Bonsai off season / side hobbies ?

[vp999]

Short term international missionary and disaster relief with the southern Baptist convention. I go to Lamwo, Uganda in November, right on the border of South Sudan, and we provide free medical care.. food, we minister to those who want to hear the good news. The median age nationally is 16yrs old! 2.5 million orphans. We test and treat everyone for malaria, #1 cause of death in Uganda. We deworm them because they ALL have worms.. vision test and we prescribe glasses.. I have repaired a broken well and fixed rain collection systems.. never know! Last yr in 2024 some of our doctors and surgeons repaired a man’s hernia on site and a testicular issue with a young boy. Never know until we get there. My family and I have 4 children we sponsor there. I included some photos, one photo is me with our 4 children in Lamwo.. if you look at the sign on the door behind us it reads, “no food today” my 2 favorite photos of the ones I posted are of a man and woman receiving their first ever Bible in their native tongue!! That is pure joy!
Be salt of the earth

Hats off to you brother! It's wonderful what you're doing and keep up the good work!

 

[Thomas Mitchell]

It's working out great for me since I got my first Malinois 20 years ago to compete in dog agility. Actually, not so great lately, because I had three Mals until I lost my sweet old man in October. Dogs and dog training are my biggest passion (except maybe horses and dressage).

My best friend is a Belgian Tervuren (essentially a long-haired Mal). She's nine now and the thought of her not being around is just too much so I try not to think about it.

I've been fishing pretty much since I was born and we now have a house on river on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State so I focus mainly on steelhead and salmon. The property also has a large species rhododendron collection (a bit less than 200) spread throughout 5 acres of rainforest which keeps me busy.
Gravel bike riding/racing and the occasional surfing trip keeps me fit(ish) and now that I'm an empty nester, I try to fill in my evening with playing classical guitar albeit at a very beginner level.

Too many hobbies for too little time! A few random photos.

 

[Ken Duncan]

I have always enjoyed cars from a young age. My first car was a used 1960 Triumph TR3 roadster when I was 17. After getting Married in 1970 at 21 cars and trucks were always for working and transportation not for fun so at the age of 76 I started looking for a fun car to play with and teach my two teenage Grandsons how to drive a stick shift. My wife of 54 years was good with that but she insisted that it be red. I finally found one last August, a 2007 Mustang GT/CS convertible.
It has been a lot fun and it keeps me busy cleaning and working on it and with a lot of patience I have taught my oldest Grandson to drive it. Now when the youngest Grandson gets his driver license in a few months I will teach him how to drive it. He loves riding it now with the top down as does my Wife I just need to get her to drive it more she has only driven once and did great considering she hasn’t driven a stick shift in 40 years, she did not choke it down even once wish I could say that.
My Bonsai and our Mustang are all of the hobbies I have time for now.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

We do a lot of hiking, just back from another trip to Big Bend in TX, was a good one, been there 6? times now I think.

The most endangered oak
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_tardifolia
Big Bend is one of the few places it can be found.
Came across this species in research about the most diverse region of oak in North America. Over 60 known species in the Chihuahua Desert.

 

[JudyB]

The most endangered oak
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_tardifolia
Big Bend is one of the few places it can be found.
Came across this species in research about the most diverse region of oak in North America. Over 60 known species in the Chihuahua Desert.

There is a really rare and diverse plant biome there, being remnants of a much cooler epoch than current times. You could spend a lifetime and never see it all.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

There is a really rare and diverse plant biome there, being remnants of a much cooler epoch than current times. You could spend a lifetime and never see it all.

Guadalupe Mountains also is very unique. Specifically McKittrick Canyon, where the background photo on my profile was taken. I am still constantly amazed by the diversity of life in the desert, and I've lived here since y2k. It has its own set of challenges, but it's become home, and I can't see myself living anywhere else.
Definitely NOT hospitable for bonsai!

 

[Sussi]

This is a Chinese Elm - so the little bookstore, I’ve built, is called “The Bookstore on Elm Street”. The whole shop is 10x7 cm, and the books on the bookshelves are about 7-10mm. The year is 1967, which is why there’s a Velosolex by the tree, and the books on display at the counter, are all books that had just been published in 67, for instance “100 years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. On the table outside, it’s lying right next to “Mao’s Little Red Book”, which was published in Danish translation that year.
The tree is sitting in a separate pot in the bigger pot.

 

[Goodbrake]

The most endangered oak
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_tardifolia
Big Bend is one of the few places it can be found.
Came across this species in research about the most diverse region of oak in North America. Over 60 known species in the Chihuahua Desert.

I emailed back and forth with one of the researchers behind this a year or two ago, and iirc as of then, there was only one known specimen, and it was fighting fire damage and a fungal infection. It's essentially as endangered as something can be without being extinct, except I suppose those instances where you only have male animals left, so you know extinction is inevitable. Conceivably if this oak returns to health, it could self-pollinate and yield acorns that could be planted to propagate the species, plus other vegetative propagation methods could be used.