What did you do when you retired?

12/16/2017 | me

[KC Burke]

And I am the same way about wood carving tools, but I got most of those before I retired. Swiss chisels, exotic sharpeners etc.etc.

[Big Red Badger]

The Copper Queen is on the List!

[HotHunt]

My wife and I retired from the big city in Arizona and bought rural land in Florida. We started and continue to run a beef cattle operation. We have 24 heifers and one bull. She is 68 and I am 70. We do almost all of the work and maintenance, repairs and projects ourselves.

Raising livestock allows us to gain agricultural tax exemption for our land, lowering the county property taxes to a small amount.

Selling our bull calves at auction every year brings in enough money to pay for the taxes on our home.

We are having the best time of our lives. Keeps us fit, healthy and motivated.

We've discussed several times that we would probably be in worse off or dead by now if we hadn't picked this physically-demanding lifestyle rather than rocking away on the porch in retirement.

[mylife]

I have it all, Sheffield steel (Acorn) Solingen steel, American Steel, Japanese steel Arkansas hard stones....

Here is the secret to razor blades... a leather strop an Herb’s Yellow stone, I swear by this stuff “A little dab will do ya”

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=yellowstone+stropping+compound&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=14303651886&hvqmt=p&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9b24wca8l7_p

[mylife]

Took my family on a tour of the mine and Hotel

[mylife]

PS do not tell every swinging dick in Tx about RVs and South E Az LOL

[chasio649]

Playing guitar a lot, camping and long hikes/walks(no serious backpacking) in the woods...plan on at least walking 5 miles a day minimum until i can’t. I am easily entertained.

[mylife]

Do it while you can, 10 mi Mt hikes, whitewater rafting, jumping out of planes..

Campfires are forever, My 80 year old mother is the Queen of the Bonfire LOL

[mylife]

3 years ago we took the old gal sled riding LOL

She did better than me!

[KC_for_Freedom]

Thanks, with his home care we got to know him much better. It turns out that he was not in favor of us being on the road. He is much closer now, we meet once a week for dinner and catching up.

We did not realize how upset our four years on the road made him, as we were constantly in email contact and saw him for part of the year at his school. In my day I wanted very little to do with my parents after I went to school. Very much opposite with him. Sad that it took two criminals driving the wrong way on a freeway offramp to teach us this.

[mylife]

I wish you all the best in retirement and without a doubt staying active helps but does not insure longevity.

Live For Today

My Father was an exemplary man who was an athlete his entire life, he did no smoke or drink and ran marathons into his 50s

Soldier good Father

He retired at 57 and promptly had a Heart attack which he survived, the one at 62 dropped him dead.
His inseperable twin brother who lived next door and lead the same life style died at 76 from resperitory failure

Live for today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VndqigXCrU0

don’t worry about tomorrow, Live for today!

[metmom]

Mr. mm and my son feel the same way.

[mylife]

Make him wipe yer butt! You wiped his LOL

(((Hugs)))

[mylife]

Actually I just hosed the kid off and put on a new diaper LOL

And drove him around at 2 AM in the mountains of CA when he was cholicy and shared Mc Dodos fries with him when he was teething, so Mamma could get some sleep LOL

Easy

Retirement still eludes me

[KC Burke]

In the 70s, when I first did a little relief carving, I got an old wide belt from the hippy era and loaded the raw leather backside with jewelry rouge — kind of purple. Had it for years and it would sure put a glow on any sharpened surface and help insure the final removal of un-uniform traces of wire edge.

Listened to that link above and then switched to some Bekka Bramlett duos that were listed. Wow that gal can sing. Down loaded one with Joe Cocker that is incredible.

[KC Burke]

https://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-WS3000-Wood-Sharpener/dp/B000PVHIMW/ref=sr_1_7?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1513536550&sr=1-7&keywords=chisel+sharpener

[mylife]

We are raising money for folks in the state sponsered home.

You don’t want to die like that, but hey thats old age

The realMrb sponsored a rally in Maine for the VA hospital And we wheeled some of those old guys out into sunlight for the first time in 4 years

We cooked them burgers told sea storys and looked at girls, bikes and classic cars, raised a pile of money which may or may not have gone to the cause.

What is important is living your life and enjoying your life

Getting old aint for the faint of heart just keep a heart

God Bless You all

Mike I will never forget your good deeds

[KC Burke]

I think it is the weekend before Valentine’s day this year is the annual Woodcarver’s show in Mesa. Its the best and biggest in Arizona. Has a lot of competitive judged work as well as supplies and some classes.

My wife often makes it a Valentine gift as I take her to so many quilt stores and needle art shows.

[mylife]

Don’t do like my buddy Scotty and sing songs about the past that are wholly inappropriate LOL

He’ll bust out into song in front of yer woman.. “Insert name here” Was in Yukosusa when he met Mi Lai.. later in Nogales,Helga Ferrel caught his eye.. LOL

[Albion Wilde]

Interesting...I keep reading that millennials are not into collecting stuff. That bears that out. Lots of them moving into smaller townhouses, too, instead of single family homes.

Bingo. Few of them want to detail-clean a carved wooden chair or bedstead, polish the mahogany, silver or crystal or keep fabric upholstery spotted and vacuumed. They like polyester sofas and wipe-clean IKEA stuff. The inevitable result of "liberation."

So my advice to anyone needing to downsize but holding onto old stickware, caneware and overstuffs of sentimental value for the kids is this:

a) Make the grown kids take 90% what they want now, and
b) dump the rest that you won't want in your easier-to-care-for new space, because:
c) you should use your money on your own needs, not on the extra real estate you would need to act as a storage facility for your kids; and
d) the kids are not going to appreciate having to dump it when you die.
e) Don't even try to guilt-trip them.

And forget foisting it on the grandchildren; they don't even know how to polish furniture, repair, reuse or clean anything. Or cook, either. Also forget about them using your wedding stuff to sit down around a table for a meal, have a prayer and make polite conversation. Eating is what the tv room is for. Even holidays, it's fill your plate from the reheated big-box store frozen foodstuff in aluminum and plasticware set out on the kitchen counters and wander around the house to find someplace to sit with your paper plate on your lap; striving professionals are too (busy, entitled, clueless, "liberated") to prepare a sit-down.