Oct update: "A busy month indeed!"....

 WARNING! ACHTUNG!

This post is VERY picture heavy!

So as you, dear reader will see, the Month of September was a bit busy here at House O' Murph, and October looked at September and said "Here. Hold my beer!", and went to town on me.

Now before I go any further, please understand that sometimes in gaming blogs, we have this thing called "Life", or "The Real World". In this case, this entry is a lot of that, and a little bit of painting and some gaming, but it's mainly a catch up to everyone and those interested as to how things are progressing with a 105 year old(ish), somewhat haunted house.  But there IS gaming and mini stuff in this blog! Trust me.... heh heh heh....

And as Halloween approaches....

(Oh dear...)

TREES BE GONE!

So in the last episode of this blog, I had discussed how the ginkgo tree (Tree #1 of Three slated for work), had been taken down. During the month of October, I also had Tree #2, (the half dead maple tree in the front yard), also taken down, (and adventure in itself), and Tree #3, (the big maple in the backyard with the fairy door), pruned back.

Tree #2 was a half dead maple on our curbside in our front. Each heavy storm would bring down branches and bark from it. The branches soon turned into limbs. It was only a matter of time before it came down and I didn't want it coming down in the street and onto someone's car. 

So...a call to our tree guy, and he set up the appointment. Only to have his "B" team show up, (they showed up late, and due to that, had to work late into the night to complete the job), and while they did a "good job", it wasn't a "great job", (we still have a large stump to take care of).  But it came down and there was wood for everyone!

(Here we can see the poor half dead tree being taken down...)

(Live branches and limbs...)

(And the dead ones...)

(Working late in the night because the simply started too late and ran out of daylight....)

(Finishing up that night by vehicle light....)

(The next day showed the amount of wood from that one tree. Free firewood. Come and take it!  And they did...Lots of it was loaded up by neighbors, and just folks asking for it.)

(Some of the wood was pretty large...)

Plans for next year are to grind down the stumps of this one and the ginkgo tree. 

Then it was onto the job of pruning down Tree #3.

You can't really cut more than 20% of a tree back in one year or you will actually "shock" the tree and possibly kill it. With that going on, one has to watch to see how the tree responds to a 20% loss. Tree #3 is the biggest one that we have, and yes, it has a fairy door, so I had to be careful as to how it was going to be cut. 

The essential primary job was to prune off a series of extremely long limbs and branches, (these actually went over the house, and were responsible for the damage to the roof that is going to be repaired this month), and had to be taken down for safety.

I actually didn't get any photos of this job as it was done quickly and I was uber busy at the time. 

But now there is a large pile of wood for my fire pit.

FOOD!!!!!!

Yes, yes, I know. This is the part you all have been waiting for. "Come on Murph..." You say. "Enough with the trees already! Show us what you have been eating!"

Very well. Your wish is my command.

One of the cool things about my house is that we have raspberry bushes in the back, and this year I was able to gather a small jar of them. Also we were able to harvest enough Quince fruit from our bush in the yard, (Quince is NOT native to Indiana), that we were able to make six jars of Quince Jelly, and 2 large containers of Quince paste. It was indeed a bit of an all day job to do it, but the results were well worth it.

(Fresh from the back yard...)

(From this...)

(To this...Six jars worth of Quince Jelly goodness...)

(And this!  Quince Paste!)

And then there was more food...this time by me!

Every October, I get into my "German mood", and thus...want...German food!

This month of October, I decided on a Saturday night German Meal.

So from my crafty hands came Jagerschnitzel, Spaetzle, Saurkraut, and Salat, with a good dark German Rye Bread. (Compliments of Aldis!).  

A couple of Weizen beers would have been nice to top it off with, but perhaps next year.

(Deutsches Abendessen! Sehr Gut!)

(A close up of my handiwork.)

And my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), was not to be outdone!

For breakfast one morning she fixed up bratwurst, (cooked in butter), and her famous "German Apfel Pancakes", (cooked in a cast iron skillet which makes all the difference!), and yes, we ate well that morning!

(So sinfully good....)

(And brats to go with it!)

And of course this past October was the 10 year anniversary for my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!), and myself. And in doing so, we celebrated by going out for Japanese.

(Our local place. I always had a bit of a "sinking" feeling whenever I came here. But I would "Dive right in..." )
Thank you folks I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waiters and "try the veal!"...

(Inside...)

(Seaweed salad and Miso soup...)

(Rainbow roll with ginger and wasabi. Yellowtail roll is on the plate behind.)

(More delicious food....)

