Day 17

We began our morning with with the "Copper Coffee Pot" song.  Owen then shared a rather disappointing coffee song with us... it had some strong anti coffee sentiments!  We had a visitor join our circle, Mr. Clark, aka fencing coach and Village helper from Marlborough School.  He decided it might be a good idea to spend the morning with us and do some singing too.   Jesslyn brought a proper recorded version of  "Lean on Me", we weren't sure we had the pace right.  We then sang it and did A LOT of leaning!  Before moving on, we took a break to do some big stretches to wake everyone up.  It is important to be alert and energized when singing "Boom Chicka Boom", which we did next.  We hadn't sung this in a while and it is hard work!  We learned two new verses:  the Spencer verse and the Mr. T verse.  We are getting pretty good at this.

After our morning circle our day looked much like day 16, except that now we have many homesteaders with completed houses and all wood has been cut!  Now we just have to finish assembling all of the crazy little pieces.  Peep houses are small and you should be very impressed by what these homesteaders have accomplished in a small amount of time and in small scale!

Lunch came and went, as did swimming and neither activity seemed like the focus of the day.  We said good-bye to Mr. Clark and moved back into production mode.  Some homesteaders were busy in the peep loft printing money and building furniture.  Others were down at the sheep shed, painting houses and getting their final pieces cut.  

Town meeting was called to order at 3:21pm, a motion was then made and seconded to end town meeting.  It was the fastest meeting ever!  Other homesteaders did actually want to have a meeting and their wish was respected.  At 3:22pm another meeting was called to order.   The hot topic was based on rumors about a newspaper article that no one has seen yet.  Homesteaders are feeling like the Merc is too expensive. The moderator lost control of the meeting at this point and all I could understand were jeers about declaring "Nucular War on humans!!!"  Jacques interrupted and in his tiny French accent, gave us an English lesson, so we all understood that the correct pronunciation is "noo-clee-ar".  This sent Morton , who had quite a lot to drink before meeting, right off the deep end and he challenged Jacque to a duel.  Then he said, "You want to hear fighting words?  Yah, Yah!"

Moving on, and the meeting again under control, Marguete brought a safety concern to the towns' attention.  She alerted us that, "...the spigot area is wet, slimy, dirty and it's on a hill.  This is a safety issue and someone could fall and get brain damage."  Morton informed us that he could drown, choke or trip at anytime and it is part of life... "Seriously.  We are kids, we heal fast."  The federal government agreed to look at the problem and find a solution.  Next up we voted on flags and mottos.  The winning flag idea was drawn by Evie  and it is lovely, there is a picture below.  Motto suggestions were:

• Live Little or Die
• Live Little or Be Big
• Go Little or Go Home
• Little is the Only Way to Live
• Live Little and Think Big
• Be Little and Live Big

Our new town motto is:  "Live Little and Think Big".

Today we liked:

• that meeting is over
• the whole day!
• finishing furniture
• it was a gorgeous day
• its not raining
• mostly finished houses
• having the chance to say, "That is a despicable tie, french one!"
• having the whole group help name a new peep in town
• progress on houses

We wish:

• meeting was less boring
• Sarah H would feel better
• homesteaders would tell their parents to pack more high calorie snacks... kids get hungry!
• it isn't raining
• we had more swimming time today
• Morton had another keg
• we were less tired
• we finished painting
• accomplished more during meeting 

Tim came to help again today, cutting lumber orders.  Thanks Tim!

Evie introduces Pilik, which means ice crystals in the air.  Pilik is a 21 year old,  Intuit  Indian, born in Alaska.  She likes watching the stars on cold nights.  Lilly suggested that Pilik's fear be dry heat!

We decided to move the picnic table for fun again today

We had to ask Mr. Clark not to help

We had to remind Owen not to help either

This table does not look level!

Maybe if we add a cup of coffee and a marble, homesteaders will keep the load even

Almost there!

"A little to the left.  No really, a little to the left"

Lilly operates a jig saw

Spencer and Maria building houess

Maria has fashioned a fabulous roof using old blinds

Oops... This is supposed to be Maria's awesome roof, not my shadow, sorry

Dalton and Joe hard at work

Ced making progress

Spencer and Sarah taking a break... waiting for paint to dry, literally!

Joe with a very visible bright green roof!

Dalton and his more traditional black roof

Sarah sands around her doors and windows to prep for painting

Maria applies finishing touches

Alex and Lilly have snack while manning the trading post

Our new flag!  The thread, needle, and scissors represent craftsmanship (and Snips).  The abstract border represents new ideas.

A view of all contenders for the flag

Lilly introduces no name.  The town helped her turn this into a lovely name... Noname, which can be shortened to Nona.  She is 20 years old and part French, we're not sure which part though.  She has a radio active pet bunny that glows in the dark.   You may notice that this is Lilly's second peep intro.  Her first peep, Fire lost her head and died.