Middle Earth Ranger Forum

caedmon wrote:Ok, I'm a bit confused. I thought mine was due today (not that I have it done) shall I just time it for 1 week out from Jake's?

Yes. To clear the confusion, you can "claim" a chapter at any time, so long as it's the earliest unclaimed chapter in the list (no jumping around.) Your one week then starts when the previous chapter is posted, so everything stays in order.

Greg wrote: After that, the ball's in Chapter 2 and Caedmon's court.

'K, I'm on it.

Read through chapter two last night. The wine references, though very familiar, fell directly in line with some discussion my wife and I have been having for the past few weeks. With spring quickly approaching, we're diving into planning for what we are to do with the land we now have in our possession, and the best description I can come up with is "Homesteading". We're going to have chickens (for eggs) and rabbits (for breeding to supply the Bird over the summer) as well as a full-fledged garden. I've begun building a press to make cooking oils and juices from our berry bushes. We're trying to cut down heavily on the food we're buying, and just two days ago, it occurred to me that I'd like to try my hand at bottling some berry wines. Thanks to the professor and Old Winyards, I now feel almost obligated.

Greg wrote:With spring quickly approaching, we're diving into planning for what we are to do with the land we now have in our possession, and the best description I can come up with is "Homesteading". We're going to have chickens (for eggs) and rabbits...

Greg,

One of my non-Ranger activities is turning our property into a self-sufficient homestead. Ping me if you ever want to compare notes.

-Jack

Happy to oblige! Side note: I got ahead of myself...the Old Winyards is not referenced until Chapter three. Chapter two intrigued me this time around, as I started wondering why Tolkien went into so much detail describing the history of the ring via Gandalf to Frodo. Of course, knowing how the ring came to him and what it did to Isildur and Gollum would, naturally, be impportant to know so Frodo would fear the ring and be wary of using it...but the way that he describes Gollum's speech and such...it's almost like Gandalf was reading it out of a text. Gandalf's story is not "said" (so to speak) in the way that people normally talk. It almost sounded like someone reading a children's book, complete with Gollum's speech, etc. Not typical of the rest of the LOTR, if my memory serves me. It does the chapter well...it was just different.

Thoughts?

When Caedmon's finished, I'll take Chapter three. Feel free to claim number four and so on at any time...your week doesn't start until the chapter before you is finished.

I think that tone goes through the encounters with Tom Bombadil and then the story really starts in Bree, once the hobbits go past what is known and comfortable, as the reader does as well. Of course, we do know that the story was written and rewritten more than once, so that might be a bit of a holdover from revisions, but I like to think it is part of the genius of the author.

Ken

Chapter four's a tough one, but I'll give it a try.

Good call, Ken. I'll lean towards agreeing with you on that.

Pete, thanks. Noted.

My son & I worked up the scene last night, should photograph it and post tonight.

Can't wait to see it! This week I've really just had MERF on the brain...and now we're getting a light carpet of snow. I'm DEFINITELY going to gear up when I get home from work and get outside for a few.

Very nicely done

Wow. Bravo. Again, I don't want this to be competitive, but at the same time...a bar's been set! Well done...tell your Son thanks! He makes a great frodo!

Chapter three, which I've claimed, will be done by Monday, the 11th.

Great photos both of you.

Loving the photos, the bar has been set!



Ken

Very nice, I'm up next. I have everything ready except the ground is snow covered. It should be all melted before the w/e. Hopefully !