Easter Egg Hunt!

What a busy April it's been for Lone Star, both in RL and SL!

We started out the Easter season with news of great joy - Jahdo Ohtobide's wife had their first baby in RL, a beautiful boy. So he took a few weeks of "paternity leave" and we took a break from building for a while to have a fun, playful April.

The Easter Egg hunt was a great success! We hid over 70 eggs, peeps and chocolate bunnies all over Equus, on both ground and skywalk levels. Each egg contained a prize, with top prizes being Fae riding ponies (horses with butterfly wings) for humans and tinies.


A lovely picture of Amelia Gilmore out hunting eggs on her Original Classic Jahdo Pony.



Ty Gabe is ready to get out there and find some chocolate bunnies!



Here I am, checking the signs and that everything is in place. That's one of the Fae Ponies standing to my right.



It was a lot of fun visiting with all the participants. Everyone appeared to have a fabulous time, and commented on how tough some of the eggs were to find.



Hatchies are very thorough, and they were all over the place. A secret to finding a lot of eggs - become small like a tiny.



Due to popular demand, we extended the two-day egg hunt an additional six hours. Since the eggs were set to purchase copy (so everyone would have a chance to find them all), and when the egg hunt was over, I went and picked up all the eggs then set them out for everyone to get an egg they missed, even the top prize ones.



Horses stand around and pick up eggs they missed in the hunt.

Afterward, there was a Tinies Spring Barn Dance. I was sad to miss it due to work in RL, but was told that it was still going strong after four hours! Tinies sure can party!

We look forward to planning more events soon!

Our First Jousting Tournament!

On Saturday, Feb. 7, we hosted our first Jousting Tournament fundraiser! It went very well for a first event - we found that we did a lot of things right, and there were a lot of things we will change in future tournaments.

The fundraiser did well! We raised L$9000 in donations at that one two-hour event for Erin's brain cancer fund.

I don't recall how many entrants we had, but do remember the winners...

Third place, L$500, a trophy and a ribbon went to Rocket Dean - who very graciously not only donated his winnings, but also an additional L$500 to our fundraiser.

Second place, L$750, a trophy and a ribbon went to Ghiri Mai - who was showing in her *very first* tournament. Not only that, but we're extremely proud of her because Ghiri is one of the students in the Lone Star Jousting classes.

First place, L$1,000, an LSR horse, armour from The Armour Stall, a trophy and a ribbon went to kk2r5 Beck


Here's the Royal Box - Sitting from left to right in the back - Mom Jarmon (IoW Mayor), Zephyr Pennell (me), Erin Talamasca (of Hoof It! fame), and Redy9 Shepherd (IoW Guardian). In the front row - Jahdo Ohtobide (IoW Elder Guardian and LSR co-owner and scripter), Jack Pitts (hatchie-at-large) and D'artagnan Cooperstone (hatchie-at-large).


The trophies and ribbons.



Our whole setup - we strived to make it comfortable, yet contained, for the contestants and spectators.




Bold knights dash forth.

A down-home feud! Lone Star's Ghiri Mai on "Sungold" squares against Lone Star's Bea Jaxxon on "Draxen", both in their first tournament. It was a close match, they had us on the edge of our seats!

The jousting was fanatastic to watch - I look forward to the next tournament!

kk2r5 Beck displays his swerving "backstab" technique on Ghiri Mai in the final round. The final round went 2-2 for some time until kk2r5 finally got Ghiri between the shoulder blades.

Thank you to all competitors, spectators and donators! :-D You're all winners!

Barn Buddy Families

I finally got off my lazy tuckus and made some newer, more fabulous grazers. ("Grazers" or "Barn Buddies" in LSR terminology are horses you don't ride, you just stick them in your barn or field, they look pretty and don't cause a lot of lag or use up a lot of prims.)


Currently, they're being sold as family units - "Barn Buddy Families" - where you get three grazers for L$800...standing stallion, grazing mare, standing foal...which are all copy/mod, so you can make a variety of your own colors if you want and have unlimited copies.

Also available for sim owners, the "Everyone!" pack - all 33 grazers for L$7,000. That looks like a lot at first glance, but it's a savings of L$1,800 than if you purchased them all as family units.


There are 11 different color sets: Black Appy, Black, Blood Bay, Chestnut, Dapple Gray, Dark Dapple, Golden Appy, Palomino, Pinto, Red Roan, and Sorrel. We've already seen some quite talented people make their own beautiful and unique hide textures to match their riding horses or avatars.


Before too much longer, they'll be available individually (for L$300 each), but until then, the family pack is a pretty good deal.

Spring has come early to Equus!

Spring has come early to Equus! The new, much anticipated, much awaited Foal Avatars have been released. Foal avatars come in a wide variety of colors that compliment the adult Utah Horse and Arabian avatars.

We've had a great time watching our customers and associates mod their avatars and create new foal-specific products.


Ty Gabe (the dark dapple foal) shows off his new halter and lead.



Two foals look out from atop the Watchtower, one carrying it's Mama Zephyr's Farty Bear for Naughty Foals.



Jahdo chats with visitors to the ranch.



Whiteflame shows off his "mail horse" gear, while a foal nearby enjoys her lollypop.

Lone Star Jousting Team

As most everyone knows, recently LL delivered an edict regarding the status of OS sims. Naturally, this caused a bit of an uproar with residents relying on OS sims for purposes other than what LL vaguely hinted at how they felt an OS sim should be used, and Lone Star was no different. However, after a few huddled meetings in shady, out-of-the-way locales, we decided to go "whole hog" and see what could be done to make Equus a full sim.



