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The Adventurer's Guide to Life at Home, Part 2: Home Edventures Ann pulled up her Status Screen: Ann of Owlshire Multiclassed Main Class: Adventurer (Level 8) (+1) (Reprioritized!) Sub Class: Scribe (Level 12) (+1) (active) Sub Class: Smallholder (level 4) (+1) (active) It was nice to see the levels going up again. Her work in Sims had gone up considerably over the last few weeks and stretched her skills; she'd focused on the chickens and the garden and all were doing well. But also, adventures were back! Not big ones. Not the traveling-across-the-world type adventures. But it was clear she and the Enting were a bit restless: they needed to get out and explore beyond the Forest. So day adventures were on back on the roster. Oh hi! I'm a 45 year old American woman now living in the beautiful Forest of Dean, England. These days I spend most of my time home educating our son the Enting (aged 7), working as a gamedev, and tending to our 10 acre pasture-and-woodland property we call Owlshire. I made the last challenge overcomplicated--life got busy and it was too much to keep track of. This challenge I'm simplifying: (Raising an) Adventurer I know, wasn't I supposed to be about living local? But the Enting recently told me that he's bored of going to the same groups every week and seeing the same people, and wants to go on more adventures. I'm not surprised in hindsight--he loves novelty, and we haven't done a lot of "adventuring" since our US desert road trip last November. The Forest still feels like an exciting adventure to me as it's only been four of my 45 years, but Enting moved here when he was two. It's just normal life. A big adventure away isn't in the cards at the moment, so I've been investigating places for day and short overnight trips. He's also into Pikmin Bloom right now, which happily means he wants to go walking every day but doesn't require me to always find new and unique walks the way geocaching did. This is helpful, because as much as I love finding new places to walk... having to do it for every walk was a lot of work. Go on Adventures Ideally, it'll be a mix: high effort adventures and lower effort adventures. I don't want to overdefine or overformulate what "counts" as an adventure. I just want to go on them. 10,000+ steps a day, most of the time Class Simulations (aka Gamedev Work) The project I'm working with has had an uptick in activity, and now I'm working on it for an hour or two most days a week (and that's just the butt-in-seat time). I need to make more space for this, and keep it sustainable. 5 hours a week (but not more than 10 until funding comes through!). One marker per hour. Tending Owlshire After much effort over these last few weeks, the chickens and the garden are now in maintenance mode, and as such have been wrapped into one combined goal. Make sure the garden stays watered, weeded, harvested Make sure chickens are cared for (including continued assaults on the Red Mite War) Can I make it to the end of this challenge? I guess we'll find out....

Ranger Level 5.0 - Tracking Skill Challenge Facing the last two enemies, Hal heard a noise coming down the road. Glancing in that direction, she saw a group of armed villagers coming up behind the gnolls. She charged towards the pack lord hoping to kill it while it was distracted with the newcomers, but while she scored a good hit, it didn't quite fall. However, the villagers were quickly able to take down the nearly dead pack lord and the one remaining gnoll. One of the villagers keeping watch on the edge of the Kitrun Grove village had heard the gnolls attack and gathered anyone nearby with weapons to come help. Kitrun Grove is far enough north that it gets completely snowed in during the winter. The last travelers to leave the region before it was cut off from the rest of the country had informed the Ranger’s Guild that there might be some sort of dangerous creature causing problems. During the fall, some livestock had been killed and dragged off and two of the villagers had simply never returned from a foraging trip into the forest. The village and livestock holed up in their homes and barns once the snow got deep and there were no further incidents during the winter, but over dinner at the village inn, Hal heard that several goats, recently turned out to graze in the fields near the edge of the forest, had disappeared two nights before with bloodstained patches of grass left behind. Clearly, this creature, whatever it was, had survived the winter and was planning to stay in the area. The villagers were more than happy to show Hal where the goats had been killed so she could start tracking this creature to figure out what it was and how to deal with it. It’s skill challenge time! I’m tracking the creature to its lair! When I do the things, I get to make a skill check. I get points based on the DC that I meet. The goal is to accumulate 150 points during the challenge. (Updated to 180 points during Week Zero.) Gym Workout = Stealth Check Hiking = Survival Check (proficiency bonus doubled for favored terrain) Cleaning = Investigation Check Stretching = Acrobatics Check Bouldering/Climbing = Athletics Check Daily Walk = Constitution Check DC 10 = 1 point DC 15 = 2 points DC 20 = 3 points DC 25 = 5 points In addition, I’m still doing my Exploration (1 xp per mile walked, roll for loot every 5 miles), Fletching (yardwork, mostly pulling blackberries), Alarm spell (waking up by a certain time), and Short Rest (morning and evening candles, brush teeth). Technically I got Level 2 spells when I reached Level 5, but I’m not doing a whole lot with spells this challenge, so I’m going to pick them later when it makes more sense. Oh, since I didn't really introduce myself, I'm Ranger Hal, and this is a D&D challenge to make sure I do the things and improve my hiking stamina (and also hopefully stop getting stupid minor injuries). My current nerdy thing is Critical Role. I'm at Episode 57 of Campaign 3. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson* (new book coming in a couple of weeks, yay!). *But no spoilers for Wind and Truth because I'm in the middle of rereading a bunch of the other books before I start that one.

Howdy, nice to meet y'all! I hope to get to know a bunch of you Little bit about me... I'm a 25 year old dude from Upstate NY (NOT THE CITY THANK GOD), looking for new friends and like-minded fitness addicts . I've grown up on a farm for the majority of my life, after highschool got my CNA cert and helped take care of my closest friend, a severely disabled cousin of mine who died shortly after. That led me down a dark path which has gotten a lot lighter since then thankfully. During that time, got heavily into calisthenics and fitness, (among other things like music and drumming) and its helped me thru some tough times. I'm fairly fit rn, mostly from the years of farm work, aiming to add more muscle and maintain current bf%. I'm continuing to work on myself and help out on the farm when I can, but my main job now is in a factory that builds wooden furniture and play equipment for children and toddlers, and that keeps me super busy. Due to work being quite physically demanding, I can't afford to work out before breakfast or I'll be a zombie at work so I try to work out in the evenings as I manage. Current goals are: •get better at going to bed on time •less screen time •learn a few new songs on the drums •and ofc improve my strength in the gym Anyways, will hopefully get to know some of y'all a bit! I'm happy to talk about basically anything as long as you don't mind me potentially saying a lot depending on the topic

Ranger Level 4.2 - Gaining Momentum Moving on after the goblin ambush, Hal felt like she was gaining momentum. The longer days and warmer weather were helping with that and she was starting to cover more ground. The mountains to the north were starting to become visible through the trees. Maybe she would reach her destination soon. Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Things actually seem to be improving. I think having a regular wake-up time has been helpful. I'm still going in to work kind of late (I don't have an exact start time, but it was getting pretty bad for a while), but it's a little better than it was and when I had an "early" meeting this week (it was not actually early, just earlier than I'm usually in), it wasn't that big a deal to get up a bit earlier than usual to be on time. I feel like I'm making efforts to be slightly more social which is helping (during Covid, a couple of my communities either disappeared entirely or significantly reduced in-person interactions which kind of became a loneliness issue over the last year or two). And I've actually been doing some hikes again the last couple of weeks. And I even did a little bit of stretching during zero week. My current nerdy thing is Critical Role. I'm at Episode 46 of Campaign 3. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. Spoiler for D&D challenge rules that largely haven't changed in the last couple of challenges. Things that have changed: Penalties are back for missing workouts and cleaning. Alarm is currently at 7:30 and I'm considering shifting it earlier again. I'm kind of hoping to level up at the end of this challenge. It might be doable!

