March 2026: November/December 2025 Update....

 Yes, yes, yes, I know dear reader. We're in March 2026 and here we are just now getting around to November and December of 2025.

December 2025 is usually when I do a End of The Year Update. So much has gone on this year, that I think I am just going to skip that and combine my November and December/Christmas and New Years entry here.

As usual this is going to be photo intensive so please be patient and let it load. Also, as usual, (PLEASE CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR LARGER VIEWS)...

And here we go!

NOVEMBER 2025!

With Halloween behind us, and Turkey Day ahead of us, I started to focus on Little Wars in April, (sorta)....

HMGS-MW put out their flyer.

This is going to be a great convention as usual. The vibes are already there.

While the season was "darkening", I decided to play around a little bit with the game room.

I added some LED candles and such, and took some shots.

And during November my wonderful wife and I (Gawd bless her!), got to try two new wines. 

The first was a 2018 Israeli Yarden Merlot.

I've gone back and looked and we've had Yarden before and it's always been quite tasty. It's a good dinner/meal wine. 

The second was a Cabernet from Transylvania. 

This too was amazingly tasty.

While down in the game room, I was able to finally get some shots of the buildings I picked up earlier from the model train show.

They are already O-scale and are actually set up for lighting if I want them. 

I was able to get them for five bucks each and they are pretty much ready to go for the gaming table, but as always, I'll probably do a little work on them.

And all was well with the world...

Until.

Indiana typical weather hit....

For those of you that don't know, I live in North Central Indiana. Where I live is essentially the crossroads of just about 95%+ of any of the major weather patterns that move across the state. 

* If it moves from straight West to East, we'll get it.

* If it moves from Northwest to E/SE, we'll get it.

* If it moves from Southwest to E/NE, we'll get part of that too.

My area is essentially the "Gettysburg" of Indiana weather.

And Indiana, bless her old heart, went off her weather meds again.

One day it was like this....

(Windows open, sun shining, wonderful temperatures for this time of year, and the cats are enjoying the day....)

And then the next day....

The first snow started falling.

Not enough to be considered "full winter snowfall" but enough to cover the ground and the roads, and to make those idiots on I-65 that don't understand that "35 mph in icy roads means you can't do 70 and not wind up in a ditch or worse."

(This is truth...)

And Gemma and Juju found their "warm comfy spots"...

So I got to painting some figures.

(More 18th Century figures...)

(More British troops, some scenery, and the Governor's lovely daughter...)

(Artillery crews...)

I worked on a variety of figures and some scenery pictures and started working on my buildings. 

As November rolled along I got a chance to open up the Virginia Single Malt Whiskey.

And the cats were curious.

And Juju decided to help.

("What'cha drinkin' Dad?")

(She's good with the taste of a single malt...)

(Gemma wasn't too keen on it...)

And I got a chance to try a wine, and sadly, not all wines are good wine.

Case in point with this stuff...

(8.99 with a screw top lid, and bottom of the shelf at Walmart...yeah...)

I like strawberry wines. I really do.

This was awful.

I forced half a glass down and poured the rest of the bottle down the toilet.

I also got a chance to try some Willett Pot Still Bourbon.

This wasn't bad. It didn't have too much of a hard bite to it. I liked it.

And I opened up this and tried it.

This is okay. I've found out that mixed with Ginger Ale over ice, it's much better....

For my non-alcholic pleasure, I've gotten to drinking these when I can get them. There's only one place here in town that sells them and they are indeed, "pricey". So like Mezzo Mix, I get them and ration them out.

And I painted while Juju and Gemma took turns keeping "Daddy" company in the painting room.

("Can we please go upstairs and go to bed now dad?")

And as the holiday season got closer our local Aldi started getting "the good stuff"...

(These are absolutely amazing...)

And then it was Thanksgiving.

My wife and I were thankful for all of our blessings and since it was just her and me, I went ahead and took her to dinner at Terra Gauche.

(Doesn't she look awesome?)

And I sucked down a caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil.

And we ate.

I like my meat, medium rate, (at the most). To me, "It's not food if it doesn't bleed..."

(Ahhhh....)

(MMMmmm....red meat....)

(And all the good stuff that comes with it....)

And then suddenly it was the end of November and December was rolling in.

And so did the weather.