To shorting a long and boring story, on December 26th, I logged in to find about 12,000+ extra prims available on the sim.



Nice.



One of the things I'd wanted to do was host a team...since our good friend and business associate Slydel Rau made her SL living off of jousting equipment, it made sense to try that direction. Slydel supplied us with the gear and vendors for her stuff, we supplied the landmass and started a Jousting Team.









Coached by BG Woller, the team is fairly small - since team members are supplied with gear from Armour Stall and Lone Star, it wouldn't do to have too many people on the team.






However, even if you're not a member of the team, if you'd like to learn how to joust and need a low-lag practice area, you're more than welcome to use the one at Lone Star.

Pic above - BG works with Yariss Rau and Ghiri Mai on their jousting practice.

Ghiri runs for the practice rings.

Yariss runs for the practice rings.

Lone Star Jousting Field: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Equus/181/82/24

Erin Talamasca Blew My Mind

OK...got a little something I want to say.

Erin Talamasca blew my mind.


Almost everyone knows Erin Talamasca of Hoof It! fame. Up until recently, to us Erin was merely another pile of competition to peer at suspiciously through a veil of thinly concealed contempt.


(Right, and everyone who knows me knows I'm such a contemptuous character.) ;-D

(........)


(Shut up, Nimbus.)

Anyhoo, Erin opened a new sim recently - Nectaris - for the Hoof It two-year anniversary. She had a series of events and contests, and a party to celebrate the new sim and the release of the Donkey Quad avatar.


I just happened to log in about the time her party started and got the message across the SL Equestrian club IM chat...PARTY STARTING NOW! GETCHER ASSES HERE!

"Why not?" I thought. I put on my best hatchie party dress and tootled over to the party.

To make a long story not so long and a lot less boring, I had a great time. I think it shocked Erin a bit when I showed up (as myself, not a suspicious and creepy-looking alt). I danced, tipped the DJ, won the pumpkin hunt contest and had fun.

When Erin IM'd me about winning the contest, it opened up a really great dialogue between us. I found her charming, funny, bright, extremely witty and very much my equal in general weirdness.

I don't think I've laughed so hard recently in Second Life as I did when she blurted unexpectedly, "LONE STAR ATE MY BABY!" (OK, it was funny as hell as the time.)

As Equus (Lone Star's sim) is a part of the Isle of Wyrms, and I'm one of the IoW Elder Guardians, Lone Star displays at the biannual Isle of Wyrms festivals, which raise money for St. Tiggywinkle's Wildlife Hospital. The winter festival was coming up, so I invited Hoof It and AKK to display along with Lone Star. Since it's for charity, I was more than happy to extend an invitation.


I informed them we couldn't sell anything at the festival unless the proceeds were to go to St. Tiggywinkle's. Erin mentioned she was going to make a fantasy riding horse for the event - I figured she'd just take one of her Elementals and go Christmassy on it or something. So we'd compliment each other, I took one of my horse anthro avatars and put holly tattoos and red and green stuff all over it.

What Erin did was blow my mind the first time.

When she unveiled the Eqwyrms (Equine X Dragon, aka "wyrm"), after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I totally geeked out on them. She had outdone herself and anyone who'd ever donated anything to St. Tiggywinkle's through the Isle of Wyrms.

The Eqwyrms came in several different, gem-like, brilliant colors to choose from. They were expertly textured and wholly unique - some of the best-looking love children of dragons and horses seen in SL.

I was awed and humbled.




(My Sapphire Eqwyrm)


I wish I'd taken a picture of the display - they were sold out of a cute snowglobe.

She made me laugh hard a second time when she said, "I don't know if this'll sell enough to buy a hedgehog an aspirin."

Oh, puh-LEEZ, sistah!


Well, the event was a success, the four days passed, and we all pulled down our displays, hoping we did well for the wildlife hospital.


The second time Erin blew my mind was this evening when I was informed of Hoof It's donation to the St. Tiggywinkle's fund.

Wow.

I mean.....wow.

......wow


I won't post up the number here, we'll just say it was....extremely impressive.

Hoof It's donation would buy a lot of hedgehog aspirins, and a few hedgehog bandaids, some hedgehog foot massages, hedgehog aromatherapy, with enough left over for some hedgehog mud masks and green tea wraps.

Anyway, Erin and Hoof It have the utmost respect, admiration, and thanks from both Lone Star and the Isle of Wyrms not just for her generous donation, but for her really fun product and the enjoyment everyone gets out of it.



So Erin and I were thinking of doing some joint projects together for charity under the name of "Lone Hoof"....maybe "Hoof Star".....no doubt it'd be some fairly nutty stuff.

Windrush Melody Herd at Equus

I'm happy to announce the addition of the Windrush Melody herd to Lone Star Ranch. Windrush Melody is a role-play (loosely, they tend to wear silly things at times) horse herd that uses the Lone Star Quad Avatars. Owned by Lead Mare Starcks Silvansky, they're a fun little group that enjoys modding their avatars to wholly unique and individual looks.


I put in a winter home for the herd for the rest of December. After Christmas, Equus will relocate and become a full sim, so we'll have to rebuild from scratch. No worries, we're fully prepared, but until then, we created a nice little niche for the herd to wait out their new home.


Picture of some wonderful customizations...


Starcks favors a palomino paint unicorn, and loves to wear jewelry and other items. She can usually be seen carrying a horse toy. :-)

Windrush Melody herdlands are located (until January) at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Equus/95/124/22