For the dessert mints, they have this wonderful candy that my wife is addicted to. Since we do not read Japanese, we have no clue what it is. If anyone can tell us what this is we would be grateful.

So finally...FINALLY, that is it with the food.

OCTOBER! (and gaming!!!)

So the month of October came in, and I was going to pull out the stops and run a FFG "Fury of Dracula" game, but sadly enough that did not happen. Perhaps next year.

Instead I hit the painting table first. 

During the month of October I usually try to paint up quite a few Halloween themed figures. I did get a few figures painted but sadly only two of them were Halloween themed. 

(Two ghostly ladies for Halloween...)

And with Halloween approaching I wanted to do something a little "Halloweeny" for the group, so why not give the players Trick or Treat Bags? (An idea taken from Martha Stewart).

So a run to Wally World for bags and candy. Each bag got an assortment of Hershey's Reese's Cups and Pieces, Snickers, Almond Joy, Whoppers, Milk Duds, Kit Kats, Twizzlers, Sour Patch Kids, and Swedish Fish.

(None of that crappy taffy candy or candy corn here! Nope. It's the GOOD stuff!!!)

The bags were filled....

And custom "artwork" was applied....

(NOT the "Bat Signal"...)

(Yowza!)

(RIP Berry M. Dead....zzzzzz...)

(Singing: "I-I-I ain't go no booooooooody!")

(Frank is definitely not happy....)

(And the bags are placed on the table...)

(And a little moody atmosphere....)

We set up the game room....

And added some decorations....

("Poe" guards the cans of Liquid Death...)

And my wonderful wife once again comes through with some special treats.

We bought some Halloween themed cupcakes but the night before the game, she makes "Monster Deviled Eggs"...(Deviled eggs with a black food coloring shell, and orange colored filling and a candy monster eye!)

These went fast!

(Halloween Treats!)

(Cupcakes, Vanilla and Chocolate filling...mmmm....)

(I've got a feeling....somebody's watching meeee.....)

And then we gamed....

The game was quiet and uneventful as the PC's recovered from their adventure in the temple, and received word of the "evil lair", deep in a boggy, swampy, wood, known as "The Dreadmire". With a female NPC they rescued (Stansia is her name), and a newly purchased cart and mule, (the mule has been named "Burrito"), and supplies, they headed out to hopefully get the answers they were looking for.

They slogged through the swamps, (leaving the girl, and cart and camp behind), and found the entrance to the lair. Once they stepped in, we stopped there for the evening.

(The party making decisions...good...bad...it all depends on the dice roll....)

After the group left, my wife and I celebrated another wonderful day of friends and fun, by going out for......MEXICAN FOOD!!!

Yes! That's right...MORE FOOD PICS!!!!

(My fajita dinner...mmmm...)

(A close up of the fajita goodness....)

And so once more our evening came to a close...

And Halloween was right around the corner!

And I close this, (really there is a lot more, but this thing is already too dang long), I and my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!), wish that your Halloween was a good one!

More to come!

End of September Update...

 As Summer goes away, and my wonderful Fall season is now here, it is time for me to get up off of my duff (No relation to Hillary), and get to updating this blog for the month.

Seasons Change...

A lot has happened around Murph-Haus since the last update. Most of it although isn't on the gaming front; however there is some of that too. 

The Fall season here is always wonderful. Our trees turn from green into a mixture of golden yellows and red-oranges, displaying their glory in all their colors until the time comes for the leaves to fall. 

Our little town is already decorating for Halloween. I promise to get some pictures up soon. 

Our towns high school football team is having a really bad season.

The road construction in our town continues. "Soon" is the answer as to when it will be finished.

Construction continues on our new police station.

An antique store went out of business. The owner died in Feb, and I think they were just getting rid of stock.

On our side, the rest of the ginkgo tree came down....

("He is a lumberjack, and he's okayyyy...";  The tree guy taking town the upper sections of the ginkgo....

The pulling of ropes; the buzzing of saws; and the yells from the crew below, as part of the tree came down. 

Then it was time for the trunk and with a LOUD  "CRAAAAAAACK" it too was on the ground.

(Aaaanddd it's down!)

(That's a big hunk o' tree there...)

Truth be told it was sad to see the tree go as it had a bit of history with the house, but we couldn't let the growth damage the house, or the pods continue to rot. 

I allowed the neighbors to come and help themselves to "FREE FIREWOOD!", and boy did they!

90% of the wood in the yard was taken. The larger tree part was taken by the street department. So now all I have left is a little brush and branches to burn.

And on that morning that the ginkgo was coming down, it went and got DONUTS!!!!

