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!

End of July (and all of June) Update...

 Wow, we're at the end of July already?

As of today there are only four (4!) more Mondays left until the "ber" months come!
Hurry Autumn!

Okay first off I have to apologize once again for no update in June. Life has been horribly hectic and crazy here at Murph-haus and it's been a lot of irons on the fire and very few removed.

So due to a lot of it, (and I will explain some in a bit), I am just now finally, FINALLY getting around to getting things in order and updating this blog.

So I am going to be starting off this one with the end of May and moving into June and then July. 

(NOTE: This post is very VERY photo intensive. Please click on the pics for larger versions and please wait for it to finish all the downloads, etc.)

MAY:

Towards the end of the month, we decided to hit the local Titus Bakery in Lebanon, and we gorged ourselves on some donuts. Titus is one of the top donut bakeries. 

All I can say is "Thank The Lord for Metformin."

Between gulping down delicious donuts and other tasty goodies for the month, I got back after a 2 month post Little Wars hiatus to working on my figures again. This was especially easier on me now that I had taken time and cleaned up the painting area once again.

As for figures, I got back to working on my pirates that I never finished for Little Wars. I'm on a massive binge of trying to get figures, and scenics, (and some boats), finished and ready for playtesting by Dec-Jan.

(Arrr me hearties! Tis time to finish this band of scalawags up!)

(Working on some British Marines also, to give the old ball and bayonet to the Pirate scum!)

So then June rolled around....

JUNE:

So I started June off with a clean work desk.

And a clean painting room....

A friend of mine then said "You know that nature abhors a vacuum, and that this clean area will soon be littered with production "stuff"."

I nodded sadly. It was true.

When Father's Day rolled around my wife in her ever charming way, gave me an awesome gift....

And yes it was true.

I am now a cat daddy.

REARRANGING: 

The comedian Jeff Foxworthy once said, "When a woman says "I've been thinking", it usually means that you, as the husband, are going to end up buying something, moving something, fixing something, or painting something."

In this case though when my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), said "I've been thinking." I listened to her, (just like any wise husband should), and her idea made sense. 

Since I set up the gaming room, I haven't really been happy with the layout. I needed shelves and bookcases, yet the current layout prevented it. I also realized that the TV viewing area simply wasn't the best setup.

So I did some rearranging.

On the day that we went to get some donuts, we went down a side street and lo and behold, three bookcases sat on the sidewalk. The guy that had them had gotten new furniture and they didn't match so he was getting rid of them.

A couple of days later, I got 2 more off of FB marketplace.

I then set myself to the task of setting up the new layout for the game room.

I recreated the alcove area of bookcases that we had at our house in Indy. This gave me back to back shelf space, (which was quickly taken up).  I am always slightly flabbergasted as to the amount of space that 28mm terrain and scenery (15 does it's share also), takes up in storage. Next house will have an attached warehouse to it. 

So I went to work and finished it up.

(The new setup for the TV area. Bookshelves were moved and all of the books I had in storage are finally out and on the shelves. Some of them have disturbing titles...)

(The game table area (8' X 5', 40 sq ft of gaming table space), along with the display cases. Display case #3 on the far side has a burnt out light...again.)

(The front side of the new bookshelves with all of the "stuff" on it. )

(The back shelf "alcove", holding games, books, booze, terrain and scenery, and a wide amount of other stuff...)

A portion of one of the bookcases in the back alcove also was deemed to hold my liquor collection.

(Quite an interesting collection...)

The top shelf holds my bourbons and whiskies, (including a 30 year old bottle of Wild Turkey 101 rare breed that we purchased on Christmas night 2006, and the remnants from a cask of Jack Daniels that had been in the barrel from 1953 until 2007...

The second shelf holds mostly my rums including two bottles that cannot be purchased in the US, (long story on that one...).

The third shelf holds all the "others", (vodka, gin, blue curacao, schnapps, etc.).

The shelf below it holds some 15mm terrain and scenery in storage containers. I went a little "Sheldon Cooper" with the label-maker and labeled pretty much everything in the containers for easy ID.

(This top shelf holds all of my Blood and Plunder stuff...)

Against the back wall I had some artwork, certificates, and my collection of "old game convention badges" displayed.

The set across from this held boxes of miniature stuff, (top shelf being dedicated to SST), as well as rules, board games, etc.

The other shelves were also devoted to box games, RPGS, and boxes holding old Dragon, White Dwarf, and other Magazines.