Prologue Ann gazed longingly at her new friend’s caravan. The stories of their recent travels. Ann had been—was—an Adventurer, too. Just last year she'd flown thousands of miles to a desert region and then traveled more than a thousand miles more on land, on a solo trip with her young, Adventurer-in-training son. Many years before that she’d moved to a new continent that she now called home. She’d… she’d… once she’d been cool. But life was different now. Ann and her family had settled at Owlshire. She had the hens, the gardens, and the woodlands that had called to her for years; the spirits singing of it in her dreams. She loved it, of course, but now the Adventures were rare and few between the daily activities of Enting’s education, chicken keeping, wood gathering, and weeding the garden. Hens and gardens don’t mix well with life on the road, and there was a part of her that missed all the Adventure her life used to include. Ann felt a System Notification ping. She’d had a few of those lately, and ignored them. She didn’t want to see what they said. But it was probably time to face the facts. With a sigh, Ann pulled up her quickstats: Ann of Owlshire Multiclassed Main Class: Smallholder (level 2) (active) Sub Class: Scribe (Level 11) (active) Sub Class: Adventurer (Level 7) (deprioritized) “Deprioritized?!” This was exactly the sort of thing she didn’t want to see. Ann opened up the Smallholder Class Description. She hadn’t noticed it before and she already had two levels! Smallholder The smallholder tends to an area of land with the intent of using it to provide food and other supplies for their household. This can include edible gardening, keeping livestock, foraging, cooking from scratch, making goods (for use or sale), creating and using firewood for heat, putting in solar panels, and many, many other related activities. Smallholders also look for a community of like-minded people for camaraderie, information, and trading of goods and services. “Okay, System. I got the message.” And she meant it. They were here in the Enchanted Forest to make a life and find their tribe. It was time to prioritize growing roots, not pulling them up. To connect with the spirits that had called her to this place, certainly with unrevealed plans of their own… Ann also noticed her Scribe class was still active, and she decided that maybe she just needed to do what she had as an Adventurer—get grinding—and write about it. … But sometimes the call to Adventure still comes, and it’s best to be ready for that, too.

Hal turned towards the lizardfolk shaman, the only one remaining of the group of lizardfolk that had ambushed her camp which was a little ways off the road. She swung her shortsword at it, missing, and it tried to bite her and then slash her with its claws, but she dodged out of the way. With her next attack, her sword sank into its side. The shaman pulled away to the other side of the clearing and Hal fired her longbow, an arrow sinking deeply into its leg, causing it to stumble. Taking advantage of the opening, she ran up and finished it off with her shortsword. Among the pouches tied to their belts, she found a collection of coins, mostly silver and copper, but some gold as well. Finishing her night's rest, she woke up a little disoriented and headed in the direction she thought was the road, but instead she ended up wandering for a couple of days before eventually getting her bearings and locating the road not far from where she had left it. A little frustrated with the delay, she started heading north again towards her mountain village destination. Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Last challenge kind of derailed when I stopped tracking. I kept doing some things anyway, but others just stopped or were very sporadic. I'm not making major changes this challenge. Basically just trying to get back on track and do the things again. My current nerdy thing is Critical Role. I'm at Episode 29 of Campaign 3. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. Stats I'm a Level 4 Ranger. My favored enemy is Plants (due to the blackberries in my yard that I'm currently at war with) and my favored terrain is the Forest. I decided to roll for stats and they are Strength 12, Dexterity 17, Constitution 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 17, Charisma 11. My AC is 15 and I have 28 hit points. Combat Encounters Workouts give me ranged attacks. I get 10 xp per workout. Minimum of 3 workouts per week and one of them has to be on the weekend. If I skip a workout, the enemy gets to make an attack against me (ranged if they have one, but melee otherwise). Cleaning gives me melee attacks. I'm getting rid of rolling dice to see which chore I'm doing. It was a fun idea, but a little too random for actually getting all the chores done in a somewhat orderly fashion. I have the option of taking one day off on the weekend with no penalty. I don’t have to finish a given task (although I can if I want to), I just have to work on it for 5 minutes. If the kitchen is a disaster and dishes are piled up, I can work on that instead. If I skip a day of cleaning, the enemy gets to make an attack against me (but only one attack is possible per weekend). This challenge has lots of stuff happening on the weekends for the next few weeks due to church stuff, so no penalty for missing weekend workouts for Weeks 1-3. Also, no penalty for missing cleaning on those weekends and a few of the busier weekdays. Spells At Level 4, I have 3 spells and I get 10xp per level of spell that I cast: Hail of Thorns: If an outdoor walking or hiking workout is an hour or more, I can use a bonus action to cast Hail of Thorns. Goodberry: If I bake breakfast cookies, I can cast Goodberry which gives me 4 berries that can be eaten at any point during the week to restore 1 hp each. Hunter's Mark: I cast it the first time that I do a stretching session. For each stretching session I do during the week, I can add Hunter's Mark damage to one of my attacks for the day. Ritual Spells: At Level 4, I decided to take the Ritual Caster feat. I’m modifying the feat a little so I can ritual cast the Ranger spells that have ritual tags. Alarm: If I get up at or before the specified time, it counts as ritual casting Alarm. Current time is 8:00, but I'm considering moving it a little earlier. Probably not every week because last time I moved it, I sabotaged my sleep by staying up way too late for a while. That seems to have mostly settled down, so maybe it's time to move it earlier and see what happens. Exploration For every 5 miles that I walk, I get to roll on a loot table. I also get an extra roll if I get a daily walk every day of the week. Daily walk distance is a minimum of 1 mile. I also get 1 xp per mile I walk. For each bouldering or climbing session I do, I get 3 xp and for each new V3 or higher boulder route or 5.11- climb route that I complete, I get another 2 xp. Fletching This part of the challenge is dealing with the blackberries around my house. For every day I do any chopping of the blackberries, I can attempt to create arrows on a short rest. At this point, I need to make a dexterity check (DC 10) to successfully make an arrow and I can attempt 1d4 arrows per short rest. After creating 250 arrows (I'm currently at 71), I will be proficient in using the woodcarver's tools to make arrows and can start attempting more interesting arrows (maybe fire arrows, maybe magic arrows, I haven't decided yet). Short Rest I will have taken a short rest and can roll hit dice if I have done candles for morning and evening prayers and brushed my teeth. Long Rest Long rests occur at the end of every week, so on Monday morning my hit points reset to full. If I die during the week, I regenerate on Monday morning, but earn no experience points for the week in which I died. Finishing Notes I will level up at the end of the challenge if I have a total of more than 6500 xp. With my incomplete tracking from last challenge, I'm calling it currently 4023, so we'll see what happens.

