Day 13

How can it be that we are already halfway through camp?!

It was wonderful to have the sunshine back again today. We celebrated by singing a lot. We sang coffee (we even tried it out with the stand up sit down rule - if that doesn't wake you up nothing will!). We sang Mountain Dew, and Titanic, Tin Solider, Little Cabin, and finished off with an impressive round of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Mending fences.

Some big news of today... the oligarchy changed the town name to Tarzan! And our currency is called bananas! This was revealed to us in yesterdays newspapers, but many peeps didn't notice. Guess we all need to start reading the fine print. Not everyone is thrilled with this change, but business went on as usual.

House decorating team Dark Elf Decor.

The sun seemed to reinvigorate us all a ton of progress got made. We started by sprucing up all of our fences on the land. One little twig does not a fence make. Peeps raked leaves out of their plots, Abby even cut her grass by hand! The whole place is looking great! Just in time for map making!

The Jane Daily also features sudoku puzzles! 

Back at the farm hot glue guns were smoking (literally) as the newly formed business, Dark Elf Decor, put the finishing touches on Johny Dark's house. The radio was busy in the morning with a talk show and lots and lots of house building was underway.

Building awesome houses!

During snack time we voted on new t-shirt designs. We'll tell you more about them.... later.
(Just know that they will be awesome).

We played noodle flibbit instead of going swimming and after many heated battles we played sharks and minnows. I wouldn't want to be swimming in that water, I'll tell you what. Those are some fast fish.

Holding down the radio station. 

The afternoon radio show featured a new addition to village, CX-32. He might be a robot, but he made an excellent DJ, offering prizes out the window and lots of trivia. A second edition of The Jane Daily was released, which also contained some big news. Alex has been added to the oligarchy! Village has a third ruler!

Waiting for radio show prizes!

After we cleaned up with formed two groups to play the killer game AND ninja. All the while feeling grateful for blue skies!

Emmit selfie!!!

Plus

Painting house

Finishing house

Getting house on land

eating a cookie

T-shirt design

Fences look awesome

so much progress

campfire

games

Wishes

ice cream

fish

more cookies

no more talking ever

more efficient clean up 

to pay off Federal loan

Day 12!

So much rain!

We had our first indoor circle of the summer. Gabe's morning energy was saturated with all the water falling from the sky, and we all enjoyed his entertainment while we waited for the group to gather. We also played telephone (pssst.... banana bread tastes better with Eeyore!). We learned a new song about acorns and made some round of pop, trash, chips.

Snack Time!

Jasmine helps Max create amazing rugs!

I thought anarchy was over?....

Thats right, I'm wearing my house around my neck. 

We stand in a lot of circles. This time it was to find out what everyone was doing!

The rain persisted all morning, we worked inside, snacked inside, and swam inside. What? Well, we flibbiteded. Blackjack was played and pets were created. That pesky murderer showed up again for a couple rounds of killer, and then he started stealing the Prince of Paris's hat. After an hour of fun flibiting, we ate lunch and circled up for a special visit from Bobby Kennedy!

It turns out, Bobby Kennedy is VERY tall, AND has an incredible story about stepping away from the oligarchy he was born into to pursue a participatory democracy for the benefit of all! The assassination of his brother John was a life changing moment for him. Bobby was able to answer a lot of really great questions asked by the peeps. Such as "Can any form of government be used for good? Or evil?" "How does voting work in the USA and what's up with the electoral college?" "What are some examples of oligarchies throughout history?" Loyal supporters of Little Leaf's oligarchy threatened to arrest Bobby if he spoke to harshly against oligarchy in general. Good thing he was pretty objective.

After being sufficiently inspired, it was back to work!! The hot glue scarcity continues to be an issue, although glue sticks keep popping up around town. Curious. Peeps still managed to continue making fantastic furniture, including a plush fur-lined bed. Last nights rain put everyone's houses to the test, and lots of creative modifications have been made as well. As always, new victories occur everyday. Owen's handy dandy high tech nailing bench saved the day and helped peeps finishes houses. The building of a cardboard model revealed a new design solution. We are all moving towards our goal of having all homes on the land this Friday!

The sun showed up for the afternoon, so we went outside to play what are you doing on the wet grass. What were we doing? Tying two hippos together, playing dodgeball with Zeus and eating live cows. We finished up with another round of Look Up, Look Down, where campers try to meet the eye of another person across the circle. Nothing like ending the day with spontaneous eye contact!

Plus

Everything

What Are You Doing

Political Speaker

Gabe Entertainment

Prince of Paris

Good Sportsmanship

Being Respectful to guest

Fishing house

Having a plan for campfire

Wishes

CTF

Cookies and Rainbows

Swimming

Being Outside

Finishing projects

Day 11

George watches over construction.

Giving tours of Little Leaf.

Johny Dark is alive!!!!!!!!!! So many surprises came out of our memorial service.

