Hobbies
Gardening
I have always like fresh food from the garden, as far back as when I was
a child and my father grew a huge garden back in Pennsylvania. However,
my severe allergies kept me from enjoying this hobby. In 2007 there was
an outbreak of E. Coli in much of the food products on the market. At
that time we received a $600 stimulus check from the government. I spent
mine on hydroponic equipment. Armed with information from several local
hydroponic shops and equipment from home
supply stores I started a small garden in one of my spare bedrooms. The
first attempts
were good learning experiences and eventually I was capable of growing
an assortment of fresh tomatoes, lettuce, basil, chives, bell peppers,
and squash.
It is a great feeling knowing that you can walk into a room and pick a
fresh salad for dinner and know it is free of any E. Coli or salmonella.
And it saves a lot of money to boot.
Motorcycles
I have always like motorcycles. In high school I had a moped and in the
Army I ran a motorcycle repair shop and got to ride dirt bikes all of
the time. I also bought a Honda XL500. A great little trail bike. In Oregon
I bought a 1975 Honda Goldwing. Price $1500 and this bike was in immaculate
condition. Later I found out the gas tank was full of rust. Much money
and headaches later I got the tank and carburetors fixed and decided to
sell it for something more economical and dependable. Enter the 2006 Kawasaki
EX500. Also known as the Ninja. Great little bike, cheap price and very
economical. Stock it gets 50 mpg but with an K&N air filter as a Christmas
gift the mileage jumped up to 60 and the power was noticeably improved.
Yes, it would be nice to have one of the larger bikes, but my purpose
was to save money and I knew that insurance rates increase above 500 cc.
and they didn't have as good of mileage.
Photography
My father was a professional photographer
for the National Park Service and I think a little bit of the bug rubbed
off on me. Especially now with digital photography, the need to make every
shot count doesn't matter. My father once told me that if you don't use
at least one roll of film for one good picture your not taking enough
pictures. The only problem is that he had an unlimited source of film
and his own darkroom, so the cost of film and developing were of no concern.
I got a nice (at the time) digital camera as a graduation gift from my
mom and brother. I love to take pictures and often take so many that most
are just deleted.
Linux
Got introduced to Red Hat in college, but downloaded and installed Ubuntu,
the Feisty Fawn version and haven't looked back since. I download and
update with each new version. I am so impressed with this that I tell
everyone. In fact I gave my mother an old laptop for Christmas one year
and didn't have a Window's disc so I installed Ubuntu on it.
There was a little apprehension at first from my mother but so she grew
to love it. In fact lately she went to buy a new laptop and the only choice
was Windows Vista. Two days after getting it she was on the phone with
me telling me to get rid of this and put that Ubuntu on it.
She is a convert now.
Hey, whats not to love about it? It's free, it's secure, and it's stable
to boot.
Going Green
I guess most of what I do is based on being more green and in fact actually
it even saves me money.
Starting with growing
my own food and composting the waste.
Solar oven cooking.
Replace all incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents.
Reusable grocery bags.
Collecting rain water for the garden.
Switchable power switches
Canceling garbage pickup and recycling more. This requires a conscious
effort to make my purchases based upon recyclablebilty.
Walking the dog to town to pay my bills.
Teaching others how easy it is and how certain actions have horrendous
reactions.
Fishing
Love fishing, I think of it as my sandpaper for life. Meaning it takes
the edge off.
I have gone fishing for manta rays in northern California and salmon and
trout fishing in Oregon. Now it is all about fly fishing. I even tie my
own flies. There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than to create
your own flies and then fooling and catching a fish with it.
Some of my favorite places to fish are: Bodega Bay for rays, the Russian
river, the South Santiam river, the Willamette river, Indian Prairie Lake,
Lake Ollalla, the Siletz river, and the Alsea river. Let's not forget
about ocean fishing too.