With the pay she got from the watch post for exploring the tunnel that opened into their basement (taking care of the cult she found hiding down there was a job for more than a single ranger), Hal picked up some better armor from one of the city’s leathersmiths. She also spent some time studying in the guild hall. While she didn’t regret the time spent in the city (that spell she’d picked up in her studies would come in handy for making sure nothing could sneak up on her camp at night), it was time to get back on the road. After all, rangers are made for wandering. Her Guild Leader had mentioned that a village in the mountains to the north had reported some dangerous creatures just before they were snowed in for the winter. The villagers usually stayed inside due to the weather for most of the winter, but as soon as spring came, they would be out and about and targets for whatever creatures had survived the harsh cold. Maybe it would turn out be nothing, but it was a direction to go. If she started heading that way now, she might make it up there before the village melted out. Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but aside from the occasional hike and SAR, I haven't been doing much of that for a while. I'm trying to work on that, but motivation is low. This challenge, I’m planning to mostly keep doing the things, but add in getting out of bed at a slightly more reasonable time (starting at 8:15 and gradually moving earlier) and add back penalties for missing workouts. My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm at Episode 19 of Campaign 3. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. Stats I'm now a Level 4 Ranger. My favored enemy is Plants (due to the blackberries currently trying to swallow one corner of my house) and my favored terrain is the Forest. I decided to roll for stats and they are Strength 12, Dexterity 17, Constitution 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 17, Charisma 11. My AC is 15 and I have 28 hit points. Combat Encounters Workouts give me ranged attacks. I get 10 xp per workout. Minimum of 3 workouts per week and one of them has to be on the weekend. If I skip a workout, the enemy gets to make an attack against me (ranged if they have one, but melee otherwise). Cleaning gives me melee attacks. I have a list of chores and will roll (d20) to see what I will be cleaning every day. I have the option of taking one day off on the weekend with no penalty. I don’t have to finish a given task (although I can if I want to), I just have to work on it for 5 minutes. If the kitchen is a disaster and dishes are piled up, I can work on that instead. If I’ve already done the task that I roll, I will move on to the next highest numbered task in the list. If I skip a day of cleaning, the enemy gets to make an attack against me (but only one attack is possible per weekend). Spells At Level 4, I have 3 spells and I get 10xp per level of spell that I cast: Hail of Thorns: If an outdoor walking or hiking workout is an hour or more, I can use a bonus action to cast Hail of Thorns. Goodberry: If I bake breakfast cookies, I can cast Goodberry which gives me 4 berries that can be eaten at any point during the week to restore 1 hp each. Hunter's Mark: I cast it the first time that I do a stretching session. For each stretching session I do during the week, I can add Hunter's Mark damage to one of my attacks for the day. Ritual Spells: At Level 4, I decided to take the Ritual Caster feat. I’m modifying the feat a little so I can ritual cast the Ranger spells that have ritual tags. Alarm: If I get up at or before the specified time (moving earlier each week or two), it counts as ritual casting Alarm. Exploration For every 5 miles that I walk, I get to roll on a loot table. I also get an extra roll if I get a daily walk every day of the week. Daily walk distance is a minimum of 1 mile. I also get 1 xp per mile I walk. For each bouldering or climbing session I do, I get 3 xp and for each new V3 or higher boulder route or 5.11- climb route that I complete, I get another 2 xp. Fletching This part of the challenge is dealing with the blackberries around my house. For every day I do any chopping of the blackberries, I can attempt to create arrows on a short rest. At this point, I need to make a dexterity check (DC 10) to successfully make an arrow and I can attempt 1d4 arrows per short rest. After creating 250 arrows (I'm currently at 44), I will be proficient in using the woodcarver's tools to make arrows and can start attempting more interesting arrows (maybe fire arrows, maybe magic arrows once I have access to spells, I haven't decided yet). This has been on hold for a few weeks because either the ground was frozen or there was snow on it (our snow doesn’t usually stick around for more than a day or two, so this has been a weird winter). Most of the snow melted today, so maybe I can start up again, but we’ll see. It’s still pretty cold out there. Songs I'm sort of tracking the days I practice memorizing songs. I have some thoughts about using this to bump up Charisma to allow a multiclass into Bard (if I still want to do it when I get to that point), but I haven't worked out all the details yet. I’m also tracking number of songs memorized. I’m not doing a whole lot with this right now, but I don’t want to drop it completely. Short Rest I will have taken a short rest and can roll hit dice if I have done candles for morning and evening prayers and brushed my teeth. Long Rest Long rests occur at the end of every week, so on Monday morning my hit points reset to full. If I die during the week, I regenerate on Monday morning, but earn no experience points for the week in which I died. Social Encounters I feel like this was a good idea, but I don’t have a lot of incentive to work on it right now. Maybe something for the future. I’m leaving it here so I don’t forget. Finishing Notes I will level up at the end of the challenge if I have a total of more than 6500 xp. As this is more than double my current xp, I won’t be too surprised if I don’t make it and that’s okay.

Hal managed to drive off the Hobgoblin and the remaining weasels, but sustained some injuries that meant staying in the forest alone could be dangerous. She limped her way to the town and caught a ride on a wagon headed south to the city. The Ranger’s guild hall would give her a place to stay while she recovered from her injuries and built up her strength. By the time she arrived in the city, her wounds had mostly healed, but she was still a bit stiff and sore. The Guild Leader looked her over. “Sitting around doing nothing won’t do you any good. The city watch post a few streets over discovered a network of tunnels that open into their basement. They’re short staffed right now, so they haven’t been able to do more than put a sturdy door on the entrance to keep intruders out, but they’re very interested in knowing where the tunnels go and are willing to pay someone to explore them.” The watch captain opened the door so she could look inside. It wasn’t too cramped, but her longbow would be difficult to use in the confined space. Hal went back to her guild hall to borrow a hand crossbow from the armory before returning to the tunnels to see what this new adventure had in store for her. Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but aside from the occasional hike and SAR, I haven't been doing much of that for most of a year. And last month, I managed to get my back and hips all tied up in knots doing something that (in my mind at least) shouldn't have been a problem and while things are getting better (it was much slower than I'd have liked), my hips in particular still feel a little weird. Anyway, while I was getting exercise a couple of times a week (although that slipped a bit prior to the injury due to sickness and holidays), I'm wondering whether I let my hiking fitness slip enough to cause the injury. So I've decided to focus more on daily walking (and eventually hiking at least once or twice a week) to hopefully rebuild to a place where I don't have to worry about injuries that shouldn't have happened. My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm just a few episodes into Campaign 3. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. Stats I'm now a Level 3 Ranger. My favored enemy is Plants (due to the blackberries currently trying to swallow one corner of my house) and my favored terrain is the Forest. I decided to roll for stats and they are Strength 12, Dexterity 17, Constitution 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 17, Charisma 11. My AC is 14 and I have 24 hit points. Combat Encounters Workouts give me ranged attacks. I get 10 xp per workout. No penalties this time for skipping workouts because I don't want to push too hard and get hurt again. Cleaning gives me melee attacks. I have a list of chores and will roll (d20) to see what I will be cleaning every day. I have the option of taking one day off on the weekend with no penalty. I don’t have to finish a given task (although I can if I want to), I just have to work on it for 5 minutes. If the kitchen is a disaster and dishes are piled up, I can work on that instead. If I’ve already done the task that I roll, I will move on to the next highest numbered task in the list. If I skip a day of cleaning, the enemy gets to make an attack against me (but only one attack is possible per weekend). Spells At Level 3, I have 3 spells: Hail of Thorns, Goodberry, and Hunter's Mark and I get 10xp per level of spell that I cast. If an outdoor walking or hiking workout is an hour or more, I can use a bonus action to cast Hail of Thorns. If I bake breakfast cookies, I can cast Goodberry which gives me 4 berries that can be eaten at any point during the week to restore 1 hp each. For Hunter's Mark, I cast it the first time that I do a stretching session. For each stretching session I do during the week, I can add Hunter's Mark damage to one of my attacks for the day. Exploration For every 4 daily walks that I go on, I get to roll on a loot table to see how much pay I get from the guards. Walk distance is starting out at 0.5 miles, but I'm planning to increase that over time. We'll see how that goes. I'm not sure how well the loot table is balanced, so if it gets too insane, I might set a reasonable cap for the challenge. For each bouldering or climbing session I do, I get 3 xp and for each new V3 or higher boulder route or 5.11- climb route that I complete (or V2 that I've really struggled with), I get another 2 xp. Fletching This part of the challenge is dealing with the blackberries around my house. For every day I do any chopping of the blackberries, I can attempt to create arrows on a short rest. At this point, I need to make a dexterity check (DC 10) to successfully make an arrow and I can attempt 1d4 arrows per short rest. After creating 250 arrows (I'm currently at 44), I will be proficient in using the woodcarver's tools to make arrows and can start attempting more interesting arrows (maybe fire arrows, maybe magic arrows once I have access to spells, I haven't decided yet). Songs I'm sort of tracking the days I practice memorizing songs. I have some thoughts about using this to bump up Charisma to allow a multiclass into Bard (if I still want to do it when I get to that point), but I haven't worked out all the details yet. I’m also tracking number of songs memorized. Short Rest I will have taken a short rest and can roll hit dice if I have done candles for morning and evening prayers and brushed my teeth. Long Rest Long rests occur at the end of every week, so on Monday morning my hit points reset to full. If I die during the week, I regenerate on Monday morning, but earn no experience points for the week in which I died. Social Encounters I feel like this was a good idea, but I don’t have a lot of incentive to work on it right now. Maybe something for the future. I’m leaving it here so I don’t forget. Finishing Notes and XP Cap I will level up at the end of the challenge if I have a total of more than 2700 xp. I think I'm past the point where I'm likely to get enough xp to entirely skip a level, so I'm dropping the xp cap.

