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Dan in Ohio

Dan in Ohio

Well-known Member
Location
Mid-Ohio
For FUN..............relaxation , enjoyment, to kick back. My wife and I are approaching sixty. I am still working two jobs, one full time, the other part time, and she works more hours than I do. We have lived all our lives this way each working two jobs even as newly weds.

Recently my wife spent a week with her best friend in Texas (trying to cure cabin fever) and returned convinced that we are missing something and they are not as it seems they are living life carefree. Please note these friends are NOT living off Uncle Sam and are hard working as we are.

So what is it that drives you, keeps you going and gives you something to look forward to each day?

I will start by saying I look forward to exercising one of my favorites on a bright sunny day on the road out front with out traffic.

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Turned 70 a while back and working part time, but most of the time putting in 40 hours a week. Wife thinks I ought to sell everything, but this fall went and bought a hay processer. Wife come unglued, said I was suppose to be getting out of the cattle business. Just having to much fun I guess
 
FOR FUN....feed my brood cows, make hay, sell hay, cut firewood, build something every now and then as money permits. Make repairs to my equipment and buildings. If there is time, I might go to a garden tractor plow day.
 
I have MANY hobbies, but, like you, my demanding emloyment and home situation leave little time for them. My wife and I have lived very conservatively. We hope to retire at about 60, and I can guarantee you we'll be busier thsn ever: church work, touring on our Harley Davidson, working/playing with my '68 Camaro and '70 Opel GT, finish restoring & using my three CASE tractors, play my music instruments, attend live music events, etc. And many, many more. I love being busy in diverse areas of interest.

Glenn F.
 
Left the farm in 1973 to become a Marine. 41 years later I have retired and still working for them on the civilan side. I also have worked two jobs at first out of necessity and later owning a business. Seems as a young man couldn"t wait to leave the farm and now can"t get back soon enough. Purchased a small place (53 acres) in Kentucky and god willin will be there in 2 more years. Have rsstored a few tractors and will put them to work. Plan on doing some small square bailing just to stay active.
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Bluegrass concerts,flea markets,tractor and engine shows,traveling and sight seeing in the Appalachians and Ozarks. Meeting folks from YT when we get the chance.
 
Well, yesterday it was haul half-dead calves into the kitchen!

I just about run myself to death but I love every minute. The dirt and animals are my hobby. If I was dragged off the farm I may need one, though.

I used to restore old VWs and take them all over showing them. Now I have sheds full of pretty cars I take to town on cloudless days. Haven't been to a show in several years. It seems once the day is done my body isn't interested in standing in the shed to build an engine.
 
Retired 6 years ago March 1. I have been busier now than when I was working. Wife still works for the school system. We get the grand-daughters whenever we can. I am trying to restore a 1965 Mustang convertible as weather permits. I am not a fan of going out in the cold to work on it at this time. It can wait until tomorrow, or the next day. Also have a 1966 Fairlane we take to some cruise-ins. I have the Oliver 1650 dad bought new in 1967 and would like to completely restore soon. I have a lot of small projects I was always going to get around to while working. Now I have more time, but less money. Go figure.
 

I'll be 58 the end of April and I find as I get older that the hobbies I enjoyed in my youth are just not as fun in the older stages. Take motorcycles for example, great for a relaxing ride in the country with swmbo on the back. Now knees ache and neck hurts and I got to stop and pee about every hour so it's just not the whoopee it use to be. I still like the old '66 mustang that I am currently installing efi on the engine. Had it for many years and still going strong. The '56 is good for a nice ride too. My youngest son just took it to Birmingham for a couple of weeks to enjoy.





And of course you can't beat having a swmbo I still enjoy life with after 37 great years.
 
Woodworking, fishing, growing a garden year round. Raising Brangus cattle, running a round hay baling business and doing some sight seeing.
I retired 5 yrs ago at 62 after working 40 yrs at USPS & 3 1/2 yrs in the USN.
 
Pushing the big 60 too, independent repair shop, few cows, and farm enough to really know better.
Love the 80 pics. I bought a 70 diesel from a salvage yard in 1975 for 400.00 overhauled it 10 years later, still plant my annual 150 acres of corn with it and a 6 row 7000 planter, honestly I wouldn't change a thing.
Just watch the news, unfortunately there is a lot of lost people out there.
 
I just left the 60's Ha Ha. Retired 10 years ago from the first job, 6 months ago from the second job, and know helping a friend work on tractors, and everything else than needs done. But having fun because I work less than 40 hrs a week. Note that I even work on tractors other than RED.
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Retired in the beginning of 2012. Have been looking for some part time work, doing something I might enjoy. Not looking for over 20 hours a week. Job out look is bleak where I live in Mid Michigan. I have a lot of projects I would like to work on but my 70 year old body's muscles and arthritis are protesting. Also a lot of want I would like to do would require at least 2 people, like pulling and putting another 4.0l engine in my 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Haven't run in too many people in my neck of woods that are interested in working on stuff like this with other people. When I was much younger I belonged to a 4 wheel drive club and it seemed much easier to get and give help. Guess it's just a sign of the changing times.
 
