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Hello fellow Geezers.
Well, I am on the verge of turning 65. What to do?
I have always prided myself in staying in good physical condition, I still play hockey pretty well, ride and rope decently and plan on working until I cannot.
I like my work , a self employed hvac tradesman but it takes exhausting effort sometimes. Until I turned 60 I just didn't seem to tire much during the day.
Live on land, have livestock but just sold off all the chickens.
I love to climb our mountains, it takes more time now but the thrill is still there. I feel there is nothing comprable to being in a high sheep basin, gridding it over with my binoculars. Just looking for something that just seems out of place, a horn tip, perhaps.
I still do some horseshoeing, I have to say I don't see many younger folks qualified to shoe performance horses .
I find most of their work lacks fundenmental skills ...there I said it. The same applies to the hvac stuff . This alone makes me feel compelled to carry on.
Anyways, I thought I would post my thoughts and wonder how my fellow Geezers see the world in late 2022.
.Merry Christmas- God Bless

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Welcome to the club! I am a couple years older than you, and haven't given up any physical activity. If you walk or climb a little slower, but you still enjoy it, don't stop!

You could offer your expertise out to the younger crowd, but be aware that most younger folks usually don't like advice from older people. You have to let them get to know you first. laugh


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Originally Posted by comerade
Until I turned 60 I just didn't seem to tire much during the day.

Carry on, keep as active as you can. At 77 I feel I can say aging, willingness and desire to do physical activity, is a very gradual process and it is not everything at once. It is more like a curving parabola and it sounds like you have a lot of time left to enjoy.

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At 76 i am loosing some of my mobility [ to many falls , accidents , horses , logging, trucks ]
I mean we are invincible in our youth are we not. NOT.

anyway 2 new knees , few heart attacks, bad back and good old sciatic pain, we just carry on because we are boomers , mostly thats how we were taught to work ,survive and persevere.
So i still work most days playing with my big boy toys ,excavators , loader , gravel truck,

what i need is more play time but some thing that GETS me out of bed and going every day .
Or as they used to say.

Keep on TRUCKING


norm


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If it wern't entertaining, I wouldn't keep coming back.------the BigSky

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Turning 65 and what to do --- best advice comes from Clint Eastwood --- How he keeps going at 92 --- he does not let the old man in.

I am 71 and the young guy in my group which ranges up to 82. All of us are active mentally and physically. Some either worked in tough physical jobs (firefighter), noisy environments or played competative sports where injuries occurred. For those of us in those categories hearing, knees, hips, shoulders and backs are becoming more noticeable. So we just do things a little slower and either ask for help on the tough tasks or come up with an easier way when doing it alone.

Adaptation and perserverance -- I still get up early, hunt a lot my own, do yard and building maintenance work and have a small consulting business to keep my mind going (I will be shutting this down soon as there are other things personal I want to get done). I do find through the consulting business that many younger people are not working at the same pace I do -- much slower and less interest in extended hours --- perhaps a lesson there that I should have learned earlier in life.

One thing I think on when I am starting a long duration hunt or fishing trip is to make the most of it as it may be the last. I try hard not to pass up time to get together with family and friends -- part guilt from my past work life and part that when you have friends in their 80's I do not want a regret to be turning down a chance for coffee.

I have found things that get me up early, keep me going and keep me enjoying the activities that I love. Joining retriever training clubs and meeting new people. Just finding stuff to "not let the old man in".

Then there is Garth Brooks --- "I am too young to feel this dam old". ---- Some mornings Garth is right.



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I'm 73.Knees are going to need to be replaced , at least that is what the surgeon said after looking at the X-rays. . That's annoying . That once powerful memory isn't any more. It makes learning new things difficult. I hate driving at night. In fact driving more than six hours is a pain. In BC that barely gets you out of town. There is a number of friends who aren't here anymore .I miss them. But there is an Irish saying, "Don't complain about growing old, it's better than the alternative. "


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A lot of us are a closer to the finish line than we like to think and the effects of time are noticeable. I'm semi-fit and active and hope to stay that way for the duration. A motorcycle mishap last summer showed me that I lose a little more time to recovery than I used to so that is to be avoided. I am often surprised to find I can't lift something which used to be easy. Golden years: they're great! GD

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More age, less ability. What are you gonna do? laugh


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Originally Posted by downwindtracker2
I'm 73.Knees are going to need to be replaced , at least that is what the surgeon said after looking at the X-rays. . That's annoying . That once powerful memory isn't any more. It makes learning new things difficult. I hate driving at night. In fact driving more than six hours is a pain. In BC that barely gets you out of town. There is a number of friends who aren't here anymore .I miss them. But there is an Irish saying, "Don't complain about growing old, it's better than the alternative. "

My Dad made it to 70 and laying in Palliative Care said there were so many things he wished he had done when he had the chance. His thoughts have followed me -- if you want to do something get on it as there maybe no tomorrow. Growing old to me means stop putting stuff off as the alternative is creeping up.



Originally Posted by greydog
A lot of us are a closer to the finish line than we like to think and the effects of time are noticeable. I'm semi-fit and active and hope to stay that way for the duration. A motorcycle mishap last summer showed me that I lose a little more time to recovery than I used to so that is to be avoided. I am often surprised to find I can't lift something which used to be easy. Golden years: they're great! GD

The lifting surprised me as well this year. In the past there were items I easily lifted into the box of the truck. This year I had to labour or come up with another way.

I was going through my hunting draws last night and I have priority build up for three draws --- so at 71 do I stage them so one each year for 3 years out or draw all three for a busy next fall and then get back in the pool. Golden Years -- Knees and a hip are giving me trouble and my shoulders are not what they used to be ---- so I am leaning to getting all three while I still have the mobility.