Sooooo, technically I leveled up to Level 3 at the end of last challenge, but I haven't really figured out where I want to go from here, so I'm going to keep going with Level 2. Hopefully I will have figured out something by the end of the month. Not gonna type up/copy all the intro stuff from last time. If you want to see it, here's last challenge.

I’m back. Sort of. When I was last participating in the Rebellion, I was just finishing up a four year game dev job to begin full-time home educating my son, the Enting. This has so far proved an excellent adventure with a variety of new opportunities opened to us from attending a board game convention to the US Embassy London to taking part in an archaeological dig. At the moment, Enting and I are two weeks into a three week journey in the SW USA, starting in Phoenix AZ, catching a bus to Yuma, then road tripping with my sisters 1,500 miles across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with stops along the way at National Parks and other sites of interest. For the next several days we’re in Austin staying with my eldest sister for Thanksgiving with various little day trips. It’s been quite the adventure so far! Then it’s a return to the UK where I don’t have any travel plans for a while. (But then again, this mega trip was planned on two week’s notice…). In any case, there’s been a load of pictures taken of me on this trip, and I hate all of them. In short, I don’t like how my body looks right now. My weight has been creeping for a while and stopping work changed my routine and I don’t get as much daily exercise. I’m sure my eating is out of whack as well. But whatever the cause, it’s high time to deal with it. Goal: Figure out how to lose weight/centimeters in the new paradigm and do it. I suspect these involve my old standards of: 1. Less eating. 2. More hiking. Plus: 3. (New!) Add strength exercises. (Things like squats, burpees, pilates?) Once I’m back in the UK I’ll weigh myself and do measurements. While I’m still in the US I’ll just do what I can to eat sensible and get physical activity. Consider it a soft start to this challenge! I may even expand the challenge later and add an actual theme. Who knows? In the meantime, I’m going to take it as fortuitous sign that the challenge forums conveniently reset on the day I thought it was time to return. Hello!

Ranger Level 2 - The Safe House Spoiler for story from Level 1 (in case you're curious about what happened previously) Now that the Needle Blight infestation in the Veridian Forest had been eliminated, it was time to search for the Ranger safe house. Hal’s thoughts returned to the overgrown spring that she’d seen earlier. Someone had lined the pool below the spring with stones to make it easier to collect water. And it wasn’t too far from the south edge of the forest. That seemed like a good place to start looking for the safe house. Hal began trekking through the dense evergreen trees in that direction. Using the spring as a starting point, Hal began searching in widening circles. About 200 feet northeast of the spring, she located it. It was a massive stump of a tree, nearly 20 feet in diameter and around 15 feet tall. She might not have realized what it was except for the small carving of a ranger symbol in the uneven surface of the stump. Closer inspection revealed a carefully concealed door that swung inward after a brief shove. As she listened at the doorway, peering into the darkness, she could hear rustling movement inside. Apparently at some point in the last 30 years, something else had made this its home, and her first step in restoring the safe house would be to clear out the current inhabitants. Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but aside from the occasional hike and SAR, I haven't been doing much of that for most of a year and I'm still working on how to get myself in good enough shape to feel comfortable joining more of those activities again, especially the ones that require being able to hike uphill at a decent pace, because I feel pretty slow right now (slow being relative, but a lot of climbers tend to be fast hikers). My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm at about Campaign 2, Episode 120. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. Stats At the end of last challenge, I leveled up, so I'm now a Level 2 Human Ranger. My favored enemy is Plants (due to the blackberries currently trying to swallow one corner of my house) and my favored terrain is the Forest. I decided to roll for stats and they are Strength 12, Dexterity 17, Constitution 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 17, Charisma 11. My AC is 14 and I have 20 hit points. At Level 2, I chose Archery as my fighting style, so I have an extra +2 to attack rolls with ranged weapons (hopefully this means I won't have as much trouble with shooting turkeys as I did last challenge, lol! Forest Encounters Forest Encounter combat consists of workouts. I get 10 xp per workout and get to attack an enemy. If I skip a workout, the enemy gets to attack me. If I skip a workout due to SAR and do some exercise, it counts as a workout. If I skip a workout due to SAR and don't get any exercise, the enemy gets to attack, but I get to dodge. I plan to do 3-4 workouts per week and they consist of gym cardio, stairs (with a pack), and hiking (also with a pack). This time, all my attacks for these encounters are ranged attacks. In my favored terrain (forest), i.e. hiking, I get an extra 5 xp per workout. I wanted a little more randomness in what I’m fighting, so I made a table of potential enemies (CR 0 to 1/2) that might be found in forest terrain. Every time I run out of enemies, I will roll (d20 + d8) to see what I’m fighting next. Spells At Level 2, I get spells! I’ve chosen Hail of Thorns and Goodberry. If a pack workout is an hour or more, I can use a bonus action to cast Hail of Thorns. If I bake breakfast cookies, I can cast Goodberry which gives me 4 berries that can be eaten at any point during the week to restore 1 hp each. I also get 10xp per level of spell that I cast. Exploration I get 1 xp for each mile I walk outdoors (so gym cardio doesn't count). If the distance is part of a workout, this is in addition to the workout xp. In my favored terrain (forest), I get 2 xp per mile. For each bouldering or climbing session I do, I get 3 xp and for each new V3 or higher boulder route or 5.11- climb route that I complete (or V2 that I've really struggled with), I get another 2 xp. Clearing the Safe House I want to start cleaning my house a bit more regularly, so that’s what this portion of the challenge is. I have a list of chores and will roll (d20) to see what I will be cleaning every day. Well, maybe only 6 days a week. I think it will be better to give myself the option of taking one day off on the weekend. I don’t have to finish a given task (although I can if I want to), I just have to work on it for 5 minutes. If the kitchen is a disaster and dishes are piled up, I can work on that instead. If I’ve already done the task that I roll, I will move on to the next highest numbered task in the list. For each day I do a task, I get to make a melee attack against one of the creatures that might be infesting the safe house (yes, I made another list). If I do a task both weekend days, Sunday’s melee attack can be a two-weapon attack (using my bonus action). Every time I run out of enemies, I will roll (d12) to see what I’m fighting next. If I skip a day of cleaning, the enemy gets to make an attack against me (but only one attack is possible per weekend). Fletching This part of the challenge is dealing with the blackberries around my house. Creating new arrows requires arrowheads (previously acquired), feathers, and wood. Hunting turkeys (or other birds or feathered creatures) will provide feathers (8d6 feathers per turkey, 3 required for each arrow). If I’m running low on feathers, I can insert a flock of 1d10 turkeys as enemies into either Forest Encounters or Clearing the Safe House instead of immediately rolling new enemies. I don’t have to kill all the turkeys in a flock. I’m sure they will be happy to run away. For every day I do any chopping of the blackberries (for wood to make arrow shafts), I can attempt to create arrows on a short rest. Not being proficient in woodcarver's tools, starting out, I need to make a dexterity check (DC 18) to successfully make an arrow. After making 5 successful arrows, the DC drops to 15 and I can attempt 1d2 arrows per short rest. After 25 successful arrows, the DC drops again to 12 and I can attempt 1d4 arrows per short rest. After creating 250 arrows, I will be proficient in using the woodcarver's tools to make arrows and can start attempting more interesting arrows (maybe fire arrows, maybe magic arrows once I have access to spells, I haven't decided yet). Songs I'm going to start tracking the days I practice memorizing songs. I have some thoughts about using this to bump up Charisma to allow a multiclass into Bard (if I still want to do it when I get to that point), but I haven't worked out all the details yet. However, I can start tracking without knowing all the details. I’m also tracking number of songs memorized. Short Rest I will have taken a short rest and can roll hit dice if I have done candles for morning and evening prayers and brushed my teeth. Long Rest Long rests occur at the end of every week, so on Monday morning my hit points reset to full (20 hp). If I die during the week, I regenerate on Monday morning, but earn no experience points for the week in which I died. Social Encounters I feel like this was a good idea, but I don’t have a lot of incentive to work on it right now. Maybe something for the future. I’m leaving it here so I don’t forget. Finishing Notes and XP Cap I will level up at the end of the challenge if I have a total of more than 900 xp. I don't think I've really balanced my challenge and expect that I have too much possible xp for the lower levels, so I'm putting a weekly cap of 200 xp so that I can't entirely bypass Level 3 (and I also don't want to deal with leveling up in the middle of a challenge). I will still tally up the total xp for the week because I want to see how much I'm getting, but I will only carry a maximum of 200 xp over to the next week.