Food, wonderful food!

In the town of Lebanon, Indiana; is the well known "Titus Bakery".  It is one of the best known bakeries in the state. That Saturday morning I decided to haul down there and get a box of their goodies. 

The place was packed. but your gallant author persevered, and brought back the spoils of his expedition...

(WARNING: You may gain 3-5 lbs just looking at the pictures....)

(A box o' treasure...)

(The lid opened! The treasure revealed!!!)

(Yessss....Maple Baaaaaaaaacon.... Bacon...glorious bacon...)

(Blueberry Turnovers, Black Forest Donuts, and Strawberry Bismarck's, among the box of treats!)

(Glazed tempation... Can't you hear it calling your name?)

(So much gooey, tasty, goodness!)

GAMING....

Nothing was done on the painting table this month, except for a well deserved cleaning of the work room. The table is once again clean and organized, as are the item shelves. I'm seriously starting to look at a way of making my craft paints more accessible, and it seems to involve some of the nail racks that I purchased earlier that will be mounted on racks on pegboard. It will involve a bit of room rearranging I think but in the end, I will be able to see utilize my almost 400 bottles of craft paint. Plus it will help remove that horrible look 3 drawer plastic "Organizer" thing that sits beneath the project table. This is an ongoing process so pics in the future will be posted.

However we did game!

We got back to our D&D game in Sept. after a 3 month break. We lost Tim and Jared, but gained Nick. Tim was lost due to being asked to DM a group in his area and he couldn't handle two games, and Jared has major life changes which prevented him from continuing. I wished them well. They are always welcome back at our table. 

We gained a new player, Nick, who is running an interesting character. 

(The gaming area, DM's and players was set and ready for action!)

(The rest of the game room was ready also.  The TV has Spotify on it playing RPG tavern ambience music as the snack table is slowly filled up with tasty treats!)

(The snack table at the moment. More was added including my wife's homemade guacamole dip which went FAST!)

(And she even made cookies!)

(The fridge was filled with a wide variety of tasty drinks!)

(And Pizza Skull stood by ready to do his duty...)

(And one of the players brought along some more drinks...Hmmm..."Liquid Death". Sounds like the #1 drink of Ravenloft...)

And we got to playing. 

The characters were able to get through the top of the temple, making their way into the first room, guarded by two skeletons, which were quickly disposed of, and then continuing through a small series of rooms until they found a holding area and torture chamber. 

At this point they freed an NPC and the new player. After freeing them they made their way into the main chamber....

There they found two goblins, two flunky henchmen, an orc, and THE EVIL PRIESTESS!

Zounds! She was STILL ALIVE!!!!

She was looking worse for wear but was drinking something from a bowl, when the players burst in. 

And hanging in the hair about two feet off the ground was a portal with a glowing purple inside.

Battle was joined!

(The players at the table. Old faces and new ones...)

(The Chaos of Combat! The party tries to get to the Evil Priestess before she escapes YET AGAIN!!! Will they succeed this time in stopping her?!?!)

(Short, quick, work was made of the goblins! Now it was up to the flunkies and the orc to stop the PC's!)

( A close up of the beautiful, but evil priestess taunting the PC's before her attempted escape! Will she make it or will the PC's finally give her what she has coming to her?!?!?)

(ESCAPE YET AGAIN!!!!  The Orc and the flunkies buy precious time for her with their worthless lives, while she steps through the portal to wherever she went to! Will they meet her again? Will they match their wits against her's once more in the future???... We shall have to find out!)

After this fight, there was an issue with murdering an NPC that caused a massive discussion on "Whether this was an evil act or not"....

Meanwhile the players were able to partake in the snacks and drinks, including the fresh tea and lemonade set forth by my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!)

(If you go hungry or thirsty at our games, it's your own darn fault...)

(A shot of the group making "plans"....)

(The contribution from Pizza Skull! Three large pizzas for everyone! A welcome break from killing goblins, religious flunkies and trying to conquer a beautiful, (but still evil), priestess!)

So the game ended and we have our next game scheduled a few weeks down the road.

However my wife is planning.

The next morning I walk into her small "office" at home, (she works remote), and I see this....

Yeppers indeed. She is boning up on being a cleric!

Well, that's all for now. More is coming down the pipe, so be sure to check back in for another update!

Thanks for reading!

End of July, End of August and more....

 Well, July is over with, and now it seems that August is also almost over with, and we are now pushing into September and my beloved Fall Season.

Not much has been done on the gaming side for July and even less for August, or even the painting side.

So without further eloquence, here we go....

