Is it time to count down to Challenge? We are past Thanksgiving! We

34 days, 3 hours & 40 38 37 minutes (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Secessionist rumblings within Team Mueller have already begun!

Eric Mueller said:

Secessionist rumblings within Team Mueller have already begun!

we all knew this would happen. she has been doing more and more her self. Or are we talking all out blow the whole team apart and ever man, woman and child for themselves? The Hawaiian bloodbath of 2020/2021! Good luck keeping a semblance of peace in the build area if THAT happens, " you took that part I was going to use" “No I saw It first” "DAD, I told you I was using it and you took it, I’m telling CINCHOUSE. And wait til the kids start in too!!! LOL

Eric, I don’t know what’s up in your house of course, but the traitors…er…secessionists in my household lost interest in trains about the same age/ages. Nowadays, they admit they think the trains are really nice running around the yard during one of our outdoor summer dinners, and they still enjoy a once-a-year trip (not twice!) to Greeley to the Greeley Freight Station Museum (geez, I hope they’re open this year thanks to this damn Covid deal), but other than that? Not much.

But what the heck, let’s get real, I was only half-pretending trains were mostly for them when they were younger so I could justify the ridiculous expenditures! Yeah, sure, they enjoyed trains a lot then, and it was good for a few years, but trains were really about me all along of course!

EDIT: I’ll mention, however, they do enjoy working on the layout and yard when they’re earning spending money; they really do. They get a genuine sense of accomplishment making the trains run well and look great. But, yeah, they don’t care about the train hobby anymore!

Of course if the kids liked trains we would tell them to build their own layout!

Gents,

To CINCHOUSE the honors with the guiding orders of “It cannot be just your hobby.” I have been lucky to date, and, in truth, as the gang gets older, it is harder to wrangle them into a single project. They tend to drift in and out depending upon what the project is and what stage it is in. The Mik holds a special allure, though, popping up in conversation throughout the year. O.D. knows she could give me a run for my money. We shall see…Boys vs. Girls, Kids vs. Dad, Free-for-All, or All-for-One-One-for-All. TBD…

Beyond the Mik, when I have to use “I” and “me” instead of “we” and “us” in these posts is coming, so I am enjoying this while I can. CINCHOUSE and I both take great satisfaction in seeing that the girls in particular have taken the hobby’s skills like research, planning, budgeting, trial and error and applied them in their own ways to their own pursuits, approaching problems with “what can I make” instead of “what can I buy,” and some of that spirit is beginning to emerge in their younger siblings. I am not sure if any of them are going to wake up one day and say, “Dad, I’d like to make a model of Dillingham’s parlor car. Can we go to the museum and get some measurements?” I am hopeful, even confident, though, we have more than a few years of discussing crafting, gardening, modeling, and problem solving ahead of us. Maybe one of them will even be able to teach me to make a straight saw cut!

And, yeah, a big part of this is for me. For me to get outside. For me to get away without going anywhere. For me to have something to do. I guess I am very lucky my heritage fleet, while lacking in any coherency in terms of time and place, drifted intact and in operating order to the present and thus allowed me to focus on getting something up and rolling immediately instead of acquisition, which would’ve delayed the Golden Spike until sometime this decade…

Eric

Well the real reason you have to use them is that they are your secret weapon!

Bill,

You are correct! Imagination, passion, and skill, with imagination being first and foremost their most potent addition to my arsenal! Bwah! Ha! HA! HA!

Eric

Unfair your kids are cute, smart and helpful, we have child labor laws in this country to protect the little buggers you know, so there!!!

This is getting to be dumb. I don’t know if I will survive two more days

Devon Sinsley said:

This is getting to be dumb. I don’t know if I will survive two more days

Just be patient my friend. Hopefully by the time you get up on Friday, Santa Dave will have dropped our present here on this here forum