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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 13, 2022 19:20:18 GMT -5
Couldn't you combine them? Shoot the $#!+ into them? Lol, you guys never disappoint with the coprolite humor. Love this place. I suspect there's not enough coprolite in Utah to balance the ammo "hobby" out. This little distraction began in a small shed and grew into a business with employees. My hope is to soon get to where I can step away and renew my coprolite hobby. Well, I wish you the best of luck.  |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,718 
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Post by Fossilman on Feb 15, 2022 13:47:38 GMT -5
I got burnout on lapidary, put on hold for awhile.
My woodworking is pretty much done, gave most of my wood away and some equipment..
Will see what this summer brings .. I know I have to quit hiring myself out, that starts it all ..
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realrockhound
Cave Dweller
Chucking leaverite at tweekers
Member since June 2020
Posts: 4,459
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Post by realrockhound on Feb 20, 2022 19:22:48 GMT -5
I got burnout on lapidary, put on hold for awhile. My woodworking is pretty much done, gave most of my wood away and some equipment.. Will see what this summer brings .. I know I have to quit hiring myself out, that starts it all .. Amen, brother. |
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Post by drocknut on Feb 21, 2022 16:36:25 GMT -5
if i master sphere making i want to learn silver smithing and possibly working with metal clay Don't you mean, "when you master sphere making"? I have no doubt you will. |
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Post by drocknut on Feb 21, 2022 16:52:53 GMT -5
In just the last couple of months I've gotten into the habit of putting a polished rock in my front left pants pocket.[/quote] I always keep a polished rock in my pocket. That way I always have one to gift to somebody, plus I just like rocks so why not keep what's dear to me nearby?[/quote] I sometimes don't have pockets but I always have at least one rock in my purse. |
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,594
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2022 7:23:34 GMT -5
People without hobbies are hard for me to understand but that's just me. Not just you, put me in that camp as well. I sometimes find myself finding too many things interesting- not enough time, money, etc. to pursue everything. I'm continually telling my guys at work to develop interests/hobbies now and not wait until some day down the road. Seems to me that if you live the first 55-60-65+ years of your life being concerned with nothing but work and the day to day that you will probably not suddenly develop interests when you retire. At the risk of sounding extremely judgmental: There are a lot of dull people in the world. The dull life of us hard working Americans was an issue I realized in high school.(Looked at Dad) Let me bore you with how I attacked the spare time problem at a young age(for the STRONG love of hobbies)... It was clear to me that if I did not figure out an alternate source of income it was going to be 48-50 weeks a year for the next 45 years. **My goal was to work no more than 2/3 of the year hopefully before the age of 40. To pursue and enjoy hobbies and interests I set out on a life plan to reduce the amount of weeks worked per year. Damn it I am NOT going to spend most of my youth working all the time even if it meant living a lower income life style. So I got a high paying degree in engineering and worked full time as an engineer for 12 years and invested in rental property. Built enough equity to buy a cheaply priced 30 acres at age 27 close to the big city so I could have my own business and hobby space. Me and wife built a home and shop there. I worked an unhealthy amount of hard hours at that time. This heavy work schedule was about to come to an end for many years to come. At age 35 I found there was a market for wetland plants for mitigating wetlands to improve water quality and quit the day job after making 1/2 of my salary in the first year. It was obvious there was a demand for both this (planting)service and product. This business sent me all over the SE US and forced us to set up a wetland growing facility on the 30 acres. It was demanding physical outside work in many interesting environments. I never earned another penny at a desk or under a roof from that point. My work clothes were often waders or just shorts and high boots. Not for everyone. This business 'set me free' for 25 years, it demanded our time March thru September, most of September thru end of February was our time off. The first few years demanded 12 months per year and by age 40 had it all set up as hoped and had 5 months off per year. Income was supplemented by mostly water front land purchases that were subdivided off of road frontage and smaller lots sold. The initial 30 acres was a 43 acre purchase that was nearly paid for after selling the front 13 acres. Most of our income came from these higher risk land investments however a simple formula was used that way reduced the typical risk of real estate investments. We did 5 of these projects requiring collectively about 1500 hours(30 to 40 weeks over 30 years) of our time.
Spare time allowed time for hobbies, skill developments, construction of needed outbuildings and travel.
And time to create a much less demanding retirement side business.
Concluding that the American way of working 48 to 50 weeks per year(the lack of spare time trap)is very aggravating to me. I don't know how we arrived at this lifestyle. It just didn't make sense and still doesn't. There is a big difference in being brilliant verses creating and pursuing simple goals to change one's lifestyle. And if a person has more of their own time and are half motivated they can successfully create their own income and be a productive member of society. Granted I had no children which certainly made risk less of a concern. But looking back my kids would have been little burden and they would be inheriting a decent estate with a working business they could operate or sell.