(Pics taken from the windows of my house.)

And we began Christmas preparations.

And Juju and Gemma kept watch on the dark days and darker nights....

And December came....

And with this, we close this entry and move onto December and the end of the year.

Thanks for reading so far. Hope you are enjoying it, and stayed tuned as there is more to come!

March 2026: End of October/November 2025 Update....

Well it's February 2026. 

Holy Cow! How did this happen??!?!

Okay so much is going on that I need to break these entries into more than one. December is coming up next, and then January.

So the October/November update is 2-3 months LATE...

I had actually started this as my standard End of October update, but things got carried away here at the house, and so now it's an October/November update. This entry once again is very picture intensive, so be patient while it loads.
(CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR BIGGER VIEW)

So let's get going!

OCTOBER

The month of October rolled in, and the weather started to cool off, my wife and I took a few drives through the Indiana countryside and enjoyed the colors of the Fall season.

One of our side trips was to a location known as "Wilson Farm Market", in Atlanta, Indiana, (Yes, Indiana has a thing with naming their towns after other cities and towns; ie: "Warsaw, Galveston, Atlanta, Vincennes, Berne, Portland, etc...)

While there I was able to see certain items that raised my eyebrows.

(Did they make this out of real bears?!?!?)

(Does this mean, it's slow, barely moving, and leaves you feeling angry and frustrated?)

After our trip, and we got back home, I started my preps for Little Wars.

But before I could get going, I needed to get things in my painting room straight and cleaned. So I went ahead and got it done.

Behold!  A clean painting room!

And a clean painting desk/table!

I know...madness right?

Soooo......

MEANWHILE, ON THE LIQUOR SHELF....

I had taken a road trip to see my sister in Sept, and upon coming back I had stopped at one of the local VA ABC stores, and picked up 3 bottles of gen-uine Virginia Hooch.

Of the three, the Bowman Bros Small Batch is the best and smoothest. The Bumgardners comes in as what I envision "low quality 19th century roadside tavern hooch to be."

And as winter was approaching, I laid out my "What I need to do this winter" table o' projects.

Most of this was stuff for Little Wars in April. 

(Yikes!)

And I got  to working on it all...

Including making a scratch cabbage patch.

And priming and prepping some buildings.

This was after I had washed them and was letting them dry down in our laundry room.

And somewhere along the way I managed to try out an 18th Century recipe for boiled peanuts.

They are an excellent snack.

(Mr. Washington would be pleased I believe...)

(The finished product...)

Speaking of finished products, I did get stuff done.

And I finished some figures...These here are just a few of of them.

(Backstories to come soon...)

And finally a breakdown of all I got built and painted for the end of October and for the early part of November I believe...

And somewhere along the way I also picked up this. It's not bad and does have a nice peanut buttery taste to it.

(Surprisingly, it's really not that bad....)

But then as October rolled to it's merry end it was time for one last thing...

HALLOWEEN!!!!!

So I looked for costumes.....

(This one seemed truthful and appropriate....)

And I decided to work on some Jack O' Lanterns....

(Am I doing this correctly?)

This year I went with a standard Jack O' Lantern pattern and a Pirate pattern.

They actually both came out nicely....

And I got the candy ready....

While Juju did her best "Halloween black cat" impersonation AND helped with the pumpkins!

And Gemma secured the cardboard boxes....

And I decided to try my pirate outfit on, and got ready to throw the candy....errr....I mean, "Pass out the candy" to the trick or treaters.

(Yo ho ho!)

And we had the house set up....

With over 70+ trick or treaters I do believe it was a good thing....

Also for the Halloween season, my wife and I attended one of the Candlelight Concert Halloween events in Indianapolis. We got to hear good music in a beautiful setting and have a wonderful date night.

It was an awesome time with an awesome lady as we celebrate the season, and our anniversary month together. 

Also finally I was able to hit a model train show, and picked up some O scale buildings and cars on the cheap, so I can use in my future games of "The Chicago Way"....

If you haven't considered Farm Toy Shows and Model Train shows for scenery and terrain and such, I would encourage you to do so.

Not only that but the sets do give you scenery, terrain, building and painting ideas.

And on that note dear friends, I think my End of October/Early November update is done.

Next up, November/December. I swear I will catch up soon!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!