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Keep doing something physical. My friend who is 83, drew a sheep tag after 23 years. Rode horseback 24 miles into the wilderness and killed a 10 year old ram. A month later he got a nice mule deer in Nevada where he drew a tag and last month he and his wife shot 2 whitetails on their property. Next, he and I are going aoudad hunting the end of January and last week we booked a spring brown bear hunt in Alaska. He shows no sign of slowing down so if he can do it at his age, there's hope for the rest of us.

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Yeah, that lifting thing. My milling machine is the same one as Greydog has, only mine was well used when I bought it. When i got it in 2014, I lifted off the table to see about taking up the wear. Last Saturday I lifted the table to replace the feed screws and nuts. My Gawd it has gotten heavy. Yeah,we don't have too many hunts left. This year my hunting partner couldn't go north for moose and elk, marital difficulties, and my son changed jobs so we couldn't go deer hunting.


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79 here. My knees and a lot of other things are hurting. But I still work as a boat builder, just cannot put in many hours.


"There's more to optics than meets the eye."--anon

"...most of us would be better off losing half a pound around the waist than half a pound on our rifle."--dhg

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Im the same age as you OP, but have been retired for more than 10 years already. So glad I retired early. I was fortunate in business ( turkey farm, feed mill, and hatchery) and have so many hobbies and interests that retirement has not been inactive or boring.

Since retiring, we've done a lot of international travel. Some have been adventures and hard work. My wife and I have backpacked across northern Spain three times on pilgrimage on El Camino de Santiago. 800 Km from Southern France, over the Pyrenees and across the plains and a couple more mountain ranges to the Atlantic coast. Following the ancient route pilgrims have trod for more than a thousand years.

Also since retiring, we've established a remote bush camp in northern BC, and spend our summers there. Last summer bought a bandsaw lumber mill to turn some of our fire killed trees into our own lumber. Built a sauna to go alongside our log cabin with the boards. We work harder there upgrading that property than we ever did at home!

Have hunted caribou in rugged placed like the Spatzitsi Plateau in BC, Sheep in the Makenzie Mts in Yukon, and antelope and buffalo in exotic places like the Caprivi strip in Nambia and the Savé conservancy in Zimbabwe.

I have a few quarter sections of land in NE Saskatchewan. It's about 1/3 cultivated, 2/3 bush. We rent out the open fields for hay to pay the taxes and use it as as a hunting base, with excellent elk and whitetail hunting every year.

I train by own bird dogs and love long hikes on our great plains after upland birds. Today I made a hundred pound batch of elk, moose and mule deer sausage. So far my body is letting me do these things, and I'm loving it. Don't plan to slow down any time soon.

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Yup, getting old is fun.
Anyone starting to find their hunting coat and pants are getting heavier? Mine are. Went to a smaller rifle but it's gotten heavy too.


When you can get the last word with an echo, you may have the last word with your wife. - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce
If goose was the only meat, there would be a lot more vegetarians. - Lloyd Adams, waterfowl hunter
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Originally Posted by StuckInOhio
Yup, getting old is fun.
Anyone starting to find their hunting coat and pants are getting heavier? Mine are. Went to a smaller rifle but it's gotten heavy too.

I guess I am lucky. So far, everything still works and none of my equipment is too heavy or awkward to carry around. Maybe it was my military background. I agree with StrayDog. Stay active.

I know slowing down is inevitable, but I think being active and staying mentally fit too is a large part of delaying it.


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I'm gonna be 72 this year. Double knee replacements, screw in right wrist, cattaract surgery both eyes, detached retina surgery left eye, etc. I hunt alot slower, use ladder stands and ground blinds. I managed to take a pretty decent 8 point with my raven this year. When I can't get it done i guess i'll be camp cook, just being there will be better than sitting at home.

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Originally Posted by Bogtrotter
I'm gonna be 72 this year. Double knee replacements, screw in right wrist, cattaract surgery both eyes, detached retina surgery left eye, etc. I hunt alot slower, use ladder stands and ground blinds. I managed to take a pretty decent 8 point with my raven this year. When I can't get it done i guess i'll be camp cook, just being there will be better than sitting at home.

Smarter and slower wins the day. A friend 6 months older convinced me this year to spot geese in the morning and shoot in the afternoons --- much less tiring plus the setting up is way easier that doing it at 0 dark thirty. We had really tough snow conditions here for deer --- first time in many years I used a machine (tracked quad) to get to my areas -- saved my knees. That quad has been sitting for years with little use -- now it will get more.

As you say just keep at it as sitting at home does not cut it for me.



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I'm in he the process of looking for a quad, thinking maybe a Polaris. We have been getting deer out with my cousin's, it's a nice machine!

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71 will land with a thump next month. One of the best decisions I ever took, right up there with moving to West Virginia and marrying a much younger Chinese gal, was taking a retirement offer at age 58. Can’t call it early, because I’d been at it for 40 years. I never lack for something to do, and the freedom I have is beyond priceless. One never knows when illness or accident or some other calamity will take you out of the game, so I believe in getting down to your real life, whatever that is for you, as soon as possible.

I’m pretty healthy, more so after losing a bunch of weight, and still able to do all I want, if somewhat more slowly. I do wish my new 9mm was easier to rack….


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Some interesting observations.
I like my work, but I will scale it back over time.
I would love to make a few more northern B.C. sheep hunts, I would like to rope until I cannot.
I suppose I would like to have another Longhorn cow herd, a Longhorn Bull and make some roping cattle( again)
No polled cows for me.
Some ranch work, horseback of course. Herding cows is rewarding work.
Merry Christmas, God Bless

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