Day 8

Wow, things are definitely starting to pick up in Little Leaf . . . This morning we sang several new songs, as well as our beloved Cheese Song. We dusted off Baby Shark, Pirate Song, and Tin Soldier as well. The plan of the day today was very generic looking, but as we know, anything can happen during Anarchy Block formerly known as Work Block.

(Thank you so much parents for waiting with your kids at the church until we arrive! It's so helpful!)

Missing Peep Posters

MANAGER PRODUCTIVITY MEETING

Our first work block consisted of even more lumber orders trickling into the Sheep Shed ready for construction, some new businesses opening, and a whole lot of oligarchical shenanigans. We heard our first public apology from a politician today, Morgan, as she went on the record saying "I apologize for throwing paper at people, I did not mean it, so . . . yeah . . .". It's tough being in charge. At the same time, a petition was going around to remove Morgan as manager of the Radio Station. This movement has fallen on its face so far.

THEN a very scary and foreshadowing announcement was made by Johnny Darke. "Anyone caught organizing or participating in a revolt will be arrested". This appears to be the oligarchs' way of trying to maintain law and order within Little Leaf.

Snack came, and swimming came with a nice long swim across the pond, and lunch was generously extended in order to fully enjoy the weather and each other.

The second work block was very exciting as well! We had our first fugitive, Connor, being tracked down by hired muscle (presumably hired by Morgan and Johnny Darke). Connor has been actively protesting the oligarchy in fears of an overreach of their power, he has instead advocated theocracy, where we would all follow the law handed down by a spirit or deity (Jambi?!). He is safe, for now.

Following work block we headed to the town center to observe and salute our official town flag, as well as meet two new Peeps made by some visitors to camp! One was a Formula One driver who suffered a severe accident that left him without an arm or leg. He has dedicated his life and his robotic prosthetics to catching the man responsible for his accident. The second Peep is a mysterious and powerful Native American Peep shaman. Gunther has already sought his expertise in dark magic.

CTF today was excellent. Our last round was Knees-Only. Exactly how it sounds. It is amazing how much better we are all getting at solving our disputes sans-referees. Between Rock/Paper/Scissors and simple honesty, our CTF has become much more communal!

Plus
New campers
Radio station shift was awesome
Painted my house
Knees-Only CTF
Got a bank job!
Rock/Paper/Scissor solutions
I'm a hired muscle!
More business sales!
10 Peeps were unable to catch Connor
Peep pets

Wish
More antics
Put house together better
Even more business
More housework
I didn't get fired
We remembered that Peeps AINT people! (Our Peeps confront one another, not the people)

Day 7

It would be redundant to say that today was a great day . . .

TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY!

Pre-CTF trash talk

This morning we sang a lot of great songs that we are all getting very good at! The B Song (Bonnie/Body) is great for waking us up in the morning. Our highlight for the morning song session would likely be our Jibberish Song in the round. We really took the term "jibberish" to heart. We went over our plan of the day, which had some twists and turns in it.

Today was a nice day to break our very carefully crafted schedule and have some extra fun. Next item on the agenda after singing was "Noodle Flibbit". This is really exciting because nobody knew what that could possibly be! The commissioners sent everyone to the field ("NO THE OTHER FIELD!"), and we sat down, and discussed what Noodle Flibbit could possibly be. Possibilities included:
- We flibbit noodles?
- Noodle eating contest
- I DONT KNOW!

Our special CTF crate came out. Hmm. Rope was laid across the field. HMMM. Flags were placed! HMMM? Yes, Noodle Flibbit is AM Capture the Flag. If the B Song didn't wake us up, running around a field for 30 minutes definitely got our blood flowing (internally!).

After all the fun of the morning, we jumped right into our morning work. Houses were cut out, nailed, painted, and put onto properties! Big step. I can't wait to upload all of our finished houses onto the blog! We also had a mini-lesson on flag design, color meanings, etc. and had several Homesteaders involved in creating potential flags for Little Leaf.

Dedicated flag designing committee

Snack snuck up on us. Our swim was short-lived due to our exciting game of Noodle Flibbit in the morning (and hey, it wasn't even that hot out). Lunch time was very nice though! After eating, we decided to take some time to relax in the sun/shade, play a running game like Bacon, a sitting game like Murder, or just socialize. We wish this could have been the entire afternoon, but we are Homesteaders, and we have jobs to do.