James and I have both passed the 60 marker. James retired from his 'city' job 3 yrs ago. I have a few more to go before I can retire.

What keeps me going is that when the time comes, I will sell the place in Dallas, load my stuff, head for the farm and won't look back.

Looking forward to life in the country with my beloved.
 
James and I have both passed the 60 marker. James retired from his "city" job 3 yrs ago. I have a few more to go before I can retire.

What keeps me going is that when the time comes, I will sell the place in Dallas, load my stuff, head for the farm and won"t look back.

Looking forward to life in the country with my beloved.
 
I left the farm when I was drafted in 1953. My brother joined the Air Force in 1951 and I had went to work for the US government. I still helped my dad with the morning milking until I was drafted. I had to resign when drafted, but that law was changed to being furloughed by the time I was discharged. I also married my wife we went to school to together, but graduated from different high schools about 5 miles apart. Our daughter was born at Ft Bragg NC and soon will be 60. I retired in 1989 after 38 years and then worked for several defense contractors from 1990 until 2000. Here are several pictures from APG and at Ft Bragg. Hal
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I have had to work off farm jobs at times to make ends meet. Also to generate the capitol to keep farming as the capitol required is just crazy these days. So about eight years ago I finally got to where I could afford to stop working off farm.

It is hard to explain the enjoyment I get from just everyday task on the farm. Watching a calf be born in the spring and then seeing them run around all care free in a few weeks, is a reward in itself.

I must be kind of sick in that I have tried to have hobbies but when doing them I find myself wanting to be back on the farm.

I do not work the hours I used to have too. I also can work as much or as little as I want now. That is what I worked for for years.

I also spend time spoiling the Grand Kids. I go to a few auctions and tractor shows an that is about all I want to be away from here.

Here are some pictures of fun times.
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gwstang,

You have it figured out, as many of you do

someone to love
something to do
something to look forward to

= a good life

Thanks for posting
 
I spent most of 42 years repairing farm equipment. I worked all the overtime I could get. A year ago I retired at 63. I have made a trip of 7000 miles with my best friend. After the trip I cleaned up the place of weeds and bush that I didn't get done while I was working. Need to do landscaping around a new house. Have two tractors to putter on. Going to try to get some fishing in. my best friend when she isn't sewing will be helping. When it warms up she is going to run snow blower today
 
Left the farm in '74 and joined the Air Force. Spent 20 years as a truck driver, then retired. Started working for the Air Force again in '96 as a heavy equipment operator at the missile base in Wyoming. Live on 40 acres with my old trucks and tractors(IH). My fun is attending auctions and tinkering with my "toys"
 
It's interesting how many of us are so close in age.

And, yes, I often think those of us with snow in the picture are missing something! Just talked with a friend in Savannah GA, and he was exclaiming over the weather. It seems like here in central NY if it isn't snowing, it's raining, or at least overcast.

I got started at building this farm operation on my own late enough, about half my life ago(30 years), that I hope I have it established by the time I die. What would make both of us happiest would be our grandson carrying on. We shall see.
 
"retired" from the rat race 9 years ago. I had the opportunity to go back to the farm/ranch. We have a cow/calf operation, raise hay for our own use and sell quite a bit. Until two years ago we also grew wheat. So I have been rather 'busy' in my "retirement. I like old tractors and old farm equipment, but no projects right now. I like old trucks even more. If my picture will load up, this has been my "project" and toy truck for the last 20years.
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(quoted from post at 08:49:35 03/02/14) gwstang,

You have it figured out, as many of you do

someone to love
something to do
something to look forward to

= a good life

Thanks for posting
Click to expand...

Thanks for putting that into words. I never quite thought of it that way.
 

Did you happen to see the news story on the lady that was married to a 1st sgt army guy and he was killed by an rpg and only had 6 days left before coming home. He and she really liked the mud/rock climbing trucks. Well, the best guys that create those got together and made one heck of a giant vehicle just for that. They brought her in and revealed it and gave it to her. Very touching moment as she just cried because it was exactly like he would have wanted it to be.
 
i will be 58 this year.still work the same job sence high school.drive an hour and a half one way.i have 135 acres i play around on.
RICK
 