The Veridian Forest - Ranger Level 1 Hal paused at the edge of the Veridian Forest. If the rumors she’d heard in the nearby town of Kelton Junction were true, something had caused an infestation of Needle Blights to take up residence deep in the wood. The townsfolk wouldn’t trust a wandering ranger, of course. They’d barely tolerated her presence in the tavern last night. But something had to be done about the Blights. If they weren’t dealt with, the infestation would spread and attract other dangerous creatures. With a sigh, Hal shouldered her pack and stepped into forest. Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but aside from the occasional hike and SAR, I haven't been doing much of that for most of a year and I'm still working on how to get myself in good enough shape to feel comfortable joining more of those activities again, especially the ones that require being able to hike uphill at a decent pace, because I feel pretty slow right now (slow being relative, but a lot of climbers tend to be fast hikers). My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm at about Campaign 2, Episode 108. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. I don't have much actual RPG experience (only a couple of short one-shots at comic con), but thanks to @Artemis Prime's awesome recent challenges (which I've borrowed from extensively), I've decided to try a DnD challenge! Starting Out I'm starting as a Level 1 Human Ranger. My favored enemy is Plants (due to the blackberries currently trying to swallow one corner of my house) and my favored terrain is the Forest. I have leather armor, two short swords, an explorer's pack, and a longbow. I decided to roll for stats and they are Strength 12, Dexterity 17, Constitution 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 17, Charisma 11 (filling out a character sheet from scratch by yourself is kind of confusing, y'all, but I think I made something that should work). My AC is 14 and I have 11 hit points. Combat Combat consists of workouts. I get 10 xp per workout and get to attack an enemy. If I skip a workout, the enemy gets to attack me. If I skip a workout due to SAR and do some exercise, it counts as a workout. If I skip a workout due to SAR and don't get any exercise, the enemy gets to attack, but I get to dodge. I plan to do 3-4 workouts per week. Maybe I'll look at my schedule at the beginning of the week and determine which days get workouts. If it's a gym cardio workout, I get a ranged attack. For a pack workout (hiking, stairs, step-ups), I get a melee attack. If the pack workout is an hour or more, I can do a two-weapon attack (using my bonus action, see I'm learning DnD stuff!). In my favored terrain (forest), i.e. hiking, I get an extra 5 xp per workout. Exploration I get 1 xp for each mile I walk outdoors (so gym cardio doesn't count). If the distance is part of a workout, this is in addition to the workout xp. In my favored terrain (forest), I get 2 xp per mile. For each bouldering session I do, I get 3 xp and for each new V3 or higher route that I complete (or V2 that I've really struggled with), I get another 2 xp. Also, as Plants are my favored enemy, I get 10 xp if I remove some of the blackberries around my house. Social Encounters Because I've been feeling out of shape and unable to keep up, I've been a lot less social in my outdoor (for fun) activities, so I get 20 xp per outing I plan or go on with other people. Long Rest Long rests occur at the end of every week, so on Monday morning my hit points reset to full. If I die during the week, I regenerate on Monday morning, but earn no experience points for the week in which I died. Short Rest I will have taken a short rest and can roll hit dice if I have done candles for morning and evening prayers and brushed my teeth. (Yes, I know, I technically only have one hit die right now to use between long rests, but I'm going to allow myself to roll it every day if necessary if it gets me to do candles and brush teeth.) Enemies As implied in the story, I'm fighting Needle Blights. I thought it would be nice to start out with one of my favored enemies. There don't seem to be too many options for plants, so maybe in future challenges I'll go for some other types of creatures, but this seemed like a nice 1/4 CR enemy to start with. I get 50 xp for each one I kill (this seems like a lot at Level 1, but maybe it will work out better at higher levels). They have an AC of 12 and I think I'll give them the max hit points instead of average, so that's 18 hit points. Their attacks will depend on which type of workout I missed. Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, 2d4+1 piercing damage Needles. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, 2d6+1 piercing damage Finishing Notes and XP Cap I will level up at the end of the challenge if I have gained more than 300 xp. I don't think I've really balanced my challenge and expect that I have too much possible xp for the lower levels, so I'm putting a weekly cap of 100 xp so that I can't entirely bypass Level 2 (and I also don't want to deal with leveling up in the middle of a challenge). I will still tally up the total xp for the week because I want to see how much I'm getting, but I will only carry 100 xp over to the next week. Well, here goes!

“If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.” — Grandpa's Letter Welcome to RL Stardew Valley! Briefly, an Origin Story: I'm a 44 year old American woman living on a 10 acre woodland property in rural England I call Owlshire with my partner, 6 y/o son, bouncy golden retriever, and a flock of plucky hens. This challenge finds me entering into liminal space. My job ends in three weeks. Following that, I'll be taking on the privilege of home educating my son, the Enting. (Prior to this, his education was primarily covered by a private tutor with me assisting/advising.) Although I believed this would be the path I'd be on eventually, over the past few weeks there'd been some unexpected developments, and I find myself here much sooner than planned. But it's going to be great, and I'm mostly glad that it's done now rather than a perpetual someday event. Always the adventurer, during this challenge, I have three short overnight trips planned: London (final work trip) Nottingham (family trip) Oxford (home education field trip) Health/Energy / 30 miles a week. That's a little over 10k steps a day for me, but some days I don't quite manage it, and some days I do much more. A weekly average is easier to maintain and much more rewarding. Less is more. Snacking is on the uptick again. Avoid snacking between meals unless I'm actually hungry. Stardew Living The Farm It's summer! Some of the vegetable garden is thriving, some of it is malingering. Whatever the case I need to keep on top of things. Weeding Watering Reseeding Harvesting Using the things I harvest in a timely manner The Home As my job winds down and before the autumn term "officially" starts in September, I'm working to declutter the house, with a particular focus on my office and the playroom. I'd like to have both of these rooms decluttered to my satisfaction by the end of the challenge. The Wizards Tower I've been stuck on the same lesson in my pagan studies since May. Now, it's a 10 part lesson that needs examiner approval between all steps so it's not exactly a light one. But! I'm only on step 3 and I haven't even turned that one in yet despite having mostly finished it weeks ago. I want to finish this lesson in its entirety by the end of the challenge. Festival At the end of each season in Stardew Valley there is a festival. This time it's my 45th (!?!) birthday which happens next to last day of the challenge! I haven't actually decided what I want to do for my birthday yet, but I need to decide on that, and then set it in motion.

