Shut down leisure activities-what are y'all doing to pass the time?

[Lefou]

You've dredged up some ancient memories....I can almost remember the key sequence required to get a DEC PDP11/70 to boot.

View attachment 672992

Nightmares for me.
I was learning hex code and programming on old Data General ECLIPSE models back in 1987. The Army still had stuff running on core memory and punch cards back then. If I recall correctly it took about five or six lines of 16bit w/ parity just to clear memory prior to boot. I despised programming and went to the hardware side drifting off to satcom/telecom instead, no regrets.

 

[Lefou]

I hear you, McKnuckle.
I'm in Ocean County, NJ. Parks, gyms, schools ... all closed. It's been one of the most gloomy, cool spring seasons in a while.
Haven't even been able to mow my grass for 3-4 days now due to chilly rain. Once in a while I'll get a ring on the phone to deliver food to shut-ins for the local school system, but that's about 2-3 hours once every other week or so.

 

[Dland]

Got to try out metal detector I bought a while back. If I live to retire, I'll have some practice with it, there's defiantly a learning curve. It is possible to identify and avoid digging some common trash with practice, but practice comes though doing.

Found some stuff on my own property, which I am told had a saw mill into the '50s, and an "alternative" camp site in the '60s. Not to mention stuff in all the soil from other sites I've dumped here over the years.

 

[Lefou]

I lost my palladium ring a few years back dumping brush and stumps into the woods.
Like an idiot I wasn't wearing gloves ...
Palladium has taken a jump in value since I lost it. The wife bought me a metal detector and the first thing I did was search the area where the ring was lost. Unfortunately, the people we bought the house from used the area as a scrap dump. There were so many false signals from screws, aluminum, and small buried junk.
I gave up as it would've required moving and sifting so much dirt it wouldn't have been worth the work

 

[Dland]

If you had another palladium ring or similar, you might be able to use to calibrate and see what signal it would give, depending on your detector's discernment, which varies a lot. The one I have now could probably do that, but one I used to have gave pretty much the same signal with any kind of metal.

If your detector is of a major brand, there may even be a utube that would give a clue to signal as well.

 

[user 246304]

Baking sourdough, by hand, to slow down and feel connected.

Started back up playing gypsy swing. I used to gig playing rhythm, which I love. Pretty funny, as the last time I picked up a GJ guitar, I wasn't tremoring. And still dropped my pick incessantly. This should be fun.

Don't know the photo rotates. Sorry if it gets you sea-sick.

 

[Steveruch]

The only effect it's had on my wife and me is we go to the grocery store once a week now instead of twice and I no longer attend the local homebrew club meetings.

 

[Beernik]

Drank from every coffee cup in the house. That was entertaining for 4 weeks.

 

[corkybstewart]

Gardening has been my focus lately. I have squirrels who eat tomato plants(and everything else)down to ground level so I built a chicken wire enclosure, including roof to try and keep them out. Within days of finishing the chicken wire maximum security facility my spinach has recovered from squirrel attacks to the point where we have spinach salads every day. Then I dug a 100' trench to lay PVC pipe so I'll have water at the garden and not have to drag a hose all the way. Next project will be drip irrigation.
I'm somehow the field trip "manager" for our local gem and mineral club. We can't have club meetings yet, but we are attempting to put together unofficial field trips so my wife and I take a day each week to scout new areas to take the club. Last weekend we went to an abandoned gold mine to collect pyrite, but the road isn't good enough for street cars to get there. Tomorrow we'll check out an alleged amethyst site. Tough duty but somebody has to do it!
Our biggest issue is not being able to see our grandkids.

 

[LittleRiver]

... I have squirrels who eat tomato plants(and everything else)down to ground level ...

One year we had a pretty bad drought, and I started finding half eaten tomatoes in my trees. They squirrels didn't chew on the plants, so apparently they had plenty of food but they needed the water that was in the tomatoes.

 

[corkybstewart]

One year we had a pretty bad drought, and I started finding half eaten tomatoes in my trees. They squirrels didn't chew on the plants, so apparently they had plenty of food but they needed the water that was in the tomatoes.

