Pacific Primitive Rendezvous Orville CA June 2014

This year for our vacation we went to the Pacific Primitive Rendezvous in Orville CA.  We all had a really good time, and the kids got to do some new cool things.  Miles went on a Snipe Hunt with his Dad, and participated in the sling shot range.  Helen made a corn husk doll, participated in a Homestead run(Miles did this event too), crushed acorns to make acorn flour, had her face painted, sewed a leather pouch, played in the branch fort with Miles and our friend Jacob, in general just had a grand time.

                                                        Nature walk about camp

Summertime fun 2014

Here are some pictures of Miles and Helen having some summertime fun.

One day we had some road construction going on out front of the house, so the kids decided to take advantage of the noisy situation and set up a lemonade stand.  They made $4 bucks and sold 4 glasses of lemonade, not too bad considering they were only charging 25 cents a glass.  Reminds me of when my brother and I use to sit out front of our house and sell tomatoes, and corn on the cob.

New Songs of Blades and Heros

Songs of Blades and Heros is our go-to miniatures game.  Rules mechanics are simple, but there is plenty of uncertainty in the mix.  Miles and Tom have played it for several years.  We finally dragged Sara in.  Well of course, young Helen wants in, too.  With the promise from her that she would do all her own addition on dice rolls, it was time to let her play.

SoBH uses 'warbands' - a collection of models that form your gang.  Now, the beauty of these rules is that anything can be used in a warband.  Most of our characters are from the Descent game, but a dinosaur or two has slipped in.

But what for Helen?  We wanted something different.  A neighbor had recently given her a lifetime supply of "Littlest Petshop" toys.  With pretty pink skin and giant bambi eyes, you just knew these guys were evil.

Helen picked out 6 pets, and came up with ideas for each one.  (Dad coached on one or two).  A hunt around for some extra bases, some hot glue, and we were in business.  So here they are, the killer petshop boys (and girls):

Top row, left to right:

Husky.  Q4 C3  Long move, Big, Savage - the long range terror-striker

Captain Purple Pants.  Q3  C2  Leader, Big

Dachshund.  Q3 C3  Big, Tailslap (hey, they're long dogs), Lethal (rat things)

Bottom row, right to left (saving best for last)

Fluffy the Flying Puppy.  Q3 C3  Big, Flying (big ears like Dumbo...)

Grey Seal Mage.  Q4 C2  Big, Magic User

Pink Tutu Hamster.  Q3 C 5/2  Shooter (L), Sharpshooter, Poison, Good Shot.  

Yes, that is a hamster with a pink machine gun.  A pink machine gun that shoots pink poisoned pellets...

So we took them out for a quick spin tonight:

The big memorial in the center is a place of power, anybody in sole possession gets to re-roll one fail.  We started from the 4 corners, Helen's pets are across from me.  Sara took my good band, Miles his standard, and I took an experimental one that put all the power in one giant.  You can just see him at the bottom, berserking his way across the table.

The pets did well, but in the end all warbands fell before the might of Sara.  But the pets will ride again...

miles video 1 original

miles video 1 original

Hart Canyon 2014

Another great rendezvous at Hart Canyon this year.  Hart is known to always have some out-of-the-ordinary weather, but not this time.  A wind storm the first weekend that we missed.  A mountain thunderstorm that did no more than spook Miles was all we had this time.  Guess that means extra snow next year!

The club did their usual outstanding job of keeping kids entertained.  They had a hay-bale treasure hunt with some very nice prizes inside.

Mike used his 1750's hand mortar to launch tennis balls for prizes.  The kids had more fun shooting the thing than chasing the balls!

And later that afternoon Helen did what we all wish we could...

Yes, completely asleep on the bench.