Friday, July 6, 2012

Day 4

Day four was begun with singing and a brief meeting.  Evan printed up words for a song he really likes called "What shall we do with a drunken sailor?", we all gave a few verses of this song a try and really enjoyed it.  We also sang the Coffee Pot Song (really, really slow; quick; lightening; crazy fast!), the Banjo Song, Tarzan, the Jeep Song (which mentions nothing about jeeps), and a new song called Boom Chicka Boom.

During our meeting the FED informed homesteaders about applying for federal jobs.  The FED is now taking applications for Bank Manager, Radio Station Manager, Trading Post Kidager, Town Clerk, Moderator, and Secretary.  Applications are due in by next Tuesday at lunchtime, interviews will commence after swimming on Tuesday, July 10th.  A few peeps have already applied!  Rolph and Mr.PeepT are looking forward to interviewing the peeps!

Jared introduced us to Jeff Adams.  He is a scientist who mainly works with potions.  Jeff is 28 years old, very tall and cannot see without his monocle.  He makes new discoveries everyday.  Jeff wears a monocle because during a very bad experiment, his eye fell out.  He has discovered that pop rocks and coke don't mix.  Saul wondered if Jeff might be able to help him with his paralyzation.  Jeff informs us that he only works with potions.  Perhaps he can help cure Saul's skin condition?  Tarzan would like a potion to help his leaf stay on. Jeff is working on a sticking potion.  The rest of the community would like it if Jeff discovered a potion for pants.  This would be possible because Jeff currently has a potion that takes ordinary seeds and changes them to grow extraordinary things, such as: nickels, dimes, coffee cups, blackboards, socks.  "Please don't make a hair removal potion!"

Dalton introduces Morton.  Morton is about 30 years old and is a fan of moonshine.  "I sadly report that my still is broken, my family is in a shambles.  The old still on the hill broke!"  We are unsure how tall Morton is because we cannot measure him, he is usually flat on his back, drunk.  Apparently a bad cat was to blame for the trouble with the still.  Morton finds it inspirational that the Mountain Dew song has verses about him and his family.  Morton has a dirty beard.  Morton and Jacques are enemies because of Morton's drunkenness and Jacques's accent.


 After meeting the group split up to prioritize.  The first priority today was to finish peeps, after that homesteaders need to build and finish their primitive shelters, next fence their properties, then job applications.  Everyone now has a peep and a primitive shelter.  The peeps will be staying in their primitive shelters this weekend.  I hope they survive!

Lula and the large leaf she intends to use for a primitive shelter

Aidan's  peep and primitive shelter

CeCe puts the finishing touches on her shelter



Evan and his peep and primitive shleter

Ram in his primitive shelter


Ingrid gets some help with her primitive shelter



Fallon and her primitive shelter

Jared builds his primitive shelter

Nick's primitive shelter

Lilly's primitive shelter


Victoria puts the finishing touches on her primitive shelter


Victoria's shelter close up

 After lunch and an extended swim (it is really hot today!), homesteaders chose some land to make the town center.  We asked the homesteaders to find their ideal place and just stand there.  All of the kids wound up in the same space!  It is very nice, shady and flat.  We strung up the boundary string and tried out making it different shapes.  The homesteaders already know quite a bit about the relationship between area and perimeter and they decided to make an eight pointed town center (as close to a circle as was allowed).

stringing up the town center


 All we did at afternoon town meeting were peep intros.  Roarie introduced us to Ram.  Ram likes jumping off high stuff without a parachute.  During a demonstration of this he lost an arm.  His favorite color is silver.  His favorite hobby is jumping off even higher things!  His favorite sport is jumping off of things.  Ram has a pet arm.
Lilly introduced us to Ringo.  He is from Liverpool and he is in a band with three other peeps.  Ringo plays the drums, likes screaming crowds and is vegetarian.  Ringo doesn't remember his favorite bedtime story.  His favorite color is green.  His stage name is Ringo Star.  He is 23 years old, likes asparagus and does not have a favorite leaf.
 Elizabeth introduces Paul McCartney.  His favorite color is red, just plain red.  Paul plays the bass guitar, he is 21 years old, has no pets and is also vegetarian.  His favorite food is apples.  In his spare time he plays more bass.  Saul wonders if the music he plays will be pretty.  Paul and Ringo both inform us that they plan to play rock and roll.  "Oh!  The devils music!", says Saul.


Evie introduces us to Fernanda Rosata.  Fernanda's parents are Spanish but she grew up in France.  She loves to travel but doesn't ever wear any shoes.  Fernanda is sympathetic to Jacques because she has been many places where she doesn't speak the language perfectly.   She likes the color green, is interested in botany and agrees that Tarzan needs pants.  Fernanda is 24 years old.  "That flesh sword is really creeping me out Tarzan."