Last time I was here, I was preparing to run my first Spartan race, an ultrabeast in Colorado (7 years ago). Quick update on that, I got halfway and missed cutoff time for second lap, which was a blessing in disguise as I passed out shortly after. Since then I've done 12 or 13 more Spartan races, but it's been a while since my last. I also ended up moving to Colorado recently, rather unexpectedly. I'll keep it short, as lots has changed, and keep it to where I'm at and my goals, and will make a respawn post: I'm in a new area of the map, by far my favorite. Beautiful and presenting new challenges and opportunities, with lots of work opportunities and adventures to go on. Unfortunately the last few years have been rough, and things (my body) have suffered from it(though I had an awesome coach that helped me through much of it and stay in decent shape, but finances put an end to that for the time being). Onto what I hope to accomplish: 1) Sleep: wake up and out of bed by 730 am daily, this will make me want to go to bed earlier. Looking back at Garmin data, I found that I have averaged about 6 hours of sleep for the past 6 years and my average bedtime was 130am. Fortunately for this challenge, I have the added benefit of having to because I must go take care of my friends cat before work. 2) Hike (walk): go for at least an hour long hike every week, and walk at least 10 minutes(intentionally) everyday. I live in one of the best environments for this now, I am driven by my need to see what's over a mound, and that can push me further than I should go sometimes lol 3) Meditation: do a 10 count breath meditation every day. a few years ago I got very into it but have lapsed, but do try to incorporate still moments and mindfulness through my day, some days easier than others 4) journal: I think I need to write down what I do everyday so I can keep better track of how I spend my time, sometimes a day flys by and I get to the end and think, wtf did I even do today. This should help Now to take care of my first goal

I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but the last few months have been kind of light on all those things. Motivation to exercise was better than it has been, but going on hikes and stuff is apparently still an issue. My mental health is probably still a bit of a mess (mostly lonely for IRL friends I think, especially nerdy ones), but I'm feeling mostly okay at the moment. I think the climbing gym really helped with that. Or maybe it's a temporary band aid. I think I've used those a lot over the years. Last challenge went pretty well overall, but a few things felt kind of shaky and I was already thinking of repeating the challenge to hopefully reinforce things. Then I got busy and sick (fairly basic cold, I think) and didn't really do anything for Zero Week or Week 1. So, now that I'm feeling (mostly) better, it's time to pick things up again. Here's the challenge: 1. Light a candle for morning prayers 2. Walk - This has pretty much defaulted to 0.6 mile walk because I don't get up early enough to not be in a rush for work 3. Eat broccoli (or other veggies) 4. Cardio at the gym 2 days a week. Figure out if I can get my heart rate up using the rower 5. Light a candle for evening prayers 6. Hike 3 miles on the weekend Other Stuff: Last challenge, I rediscovered drawing after years of not really doing anything. I've got two books on the way (should be delivered on Monday), the drawing RPG characters one and the dragons one. I'm excited to see where this goes! I'm also starting to wonder if maybe I don't have very good mental images. When I imagine things, I'm realizing that the images in my head don't have much detail at all, although I think they do have words and feelings attached. In general, this is okay. I think everyone's mind is going to work differently. I've heard that there are people who don't have an inner monologue, but mine is really strong. I'm starting to think that my mental images, in contrast, are weak, and maybe that's why I have trouble coming up with things to draw on my own and why I can sometimes tell that a drawing doesn't look right, but have no idea how to make it fit what I think it should look like. Anyway, I'm kind of just rambling, but brains are fascinating, and I think I'm going to need a lot of reference images and I don't think I'll be doing drawing from my mental imagery for a long time (if ever). My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm at about Campaign 2, Episode 76, and pretty excited to be less than 5 years behind!

I give a more detailed backstory in the respawn thread which you can find here: Cliff notes: I and a couple of my friends go on hiking trips, mostly to US National Parks. After our first trip (8-9 years ago), my friend told me his goal of hiking Half Dome at Yosemite. I keep pushing him off due to difficulty of the hike and my obesity and history of knee, ankle, and back injuries. He wants to do the hike before he's 40, which is September 2025 so our next trip IS Yosemite if order to complete his goal I cannot push it off anymore. I want to do what I can to be able to successfully complete this hike. Photo of the cables during the last push of the hike (not my photo) My goals this challenge: Complete strength training twice per week. I have a program I am going to follow. The start-up plan consists of warm up, 3 rounds of AMRAP exercises in 30 seconds intervals, cool down. Complete 30min minimum on incline trainer 2x per week. (pre-COVID I was using the various Star Wars series on Disney + as the carrot to getting on the incline trainer- I will not watch them without being on the machine-so I will be continuing this as it made almost like I didn't notice I was exercising until I was sweaty, breathing harder, or my glutes/quads were getting sore). Bring lunch to work at least 2-3x per week. Ride the park and ride bus to work 3 times per week (unless working late shift as I wouldn’t be able to utilize the gym AND ride the bus back to my car) this will help save money for the trip instead of paying $5-14 each day for parking. I am considering 1:1 coaching for the 6month prior to the trip so want to start saving. Bring water bottle to work 2-3x per week I’ve keep forgetting to grab it and have to either go without water or buy a bottle which A) costs money and B ) is bad for the environment that I enjoy so much Rewards can help keep me motivated. My gym has a hot tub in the back of the locker room that I would previously utilize after each incline training session. Sadly it's under construction for the entire summer. BUT there also is a hydro massage available- of I complete both strength training workouts that week I will use the hydro massage. The third reward will be if I bring my water bottle AND ride the bus as stated in my goals I’ll put a sticker on my new water bottle. I think to keep myself interested in coming back to update progress, I'll be adding photos from previous trips. This challenge? 2013 Our first trip: New Zealand Photo at the airport, after a quick bathroom refresh. This was during a quick break when the sheep briefly turned around from running up the hill at us and we thought we were safe (but that was a lie the sheep dogs turned them back and we started running again). The friend that wants to do Half Dome was safely standing on top of a bench the rancher had placed at the top of his hill for hikers to rest, saw the sheep coming, chose not to warn us and watched cackling and taking pictures whilst we ran like we were in the wildebeest stampede scene of the Lion King. The rancher had quite the comical scene he happened upon once his four wheeler made it to the hill, seeing 3 foreigners standing on the bench, surrounded by the sheep he and his dogs had just herded up the hill. Many hikes in New Zealand went through pastures with little gates to open and shut behind you to be able to walk through the pastures as part of larger hikes.

I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but the last few months have been kind of light on all those things. Motivation to exercise better than it has been, but going on hikes and stuff is apparently still an issue. I am really enjoying bouldering at the climbing gym. My mental health is probably still a bit of a mess (mostly lonely for IRL friends I think, especially nerdy ones), but at this moment in time, I'm feeling pretty good, having just eaten pizza and hung out with a friend for a couple of hours. Also, having the day off to recover from Easter (yesterday for my church) and get a few things done that I've been neglecting probably didn't hurt. Last challenge I did 1-2 cardio sessions at the gym each week which was probably pretty good given Lent and all that, but now I'd like to make that a solid 2 sessions per week. The rowing machine at the gym looks cool, but I'm scared of it. I watched a YouTube video on how to use it, but what if I do it wrong? I'd like to get back into the habit of hiking on the weekends, so I'm going to start small. Something I can do in an hour or two. If it turns into more, that's great. Here's the challenge: 1. Light a candle for morning prayers 2. Walk - This has pretty much defaulted to 0.6 mile walk because I don't get up early enough to not be in a rush for work 3. Eat broccoli (or other veggies) 4. Cardio at the gym 2 days a week. Use the rowing machine once this challenge 5. Light a candle for evening prayers 6. Hike 3 miles on the weekend My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm at about Campaign 2, Episode 58.

