Full disclosure: yesterday I climbed on Portland. In my defence, I interacted with nobody other than my climbing partner, kept 2m from others at the crag, didn't visit any local shops, paid for my petrol via an app, and wielded my hand sanitiser frequently. But after seeing the reports of people descending on rural areas all over the country, I've accepted that I am not special, I am not different, and so that is it. Climbing is suspended indefinitely for me.
(To be honest, it helps that I just didn't really enjoy it yesterday. The feeling of guilt, plus the constant sense that I must not get hurt as it is not ok to use emergency services at the moment, were not conducive to a day of happy cragging.)
I will continue to train on the Beastmaker at home for when the world returns to normal. But I now need new hobbies.
To that end, I am lucky that I live right by the Walthamstow Wetlands, which are at the moment still open. I am therefore going to teach myself how to fly fish, which I've done on the odd occasion in the past but never independently. Youtube instructions and an all-in-one kit bought online will see me started. You can't stand near people when you fly fish, and I'll go on my own. Perfect social distancing for whilst we are still allowed outdoors.
My girlfriend and I also bought a chess set. I'm rubbish, have been for years, but now if ever is a time to try and learn the basics of playing properly.
What about you?
You know all that toilet roll you hoarded?.....
I said NEW hobbies!
My trout fishing starts on April 1st and can still go coarse fishing on stillwaters (currrently 1 week into self imposed isolation due to travelling abroad and cough), expecting everything to go into lockdown very soon because of half-wits all over the country. Will be mighty p****d off, when a little bit of common sense can keep us all ticking over in some form.
Downside is that if I am bored at home I shall start cutting more trees down with my new chainsaw (they do have ash dieback in my defence) - I forsee about 10 years worth of firewood piled up in the garden.
Be very careful with your chainsaw. I've seen via FB one very keen climber who didn't make it through the first weekend of not climbing without a nasty finger injury in a lawnmower mishap! Fortunately he said casualty was very quiet and the staff said it was nice to sort out a "normal" injury!
I've bought myself an electric guitar and an air pistol. I also anticipate spending more time than I would like on forums like this I did have a go at model railway building but after wasting a few pounds decided it was not for me.
Al
Air pistol...squirrel that keeps attacking my bird feeders...interesting...
I have created a massive list of jobs which I have been meaning to do for ages, so might not get round to starting anything new!! Also might be getting work in a care home, so in a couple of weeks I might be out most of the time anyway.
If I am home, I want to learn new tunes on the flute and get back to doing L-hang pull ups. Neither of these are new hobbies though!
My catapult range in the garden will also be resurrected, I was quite good a couple of years ago (tin cans) but been neglected. I can recommend it as very theraputic and a bit addictive, only need about 10m of space and off you go.
There are very few air pistols that have enough power to kill small game efficiently and humanely. It really is not recommended. They sometimes get used at very short distance for "finishing off". Not that I'm a hunter, I shoot at targets only.
Al
I was thinking of spending some time on the internet passing judgement on people who don't -precisely- meet the standards I've decided should apply to them.
Seriously, though, time will be a bit limited as there are two kids to educate and entertain.
But I expect to do quite a bit of gardening - it'd be good to be able to grow some of our own food for later in the summer.
And there are some repairs that need done.
And maybe a little online training, it doesn't hurt to be ready for what may come.
A bit more reading would be nice, if there's time.
I'm also looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Remake coming out.
It's impossible to know just how much time we're going to need to fill, but I think the above may cover it.
> There are very few air pistols that have enough power to kill small game efficiently and humanely. It really is not recommended.
Yup especially as the skill needed to hit accurately with a pistol is on the high side. I would go for water pistol or similar. Or start making some nonlethal traps for it. Not going to be overly efficient but thats the point of a hobby isnt it?
In terms of myself. Ordered some juggling clubs, balls and a guide. Also got given some lockpicks couple of years back so got a lock to try and learn that.
If you're a catapult man you might be familiar with the German guy on You Tube who makes catapults of every shape and size and also weaponises things like plastic buckets by the addition of a few steak knives. Quite watchable if only for his manic laugh.
Slingshot Channel. Joerge Sprave. Ha ha ha.!!!
The Zombie killer - bonkers but entertaining
Eat, drink, watch telly and talk about sh*t. The rest of humanity seems to thrive on it.
> My catapult range in the garden will also be resurrected, I was quite good a couple of years ago (tin cans) but been neglected. I can recommend it as very theraputic and a bit addictive, only need about 10m of space and off you go.
This is just so British, compared to our red neck cousins across the water who are tooling themselves up for WW3!
Anyway catapults are best fun when your target is running away also with a catapult but with no ammo left.....😁
Nerfing squirrels is non-lethal and highly entertaining but you need a flywheel equipped gun (Stryfe etc.) to really soak the target in darts.
I have a dartboard and have brought my guitar out of the loft for another go. Fortunately I bought a nice Boss overdrive pedal a week or two back in anticipation and I have a spare set of strings and leads so I should come out of this sounding like the love child of David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler. I also realised that my Latin had evaporated to almost nothing since I graduated so I will be cracking though Wheelock's and having a hack at translating The Gallic War.
Simon has clearly not learned the first rule of working with machinery:
Don't put your fingers where you wouldn't put your genitals.