Dad stopped farming in the early 60's. About that time farm land was being sold off. Farming was not possible even if I wanted to do it. Couldn't wait to get out of school. Had the chance to go to college, but didn't. Might say I hated school. Got a job at a factory in town. Then there was the draft. Joined the Navy. After the Navy, I got married. Then I got a job with the Burroughs computer co. (now Unisys) Stayed with them 36 years. While there I was on the night shift, and started my discing business, since Dad still had the tractors and the truck to haul them. Then added Mowing. After retiring, I continue my tractor work in the spring. Dad never had a hobby, other than working. I have my motorcycles which I guess is my hobby. As for not going to college, I don't regret it one bit. At 71 life is good, and have my wife, and five grand kids close by. Stan
 
(quoted from post at 11:23:49 03/02/14)
I'll be 58 the end of April and I find as I get older that the hobbies I enjoyed in my youth are just not as fun in the older stages. Take motorcycles for example, great for a relaxing ride in the country with swmbo on the back. Now knees ache and neck hurts and I got to stop and pee about every hour so it's just not the whoopee it use to be. I still like the old '66 mustang that I am currently installing efi on the engine. Had it for many years and still going strong. The '56 is good for a nice ride too. My youngest son just took it to Birmingham for a couple of weeks to enjoy.



And of course you can't beat having a swmbo I still enjoy life with after 37 great years.
Click to expand...


gwstang,

Reading "swmbo" and seeing a mustang sure makes me miss Randy (AKA "Midlife66")

I haven't been around those cars for a long time! I haven't seen the handle gwstang in a long time either! That must have been 16 or 17 years ago now since I first joined that forum. Glad to see you still around.
 
At 68 I am in the sixth month of retirement and enjoying every minute of it. I am looking forward to spring so I can tinker with my tractors and play with them.
 
Randy is still in Panama City, Fl. Went by to see him a few years back when we were on vacation down that way. He has a PhD in something or other and works for the Navy in some kind of weapons research. He made it clear he would have to kill me if he told me so I didn't ask...lol His side business is Midlife's harnesses. He reworks the old wiring harness for the stangs and does quite well at it as there is lots of demand for that. He's still a cranky old fart btw...lol. Remember how he would always say he would check your shorts...erhh that did not come out right..lol :shock:...electrical shorts that is.

http://www.stangfix.com/ is a newer forum (more hardcore type of stangs) where he hangs out at most of the time.
 
Thanks Ron. Look around and pick you up an old stang or truck. Plenty of them out there for fairly cheap. Lots of help to restore them on the forums for these. www.vintage-mustang.com is a really good one for mustangs.
 
Retired in 2002 and grow cut flowers for a farm stand. For a change of things I also like to do metal detecting - mostly at near by beaches.
 
Nancy- you'd best watch out. Methinks James might have run off with some other guy named James....
 
I retired from the phone company as a maintenance splicer, and had been building this farm for thirty years. It's always been my hobby, and now a business. For fun, I hunt when I can, bust some sporting clays, agitate whoever I can and watch perty women. Ahhh, the good life!!!
 
I'm not mocking anybody,but I just have to sit here and grin over the difference in perspective among folks. I've farmed all my life and hope to live long enough too be able to retire from it. Some of the rest of you want to retire to farm.

I remember being in the hardware store one time and saying to an old guy that I wanted to be a farmer when I retire. He looked at me real serious and said "When you retire? Do you know how hard a job that is?". I just stood there grinning. Pretty soon he did too. He said "You are one aren't you?". I just laughed and told him yes. We both had a good laugh over that one.
 
Guys, Full Time Life & Annuity Agent. I specializing in Final Expence coverage. Been an agent for 20+ yrs.
Later,
John A.
 
Well lets see at 71 now I cut back about 5 years ago from owning a Kubota Dealership for 28 years. Still go around ever now and then, still hold an export license for ag and & heavy equipment. Still have a trucking & farming operation . For relaxation have a wood-mizer mill and do a lot of travel.
 
Retired from my regular job, but have been keeping busy at the farm, which I rent out as I cannot afford to farm.

I live in the city, but spend a lot of time at the farm in the summers (1 hour drive).

I have 2 quarters of land, 2 miles apart. On the South quarter was a log "shack" that was built by a gentleman in 1932; a piece added on in 1947.

I split the 2 parts and had a neighbor move the small shack to a treed area at the North farm. I wanted to save this old cabin, as it was made from local spruce trees and all logs were hand-hewn with a Broad Axe, which I still have.

The floor joists, ceiling joists, and rafters are all logs. I saved my Mother's beautiful ENTERPRISE wood-burning stove, and have that inside.

I took my time re-doing the cabin and fixing up a campsite with a fire-pit. I have two 8Ns and 1 Ford 641. The one 8N is just a poor working tractor. Shown here (if pics upload) is the 8N moving an "important building" closer to the cabin, with a forklift I built for the 3 point hitch.