The afternoon work block had a lot of scrambling around to make the most of the time we had left in the day. The radio station invited our resident artist Ewan Armstrong to play more live music (very relaxing!), a heated debate was held between Johnny Dark and Connor on the topic of Oligarchy vs. Theocracy, and flag designs were finished. Solid work.

Vote carefully . . .

We held out first meeting under our new leadership of Morgan and Johnny Dark. Since there are a few requirements that the Feds have of Little Leaf, this was mostly conducted by the Feds. We needed a flag to identify this new community under our control. Many designs were brought for consideration, and only one would come out as the chosen one. Many flags used red to represent our early stage of anarchy and revolution (and possibly future stages), purple was used to illustrate the royalty of the oligarchy residing in Little Leaf, and leaves were used because our town is in the woods. . .

The winner was . . . .

Top: Supposed to be red, Crown: supposed to be purple. Red represents our anarchy stage, purple represents the royalty of the oligarchy, blue shows our unity now with an establish govt, and black for power and wealth!

After Corvee, we tried some new games. New games are tough especially when there is one thing many of us want to do, but the beauty in new games is trying something new and maybe finding a new favorite game! Tomorrow will bring the anticipated return of Afternoon CTF.

We lost a dear Peep today, but Abby's spirit resides
 in this mysterious black orb.

Plus
Got a ton of work done
Noodle Flibbit!
I'm oligarch
Great weather
Almost 13!
Almost done my house
Card games in peep loft
I neglected work because card games were too much fun!
House is officially on my property
Primitive shelter holding up
Look Down, Look Up Game

Wish
I had the Force
Better radio music!
A running game in the PM
Law and order!
I was turning 21
Better listening!
House was done
I won Blackjack
Learn more tricks
Cookies and Rainbows!
Taller grass (it is taller Katie)
Pick games

Day 6

Pyramid Houses: Very complicated, but very worthwhile!

The weather cooperated! With the sun overhead, we PWC’d, planned, and sang to get ready for our day. We started out with the Bonnie (or Body) song. Great for getting the blood flowing. We played the Banjo and put our best backwoods twang into the Mountain Dew song. We learned about another man in the woods who was visited by the same rabbit, sang the Pop-Trash-Chips song in rounds (we are so good!) and wrapped up the singing with Done Song and Coffee Song. Whew!

Then it was off to work. The saw was a humming and the hammers were a singing. So much fantastic work is going into our houses! It’s especially fun to see all of the creative solutions (why yes, this pleather can hold my house together) as well as Homesteaders helping each other out (but of course, let me help you staple that). The designs are especially interesting: between A-frame homes and "tiny homes", we have some clever (and frugal) Peeps this year.

Before we knew it we were snacking and getting ready for the pond. Today, a groups of homesteaders ventured out on their first long swim, going half way across the pond and back again!

The afternoon work block was equally productive and ended with another town meeting, called by Johnny Dark. Roughly half of the village arrived at town square to discuss a new form of government. As the entire community has had their share of lawlessness, they were clamoring for rules (Parents: I repeat, your children wanted rules). Johnny proposed that he and Morgan take over Little Leaf and rule via oligarchy. They said that they would take into account the will of the people, but that some things would not be up for discussion. For example, NO Stealing!! (Right now there is only taking.... It’s anarchy). After a few distractions (A peep with no clothes on! A peep running through the meeting yelling "anarchy!") and some subtle bribing (the new government offered everyone in attendance five free trading post items!!) the group voted in favor of the oligarchy. . . . And in moments there were whispers of unrest.

oligarchy (n): Form of government ruled by few unelected individuals

New leaders emerge

The meeting adjourned and those in attendance rejoined the pizza makers! The cob oven was put to good use, making everyone delicious pizza. Thank you to everyone who brought in ingredients, tools, etc. which made this possible! Some homesteaders stuck around for seconds and ninja, while others headed over to the field for a game of Capture the Flag.

What’s next for Little Leaf?! Stay tuned!

See? We work together, usually!

Plus

3 Bacon Pizzas, the Krusty Krab Pizza

CTF & first shift at job

Town meeting

Oligarchy!

Pizza!

CTF!

Everyone helping each other!

Bacon is making a comeback

Long swim

Activity in the town

Wish

More work tomorrow

Real CTF tomorrow

Cookies and Rainbows

Finish house

More pizza

Wish I thought thought this through . . .