You can't tell, but it is raining very hard.

As the rain falls, houses get built.

No more hot glue! At least there is a sudoku. 

What a day! We planned on a normal day but you know what they say about the best laid plans... they are flexible! We revived the Hippo song, indulged in cheese, sang about our life giving sun, visited the little caveman in the cabin in the woods, and gave tribute to the great ship Titanic. We were off to a great start.  

It was then announced that it is time to make a T-Shirt Design!!!! Or Ralph will rub his favorite thing all over the shirts and call it a day. Then we found out that we were getting a boatload a visitors who think Village is really awesome and wanted to come check it out. Their insta-peeps wanted to be sure that we were developing our village (as per our homesteaders agreement) so we went on a grand tour of Little Leaf. 

 Before we knew it, it was 11:00. We ate our snack snack in the peep loft, to avoid all of the wetness on the ground, then went to the pond, where about half of us submerged in total wetness. Some ventured on a longish swim, while poker (or maybe black jack?) lessons were taught on shore in anticipation of the grand opening of Caleb’s Casino back in Little Leaf. We lunched on the benches by the sheep shed (darn wet grass) then got back to work! 

Construction at the sheep shed was chased inside by the rain, but that didn’t stop our homesteaders. Everyday, more progress is made, houses are finished, deals made. While we worked, a newspaper was distributed. Patrick stepped down from his position as CO-Editor, so the Fed filled the void today with their own news release. Hot items included rumors about a developing Theocracy which follows the leadership Zeus Poseidon Aries Hades Samma Camma Walkie Brown. As of yet, the oligarchy still reigns. Also in the news, NO MORE HOT GLUE!!! It seems that rock bottom prices and theft have lead to rapid depletion of one of villages most vital resources. “But how will we glue out heads back on!!” Damp and damaged peeps want answers.

 As if the day hadn’t been action packed enough…. Little Leaf felt it was time to get some closure regarding Abby, the peep who has been missing 6-12 months. It was announced that a memorial service would be held to honor her, as well as two other recently deceased peeps, Johnny Dark, and Connor. In a last stitch effort all the homesteaders and their peeps swept the tall grass and…… ABBY WAS FOUND!!!!!! By Z.P.S.H.S.C.W.B!!!!!!! What a joyous moment! But there was still the business of the other peeps. Will G. spoke on behalf of his deceased peep to tell us that……. JOHNY DARK wasn’t actually dead!!!! Oh my goodness! His surgery was successful! He was reborn! Few! Unfortunately Connor seems to actually be dead (?), so we all offered up our thoughts to him. He will not be forgotten, that’s for sure and many will remember him for his long career as an accomplished thief. The service also included a particularly somber rendition of Cheese, and a very touching 5 rubber band salute. 

 The day concluded with corvee and a few rounds of the Murderer game. While the rain poured down outside, we shared out pluses for wishes in the peep loft: 

 Plus 

Surprise! We painted your house pink 

Getting house on the land 

Murder game 

Funeral (x many) 

Finding Abby! 

 Wishes 

Peep stays dry in new house 

Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows 

Fishes 

Brain 

Water CTF

Day 10

Approving and inputting checks at the bank

Things are getting very exciting at Village! We are getting settled into our shifts at various jobs, companies are really growing, and the government seems to have a good control of (most) Peeps. This morning felt like a very hectic and crazing singing time and reflecting, Jibberish would have been an excellent song for us to all shout at each other. Instead, we grabbed a proper cup of coffee with the Coffee Song, sang the Bumblebee Song, the Done Song, and finished off with Baby Shark. Several things that needed to be mentioned before we all ran away to start the day included:

• Income taxes! We, the Fed, are imposing some taxes on the residents of Little Leaf with seemingly little to no disapproval at all. More money for us!
• Bank account: Since we live in the age of technology, many Peeps have noticed that they don't exactly need to keep a check register since the bank also has running computerized personal accounts. However, this is assuming that the bank will never make a mistake. So. . . yes.
• Appraisals: End of camp is an exciting time where we determine the value of each other's finished properties, they pay their federal loan back, and buy tons of cool stuff at the auction!

Action at the Diversity Store

After our meet up we jumped into our work block. It was great to see employees coordinating shifts with each other (I can't work this afternoon, would you cover for me if I do this for you?). The Diversity Store has been opened for about a week or more now and after their merger with Jaimee's Pet Shop business is looking pretty good! They have opened a bank account for their business and appear to have established a hierarchy of leadership. Meanwhile, a handful of houses are being finished, while many others find themselves working shift after shift, after shift, after shift. Such workaholics. 