And no, I am not a carpenter. Thanks for viewing.
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I will probably never be able to retire, so I will just keep doing what I do. I have owned my own diesel shop for the last 25 years. Do mostly injection repair now but still have a engine machine shop where I rebuild some tractors yet. Live on 5th generation angus beef farm. Small potatoes at todays standards. 50 momma cows few hogs, Chickens, couple family milk cows. Did Have some over the road trucks, but high fuel made them driveway art.
 
Randy, I planted my first crop of corn some 53 years ago, on a long ago gone farm that my G-dad had. After 'Nam, I went to work for Ma Bell ad started helping a neighbor. Then, later I farmed his place. The I bought a farm for myself, and it built from the original fifty acre operation to about three hundred today; from a couple or three head of cows to the eighty or so I feed now. The paycheck allowed me to built buildings, pay the mortgage and buy equipment, because when I got out of the Navy, I didn't have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out. It would have been nice if I had a bunch of machinery and a farm left to me, but that didn't happen, so it had to be done the hard way- work most of the time for someone else, and then come home and work for myself. Now, I just work for myself, and there is enough work to go around, and leave a bit of money afterward. But, it was a long haul getting to that point....
 
I agree,but a lot of days I look at what the stuff is worth now and all the tinkering and traveling I could do with the money and I just have to wonder why I bother with all the aggravation. Been doing it all my life,but I know there has to be more to life than this. It would just be nice to spend at least a week in my life not worrying what the temperature is and whether it will or won't rain.
 

He develops naval mine countermeasures deployed from helicopters, I do believe.

I haven't seen him since he lived in Manassas, VA. He would come out to the All Ford Nats in Carlisle.

He was only on the board for a few months when I first got to meet him. Nicest guy you'd ever meet. I was John68 on that board.

Like you said, things you enjoy when you were younger aren't as fun when you get older. Driving the old Mustangs always turned into fixing the old Mustangs, which turned into a nightmare, and it lost it's joy when I was fixing everything for everyone, and no one was happy.


Now I farm for fun, sometimes fly for fun, but that is few and far between, and not at all that I gain weight and can't make the weight limit for what I used to fly.


Someday I will have all the stuff to make things fun instead of work.
 
I built houses on the side when i was working but now retired as a structural civil engineer--this is my last of 9 of them up on my land in Ma.
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Got a few more Indian summers to go before I see retirement. Wife is now 63 and I am working full time as IT consultant. Was an IT Director but that got outsourced so started my own thing 3 yrs. ago and busier then heck.

My hobby before boys grew up was Scouts. Now I just spend spare time fixing the place up to get ready for "some day".

Hobbies include hunting, some fishing, brewing beer to sip on while I fix my old '49 GMC p/u and my old tractors. Been downsizing some tho as boys no longer around to drive the tractors.
 
Dan...find something you enjoy doing that doesn't matter to most other folks. For me it's finding and fixing JD 70 diesels, pony engines and 1949 to 1954 original Chevy cars. Like you, my wife of 47 years and I worked until age 65 (Medicare eligible) and walked away from good jobs. If you think you don't think have enough money to retire @ 60, you probably won't have it by 65 either. One big adjustment though is that when you and your wife retire you'll be together 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Bet you haven't done that yet???
 
Ski, hike, shoot, woodworking, fix old tractors and dozers, rebuild old trucks, go to tractor shows and meet great down to earth people. GMC is mine.
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I was on the west coast. Started in Carlsbad Ca, then the plant moved to Rancho Bernardo CA. Just a little further away, maybe 23 mi. I worked in the maintenance dept, and toward the end I did a lot of machine shop work. Funny I still don't know much about computers. The company moved to Mission Viejo ca. an hour drive in freeway traffic. That is when I got decided to retire. I started around 1970. You have been there a long time. They must be doing good, I still get my retirement check every month, every little bit helps now days. Stan
 
Don't think I haven't thought the same thing. But some guys socked it into 401's, and I socked it into ground and machinery. I'm probably worth more than they are, but I have had a good ride and don't really want to do anything else. And, if I decide to quit, then maybe I'll just buy a really expensive rod and reel and drown worms for something to do....
 
Some how I agree with you. (When I grow up) In my retirement I m going to have more old iron tractors and I agree more restored old cars. I have a 1967 mustang coupe, 1966 GMC fully factory stock truck and recondition tractors.
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Stan, I work in Canada but in early 70s spent about 6 months in Proctor Plant in east LA before it was moved to Mission Viejo. Spent some time in Mission Viejo in mid to late 70s. Spent lots of time in Paoli, Tredy, Downingtown, and Devon PA and some time in Lisle IL. Still enjoy my work. Grew up on a small mixed dairy, beef farm in eastern Ontario that is now owned by my brother. Helped out a lot on farm until a few years ago. Still help my brother if he calls with a mechanical or electrical problem.
JimB
 
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