When I leave my current job I'm going to apply for an adult course on wood working.
I love to build things, and wood is the most available and easy to work with material (compared to plastic, rock or metal).
And seriously, I bought a saw, a hammer, a screwdriver last year, it got me crazy. Same as having a unix terminal and an Internet connexion.
I've been getting into woodworking over the past year or two. It's great fun. It's something I would consider doing as a business, but I think that's a hard road to go down. I wrote a bunch of words on the tools I've gathered: http://www.smokingonabike.com/2017/01/01/hand-tools-for-a-ne...
I also think it seems pretty appealing. There have been some interesting things on HN over the years about it.
I loved this talk about how the tools you use determine how you look at problems (Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShEez0JkOFw
Carpentry is fun and it's surprising how similar a mindset to software development is required. Lots of planning and precision and interesting challenges to be found.
I'm in the same boat, currently frustrated by the high cost of entry for a lot of projects. There's always "just one" tool that's missing. (Plus, I have the habit of starting projects with a lot of confidence, then they turn out ruined. This hurts worse when I just spent a bunch of money on supplies.) In any case, your blog looks like it's going to be a lot of help, thanks for sharing it.
And seriously, I bought a saw, a hammer, a screwdriver last year, it got me crazy. Same as having a unix terminal and an Internet connexion.