• Farming As I Have Known It: 60 Years in Central Appalachia, by S. Thomas Bond, copyright 2007; first edition.

  This book, on farming and farm life, was written by my father over 10 years in his spare time, and is an absolutely fascinating look at farming from the era of my great-grandparents and grandparents through to the present day.

  Although I grew up on a working farm and spent most of my time before I graduated from college working on it, I was never as deeply involved with farming as my father, something I now regret deeply. This book gives a very good idea of the determination, hard work and deep thought required to build and keep a family farm in West Virginia.

  Dad had copies of this printed and some of them were Christmas presents for 2008.

  The book is available on the web.

The kids I game with get mentioned a lot. Right now they're my daughter and niece and nephews. I'm really lucky to have such a great bunch of kids around to play games.

L.B.

is my daughter.

My brother C.P.B. about an hour away, so his kids get to play regularly.

B.B.

is in his mid-teens and is the oldest of the bunch, which means I've been experimenting on him the longest. ( I hope it hasn't hurt too much. )

They have a much younger brother, M.B., who doesn't play roleplaying games yet, but will before too long, I hope.

D.B.

is his younger brother, and at 11 is the next oldest.

My sister C.I.A.'s kids live on the family farm, next door to me, and along with my daughter get to play the most.

T.A.

is the oldest boy.

E.A.

is his younger sister.

M.A.

is their younger brother and is the youngest of my regular gamers. He can't read yet, but has fun playing anyway.

The new baby boy is C.A., and I'm already looking forward to when he joins the gaming group.

My brother N.A.B. lives far out of state, and so his kids only get to play on summer and winter vacations when they come and visit the family farm.

T.B.

is N.A.B.'s oldest son.

O.B.

is his younger brother, and has played Buggin' with us a couple times, and will play the other games more as he gets older.

I'm going to try online gaming with a map tool and either a chat inteface or a voice interface when the kids are a little bit older, so the ones that are farther away can get to play more often.

I've run a lot of games for the kids; Fudge Bunnies and Burrows, BESM Dungeon, Toon, Buggin', D&D, Savage Worlds, and perhaps others.