any other "strange" hobby's?

dutch@home · Post by **dutch@home** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:50 pm

just a question:
do you guys (and girls) have any other strange hobby's?
i do.
i like building everything that is made of metal what i can use,
or build for fun purposes.

for example this one,
the damn thing goes over 70 kmh

yes, i ended up in a ditch with stinging-nettles

lucky me, no broken bones

tried to put up movie, me going over 70:did not work/dont know how...
is it possible at all??

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:58 pm

gardening
-vegatables, trees, smokeables (not really anymore.. too old for that)

winemaking

cheesemaking
-trying to get into it, but yet to find any milk that will work from a store, and it's highly illegal for a farmer to sell unpasteurized milk to anyone off the street. Any suggestions on what I could do would be appreciated!

dutch@home · Post by **dutch@home** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:22 pm

buy your own cow: problem solved!

just kidding.
making cheese is easy,only takes time...
the best milk tu use is direct from a farmer, it has the highest fat% and eggwhite? spelling? in it.
if store bought, use the fattest daymilk (not sterilized).
be aware:from +- 8-10 liters milk you get 1 kilo cheese.
however, not all lost. from the leftover liquid you can ad fruit juice and have a nice (litlle saure) refreshment.
need simple recipe for cheese?
have been there.......

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:31 pm

Yeah I'm sure there are ways for me to find some. Getting it direct from the farmer isn't really an option here. They lose their license to sell if they get caught.

Even if it takes 10 litres to make a kilo, its still well worth it to me. I'm very much into good cheeses. Most of the ones that I buy are between $25-$80 per kilo, and I eat ALOT of cheese with all of the red wine that I make.

AfricaUnite · Post by **AfricaUnite** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:09 pm

Do you live in an area where you can have goats? buying a cow is a lot of work but goats are like dogs in a lot of respects.

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:29 pm

AfricaUnite wrote:Do you live in an area where you can have goats? buying a cow is a lot of work but goats are like dogs in a lot of respects.

I live in a very big city, no one is raising goats here!

Yes getting goat milk from outside of the city is an option, but I would prefer cow milk. I might have to settle for bison milk.

Post by **Husker** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:45 pm

I wrote and antivirus software about 4 years ago. I have a collection of about 50,000 different computer viruses. Also made numerous tools, including a true robot virus infection/testing "system". It was a pair of computers, with NICs in each of them, which I wrote my own raw ethernet protocol, to communicate, and send data between each other. I could tell the one computer to raw write sectors of the HD (using direct IDE IO controls, which no virus could undercut). I would then send it the entire "clean" hard drive of data (only about 25mb of disk used), send it a sample, and it would run the sample, then detect just what the sample did i.e., what files, disk sectors, etc were modified, where the thing lived in memory, and take snapshots of everything, along with a "survey report" of the activity. The host computer was bootstrapped out of rom, and after it had detected all of what had happened, it would reboot itself from rom, talk to the other system, and get its HD "cleaned-up", and get a new sample, then reboot to the HD, and run the next sample. For "easy" common viruses, it could auto analize about 25 to 30 an hour. If the host system did not talk with the master system within a 60s timeout, then the master system would reboot the host system (serial to a simple solonoid controled reset switch).

I think that was a pretty crazy "hobby"

I still have about 200 CDR's full of the nasty things.

H.

Post by **Uncle Jesse** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:30 pm

I like to garden, weld, work on old cars, read lots of books. I'm a father and that takes a lot of my time.

pintoshine · Post by **pintoshine** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:48 pm

I like to ferment crazy stuff like hibiscus, cabbage and every thing else you could imagine.
I tig, mig and stick weld in my shop. I have a metal lathe and end mill which are a lot of fun.
I repair fiddles which is very exacting wood work, I also play old fiddle tunes a bit.
I started a collection of master distiller signed bottles after a friend gave me one.

I make maple syrup from my trees, malt syrup from barley malt, sorghum syrup from sweet sorghum cane, and raise bees. I have more sugar than I can sell sometimes. I wish I could find agave syrup and not the nectar type for a price I could resell.

I build stills for fuel hobbyists and computer control systems for them. I am working on a demonstration system for the fuel people. (See my web site)

I teach a lot of different computer languages on a volunteer basis.

I can cook many more authentic Indian dishes than my consultants from India.

Oh, here is the strangest of all. I am studying Telugu, the language of Andrah Predesh in southern India.

But the most important activity I have is including my kids and supporting the PTA.

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:08 am

I wouldn't call the following strange, however:

I love to garden. 75 lbs raspberries annually. So raspberry wine and liqueur.

I play chess on line with people all over the world. See Chessworld.com.

Cheers,

G

possum · Post by **possum** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:41 am

Making beer and wine, I like to "poach" berries from cemetaries, roadsides and othe public lands. Like birdwatcher, I like caneberrys. I also used to keep bees, and it was fun, but it has been years.
Shooting, fishing, chess, and physics.
I like to play guitar , congas, write the ocasional song or poem...but it's been a while since I did a good poem, getting my physics degree is keeping me pretty busy.

AfricaUnite · Post by **AfricaUnite** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:46 am

I am addicted to backgammon and play several times a day on gammonempire.com

I also enjoy building usefull things out of wood despite my carpentry skills being sub par.

Making wine takes up big chunks of my time also.

Composting takes up a big chunk of my time in the spring/summer/fall.

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:54 am

birdwatcher wrote:I wouldn't call the following strange, however:

I love to garden. 75 lbs raspberries annually. So raspberry wine and liqueur.

I play chess on line with people all over the world. See Chessworld.com.