Arguing on the internet?
I’ve been building model airplanes for the first time in 25 years..
just takes my mind off all the crap and stress. My wife’s 8.5 months pregnant with twins so this is great timing..
otherwise I’m just trail running locally.
I've got a whetstone and some blunt kitchen knives which is a fun and practical skill to learn.
The garden's already had more of a weeding than ever before.
Spaffed a load of holds on the home wall for the kids to use and set some actual routes for me.
We live right be a common so hoping to get on the bike every day to get some miles under the wheels - as along as we're still allowed out.
Oh - and now I also have to be a teacher to my 5 year old
After years trying to build something decent to fly and failing I bought one of those Paper -Aeroplane -With -Electric -Motor kits and found happiness and my proper level in aeromodelling.
I’m stuck in this week as I’m coughing my balls off and feel generally crap.
However, once I’m out of quarantine, I’ll have to go to work 2 days a week to help keep the school open.
The rest of my time will be spend chopping firewood, fly tying & fishing in the myriad small streams in the Herefordshire/Wales border, pigeon shooting & harassing the local muntjac population. None of those require me to be anywhere near people, which just fine by me.
> Air pistol...squirrel that keeps attacking my bird feeders...interesting...
I like my squirrel raiding the bird feeder. Lovely little thing to photograph.
And it gives my dog some excellent exercise as he runs out in defence of our borders.
Another air pistol (as well as other disciplines) shooter here. Will be dry training against a scaled-down target in my living room (don't have a garden) for the duration - something I should be doing far more of anyway - but also going to look properly into the mental training side of things for the first time.
Also want to learn both Stencyl and Wherigo, (both of which I have fiddled with but not to any great depth) and enough Welsh to tell when my nieces are being rude.
hope you won't be firing ground up match heads rolled up in foil! you might start a fire
actually writing up and documenting things I made last year so I can possibly make a small sum from the intellectual property and also possibly sell one with enough information for it to be repaired/serviced
> Don't put your fingers where you wouldn't put your genitals.
I got kicked out of the coworking space for following that advice.
Family tree. You can ring up all the oldies to ask them questions too, they'll appreciate the contact.
I'm hoping to be shooting like Wild Bill Hickock by the end of this crisis I have an HW40 which I can shoot very accurately, 1" groups at 10 yards and a Sig P226 with blowback that ends up with holes at 7 o'clock and 2" off centre every time. I think it's because the trigger is quite heavy combined with the blow back which is fierce.
Al
> My trout fishing starts on April 1st and can still go coarse fishing on stillwaters (currrently .
Trout fishing should have opened last weekend in Aragon (Spain). I'm not sure if fishing is still allowed but the border between Spain and France has closed. Not often I miss the opening !
All fishing has been banned here in France !
I'm going for a good walk everyday but there is talk of tightening up the permit system in place for justifying being away from home. For anyone one interested, the self-printable permit can be found here:-
https://mobile.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Attestation...
I can see stricter time limitations being added e.g 1 hour for essential shopping 30 mins for exercise.
How about designing ever more elaborate non-lethal traps and decoys for the squirrel? Film the results and post them here and you get two hobbies in one!
Knowing UKC and its obsession with non-native species I don't think you need to worry about the traps being non-lethal.
I'm revisiting some hobbies. Got a new reel for my spin rod and set up the fatbike for some early morning jaunts before the dog walkers get up. Our back garden is big enough and private enough that I can relearn my sword, staff and butterfly knife forms without scaring the neighbours.
> Knowing UKC and its obsession with non-native species I don't think you need to worry about the traps being non-lethal.
This is the hobby thread though so making it an ongoing battle fits the model better. Wait for it to beat one trap and then go for another.
In reply to Removed Usercapoap:
My rifle is an AA Prosport and I recently scored 97 or 98/100 on some competition cards at 25 yards bench rested. It's approaching PCP standards and I beat some of the PCP's at my local club. I'm thinking of sending for either a CP88 or CP99. Is it a laser sight or laser light? I have a laser light but can't see how to fit it to a CP88. So I'm tending towards the CP99.
Al
Only humans would go and leave a load of squirrel food in their garden (ie the natural habitat of squirrels) and get so annoyed by the squirrels trying to eat it that they want to shoot the squirrel.
Maybe just design something squirrels can't climb rather than killing innocent creatures, is that so hard?
It depends on the extent of the inevitable lock down.
Restricted to the house = a combination of on line courses, Xbox and TV.
Allowed out, now we are talking. My workshop is about 3/4 of a mile from my house and in the yard there happens to be a fully functional blacksmiths shop in a storage container in the yard. The fire only got lit twice last year due to work constraints but I can hammer a lot of steel in a month or so of bugger all to do.
Not sure that will be good for their morale: "whilst you are still here, can I ask you a few questions?".
> Not sure that will be good for their morale: "whilst you are still here, can I ask you a few questions?".
Why not. Doesn't matter when they die... you'll still wish you spoke and asked them more questions. Probably a good project for kids stuck at home to ask grand parents, it's history, sociology etc. All in one.
In reply to Removed Usercapoap:
Hammerli AP20 Pro for me. Very much the budget end of the spectrum (well, it is for what I use it for), but as always the pistol is more accurate than the user.
Oh don’t worry I found a humane solution:
Love it