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When you are exasperated by interruptions, try to remember that their very frequency may indicate the valuableness of your life. Only the people who are full of help and strength are burdened by other people’s needs. The interruptions which we chafe at are the credentials of our indispensability. The greatest condemnation that anybody could incur– and it is a danger to guard against– is to be so independent, so unhelpful, that nobody ever interrupts us and we are left comfortably alone.

Motto of Residence Life, NMSU

Today we went on a hike with our friends Jon and Jean. They live a little north of us and have a similar view of Flathead Lake from their home. And they also have some hiking trails they’ve made from their house to a network of logging trails that crisscross the Flathead National Forest east of us. They’re avid hikers, and they’ve lived here for a while, so they know a lot about these unmarked trails. (And when I say “a while”, Jon was telling us as we hiked about the logging activity in the area back in the 1970’s. He’s been here that long!)

We wound through the forest, at times following overgrown logging roads, at other times bushwhacking through brush and over fallen trees. Eventually we reached a rocky ridge that stretches along the Swan Range east of our house, and were rewarded with a magnificent view of the lake.

We weren’t sure whether we could see our house from up here, but after a while we spotted it in the distant forest. It was probably a little less than a mile away.

The air felt cool (it’s still April, after all) but the hike was invigorating and we all loved the bright sunlight and the beautiful blue water beneath us. We snapped a picture before heading back down.

Open burn season ends in about a week, so it was time to gather up all the branches that had been pruned from our orchard and burn them. As usual, we had to move them from the orchard up to our neighbors’ land, where we’ve traditionally burned our yard and garden trimmings. We’ve been waiting for a (relatively) warm day with no wind, and today was it.

We borrowed a friend’s truck to haul the massive pile of branches. It only took two loads, which was nice.

Then we broke out the propane tank and flamethrower so we could show the ladies how to take care of the pile in the fall, when we’re gone. Plus, who doesn’t love using a flamethrower on a huge pile of branches? Kyra lit it up.

But… nothing.

We all took turns torching the lower branches, even turning up the gas until it was a roaring flame. They blackened, but didn’t burn. Not to be outdone by a bunch of cherry wood, I took out our gallon bottle of lighter fluid and sprayed it on the branches. Flames whooshed where the lighter fluid hit, but quickly faded. Growing more frustrated, I grabbed a canister of gasoline we use for the lawnmower and tossed a couple gallons onto the branches. The bursts of flame were more impressive, but unfortunately they vanished as quickly as they’d come. The branches simply wouldn’t burn!

Obviously the problem was our lack of any grass or brush; in past burns we’ve had massive piles of trimmings from the lawnmower and the garden plants. This time it was only the cherry prunings, and they’re remarkably resistant to fire. I guess the ladies will just need to look at this pile every time they come up the driveway, and take care of it in the fall when they’ve had a few seasons to add grass to it…

For the last three days, I’ve played Utu!

Thursday night is my local board game group, and Ryan (on the right) has been asking to play it for a few weeks. He was part of my original playtesting group, back when it was just a bunch of sticky notes on plain hexes. Now he wanted to see the “finished product”. Shaun and Kirra were playing for the first time, and when I pulled out the box Kirra was flabbergasted. “You designed this?” She said it looked like a professional game (hey, I am a professional!) and was pretty impressed.

Shaun squeaked out a victory over me, winning by the tiebreaker. Well done, sir.

Yesterday I met up with Brian, Marie, and Brandon for some pizza at Rosa’s. They’d been with us the night before, but couldn’t play Utu because it’s limited to four people. They asked if they could give it a go. Like Ryan, they’d been playtesters early on (also at Rosa’s, as it happened) so they were excited to see the final product. Board games are always better after a hearty helping of pizza.

In this one, Brandon crushed all of us with a massive final turn where he launched all kinds of boats and settled a gaggle of islands. It was a masterful victory.

And today I introduced it to Greta. Kyra already knew how to play, of course, and says of the games I’ve designed, this is her favorite. After a quick review of the rules, we got to work exploring the Pacific.

Greta’s typical beginner’s luck didn’t bring her a victory; I took the crown here.

Next up: we’re going to play again in the next few days to test the expansion I developed. Interestingly, I created the expansion from ideas that various people suggested after playing… but I’ve never actually played it! We’ll see how it goes. Even if it’s a failure, I’ve really enjoyed introducing Utu to so many people.

“Sometimes the hard thing and the right thing are the same thing.”

— Me

As the days tick past, and our mission approaches ever closer, I’ve been pondering all of it. I’m excited about the opportunity to do something new and different, and the adventure of living in a new place, and the chance to serve people who need help. I know that serving a mission is the right thing for us to do at this time in our lives.

But I’m also going to miss my family and my friends, and playing board games, and designing board games, and throwing parties. I’m going to miss the beautiful Montana summers, and jet skis, and visits from friends, and visits from family, and twice-a-week lunches at Rosa’s Pizza. I’ll miss meeting up with old friends, and going skiing, and backpacking, and road trips, and of course my annual fall trip with my favorite brother. There are so very many things I’ll miss, that I’ve more or less taken for granted these past few years. I find myself wondering why I’m “giving away” a year of my rich, full, blessed life to serve a mission.