Above it all on the top is my headgear collection, including my old original "steel pot", and my Boonie that I wore during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Down the side alcove is more terrain boxes, some kits, my entire town of Chili Verde and a whole lot more. All just waiting....

As well as the Flag of Bongolesia.

And I got my bookcases set up....

And then I added more figs to the display case, (in this "case" I added some more 18th century figures.)....

(Quite a few "Pirate Scum" on the second shelf I see....)

And all was good...

Until the following evening.

"We're taking water!!!!"

The next night I sat down with my wife and we had pizza and popcorn and watched "Oblivion" starring Tom Cruise. 

Outside the thunder rumbled and the rain fell...hard and long.

It was that "time of the year" in Indiana where strong summer storms could cause some problems.

And this one did. 

A series of storms came up from Texas and our state had already had 2-3 days of on/off rains and the ground was saturated and our creeks and storm drainage points were already backed up and full.

And the new rains fell.

At the end of the movie, I told my wonderful wife that I was going upstairs to bed. She likes to stay up late and binge watch her favorite TV shows.

As I was getting ready to go up, a little voice in my head said "You better check the basement first."

So I listened to the little voice. 

And I was glad I did.

Water, water everywhere.

The storm drains had backed up and we had water in the game room, in the painting room and the laundry mechanical room. as well as the entry way and bathroom.

(Towels, sheets, rags, and anything we could use that would soak up water out of rugs and the floor and slow down the flow of water..)

(Our poor overworked and overwhelmed shop vac once the floor started drying....)

After approx. 4 odd hours of water collecting and draining, we were finally exhausted and fell into bed.

During the night the storms passed and the drain system dropped in level and the water finally went down into the storm drain.

By the next morning, it was mostly a wide, wet, stain on the floor which required some mopping up and cleaning.

Sigh....

Also for the month of June, I was able to finally get some good US made flag display cases for my stepfather and my wife's moms funeral flags.

Now they are display, with the honor they deserve.

During this time, I had a friend of mine asking about size comparisons of different manufacturers of 28mm figures, so I set up a quick scale for him, (and anyone else that wants to use it).

(From left to right, Hawgleg, Monday Knight, Foundry, Foundry, Old Glory, Dixon, Dixon, Knuckleduster (the old 25mm stuff), and Gunfighters Ball (Knuckleduster new figures).

(Here's another version that you can see the varying heights of figures.)

And with the new room re-arrangement, it was just in time for the live broadcast of the US Army 250th BD parade.

Meanwhile on the "Cat Front" of things....

(Black cats are very unique, special, and magical in their own ways...)

(Making you wonder what they are often thinking in their uniqueness...Yes they are unique...)

(They can look at you and be quite intense in their gaze...)

(Sigh...and they can also be uniquely "weird"....)

One of the things we noticed was that while Juju was happy, she sometimes seemed depressed and lonely. 

So we discussed things over, my wife and I.

Actually she suggest and me, being the good husband that I am, said "Yes dear."

(And this is Gemma...)

I went back to the shelter because my wife had seen this tortie and loved her. She had been surrendered by her former owners who basically treated her as "a cat", and allowed her to get pregnant way too young. She had had a litter already and had been spayed. They didn't know her name so they just called her "Shakra". It didn't seem to fit, so we renamed her Gemma, (Latin for Gem).

We brought her home and did the slow introduction.

Lots of hissing and attitude, but slowly over the days, things got better. 

There was some of the legendary "Tortietude", but that's been pretty much gone.

(Bathroom duty...)

("Birding" together....)

Now they are pretty much a team.

And it's good for them.

Juju has a "sister", and Gemma has a "sister" and like Juju, now has a "forever home", where she can sleep in places, play as much as she wants, look out the windows, eat good food, and get loved on. 

And I finished up some more figs, getting them ready for flocking and sealing.

And this brought us up thought July and into August.

I went back and set up my water and terrain boards, (existing) to get an idea once again for next years Pirate Game for Little Wars. 

(8' X 5' = 40 sq ft and it still doesn't seem enough...)

And I added some more figures to the display case.

Now I am seeing a bend in the thin plexiglass shelving due to the weight of the figures, so it means I wil have to order a 1/4" piece and double up the two 1/8" pieces when it arrives.

Sigh.

It's always something.

And with that dear reader, I shall close out this overdue entry and get it out to you for your enjoyment.

Thanks for reading, take care, leave comments on what you like and what you would like to see as all comments are appreciated.

Stay tuned for there is more to come!

 

And the girls want to wish you a "Y'all come back soon now, ya' hear?"