Aiden introduces us to MaryElla Buttonhoff, or Janis for short.  Janis if from Wales, she migrated through the Alps and the Bering Strait with her crocodile, Bernie, to Alaska.  She is now an Eskimo.
Favorite color: Ultra marine
Favorite food:  Sardine and peanut butter and jelly sandwich  Hobbies:  Carving crocodile teeth, sleeping in and bungee jumping
Janis does not hibernate, does not have superpowers and likes any music with words and a tune.





CeCe introduces Elliana.  First she informs us that we all need etiquette lessons, then Elliana rants and raves about her precious cats.  She has little interest in sharing any information about herself with the likes of the rest of us.  She love, love, loves cats, wears a black dress because she is always ready for a funeral and does not approve of flesh swords.  Elliana's cats will attack you if you should trespass on her property.  "How far do your cats patrol?  I am your neighbor, will they eat me?"
 Tae'lor introduces Miranda.  Miranda tells us nothing but her name because she is hoping for a lot of questions.  We find out that she likes to eat a lot, she has five not vicious cats, she is from UK, she is 21 years old, her favorite plant is the rose, she likes classical music and summertime best.  Miranda plays the violin.
Sage introduces us to Mackenzie.  She is 20 years old, a doctor, purple is her favorite color, she has one dog and two cats.  Her dog chases one of the cats, but not the other one.  She is also form the UK.  "What happened to your cheeks?  Welts?  Got punched?  Birthmarks?"
Mackenzie informs us that she has blood stains on her face from falling off a cliff.  She was just walking and she fell.  It turns out that as she was walking Tarzan pushed her.  She has had her revenge, she gave Tarzan a leaf of poison ivy!
 Lula introduces Sally.  Sally has an eye wound and wears her hair wrapped around her eyes because of this.  She used to be a scientist until and eye drop experiment went horribly wrong.  Sally's favorite colors are yellow and purple.  Her favorite animal is a dog, though she has no pets.  Mackenzie offers to heal Sally's eyes.  Manbat offers some wisdom," Usually scientists get someone like Tarzan to test dangerous experiments."
 Tayissa introduces us to Jacqueline.  She is 18, from France and the sister to Jacques.  Her pets are a dog, fish, snake,chicken, and pig.  She is a mass murderer.  This is a hard thing for most of the community to comprehend, did she say she was a masked murderer?  math murderer?  bass murderer???  She kills people, not peeps, for money.
Claire introduces Veronica.  Veronica is 53 years old and has cancer.  She has a broken leg and a half leg (the other half was eaten by a shark).  Veronica wants to be a baker... but this job was not posted by the FED, so now she is not sure what to do.  Perhaps she can open her own business and be her own boss?  Veronica was born in Africa and sleeps every night with her wild pet lion.  She has had cancer since she was 18, she is still alive because she got support from a cancer walk.  "They learn me how to walk with half a leg."








Today we liked:

  • building primitive shelters
  • building temporary fences
  • introducing peeps
  • getting caught up
  • swimming
  • the whole day!
  • Tarzan is going to sleep in a tree over the weekend
  • I am still alive!
  • that it is time for the weekend and sleeping in

We wish:

  • we had more time for everything
  • to build better fences next week
  • it wasn't the weekend
  • my peep wasn't unraveling
  • to complete my house next week
  • to build an awesome house
  • for a good haircut
  • our peeps don't get mauled over the weekend
  • there won't be any dead peeps on Monday
  • our peeps don't get scared sleeping in primitive shelters this weekend
  • Village was all year!
  • for a Ferrari and a banjo
All of the peeps are sleeping on the land in their primitive shelters this weekend.  There were many nervous homesteaders!  I hope all is well for Monday!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Day 3

We began today asking homesteaders if they remembered everyone's names.  We had a few volunteers and they were successful.  Everyone learned the Jeep Song this morning, it is quite fun and if you are not already familiar with it, you should have your homesteader sing it to you.  After the Jeep Song we sang the Weeny Song, followed by Tarzan and a One through Ten Pirate Song.