Buildings and such....

Our gaming group is taking a summer break, and we won't reconvene our D&D game until September, so I decided to get on my Western building kick for now. After Widow Morley's Cafe and Bakery, I've kind of hit a slump.

Right now my current project is finishing up a project that I started approx. 10 years ago, and that was "Working an ERTL Cowtown Barn into a decent building for my Western Town".

I started the project back in 2012, and then just "stopped". It's sat quietly for 10 years now, and I have now just started it up again. 

I decided to make the barn a livery stable, and in honor of my late friend Dan Merchant, am making him the proprietor of it.

(The front of the building showing the wood covering I am putting over the plastic. A slow process but the results are good.)

(Test fitting the building together to see how it fits and looks. Right now the front and back are complete and I just need to do the sides.)

(An oblique shot showing the front, part of the back and the undone walls. The sign is a test sign and the final one will be bigger and will cover the blackened square area.)

The ERTL Building is now coming along quicker than I thought, and all I have to do now is the interior, the sides and paint it up and weather it, (as well as adding signage).

I'm also working on "The Newspaper Building".

Right now it's called "The Rimfire Herald", but there's also a chance that name will change too.

(The future home of "The Rimfire Herald"; "All the news that's fit to sell...")

While working on these, I took a quick look at some of the buildings, I need to finish, and this is the gist of it:

(Projects to be completed....)

It's a mix of Arnica, Knuckleduster, Hovels, and some Old Glory "Foam" style buildings. (This doesn't include the ones I am working on, the scratch builds, or the Ertl stuff...)

After that, I decided to try to do a "group town photo", and this is most (not all) of my current Western Setup.

(Rimfire, Arizona Territory...or what I have so far to build the town and populate it...)

(A close up shot of the town and it's folks, and the visiting "Lil Ole Band from Texas"....

And as the time passed... My Wonderful Wife was able to get her hands on this:

(Yeps. Her very own copy...)

And then it hit us....

So I had started working on a project at a major university. The money is really good, and the work is good. I am enjoying myself.

I took a different route one day on my way home and saw something that made me think about "What Orcs could do if they truly put their minds to it"...

(Wonder if they have a union?...)

So I got home and wasn't feeling too well...

Went to bed early and slept for almost fourteen hours.

Woke up feeling horrible....

Took the test....

(Well crap....)

So there I was...COVID had dropped by to say "Hello".

I was isolated for 2 weeks, (I failed the second test also), so I had some time on my hands, and could've painted, etc. but it's just too much. As of this writing, I am still suffering some long term effects, (still dealing with cough, sniffles, body aches, and fatigue, as well as slight loss of coordination, some memory issues, and complete loss of taste and smell.

But while I was down, I was able to see them move the USS Texas from her tired berth in San Jacinto, to the shipyard in Galveston for the work she so desperately needs. It was a grand thing to watch.

(Moving her past the Stewart, and the Cavalla at Seawolf Park)...

(A deck honor crew on the Cavalla waits as the USS Texas, (BB-35), passes by...)

(An edited photo of the Texas in Galveston Bay. Tugs edited out.)

The current plan for Texas is to get repaired, and then from there to get an idea of where she is going to go, as San Jacinto is now out of the picture. Most people are hoping for Galveston, but Beaumont, and Baytown are trying to get her also. Gods I hope not.

And the Ginkgo is coming down....

TMP readers and some other folks will remember that in the past I have discussed getting the Ginkgo Tree that we have down due to it interfering with our backyard, house, and the smell of the pods when they drop and rot. 

So we had the tree team come out, and in the first of two sessions they got approx. 85% of it down.

(The Ginkgo Tree as they started to take it down...Sad but necessary.)

(The yard starts to quickly fill up with brush and branches....)

(Working on getting more down....)

(A massive amount of brush and limbs taken down...)

Truly it was kind of sad for the tree to come down as it was a pretty tree and offered nice shade, but then again, the roots, were causing issues, the branches, were also problematic, and the smell of the pods were a cross between fresh vomit and dog poop. We hired a couple of guys that do yardwork to come and remove the currently photo'ed six foot pile of branches. Three trailer loads full, and it was finally cleared, and we were ready for the next and final phase, (next weekend to be exact)....

And a quiet anniversary....

So on the morning of Sept, 2nd I woke up to the realization that it was "40 years ago on this day that I started my first day in the Army..."

Forty years...

Wow....

And I had coffee, and said, "Yeps"....and got on with life....

(Just a dumb 18 year old kid from Texas, that liked tanks...)

More to come for the month of September!

See you soon!