I'm plagued with a variety called rock squirrels, I've read that they have the ability to go up to 3 months without drinking water. But they can't seem to go an hour without raiding my birdfeeders(right now I can see 5 of them under one feeder). And in the garden I would go out to water and the tomato and eggplant plants that were a foot tall were totally gone, just a little green stem at exactly ground level. Luckily they are too big to get through chicken wire.

 

[BruceH]

Are they too big for a pellet rifle or .22? Not sure what I'm going to do about squirrels in my garden when everything comes up. An air rifle is considered a firearm where I live and is verboten to discharge. I do have plenty of chicken wire.

Squirrels already steal all of the walnuts from the walnut trees. I could trap them but wouldn't want to get a roaming house cat by accident.

 

[Deadalus]

Got to try out metal detector I bought a while back. If I live to retire, I'll have some practice with it, there's defiantly a learning curve. It is possible to identify and avoid digging some common trash with practice, but practice comes though doing.

Found some stuff on my own property, which I am told had a saw mill into the '50s, and an "alternative" camp site in the '60s. Not to mention stuff in all the soil from other sites I've dumped here over the years.

I lost my palladium ring a few years back dumping brush and stumps into the woods.
Like an idiot I wasn't wearing gloves ...
Palladium has taken a jump in value since I lost it. The wife bought me a metal detector and the first thing I did was search the area where the ring was lost. Unfortunately, the people we bought the house from used the area as a scrap dump. There were so many false signals from screws, aluminum, and small buried junk.
I gave up as it would've required moving and sifting so much dirt it wouldn't have been worth the work

We got one for the family for Christmas but hadn't tried it out. I was digging dandelions and thought my wedding ring slipped off so I too got to try mine out. I've never used one but it does have discrimination. I searched the two beds twice, picking out bits of aluminum, foil, even a Juul vaping device (not ours). Didn't find it. I had to ask the wife if she had seen it, no luck, then I checked my pants from the day before. I had taken it off to work on a carburetor! Fortunate.

 

[Deadalus]

Gardening has been my focus lately. I have squirrels who eat tomato plants(and everything else)down to ground level so I built a chicken wire enclosure, including roof to try and keep them out. Within days of finishing the chicken wire maximum security facility my spinach has recovered from squirrel attacks to the point where we have spinach salads every day. Then I dug a 100' trench to lay PVC pipe so I'll have water at the garden and not have to drag a hose all the way. Next project will be drip irrigation.
I'm somehow the field trip "manager" for our local gem and mineral club. We can't have club meetings yet, but we are attempting to put together unofficial field trips so my wife and I take a day each week to scout new areas to take the club. Last weekend we went to an abandoned gold mine to collect pyrite, but the road isn't good enough for street cars to get there. Tomorrow we'll check out an alleged amethyst site. Tough duty but somebody has to do it!
Our biggest issue is not being able to see our grandkids.

I have had drip irrigation for several years but connected with a hose. I had a trench dig for irrigation line but stalled at getting it under a sidewalk so the project sat. I managed that last bit and connected to the house about a week ago. Almost finished but I miscalculated, I thought I could hook up a pex fitting to the irrigation pipe. No go. I am waiting on a garden hose fitting as the last piece and I will have my system connected again!

Something has been taking a few peas and nibbles elsewhere. I though it was the slugs but I didn't catch any with beer. It's just getting warm enough I think for them. I may have a rodent in the pollinator bed. I am hoping to flood it out with the irrigation running. Last year I had a litter of rabbits inside the garden, I had a late start. There's garden fencing and wood privacy fencing but it's not as complete as yours is sounding. By the time I found them, they were big enough to be on their own so I chased them out.

 

[RevA]

30% of what I do is considered essential, so I try to stretch that out as much as possible. Brew one gallon batches of beer every week, as South Africa no has prohibition and malt is not easy to get. Bake bread, bake rusks. Exercise more than ever before.

 

[corkybstewart]

Are they too big for a pellet rifle or .22? Not sure what I'm going to do about squirrels in my garden when everything comes up. An air rifle is considered a firearm where I live and is verboten to discharge. I do have plenty of chicken wire.

Squirrels already steal all of the walnuts from the walnut trees. I could trap them but wouldn't want to get a roaming house cat by accident.