Center Pond resident

This supposed cloudy day turned out to be surprisingly sunny. Snack was eaten and we all took off for the pond. About half of the Homesteaders chose to swim, while the other half hung out on the shore skipping rocks, reading, and talking. We've officially scared everyone away from Center Pond from 11:30 to 12:30. Sorry Nelson! Once we arrived back at camp we grabbed our lunch and enjoyed the weather some more. After eating there is always one group playing Ninja, one group talking about video games, and another group still struggling to finish their food. Stuff your faces! No, don't!

Staying above politics

The second work block felt like it was going to be filled with about 18 very tired Homesteaders, but quickly became full of energy when Connor was once again announced to be wanted for crimes against the government. This Peep has truly made himself a target of the oligarchs between stealing from the trading post, and protesting against the leaders (illegal!), he is the #1 Most Wanted in Little Leaf. MEANWHILE, after some analysis of bank accounts, it appears that the oligarchy has drained the town's money into their own "Oligarchy" account, along with a 200,000LL "donation" from the Trading Post, which was once managed by Johnny Dark (oligarch), but he now only "advises". Hmm, maybe former bank manager Connor was onto something here. Anywho, most of this money appears to be going towards paying the slew of private police that the government has hired to catch and fine criminals. They call themselves guards, but about 75% of their job has been chasing people instead of protecting things.

Today was exciting.

Plus
Working
Swimming
CTF
Thunderstorm tonight!
Creating Leonidas and his army of 300 Spartans (Coming soon)
Watching the police chase Connor

Wish
Less bugs!
Thunder and Rainbows!
Water CTF (Stay tuned)
SOME people wouldn't do WHAT they did. Very cryptic.
Cookies and Rainbows
I was here tomorrow, or Wednesday, or Thursday

Day 9

What a lovely Friday to be at Village! This morning we woke ourselves up with the Bonnie Song and the Coffee Song with our pack of sleepy Homesteaders. The Bonnie Song wakes up our bodies, and the Coffee Song wakes up our talking-parts. We also had some special guests visit us to sing their rendition of Mountain Dew accompanied by banjo and guitar. This was awesome, and definitely added some genuine sound to our beloved song. They also played us an old Irish tune accompanied by harmonica. I got a picture of this, but it has since miraculously vanished . . .

Anyways, once we got through singing we went over the plan of the day, including the Friday Campfire Show. We also had a few announcements to make, mostly reminding the crew that as soon as the work block begins, the Peeps become the main actors in our town. They, not the people carrying them, are the ones who work the jobs, write the checks, and stage revolts against the government. This is very important as many of our Peeps can do some pretty terrible things (Torture jails established by the oligarchy? I'll get to that), but we the Homesteaders are all awesome.

Work block began. Today was pay day for the managers, and checks were given out accordingly. No questions were asked about the amount in the paycheck, which is great for the Feds! Today was also tax day. Each business with over 50,000LL by the end of the week pays a progressive tax based on size.

Community College Course Announcement!

Some awesome things are happening at the radio station. We are getting some more political debates on a more regular basis, which is great, and some awesome community college courses are being offered in the coming weeks through the radio station. There are three potential classes, and they include: Thumb Piano Design, Recorder Class, and Anthropology (Fromage? Hot dogs? Hummus?). Based on interest, one of these will be conducted. We very much appreciate Andrew (Ewan's dad) doing this for us, and hope plenty of Homesteaders sign up.



Snack time came and went, and as we were sitting around it became very clear that we had our first split in swimming interest. Half wanted to swim, half wanted to run around. We divided ourselves, and let the swimmers do their thing (until Will S drank the pond dry). Meanwhile we did a lot of CTF. A whole lot.

Our GAME FACE

The work blocks today had very little political turmoil, but a lot of business action. Our two pet shops owned by Abby on one hand, and Jake, William, and Richard on the other, declared a merger! The newspaper will have to keep up on this story. Caleb's Casino is opening next week. Houses continued to work their way to completion, so much so, that we had Homesteaders missing their work shifts! Additionally, some type of makeshift torture jail was created to hold Peeps that dissent with the current government. This is tricky because we are not allowed to take other Peeps without permission, and who is going to willingly go to jail?! As Jack G. stated "NOBODY!".

The Campfire Show: This week's show consisted of card tricks by both Jack and Will G (mind blowing), Mind Battles with Cedric and Victoria, Body Drumming by Jaimee, and contortionist gymnastics with Lula and Katie. We wrapped it all up with a game of Entourage. You find a partner, you challenge them to Rock-Paper-Scissors, and the loser becomes the winner's entourage. You continue this until there are only two winners, with two massive entourages taking each other on in a final battle.

Plus
Entourage!
House work
House painting
House on land
BEEFED UP Rock-Paper-Scissors (Entourage)
CTF
Morning music
Running a lot
Whole day!
Campfire Show
Good business at the Diversity Store

Wish
Cookies and Rainbows
Finish house
Didn't have a sore throat from Entourage
Replacement jail
More house work
To come back for another day (I'm sure you will!)

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