Balanced life includes boat making, bowl turning

Creating a balance in his life, psychologist Rollin Rhodes has made time to do a number of things he enjoys, not the least of which is building and sailing full-size wooden boats.

Jill Pickett

Rollin Rhodes talks about the more challenging of the two boats he has built during a recent interview at his home in Elizabethtown.

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Jill Pickett

Rollin Rhodes' home is filled with furniture he has built, including this sideboard.

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Jill Pickett

A bowl turned by Rhodes.

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Rhodes, who has his own practice and also works at Ireland Army Community Hospital, said he began crafting boats as an offshoot of his woodworking hobby. Boat building proved to be the most challenging of his woodworking projects.

“There’s nothing square about them,” he said.

The first boat he built in about two and a half months around 10 years ago is named “A Little Dinghy,” mainly because it is a little dinghy. His next boat project came shortly after the first and was taken from a design of a man who built boats for America’s Cup races, Rhodes said.

“A magazine called WoodenBoat published the plans,” Rhodes said.
The boat is called “Bristol Blue,” and required special parts, such as rivets from England and Sitka Spruce from Alaska. The boat took two and a half years to make, even with others pitching in to help, Rhodes said.

Putting the boats to use, he said, is his favorite part. He has sailed at locations such as Kentucky Lake.

Building the two boats, Rhodes said, was enough of that type of work.

“I think I’m done with boats,” he said.

A number of other interests fill his time.

“I systematically ... started collecting hobbies,” he said.

Rhodes explained he once read an article that noted retiring physicians and senior military personnel had trouble adjusting to retired life because they were used to always focusing on their work.

“If you’re going to do something that emotionally draining, you have to have balance in your life,” Rhodes said.

Because of that, Rhodes realized the importance of cultivating hobbies out of things he was passionate about. It doesn’t hurt to have an understanding spouse who will listen to how his day went, either.

“My wife ... is my psychologist, my therapist,” Rhodes said with a laugh.

He loves his work in psychology, he said, but a person’s life has to be more than work. In general, that tends to be easier for some than others, he said.

“Men, if you can get them to do it, they know how to play,” he said.

Among the hobbies Rhodes has collected are gardening, woodworking and photography.

Outside his house, in his backyard, Rhodes grows a variety of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Broccoli, peaches, plums, grapes, daylilies, blueberries, fig trees and numerous plants share the environment.

Inside his house, many of the furnishings and decorative pieces are the result of his woodworking hobby. Bowls, tables, sideboards, benches, cabinets and boxes populate most of the rooms.

“My problem is the things I really like, I give away,” he said.

The bowl making hobby began about 20 years ago when he met someone at the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Fair who taught him how to turn bowls. Since then Rhodes has passed along the art to others.

Carvings, such as wooden spoons, are the easiest woodwork he does.

“I can usually do a spoon in a day or an evening,” Rhodes said.

Photography is yet another interest. His daughter, Adele Reding, has her own photography business, and his wife, Carolyn, takes photography trips with him. He also enjoys spending time with his two granddaughters.

And family is an important part of balancing his life, he said, along with a strong sense of faith, a solid marriage and a sense of community.

“You have to know how to take care of yourself,” Rhodes said.

Robert Villanueva can be reached at (270) 505-1743.

MORE ABOUT ROLLIN RHODES

Place of birth: Vicksburg, Miss.

Place of residence: Elizabethtown

Family: Wife, Carolyn; daughter; two grandchildren

Favorite music: Blues, classical. “Anything by Buddy Guy or Bach.”

Favorite authors/books: William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway; southern literature. “Larry Brown’s ‘Joe’ was my favorite book of all time.”

Movies: “On the Waterfront,” “Raging Bull,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and classic films.

Favorite TV show: News programming; “The Good Wife.”