“If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.” — Grandpa's Letter Welcome to RL Stardew Valley! We're now in mid spring and as usual I'm behind on all my grand ambitions. Briefly, an Origin Story: I'm a 44 year old American woman living on a 10 acre woodland property in rural England I call Owlshire with my partner, 6 y/o son, bouncy golden retriever, and a flock of plucky rescue hens. I work fulltime in games development, and as a family we enjoy nature and playing games. Health/Energy / Less is More For this challenge I'm going to continue a slow and gradual reduction in portion sizes at meal time. I don't calorie count or measure because I find it too tedious to maintain, so this is going to be a hard one to track, but basically it comes down to asking "could I take a little less?" at meal times and trying to find the right balance. Exploration With spring in full swing, I realized during the last challenge that if I wanted to increase time in the garden, I would need to reduce time spent on my lunch time walks. So I shortened and some days have been skipping those walks to facilitate that. I'm no longer getting 10k steps/day, and I've decided to be okay with that for now. I only have 24 hours in a day. Still, sitting is the new smoking as they say, so I'm going to still maintain a goal of 21 miles/week. Stardew Living The Farm It's spring! The vegetable beds are in order, and two of them have myriad seeds in them and some are actually growing tiny things. I've been doing second (and third) rounds of seeding and succession planting. It's been a cold, wet, slugtastic spring so far, and so things are not as far as they might have been in other years. I have sunflowers, tomatoes, courgettes, and marigolds in the potting shed waiting for the weather to warm up. I've been doing more flowers this year. I've got three new roses potted around the house, planted primroses, put in tulip and begonias bulbs, have been trying to get a wildflower area going... ha ha. My success rate for keeping flowers going is very low, but I never try anything by halves! Basically, I just want to make sure I keep up/continue on my gardening goals, which are mostly tracked in my journal. Crafting I only mended one thing during the last challenge, but at the moment my heart is still in knitting and after going to Wonderwool last weekend (shout out to @Sea-to-sky), I've refreshed my spinning wool stocks. I want to have done at least 5 of these things: [ ] Finish my jumper [ ] Finish the spin languishing on the wheel [ ] Start a new spin [ ] Start processing the fleece I got [ ] Use my blending board [ ] Start a new knitting project [ ] Mend at least one thing in the pile. Seriously, it could be a button. The Wizards Tower I've been studying with a pagan group on and off for almost 5 years now, and I have a goal to finally finish the first level by the autumn (and then carry on into the second level, which I hope will not take me nearly as long to get through). This means I need to keep on top of my lessons. For this challenge, I'd like to have completed lessons 15 and 16, and have began progress on 17. (The level is 21 lessons.) Festival TBD At the end of each season in Stardew Valley there is a festival--I'm using this as my challenge celebration. I haven't decided what it is yet, and that's okay. Community My ability to keep up with any form of social media/online community is usually limited to one and I find crossposting exhausting. So I'm going to try for at least once weekly updates and to keep up on a few threads here. If you want the Owlshire photospam, that's currently happening on my resurrected Instagram.

Low energy continues, still haven't bounced back from the bug i had a couple of months ago. so, current plan, try to recharge and do everything i can to help this situation. (Yes, this means more napping. No i am not the happiest about this). so goals and suchlike. sort sleep cycle: continue the routine of 10pm lights out and getting up within half an hour of waking Really want to get this one to become something i don't have to think so much about. When it goes wrong it majorly impacts my energy levels, so its top of the list this challenge. If i dont sleep well, i dont recharge and it basically screws up the next 24hrs+ Afternoon Naps: yes, back again. They help, i dislike them (proof that you can definitely have too much of a good thing). I am considering bribing myself on this one. Books seem like a sensible enticement. bard practice: 2x mando practice a week. good to keep the habit going and it always helps my mood. Still want to learn chords but am not going to make big goals this month. I can always add extra things later if i feel less exhausted. Reduce the TBR: I am making this slightly less strict this challenge, due to initial energy levels (which means i can only manage to read certain things. Dyslexia is a pain sometimes kids). so. Id like to manage 10 books from the TBR. This seems a reasonable number and if i do more then great. Otherwise no pressure. chances are i will probubly end up buying a few books this month. I have read to death many of my low energy options (yes, i have a folder just of particular books that fit in this category for me.). Looking in the folder of unread low energy picks (yes, also have one of those) i definitely have enough to do 10 with no problem sorting the room: Ongoing project. Made good progress last month but still lots to do. currently sorting my art supplies as i want to have a proper bash at learning sketching and calligraphy and just generally getting back into art. There is so much stuff in there and some of it is 20+ years old so i have no idea what is still good. Chances are some of it has gone off, been used up or is stuff id like to update or replace. also all my beading crud is in there in a big snarl, so that is going to be a fun but time consuming job. -finish sorting book shelves - finish sorting jewellery hoard (be more ruthless) -sort and organise art supplies -go through blanket box -sort top of desk -finish sorting boxes -sort top of cupboard - frame and hang pictures - take things to charity shop Miscellaneous i want to make a point of getting out more. Once or twice a week. Even if its just for a cup of tea. Helps my mood, mood helps my energy. Insert circle of life song here. bujo is ongoing. Really enjoying the art side of it. At some point i want to start a proper sketch book and do some decent practice drawing hands and flowers and all the things i have in my head but cant currently get onto the page properly. This will obviously not be the month for that, but its in the mix for later. this months theme is gardening. It just kind of picked itself. I swear i was going to do teacups and then started drawing leaves. Ho hum. the exercise log was fun to do though, so plants won. as usual, cooking and trying new recipes will hopefully happen. But ive decided not to make this a goal as it was the first one to fall by the wayside last challenge and this month I'm trying not to push myself. If it happens, it happens.

I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but the last few months have been kind of light on all those things. Motivation to exercise is very low and my mental health is a bit of a mess (mostly lonely for IRL friends I think, especially nerdy ones). If I want to be able to do the outdoor things in the summer without being super slow, I need to start getting in some regular exercise (something that actually gets my heart rate up). I was right that it didn't happen last challenge, but I feel like I'm getting closer. I did start going to the climbing gym last challenge. It ended up being roughly once a week, but once my punch card runs out and I get a membership, that might increase because then I can go as often as I want and won't be "paying" extra (the punch card was paid for a couple of years ago, so it's not like it's money coming out of my bank account now, but I still feel the need to make each session "worth it"). I want to use the treadmill or elliptical at the gym to get in some cardio, but for that to happen, I need appropriate shoes (climbing shoes are not appropriate footwear for that sort of thing and my regular hiking shoes are dirty because of gravel and dirt trails). I have some old running shoes that might work, but they're covered in spider webs, so I need to clean them first. I was really hoping to make that happen in Zero Week, but things got busy and it's Friday morning and I'm not going to be home until late Sunday night because of stuff. So much stuff. Because it is Lent. And will be for essentially another six weeks. Here's the challenge: 1. Light a candle for morning prayers 2. Walk - This has pretty much defaulted to 0.6 mile walk because I don't get up early enough to not be in a rush for work 3. Eat broccoli (or other veggies) 4. Cardio at the gym 2 days a week 4a. Rescue shoes from spider webs 4b. Pack gym bag 4c. Do the cardio And my nerdy thing right now is Critical Role. I'm in Campaign 2 (somewhere in the mid 40s episode). I'm loving the "new" animated intro! Fun thing is when I went to comic con a few weeks ago, I showed up at a Critical Role meetup and they were handing out these ribbon things you were supposed to stick to your badge (I thought it was kind of weird, so I didn't stick it to my badge, but I did keep the ribbon). The text on the ribbon was a line from the song, but I didn't know that until it showed up in the episode I was watching a week or two later! I ordered five books and a set of dice from the Critical Role shop last week. I was super impressed that they shipped the same day I ordered. Is it normal for companies to ship that fast? I think maybe I order too much discounted outdoor gear where they take their time processing the orders (like 8-10 business days plus shipping time), but it sure makes it fun when something arrives so quickly! I haven't read through most of the books (one and most of another will have to wait a while because spoilers), but I'm really excited to have the big fold-out maps! I love maps! And the dice are so pretty, dark blue with silver numbers!

