New storage shed

With selling our house and downsizing I needed somewhere to store my terrain and gaming stuff. I've slowly started moving my gaming gear down to my bach but there too I am short of space as there is no garage or outdoor storage to speak of- and I've no spare room inside. To solve this problem I  bought a wooden kitset shed to keep my terrain and bits and pieces. The only problem is I needed to pick it up from near Oxford in North Canterbury (a 320km round trip and and then take it down to the bach, another 100km or so from home).

 The location is a tad challenging, my bach is down a steep hill and there wasn't much in the way of access to the only spot where the 3m by 3m shed would fit. We have a bit of a car parking area up the hill above where I wanted to put it  and the only way to the site was down a steep bank so we had to do a bit of clearing of shrubs to give us better access. 

The shed came as a flat pack which easily fitted onto my trailer and was ready to assemble.

The only spot I had for it was on one of my outdoor decks at the back of the bach and had no easy access down to it. 

Man (or in this case woman) handling the walls down the slope. My wife was press ganged into helping.

The walls go up- it has a sort of bunker look to it.

 Putting the roof on.

 The view from above.

Only the doors to go.

Completed- and I still have a wee bit of my deck to enjoy the late afternoon sun :)

And the view from inside over the countryside out towards the Southern Alps.

Putting my feet up after finishing.

Next stage to get all my terrain etc down to the bach :)

Craig

WWI History 101

With the 100th anniversary coming up, time to work out who started it once and for all.

Easy really.

Borrowed from:  http://themetapicture.com/if-wwi-was-a-bar-fight/

Craig

Now that's what I call service!

NZ post, like a lot of gov't departments gets more than its fair share of flak but I'd just like to share a beyond the call of duty story.

We decided last year to move from the country to town with all the sports the kids play as well as our own work and hobbies (gaming, sports practices etc) we were racking up 500-600km per week. My wife was planning to give up work and retrain as a midwife (3 years of fulltime study) and with Hana about to go to high school it made sense to move into town to reduce expenses.

In the country we were on rural delivery which means our postie delivered using a 4wd and he had a run of a couple of hundred kms each day. Over the years we got to know our postie quite well as he andan  important part of the community.

It's been a year and a half now since we moved and I was just sitting out enjoying the sun on the first day of my holidays when who should rock up at the gate but our old postie. He had just finished his run and had a Christmas card from my wife's elderly aunt in Wales. Rather than return it to sender as would usually happen, at the end of his run he went out of his way to deliver it to us in town! I doubt that kind of service would have happened in a larger city but it's things like that which make living in smaller town or community so special.

Thanks Ken, very much appreciated

Craig

The passing of a legend

I, like may gamers, was saddened to hear of the passing of the one of the legends of our Hobby, Donald Featherstone at the ripe old age of 96 (not a bad innings that!). If modern wargaming traces its origins back to HG Wells Little Wars then the popularity of wargaming as a hobby today owes a lot to the seminal works of Featherstone (along with Grant and others) during the 1960s and 1970s.

Like many gamers growing up in the 70s and 80s my interest in war gaming started with the books of Donald Featherstone. My friend Ian and I must have had his books on semi-permanent loan from the Christchurch public library and the WWII rules in Wargames (by Lionel Tarr IIRC) were the basis of our own rules which we hand typed on an old typewriter (we were very keen 10 year olds!). Later we added elements of Operation Warboard and these rules were used by us for many, many years.

Featherstone’s books inspired me to delve further into history and introduced me to a hobby that as given me thousands of hours of enjoyment over the years. Even today I enjoy reading Featherstone’s books- they really were cookbook of ideas  and an approach that is missing from today’s much more polished rulesets- gamers were supposed to tinker, adapt and modify things to get the game that was right for them.  

 Donald Featherstone was one of the pioneers of our hobby and has been a major influence on it. In an era when there was no internet, or other instant means of communication to link people who shared a common interest, his books inspired wargamers around the world.

Farewell Donald, and thank you

Craig

Off Topic- Football

One of my other hobbies is football- or soccer as it tends to be called down here. Football is football but in NZ rugby is known as football which confuses the hell out of ex-pat poms.

I’ve been playing since I was 5 or 6 and had one year off when I was about 12 or 13 but have played every season since then- so coming up to 40 years all told!

As well as playing I coach my son’s team (12^th grade this year) and also look after our clubs C  team, playing and doing the ring round to get players each week (since nobody else would put their hand up to do it). For me the main aim is a bit of fitness on a Saturday afternoon and afterwards have a quiet beer or two with guys I’ve played footy for and against over the past decade or so. C division suits me these days, the fitness doesn’t need to be the same (rolling subs is a bonus)  and you get a bit more time on the ball than in the higher divisions.. The majority of players in our division are over 40, so it is a semi-masters grade, but most teams have a smattering of younger guys as well so there is a good mix of ages and abilities in the teams. We’ve a couple of guys in our team in their fifties and in their day were pretty accomplished footballers and can often still show us younger guys a thing or two. Being over 45 now I reckon each week I can get my boots and run round the park for 90 minutes is a bonus and so no longer take it for granted like I used to.

Anyhow, barring injuries I am playing most weeks and still enjoying it. One of the main reasons I am continuing is because I would like to have one year of having my son play in the same team before I retire. He’s 11 now so if I can keep playing for another 4 seasons or so (assuming my knees continue to hold up) then I may be able to make it and get him join us in the afternooons (high school footy is in the mornings). This year he has started training with us to help improve his skills and he is really enjoying practising with the adults (or B and C teams train together) and it’s helping his skills no end. On Saturday we had the bare minimum of players so I told my son to grab his gear just in case. Sure enough, 15-20 minutes into the game one of our players did his calf and left us with 10 players on the field so my son was on- a bit younger than intended. Our opposition were good about it and gave him plenty of time on the ball and didn’t tackle him too hard. The game ended up in a draw. My son had a couple of cracks at goal and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I was a bit worried at first but he played well, dribbled, passed, and tackled as needed and came off beaming. It won’t be a regular occurrence but that was the first time I’ve been in the same team and I hope in the next few years it won’t be the last.

 Craig