A 22 would kill them, and I live at the end of a mile long dirt road 15 miles from a small town so there's nobody to complain. But there are so many of them, and i do have other things to do besides sit in a lawn chair with my 22 hoping one comes by while I'm sitting there.

 

[Dland]

Covid rest ended for me on 4/27 when locally imposed five week ban on all construction and landscape activities was somewhat lifted. Now my company is back in the fray and even more swamped with work than usual this time of year for seasonal resort area.

At least I have a valid excuse as to why their work is not done, and may not be for a while.

Any of them that don't understand, eff them, I need to shed customers like that anyway, I'm always over booked this time of year. It's the long term customers that appreciate my work and give me work year 'round I want to hold on to.

I enjoy that the property rental pimps that wrecked this place are whining that they won't make their mortgage payments with rentals this year. I know this may be construed as a bad attitude, but this place is my home, and them money grovelers have wrecked it.

Sorry, this should be in a drinkun ramblins thread, but hear it is. Hope you all have a great evening and are enloying your home brew, I sure as hell am.

 

[Stormcrow]

We already homeschool four kids, so no change there. Work wise, we do farming and and agricultural trucking (dry and liquid fertilize hauling). So ironically, I've been busier than usual ever since the virus stuff started, since it coincided with planting season. It's been a blessing to be able to keep working.

Our social life has been shut down though, so there's been a lot of honey do projects, movie watching, and playing Nintendo with the kids. My wife is in full garden and hummingbird feeder mode.

 

[Kee]

Right before things got crazy, we closed in our carport and put a table tennis table in it. So, in addition to brewing and lawn maintenance, and with my wife as a training partner, I have twice a day practice sessions.

 

[Transamguy77]

I bought a house, between moving, doing small projects and building my raised bed garden I’ve had plenty to keep myself busy. And hopefully soon I’ll get back to brewing all grain again.

 

[day_trippr]

Ok, bless NASCAR for trying to get "sports" going again, but sending the teams out on Darlington with zero practice or tuning meant 293 laps of "meh".
As much as I wanted to be entertained it could not hold my interest at all. With all the races they've set up over the next few weeks I hope they figure out a way to let the teams be competitive...

 

[Mitch S]

We had our first kid in February right before things got crazy so my wife got to spend her maternity leave at home until May 4th when she got to go back to work. I didn't think she was going to make it until I caved and got us a Disney+ subscription. On the other hand, my company is considered essential (construction) so its been almost business as usual. I only got to work from home starting around March 23rd when my department head got torn a new one by his doctor for not working from home (he's in his 70's and high risk). Sadly, I had to watch 14 colleagues get let go. I won't rant on that or the additional firings that followed. I truly hope that anyone on the forum that lost a job or was furloughed has found a new job or will be back to work soon!

 

[corkybstewart]

We had our first kid in February right before things got crazy so my wife got to spend her maternity leave at home until May 4th when she got to go back to work.

Congratulations. I'm guessing that fermenter is gonna stay empty for a while.

 

[corkybstewart]

I live in a unique area, in an oak forest at 6200' at the southern end of the Rocky Mountains adjacent to the desert. So I spend a lot of time taking pictures of the critters that live out here with us. Here are some of my lockdown era pics of locals.
First is a dove, he was the only bird hanging out with me while I sipped my beer on the hill.

 

[corkybstewart]

Roadrunner in the squirrel tree

 

[corkybstewart]

Redtail hawk in the squirrel tree

 

[corkybstewart]

Last but not least: great horned owl

 

[corkybstewart]

Hoover the Lookout Squirrel. Technically he's a rock squirrel, a unique species who can go up to 3 months without needing to actually drink water. You can see why I call them Hoovers-look at those cheeks full of birdseeds

 

[Deadalus]

Last but not least: great horned owl

LOL it did not appear happy to see you. Love seeing these birds fly, the wing-span is enormous.

 

[corkybstewart]

LOL it did not appear happy to see you. Love seeing these birds fly, the wing-span is enormous.

I was just hiking with my camera when I saw his ears in the dead tree. I was backing away when he came out. This was with a 200mm lens, I'm not as close as it appears.
But this is probably the owl that ate my cat back in October so I'm not sorry if I irritated him.