After songs we were joined by Sasha, Noah, Amy, Philhemina, and Maisie. Sasha helped some homesteaders finish up their house plans and move onto cardboard models. Noah, Philhemina and Maisie continued their boat building seminar. Amy taught a few of us how to do lumber orders at the trading post and some REALLY hard math! It turns out that buying materials to build an average peep home will cost about 400 snips. It's a good thing our loans are for 650 snips!
Tim Dunn also paid us a visit this morning to teach a community college course on political science. Homesteaders who attended this seemed a bit more on top of things during town meeting.
After lunch and a very nice dip in the pond we put those homesteaders back work, out on the land. Nearly all homesteaders have completed the qualifications to receive the deed to their land (mini acre). To receive a deed (to be used as collateral against federal loans) homesteaders must: create a permanent fence around their property, place a lot marker on their property, and draw a map of their property. Whew! That was a lot of work!
The first item on the agenda for town meeting was Government. Dalton proposed a democratic society to elect three leaders as soon as possible. Lily volunteered that theses individuals could be known as "select peeps". This measure partially passed, when the moderator called for the vote, she said, "All those in favor of a democratic society, say I." The part about the three individuals got left behind and went unnoticed. Dalton said, "Leaders will do the right thing and make good decisions. Leaders will legislate while the rest of village plays capture the flag." Cedric responded with, "That won't work! They could make a law against touching the river while we're playing and we wouldn't have a say!" Direct democracy was then proposed. Discussion ensued. Dalton stood by his idea and said, "People could suggest laws to the select peeps." Then much of the town was in an uproar about law makers being corrupt. Impeachment was mentioned, to this it was replied, "If impeached you might go bonkers. We wouldn't want that!" Direct democracy was voted on and passed.
With our government in place it was time to get down to business. It was proposed that we make some laws. There was a unanimous vote in favor of a no stealing law. Things got a little tricky when punishment was discussed. We realized, once again, that someone would need to enforce these laws. "We need police!" "Roarie will pay for it." "Let's raise taxes!" Oh my!!! Homesteaders voted on a measure to raise a 2 snip tax per week per homesteader to pay the salary of a police peep. The first time this vote was called it looked like a tie. We voted again and the measure passed, I think partly because people weren't paying attention....
Dalton tried to introduce a measure to repeal the tax but we ran out of time and the measure was tabled. By the time the meeting was over Ali had tried to storm away "... because this is SO BORING!!!!!", Tayissa had fallen asleep and many others had been off in lala land. I wonder if maybe direct democracy wasn't the right choice. It seems like a lot of peeps don't really want to participate in such an active role. We shall see what tomorrow brings!
Today we liked:
- swimming
- deed work
- working on boats
- making progress
- finishing canoes
- that town meeting ended
- the whole day!
- Tim Dunn
- ultimate Frisbee
We wish:
- cardboard models weren't so hard to make
- town meeting was more interesting
- we finished our cardboard models
- for chocolate cake
- we brought more lunch
- we will have time for a DEEP swim tomorrow
- we played capture the flag
- we swam longer
- we found Rolph
Please remember to send your homesteader with plenty of food and a water bottle. It is very hot out and we work VERY hard!
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