Fix cob oven

THEOCRACY! (Really, already?)

Day 5

Jennayyy and Caleb building

Another beautiful day in Little Leaf! After three days of celebrating our country and general weekending, it was wonderful to see everyone’s smiling faces back on the farm! We started our day with a little PWC (Moving our pins, filling our water bottles, and heading to the morning circle – located in the crook of the path). Once we all found ourselves there we outlined a rough plan for the day, although no one was quite sure what our day would be like under the newly established anarchy. We broke out an old favorite – Titantic, made it through a few rounds of Jeep, and learned a new song about a man who helps a bunny hide from a hunter. We capped off our morning sing with the Llama song, although many of the lyrics were left open to interpretation sicne they had been dissolved by last weeks rain.

Banking like a pro

As we started into the first work block of the day, some Homesteaders and their Peeps felt apprehensive. Why should I keep building a house if there are no laws to stop someone from stealing it? Good question. William called a morning meeting to discuss some possible options for ensuring order. The meeting was
well attended and the group proposed that any house theft should have to pay a fine, and return the house to its rightful owner. Good idea.

We washed, snacked, and headed to the pond. We are definitely getting into the swing of things, and even matched our standing 7 second record while counting off before the swim. Go team!

Low attendance at town meetings in these days of anarchy

After lunch, we regrouped and headed back into our second work block. Again, William called a town meeting to try and move forward on previous agenda items. However the small attendance (two other peeps) and the lack of a government to enforce any new laws was frustrating. The meeting did agree that the fine paid by the their should equal the cost of the house. Perhaps this will be helpful framework for a law, should a government be formed later in the game.

Meanwhile, Homesteaders and Peeps were busy as usual. The trading post had extra security, the radio held brief talk shows, the Diversity Shop sold its first pet creeper, furniture was built and HUGE strides were made on many a Peep house. Everyone has been working hard to crunch the numbers and make houses that will protect their Peep without breaking the bank. And they are succeeding. Our village has a bright future.

Finally it was time to clean up. Rain chased us inside for games and we chose to play Murderer, a circle game where death can be avoided with the help of an angel and the narrator gets to tell us all about it.

Tomorrow, if the weather and the weather man cooperate, we will make our long anticipated pizza! We’re looking forward to having an afternoon treat.

Plus
Talk Show (x2)
Murderer Game ( x9 )
Cutting Wood
Staring House
Finishing House
Getting a new pet creeper! (Sparky sparky boom man)
The absolute value of negative
A large trading post sale
Pillow pet jokes
The return of Jaques!

Wishes
Not to be targeted in the game
Finish windows
More games
More respect when gathered in circles
Capture the flag
Thunderstorms
Fish (lots of fish)
That the newspaper goes well
Trusting our instinct
Being at Village all the time!



Wish that Math was easier... (I’ll second that!)

Day 4

Happy 3rd of July! 

Today was very interesting! In celebration of the day-before-the-Fourth-of-July, we all geared up in our most patriotic clothing ('Merica!). To get into the swing of government and such, we sang a whole bunch of America songs. This included: My Country Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful, and the National Anthem among others. We also tried the B Song again (have your Homesteader show you, it's a great workout), and introduced the Banjo Song!

Weather was very tricky today, and the weathermen get an F- for today. We had planned on an excellent inaugural Campfire Show complete with an actual fire and actual cob oven pizza. The apparently impending thunder and lightning made us have to cancel on this, even though it ended up being beautiful at the end of the day! 

Anywho, after going over our Plan-o-the-Day, we checked in with our small groups. Priorities for today included turning in any last minute job applications, getting house plans put together and ready for a lumber order, and training new managers. Our new managers have already shown some excellent skills in, well, management. Schedules were up within moments of the work block beginning, and the managers grasped the job responsibilities very quickly. 

We washed the mitts, we ate the snacks, and we headed to the pond. Although it was a somewhat mild day, we still love swimming too much to give it up (unless there's lightning, then we give it up). Rain started to fall minutes before we were planning on heading back up, seeming to foreshadow an unfortunately indoor Campfire Show. Again, this wasn't necessary, and again, the weathermen get F- for this.

