m. Heat index tomorrow also 100+. Prayers appreciated.
 
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