Side note on plant collecting(a wild and crazy lifestyle) - I could write a book on insane adventures collecting seeds and plants for propagation for resale mostly out of my remote camp in central Florida. And other places in the SE US. We lived in Atlanta 400 miles north. I had a very private rag tag camp on 5 acres on the massive Lake George/St. John River(paid for with Water Hyacinths) and another lot on Lake Rodman 25 miles north. The 5 acre lot had a 90 gallon per minute artesian well; one on the reasons it was purchased. Free warmish water with no pump ! The key plant was floating Water Hyacinths(air freighted back 10,000 every March for resale). I stayed there 2 months every year for work and play and give wife a break before season started . Hyacinth is a floating plant introduced from South America that was targeted by the government with herbicides. They grew in the man made canals adjacent to my 5 acre camp and the owner wanted them gone due to their ability to restrict boat ingress/egress. Many other escaped non-native ornamental aquatic plants grew in that area that were targeted for collection too. Tropical varieties. The DNR did not like people disturbing such plants fearing spread(people illegally planted them near their docks) but I collected them anyway. I used to send my jet ski's to a Lake Havasu speed shop(Harry Klemm) so they could be modified for on occasional fast escape from the DNR but primarily for covering great distances on the St. John's River. I fished, found cool rocks, arrowheads, old bottles, explored, shopped more investment lands, worked with agent to sell subdivided lots, had friends visit and visited my Mom's family close by. I stepped on a few 12'+ sleeping gators when wading and dodged moccasin bites on many occasions. Manatees sneak up and scare the crap out of me on occasion. Ran into marijuana farmers and other less than stellar characters(these critters I feared most). The Ocala National Forest and surrounding lands is home to a thriving fugitive population lol. My next next door neighbor north along the lake shore was 8 miles up. Every March about 5000 Rainbow people would do their 30 day camping stint on this stretch of shoreline fishing and illegally shooting deer or whatever for food. Usually 1 to 2 miles away from me. Occasionally a few of them would wonder over and pay a surprise visit. They were normally a peaceful hippie like bunch. I slept in a comfortable climate controlled 16' x 16' room on 8' stilts to escape the ground critters. If there was a dry season the date palms would not produce bringing the black bears into the neighbor's trash cans. Young bears were particularly fond of my open air downstairs. I had a set of pull-up stairs to prevent visitors from visiting at night. I can only say that I was blessed with an interesting life and continue to enjoy fair health and happiness. One of my best adventures was right here on RTH !
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 22, 2022 7:43:03 GMT -5
Thank you for that! That was an interesting read. I'm impressed by your forethought. You are a man who knows what he wants.
Thank you for being you and being here. |
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Post by HankRocks on Feb 22, 2022 8:33:00 GMT -5
jamesp Great synopsis of a very interesting life. Thanks for being you and bringing all your ideas and talent to this forum. For some reason Sinatra's "My Way" keeps popping up in my head!!!!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,594
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2022 9:25:53 GMT -5
I should share all of that rockjunquie and HankRocks. There seems to be a shortage of people taking a different path in life. And there is a demand for such people. Thanks, you guys make this place happen. It is good to hear and see the more personal side of good people's lives. One hobby restriction that is aggravating: The government has really laid claim to our natural resources. Limits on BLM lands, laying claim to loose artifacts and geologic specimens found on public waterways, non-native plants, etc, who are they to lay claim to these items found on our private land that can be collected by hand without any damage to property ? These restrictions spurned me on to collect rocks and arrowheads, old bottles and other artifacts for non-profit uses. They may have an argument for uprooting plants for resale but the government sprays these plants with herbicide causing worse environmental damage. The government also grows 300,000 acres of sand pines on Ocala National Forest land as a harvest crop creating a sterile monoculture forest primarily for the reason of making money. This forest was a diverse deciduous/conifer/shrub forest before they ruined it. And they harvest without installing erosion prevention fencing that a corporate timbering operation would be required to use. Interesting that I suggest an internet business as a career to my friends that have kids entering the working world only to fall on deaf ears. The world is changing and old ways don't change as quickly. IMO an internet site selling trending homemade widgets of some form seems like a golden egg maker. Especially since Covid and the move to online purchasing. In some cases they can sell hobby related products. Denise and I started 3 in the past decade and any one of them would equal or better a college salary. Mine being the fire pits earns well above. And we started them as older people with little effort. We never experienced such easy money working so little and that is the way it can be with what seemed like a good success rate. |
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 22, 2022 9:30:57 GMT -5
Excellent post, jamesp! You certainly did what you set out to do. One glaring omission was your latest fire pit business. You did that, too. You da man!  |
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,594
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Post by jamesp on Feb 22, 2022 11:33:01 GMT -5
Excellent post, jamesp! You certainly did what you set out to do. One glaring omission was your latest fire pit business. You did that, too. You da man! I should mention this to you being a real estate agent. An interesting twist to risky land investing. The land deals with minimal access were our best effort. Doing a contingent closing on one lot with road frontage and a near land locked larger adjacent lot was a never fail land deal. It requires looking over county plat maps for needed geometry and cold calling but nary a deal failed us. This was one such purchase.  The 4 small lots along 99th were purchased contingent(from one seller) on the closing of the larger land locked 6 acre water frontage lot(a different seller) above them. I had the 4.34 lot and 2 smaller flag lots surveyed(to right) and sold the small ones quickly to recoup, kept the remaining 4.34 acres for 20 years and built a camp on it. Buyers never built. I paid little and sold for a bunch. The 6 acre lot was covered with 400 year old live oaks and IMO was one of the prettiest lots in Florida. The government owned point and it's lake frontage was essentially mine to walk and play on since my property blocked it from access by neighbors south. It had shell mounds and several Native encampments along the point and fairly well loaded with arrowheads and pottery. Incredible fishing off the point. And 13' gators lol. The 4 small road front lots were purchased in a group from one seller thru my agent. I called called the owner of the 6 acre lot, no agent purchase. The 3 new lots were all sold thru the same agent. She(the agent) liked me. She at times found the properties I divided, then sold the new lots after division. She could depend on me to do the subdividing and listings with her. Commissions on both ends ! Great team. |
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