Literary Hills and Valleys... 5 December

Books, magazines,  and styrofoam blocks create our rolling hillsides and farmland.  Just make sure you won't have an urge to read any of those tomes for the next few months...

There's lots of planning and foresight required here - just like real urban planning...a town center, a business district, residential, agricultural...

Trains! Bring on the kids... 21 November, 2009

Next, bring the train table up from the basement and set it up in the Dining Room.
Now it's P's turn to shine...dusting off the trains, cleaning track, wiring and re-wiring...

Then the nephews are invited over to help.  They make sure that all trains are up to snuff, that all switches are working - very important work!    It's also a great excuse to get the family together and do some pre-holiday gluttony.  I think (hope)  it will become our holiday season kickoff, as this part of it really needs to be underway BEFORE Thanksgiving!

Groundbreaking - or, the difference between soil and dirt... 10 October

Groundbreaking, in the world of village building means literally that - going out to the backyard and filling buckets with dirt - oops - I mean soil.  Though we have 3 acres, and more open land around, we actually had to import our soil from our dear friend who is a Botanical Wiz..
In fact, she is the one who chastised me for calling it "dirt".  Dirt is what you sweep off your floors - soil is what you plant your garden in! 
Anyhow, our "backyard" is composed primarily of gneiss outcroppings and pine needles, so yes, we imported dirt.  Soil, that is.