In our morning meeting we had serious business to conduct:  The Proprietary Rights Agreement!  This document is over twenty feet long.  It took a little while, but I think most everyone knows that they signed their lunches over to the commissioners for the rest of Village.  Just kidding!  The gist is that the owners of Village Field Farm (Kip and Sandy Mackenzie) agree to give the homesteaders one real acre of land for the use of building a community in a scale of 1:24.  The homesteaders agree to provide the Mackenzie's with a surveyed map of our acre and among other things to return the land in its original condition.  As we read this the terms homestead and homesteader came up a lot.  We talked a bit about the Homestead Act of 1862 and how the kids playing Village are modeling homesteading, hence being dubbed homesteaders.  There were many more terms and conditions, everyone agreed to sign.
Nick reads part of the agreement out loud

Evan signs his name
 The next piece of the morning was spent scouting for land.  Homesteaders broke into four groups and each chose an ideal place for our town acre.  After scouting, each group had to share their findings and try to convince their fellow homesteaders to choose their suggested site.  With a bit of talk and little debate, homesteaders agreed to try to get the big tree in the upper field, a bit of rock wall and a bit of the forest.  Homesteaders then broke into eight groups, each group was given a piece of string measuring 100ft (or 2400mini feet) to put up and join with another group on either end.  Our first attempt was not entirely successful.  The string was not quite long enough to surround everything that we wanted.  We broke for lunch and a swim.  After our swim we reconvened and decided the best move would be to cut the big tree out of the equation.  This took team work and pulling on both ends, but we did it!  We now have our acre!
Debating possible acre sites
 The most exciting part of our day was stringing up mini acres.  With the big acre in place there was no reason to postpone this any longer.  Stakes and strings in hand, the homesteaders had a proper land rush!
Claiming land around a large rock and near friends


"this string is all tangled"

claiming land near the big tree

Land on the path- this guy is going to be able to charge tolls

land in the forest around a tree


deeper into the forest

After the land rush and beginning primitive shelters, we circled up again to do more paperwork.  Apparently the FED isn't just giving land away.  Homesteaders now had to fill out and sign their Village Homestead Agreement.  This is a use and rights agreement between the United Peeps of Monadnock Federal Government and the homesteaders.  As we read through this and filled in the blanks, there was one that was unfillable... the space were you write in the town name.  This seemed like as good a time as any to go ahead and name our new community.  Many names were suggested- such as: Ding Dong, Dangerville, Epicville, BabyPeep Town, DooDooburg, Frankfart, Unicorpia, Thisisthenameofvillage, Thetown, Thenameofthegameisvillage, Unicornia, Littleton, New Peepshire, Lishstickville, Deathville,Castleville, Peeptown, Miniborough, Justaniceone, Loveville, Peepsylvania, Sisterbro.  

Homesteaders were given the opportunity to vote for their favorite three names to narrow it down a bit.  The top four names were:  Frankfart, New Peepshire, Miniborough, and Peepsylvania.  New Peepshire won with fourteen votes!

Having selected a town name we finished the Homestead Agreement and moved on to peep introductions.
working on the Homestead Agreement

still working on the Homestead Agreement

Clearly this is very boring, so it must be important

Gabe introduces Tarzan.  He speaks very fast with a very choppy voice.  He is from a family of apes, George of the Jungle and Batman.  His favorite food is bananas.  His least favorite food is metal.  He is a creeper breeder and he likes leaves, needles, swords and squirrels.  He does not like Dalton, pants, shirts, or Will.  "I am Tarzan, I do not like people shirts or pants!"  "He only likes nudists."  His leaf counts as a leaf, not as pants.  Tarzan appears to have brown skin and a peach head, he informs us that it is not skin but fur.  We are pretty sure is a really hairy man with a leaf!  He also carries a flesh colored sword, the origins of this are unclear.

Fallon introduces Lily.  Lily is bossy and she  does not like or care about anyone else.  Her favorite phrase is, "None of your beeswax!"  She has a German Shepard and is 20 years old.  Lily's favorite food is watermelon because it has a big smile.  She also like pasta and diamonds.  She is from New Hampshire and she is not annoying.  Lily has lots of friends.  "Selfishness is the best virtue."  It was hard for other peeps to ask Lily questions, because everything is none of our beeswax.
 Kaleb introduces Sargent P. Lumber.  Rolph had a bit of trouble with this name.  Apparently it is not the same a Plumber.  Sgt. P. Lumber likes to fight and his favorite food is pizza.  He is from Keene, NH is on leave from the Army and is 35 years old.  P. Lumber has one cat, two dogs, and one rabbit.  He informs us that while he is not abandoning his pets in Keene, he will not be bringing them to New Peepshire.    P. Lumber's cat is not evil.
  
playing bat and moths










Today we liked:
  • playing bat and moth
  • signing the contracts
  • swimming
  • building primitive shelters
  • stringing up mini acres
  • choosing the big acre
  • poop talk
  • we accomplished so much
  • not being eaten
  • the whole day!
We wish (for):
  • people had gills
  • more swimming
  • more bat and moth
  • to build fences tomorrow
  • to build houses tomorrow
  • Jacques shoes did not burn
  • to introduce all peeps soon
  • to build primitive shelters tomorrow
  • the town was named Frankfart
  • dirt was chocolate
  • we have this much fun tomorrow
  • Rolph stopped talking about poop