After lunch, our second work block began! Technically, today it was Independence Hour. The last of the interviews were conducted and we are proud to announce the following jobs:

Newspaper Editor: Jack L AND Eathan! Co-editors will make this very interesting based on the government we chose today, let me get to that in a moment.

Town Meeting: The agenda for town meeting was as follows:
Peep Intro: Will S introduced his Peep, Felix. He was born in the woods, and seems to have suffered a fugue state since he has no idea how he got here.

Government Selection: Today we needed to decide what kind of government Little Leaf would have. Will it be a democracy? Monarchy? Monarch butterfly? Anarchy? The Homesteaders grouped up and each acted out a different type of government to demonstrate the good and the bad of each. After careful consideration (I use the word careful lightly), we landed on . . . . .

ANARCHY!

Obviously, this is going to make things interesting. We utilized a democratic vote in order to reach this conclusion. Oh, the irony.

Campfire Show: Was awesome! We ended up outside since it was so beautiful, and the performances began. We were entertained by skits, musical performances, and games. We watched Ninja Tug-of-War, Ewan played his guitar, Cedric played his accordion, and a team of Jaimee, Kate, Lula, Fallon, and Jesslyn acted out a skit for us. After this, we were taught some excellent games by Gabe. Now that our new Homesteaders have a taste of the show, hopefully we will have even more entries next week!

Plus

Done my house plan

Swimming

Campfire Show

Anarchy!

Done cardboard model

Stealing Jacques (Pourquoi!!?)

No slugs

Made it to camp!

AMERICA

Awesome shelter

3rd of July

Village

Got a job

Wish

Democracy returns (we miss you)

This fly would knock it off

That nobody steals my stuff 

That I steal stuff

Fun weekend

Pizza

Open a new business

No slugs sighted yet

Super good pizza for everyone

More enthusiastic sweeping

Mass ramsacking

Theocracy overcomes anarchy

No weekends

Fireworks

Have an excellent 4th of July Homesteaders!

Day 3

It no longer needs to be said that this is a GREAT year for Village. Today was super hot, and super humid! Good thing we drank a ton of water. Songs this morning included the Coffee Song (we were all more or less asleep at 9), Eddie Kuchakachakama, and several new songs! We taught our new Homesteaders the Jeep Song, The B Song, and the similarly named Bumblebee Song. The energy in our singing circle is exponentially increasing every day, I think.

This morning we decided to jump right into a somewhat impromptu town meeting to discuss some very important matters:
- Drawing house plans: We are all officially rapidly moving towards designing our homes, which for our returning campers, is amazing.
- Currency: We really were supposed to do this yesterday, but our Peep introductions were just too much fun to dampen it with money talk. Suggestions thrown up (BLEH) for the name of our currency included Leaflets, Stuff/Other Stuff, Acorns, Squirrels/Slugs, Peeplets, Loney. The winner was:

Leaflets

Next, we gathered into small groups and discussed progress. Again, one particular group is clearly doing excellent, but from the looks of it everyone is doing an excellent job getting things done efficiently. Work Block 1 consisted of finishing fences and beginning house plans. It is so exciting, and a little bit scary, how quickly we got to this point.

We washed our mitts, inhaled our snacks, and took off for the pond. What a great day for a cool swim, we would have had some angry gremlins if we didn't get down there soon today. Lunch today included some announcements on the topic of job applications being closed, as well as an impending check-writing class.

Check-Writing Class: Returning Homesteaders dusted off their check writing skills, and new arrivals learned the ins and outs of the process, as well as how to keep a check register. 

Work Block 2 consisted of even more house work as well as some relaxing and watching spiders apparently float in mid-air (amazing). Many many many Peeps interviewed for the coveted jobs of Radio Station Manager, Trading Poster Manager, and Banker. Some excellent answers to some of our interview questions included:

A unicorn is crossing the road, atop this unicorn is a grizzly bear, what do you do?

Throw a fish for the bear and ride the unicorn.

Would you fight a bear for this job?

Absolutely.

An employee of yours is late to work, or does not show up at all. What do you do?

I would cover the position until I found an employee available to cover. We would keep a schedule of available employees so we would always know who can cover a shift.

I had to put at least one real question on there. This was so difficult to choose. After careful consideration, and dealing with the undeniable fact that every single applicant did great in the interviews, the new hires for several jobs are:

Trading Post Manager: Will G
Banker: Jack G

Radio Station Manager: Lula

Moderator: UNFILLED!

