Hobby Thread - June 7, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it came up with tree houses!

Tree houses are fun. There is something about having a clubhouse amid the branches. Kids with parents that built tree houses were neighborhood magnets. Many kids started with ambitious plans that ultimately went unrealized when the visions exceeded the capability, skill and resource of youth.

Did you or your family build a tree house? How ambitious? Does anyone have stories of the shenanigans that ensued around tree houses?

Did you have a rope ladder? swing? zip line? slide? Did you have a bucket that could be raised and lowered for supplies?

Are tree houses for kids an American thing or do they exist elsewhere?

Did you stock pile apples or other projectiles and pelt any below who dared approach?

Were you a tree climber in your youth? Did you find ways to elevate and find adventure or a bit of privacy? Did you ever get yourself into trouble and require a rescue? Did the climbing bug bite and spur you to mountain climbing or other climbing adventures later in life?

Seems like a good place to start:

How to Build a Treehouse

8 Tips for Building a Treehouse

Doesn't every tree house need a water cannon?

In looking across the interweb, tree houses seem to have become larger, more complex, and more robust than I recall as a youth. Anything that can be done, can be done with more gusto.

Maybe they existed without my knowledge, but it seems like there are more professional tree house plans and builders on the interweb as well.

Perhaps our modern safety culture has resulted in less rickety castles in the sky but they also appear to be structures that require a fair amount of knowledge and resource.

Tree houses also seem to have become mostly for adults rather than children. The number of giant tree houses with polished interiors for rent on the interweb is amazing. Putting a nice house among the trees is nice, but also a long way from the small box of wood that fueled hours of amusement for kids.

Wow. Professional and obviously not made as a child's playhouse, but what a view.

Bastards.

If you're really crafty, you can decorate the inside of a kid's room to feel a lot like the outside.

Cool Interior Tree Home: Best Kids Bedroom Design Ever?

This had to be in here somewhere.

Bicycle elevator:

A tree house that rotates? Sure. Why not?

If we were doing a fishing theme, I'd feel compelled to include this story:

South Philly man reels in 72-pound catfish from Schuylkill River near new trail extension in Grays Ferry

In the past, Brown said he and his father-in-law have caught flathead catfish in the Schuylkill River that weigh anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds. A few weeks ago, they caught a 40-pound flathead in the same spot. They've caught just about every species known to inhabit that area of the Schuylkill, Brown said, but he had no idea a Goliath like the fish he caught Sunday was lurking in the water.

Other anglers sometimes fillet the fish they catch in the Schuylkill, but Brown said he wouldn't take the risk.

"I wouldn't eat anything out of that river," he said. "Where I fish, the water that comes out of there is a runoff. It mixes with sewage water. I'd advise anybody not to eat that stuff."

For the 3D printing enthusiasts among the Horde:

Horde Hobbying update from our friend tankascribe:

18.5 hours on a 12 x 24 inch canvas, in oils.

This is based on a photo I snapped from the back seat of the car while heading south from the East Rim of the Grand Canyon on Highway 64 around 4 PM and the sun was getting low. The hills were casting a nice deep shadow while the canyon was still brilliantly lit. As we pulled into Cameron (to scope out the bathrooms at the famous Indian trading post), a beautiful full moon rose up in the east.

After we got home, going through the photos I was amazed that the one taken from the moving car had actually turned out, decided to paint it and include the full moon. The rather wimpy clouds were replaced with some taken from a "storm clouds over the Grand Canyon" image found on the internet.

Reference photos:

I love when Horde hobbyists submit their work. I really love when they share the background and explain how a piece came together, like tankascribe did. Be like tankascribe.

Thank you!

What are you hobbying these days?

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Your participation does not need to limited to the theme. All hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants, as always, are optional.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We talked scale modeling. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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