“If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.” — Grandpa's Letter Welcome to RL Stardew Valley! We're now moving into spring and as usual I'm behind on getting the garden beds ready, sowing my seeds, and all that jazz. Briefly, an Origin Story: I'm a 44 year old American woman living on a 10 acre woodland property in rural England I call Owlshire with my partner, son, bouncy golden retriever, and a flock of plucky rescue hens. I work fulltime in games development, and as a family we enjoy nature and playing games. During this challenge we will be on holiday (part staycation, part travel) during half of Week 0, all of Week 1, and the beginning of Week 2. More on that in the challenge updates. Health/Energy / Less is More Last challenge I cut snacks, and it did not result in loss, but it did result in my weight stopping its slow upwards creep. That's something! For this challenge I'm going to begin a slow and gradual reduction in portion sizes at meal time. I don't calorie count or measure because I find it too tedious to maintain, so this is going to be a hard one to track, but basically it comes down to asking "could I take a little less?" at meal times and trying to find the right balance. Exploration Lately we've gotten into geocaching, and of course the dog needs her daily stomp 'round the woods (and for that matter, so do I!) Last challenge I was aiming for four miles a day total clocked into my Fitbit. This challenge I'm changing it to 30 miles a week (slightly over four miles a day on average). This gives me a little bit of flexibility, because, hey--life happens and some days I clock seven miles, and some days I only manage three. Stardew Living Last challenge I kept an informal log of my "Stardew Moments," and while I may not do that every day on this challenge, I want to focus on the things that make me feel like I'm living Stardew Valley dream, rather than the things that make me pulled away from it. The Farm It's spring! I need to get the seedlings going, have a plan, get early seeds in the ground, prepare the beds... hm, maybe not in that order. [ ] Revise Plan [ ] Prepare beds [ ] Get early seeds in [ ] Get Feb/March/April seedlings going We're also researching a green house, but I don't know if that will result in an actual greenhouse by the end of this challenge as this is mostly the Mr's initiative. Mend and Make Do I have a huge pile of mending, and a desire to try visible mending on some of my items, but have I touched any of it in the last mumble-mumble-years? Uh, no. Mend at least five items of clothing from the Pile of Doom. Festival TBD At the end of each season in Stardew Valley there is a festival--I'm using this as my challenge celebration. I haven't decided what it is yet, and that's okay.

I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but the last few months have been kind of light on all those things. Motivation to exercise is very low and my mental health is a bit of a mess (mostly lonely for IRL friends I think, although corporate at work being idiots isn't helping. I love my team, but somehow corporate keeps making me hate the company). If I want to be able to do the outdoor things in the summer without being super slow, I need to start getting in some regular exercise (something that actually gets my heart rate up), but I'm not sure if that's going to happen this time. So I'm going to stick to doing something rather than nothing. Last challenge, I didn't update often, but I mostly did the things (1 and 2). This time, I'm going to keep doing the things and add broccoli. For meals that don't already have a bunch of veggies (like the cabbage/carrot/ground turkey soup that's in my fridge right now), I bought a bunch of frozen broccoli and divided it into smaller bags work for one meal, so it's easy to just pull one out and cook it. Here's the challenge: 1. Light a candle for morning prayers 2. Walk - regular walk (1.3 mi) if I'm not feeling rushed to leave for work, short walk (0.4 or 0.6 mi) if I am feeling rushed 3. Eat broccoli (or other veggies) I had this grand idea that once my office moved (several months ago), I'd join the climbing gym because it's kind of close, but that hasn't happened yet. Partly because low motivation, partly because I don't know anyone that goes to that gym so I don't know if I'd have anyone to belay me (although there are a couple of groups I suppose I could ask, but I don't know anyone in those groups particularly well, if at all, so cue social anxiety), and partly imposter syndrome because I don't believe I'm a real climber. Maybe it would be worth it just to do a little bouldering (which I haven't really ever done) and have access to whatever's in the exercise/weight room. So much uncertainty, so I don't know if anything is going to happen there. It would be good if something did happen, but it's not going in the challenge because if I don't do anything, that would make me feel more guilty than I already do about not doing anything. Oh, and my current nerdy thing is binge watching Critical Role. I'm a little ways into Campaign 2, so please no spoilers for anything in about the last 5.5 years. (Sooo much to catch up on!)

After careful deliberation, I've decided to shift gears and create a challenge theme inspired by Halo, since the new season of the TV series is out now. My goals will remain the same as last challenge, with a few Spartan-specific references threaded throughout. As many of you know, Spartans must possess superhuman strength and speed. They must also be intelligent, calm and collected when necessary but fierce when needed, and intuitive under pressure. My goals for this challenge fit into 5 categories: STRENGTH, SPEED, MEDITATION, JOURNALING, and READING/LEARNING. STRENGTH GOAL: I will increase my strength by 10% in 7 different kettlebell exercises (swings, goblet squats, kb push-ups, racked squats, deadlifts, rows, snatches, and overhead press) by training four times a week for 12 weeks with a 35 lb (16 kg) kettlebell. I will measure my strength by the number of repetitions I can perform with good form for each exercise and record my progress in a journal or an app and follow up with weekly strength tests. I will follow a periodized workout routine that also includes both kettlebell and other weight training, along with warm-up, cool-down, and recovery sessions. I will also eat a balanced diet, drink enough water, and get enough sleep to support my training. Achieving this goal will improve my overall health, performance, and physique. SPEED GOAL: I will run 5k in less than 30 minutes by following an 8 week training plan that includes interval training, tempo runs, long runs, and recovery runs. I will measure my progress my timing my 5k runs and tracking my pace and distance with the Nike Run Club app. I will also do some cross-training and strength training (see above) to prevent injuries and improve my overall fitness. Achieving this goal will challenge me and boost my confidence, as well as help me prepare for longer races and improve my health and well-being. MEDITATION GOAL: I will meditate for 20 minutes every day using a guided meditation app. I will track my meditation sessions and duration on the app and on a calendar. I will start January 1st by adding 5 minutes to my current 10 minute meditation practice every week until I reach 20 minutes. I want to meditate more because it helps me reduce stress, improve focus, and feel happier. I will achieve my goal of meditating for 20 minutes daily by the end of next month. JOURNALING GOAL: I will write in my journal every day for at least 10 minutes, using prompts or free writing to express my thoughts and feelings. I will track my journaling habit on a calendar or an app and aim for a 100% completion rate each month. I will schedule a time for journaling that works for me and make it a priority in my daily routine. I will also prepare a comfortable and quiet space for journaling and have a notebook and pen ready. I will write in my journal to improve my mental health, creativity, and self-awareness. I will also use journaling as a way to reflect on my goals and progress and celebrate my achievements. I will write in my journal every day for the next six months starting January 1st and then evaluate the benefits and challenges of my journaling habit. READING/LEARNING GOAL: I want to read at least one book per month and learn one new skill or topic every week. I will track my reading time and progress using a reading app. I will also document what I learned each week in my journal. I will set aside 20 minutes every day to read a book of my choice (list to be shared later). I will also dedicate at least one our every week to learn something new, such as a language, a hobby, or a subject. Reading and learning will help me improve my vocabulary, knowledge, creativity, and curiosity. They will also enrich my personal and professional life. I will start this goal January 1st and review it every month to see if I need to adjust it. Accomplishing this goal will make me a more well-read and well-rounded person.

Yes, I'm changing the theme! Hey, it's only Week One. I had this thought a few days ago that took fire that I should really do a Stardew Valley-themed challenge, and it caught fire in my mind and I decided I didn't want to wait 5 weeks. This theme change is a bit of work in progress--but I'm hoping by the next challenge I'll have it more developed. You can see the new challenge starting here. Previous challenge below cut:

Turned a big corner with my energy levels last year. Makes me feel like i can see the end of the M.E/CFS tunnel. Trick is not to try and rush there all in one go. All that tortoise vs hare stuff. so. My main goals this year are to loose some weight, get fitter and regain some of the muscle I've lost to the muscle atrophy. Doing this all in one go is clearly a bad plan, so I'm chopping it into smaller parts. As this is my first challenge I'm going to try and keep it minimal in an effort not to overload myself. goals; -try to go for 3 walks a week -sort room (there are still boxes in there from when i moved in, it is not good for my head and i want it sorted) -try not to snack between meals (if i need to, try to pick something healthy like fruit)