Secretary: UNFILLED!

Newspaper Editor: UNFILLED! HOW?!

Town Clerk: UNFILLED!

Those who did not get a job should definitely consider starting their own company. You have got, what Jacques would describe as that certain special je ne sais quoi.

CTF!

Corvee has been going better and better every day. It is great to see the teamwork and non-complaints! Today we finally played our inaugural game of Capture the Flag. This doesn't need a description, it is simply the most fun thing ever.

Plus

Moving so fast!

Moderator position not filled.

Clouds came!

Jobs are still available

CTF!

Building houses!

Wish

More thundah!

Keep the progress going

Rain

More Rain

No Rain

Dry Peeps in the morning

More circle respect!

Unofficial Village mascot: Emmett

Wear red, white, and blue tomorrow as we celebrate the Fourth of July with our first Campfire Show of the year with pizza fresh out of the cob oven!

Day 2

Our awesome new song circle

Wow, two great days in a row! Per usual, the day started off with some songs. We continued practicing Eddie Kuchakachakama, Llama Song, Jibberish Song, and Hippo Song. We have added the classic Coffee Pot Song and a brand new to Village song about cheese! The Plan of the Day was thoroughly covered, and we got right to creating our town.

Priority number 1 was a town center. The main (only) purpose of our town center is to have a location where town meetings can be held that everyone can attend if they would like. Our town center is just a few feet into the wooded area of our camp. There are some pretty nice natural benches and seats, and it provides some great shade from the constant sun!

After we chose a town center, every Homesteader needed to sign a Homestead Agreement. This was thoroughly explained by a lawyer and magistrate that arrived for the sole purpose of visiting us. This agreement includes many requirements but most of all, it requires that our individual properties need to be visibly improved throughout our time here. The more improvement, the more money to spend at our auction at the end of camp!

Legal professionals explaining the Homestead Agreement

Without much time to waste, everyone got their stakes to use to stake the land that they want to live on throughout our five weeks. LAND RUSH! Everyone darted in different directions, some back to the field (less bugs!), some deeper into the field (more creepy crawlers!). Primitive shelters were built at this time. Since our Peeps don't have houses yet, they need to use the environment around them to create some kind of makeshift home to avoid A.) Squirrels B.) Slugs C.) Rain D.) Emmett.

This morning was very active, and therefore very hot! Snack was devoured quickly and we were off to the pond. We have nearly mastered our count-off as well as our buddy system, on the SECOND DAY. Pat on the back Homesteaders. Lunch involved some discussion of what types of jobs were available to apply for at this point. Secretary, Moderator, Town Clerk, Radio Station Mgr, Newspaper Editor, and Trading Post Mgr are all up for grabs.

Before we went to berzerk with werk in the afternoon we met up with our small groups to check on progress. I don't know about you guys, but there's one group that is just on top of everything, they must have a great commissioner with an even greater beard. In all fairness, the whole camp is doing great with staying busy!

Afternoon priorities: Finish peeps, finish peep pouches, finish primitive shelter, finish fences.

We got tons done today because are a bunch of work mules. We left plenty of time for town meeting which was mostly used to introduce the peeps that have been created (Biographies to come). Jim moderated, and Jim's special little way of speaking led one of the most interesting town meetings I think I've seen in awhile. Some intense voting on what our town name should be followed peep intros, and included:
- Frankenfart
- Fart Nox
- Peepville
- Little Leaf
- Hollywood

We are officially Homesteaders of the new town of:

Little Leaf

Corvee is becoming such a great team effort, which is the point! I heard plenty of "Can I check if anyone else needs help?" and not nearly as much "I'm done I'm bored I'm tired I'm going to go sit down".

Our game for this afternoon was a combination of trying to remember everyone's name followed by our first inaugural game of Bat and Moth! Final score: Bats 2, Moths 3 (I think).

Plus!

I started camp today! (Will S)

Got work done

Peep is finally finished

Jim as murderator

Found Jim's home (or did you?)

Seeing properties come together

Bat and Moth

Peep intros

Learned a new game!

Wish!

NONE! (Cookies and Rainbows)

Even more fun tomorrow

No peep injuries overnight

Jim could stay as moderator

July 4th Celebration on Thursday: Granted (Wear red, white, and blue!)

The moskeeters would go away

More time in the day

Birthday party at the Village!