Cheers,

G

I do the same with all kinds of berries, except I've never picked that many. Takes me hours and hours just to get enough for half a batch of wine!

I have berries in my yard that I have used to make nice wine, no idea what kind they are though.. they look like very big black raspberries but they're not.

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:05 pm

speedfreaksteve wrote:
birdwatcher wrote:I wouldn't call the following strange, however:

I love to garden. 75 lbs raspberries annually. So raspberry wine and liqueur.

I play chess on line with people all over the world. See Chessworld.com.

Cheers,

G
I do the same with all kinds of berries, except I've never picked that many. Takes me hours and hours just to get enough for half a batch of wine!

I have berries in my yard that I have used to make nice wine, no idea what kind they are though.. they look like very big black raspberries but they're not.

You've got wild blackberries Steve. You need about 17 lbs. for 5 gal. wine or fill a liter jar, cover with vodka, store for six months, blend with sugar syrup or maple syrup, spices.

G

Post by **Husker** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:56 pm

Surprisingly hot forum topic. I guess the majority of us have many quirky things we like

(Guess that expains our love of this hobby also).

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:56 pm

birdwatcher wrote: You've got wild blackberries Steve. You need about 17 lbs. for 5 gal. wine or fill a liter jar, cover with vodka, store for six months, blend with sugar syrup or maple syrup, spices.

G

Are you sure? These grow on big trees. I have two in my side yard and two dwarfed ones in my front yard. If I was able to pick all of them I'd probably have well over 200lbs, but thats not practical. Tons of them fall off when they're ripe, and I would have to lay about 10 foot by 50 feet of blankets to catch them all.

I thought they were something else. If it was summer I would take a picture. It's a pretty mild taste compared to black raspberry.

I made a half batch of wine with it this year.. came out good but not alot of body to it because of the mild taste in the berries. I used about 9 lbs of berries but I don't think it would've mattered if I had 30 lbs even.

I also have two big grapevines in my backyard. Those are MUCH MUCH easier to work with for making wine.

Post by **Husker** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:16 pm

Around here, we have a blackberry/rasberry looking fruit, called a mullberry. It does grow on tress. This may be what you have.

Not a lot of flavor in them, and not much sugar (they look MUCH better than they actually are). You can make jellies, wines, etc with them, but they are far from ideal.

H.

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:43 am

That's it exactly. Just checked on the web, and what I have are mulberry trees. It's a damn shame they're not more flavourful. It's really one of the few things I would say is not really worth fermenting and probably just better off using for a juice.

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:00 am

I stand corrected Steve; interesting.

G

Post by **Husker** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:18 am

We have a LOT of mulberry trees here in central US. I have (had) one that was on my fence line (in the neighbors yard), which shaded much of my garden. I cut the thing down last spring (neighbor cut it down about 4 years ago). The base of the trunk was about 18", so it was not a small thing. It is still trying to grow back. I had even cut cross hatches into the trunk stump with the chainsaw, and filled the grooves with diesel, but the damn thing is still growning back.

Next spring, I am going to use some ag strength round up, and kill the damn thing for good (I hope).

Mulberrys look SO good, but they are pretty much a waste of time. Too bad. About the only thing they are good for, is for making purple bird turd stains on your car

H.

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:17 am

You have a way with words Husker.

Have a good day.

G

Jed · Post by **Jed** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:34 pm

hey, speedfreak.... Have you tried finding a farmer that would leave a bucket of milk on his porch one evening in hopes that the hooch Leprechaun would come that night and magically turn it into some fine sippin hooch? Of coarse the Leprechaun would have to bring the bucket back later.

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:20 pm

No I don't think I'll find anyone that easily.

Coincidentally there was a farmer in one of the local papers that is on a hunger strike right now because they fined him $3000 for selling raw milk to someone.

Maybe I can get one of these Western Canada guys to ship me some (I have a commercial UPS account).

I really want to start making cheese. I had this applewood smoked cheddar last week.. went really nice with bourbon.

Jed · Post by **Jed** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:28 pm

Is there a website that tells how to make your own cheese? One that gives step by step instructions? I have some farmers near me that I know, and I don't think getting the milk would be a problem. Is cheese hard to make?

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:39 pm

I've heard its very similar to winemaking in that you just follow a certain procedure and recipe. Many cheesemakers are winemakers as well. I'd say that if you're a home distiller that cheesemaking isn't going to be a problem.

You can get kits for cheesemaking. Some cheeses are very easy to make, like soft cheeses.

If you use google you can find many resources by typing in "cheesemaking" as a search term.

Here's one link: http://www.leeners.com/cheeseprocess.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

birdwatcher · Post by **birdwatcher** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:36 pm

How about old fashioned ice cream?

G

hans · Post by **hans** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:37 pm

here is one also. I also get my supplies there. they do have alot. I get amy lase there. they also make some cheese. www.grapeandgranary.com hans

hans · Post by **hans** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:39 pm

it is http://www.grapeandgranary.com onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow dont know how to post a link like you did.hans

looks like I did it

speedfreaksteve · Post by **speedfreaksteve** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:26 pm

birdwatcher wrote:How about old fashioned ice cream?

G

I thought you could just make that from plain old 18% heavy cream from the grocery store? My daughter has an ice cream machine, and I think that's what it uses.

Midol · Post by **Midol** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:34 pm

I am into Marine Fish tanks. Picking up a 8ft*2ft*2ft tank this christmas hopefully.

I am also into Car Audio.

Also into performance cars.

And last but not least, my dogs.

Pity all of my hobbies use alot of money, specially marine tanks and car audio. I am forever broke.

Distilling is the only cheap one.

Home Distiller