And then I remember that it’s because I have a rich, full, blessed life that I can do this at all. What I’m really doing is giving away a year of my life to help someone else. Pepper and I will fill our days with work and service. We’ll help youth and young adults as they navigate the treacherous and often confusing waters of their lives. We’ll teach and (hopefully) inspire people to see the bigger picture. We’ll dedicate our time and our efforts to the Lord’s errand. We’ll follow the example each of our kids set as they gave away years of their young lives to serve missions of their own. And finally, we’ll follow the example of the Savior, who gave away everything for all of us.

So yeah. A mission is going to be a hard thing. But it’s also the right thing. And it’s going to be awesome.

My games are finished.

In the past few years, I’ve designed (and now produced) six different board games. That doesn’t count several aborted attempts– I have four or five games that didn’t make it past the prototype phase, and a handful of others that didn’t really get past the idea phase. It’s been an interesting and creative journey, and it’s stretched me a bit since I’m not naturally a creative person.

My first game was Indio.

Although I made an effort to sell it publicly via Kickstarter, I found that the time and money to do that just wasn’t worth it to me. I don’t design games for commercial success; I do it as a creative outlet. It was a good learning experience, but one I likely won’t repeat. Since that failed attempt to market my game to the world, I’ve just focused on creating the games themselves, and then publishing a single copy of each.

Interestingly, I found my original notes and prototype cards from what became Hexteria and then Indio.

It was a card game based on using the three classic elements (earth, fire, and water) to combine them into materials (metal, clay, and power), and using those materials to build structures (village, city, and factory). I remember it being fairly drab, but the seed of that idea eventually blossomed into the “forging” concept that’s part of Indio. At the time, designing a game felt pretty overwhelming. Yet now, I find myself designing entire games on a single airplane trip!

Anyway, after Indio I created a “spin-off” game that I called Indio: New World. Yeah, I’m not terribly original with titles, although it was originally going to be Terra Hexia. It’s fairly simple but hasn’t proven to be very popular with my game-playing friends.

Following that, I designed Chronium which is a lighthearted time-travel game. Everyone who’s played it says it’s quite good, which is gratifying.

I struck on an interesting scoring idea, and it evolved into Onward, a card game where you work cooperatively as well as competitively. I find it to be really fun, but the reception’s been sort of lukewarm.

At the same time I was designing and testing Onward, I was also working on a completely different game. That one was based on exploring and building a map as a core part of the game, and although the initial theme of expanding into the galaxy was a failure, I pivoted to make a game about exploring the Pacific Ocean. It became Utu.

This one is by far my favorite. I find it to have an exciting mix of “push your luck” as you explore, resource management (which I love), player interaction, and vast replayability. Plus, it was my first foray into AI art, which has been a tremendous boost to my game design efforts.

Finally, there’s Dicee.

Pepper claims this is her favorite game of mine. Another fun facet of this one is the fact that Zack is my co-designer; we worked on it together during Christmas and it didn’t take much to turn those scribbled index cards into a nice printed game.

As I leave for a mission, I’m going to be taking a year-long break from playing deep board games, and a break from the creative endeavor of designing them. It’s satisfying to “wrap up” all these games just before heading out, and I’m excited to return to my hobby sometime next summer.

A few days ago it felt like winter was behind us, and the flowers were beginning to blossom. But today we woke up to this:

The snow had come down overnight, and although it doesn’t look like much on the ground (where it had already melted a bit), there was probably two inches on other cold surfaces. We took a walk down the driveway and enjoyed the crisp wintry (?) day.

I suspect it’ll be gone by the evening. For now, we’ll get a brief reminder of what April is like in Montana…

One of the things I’ll probably be doing a lot on the mission is wearing a suit.

I’m not really a fan of dressing up, and much prefer being barefoot (or wearing sandals, if I’m out in public) with shorts or jeans and a t-shirt. But missionaries are a bit more formal, and since Pepper and I will be teaching church classes almost every day, we decided it was probably time to update our wardrobe a bit. My suit dates back about fifteen years, and I have a “backup” suit that Mom and Dad bought me in high school (yes, it still fits).

She went out with the hijas, and they spent something like four hours in thrift shops and various clothing stores around town. I had my weekly game with the Mahjongg Mafia, followed by board games and pizza at Rosa’s, and then hit a few stores myself. Since I’m not really very knowledgeable about what looks good, I texted a few photos to the ladies to get their opinion.

Despite my facial expressions and bare feet, they said they loved the suit. So now I have a third one. Hopefully I’ll be as stylish as my wife as we serve!

Although most of the yard is still brown, and the trees don’t yet have leaves, there are a few bold flowers who’ve decided to brave the cool spring days.

The bees are happy to see them as well.

For some reason, daffodils are scattered around the area, including off in the forest. I’m not sure what these little pink ladies are, but they’re pretty.

Maybe the snow is finally behind us…?