Here’s a little taste of what you missed by not joining Jennifer and Carol at the Blackberry Farm Puzzle weekend in February. In addition to Rebus challenges, Demolition Derby (with puzzle pieces) and plenty of time to work loads of Stave puzzles, the grand finale involved a Scavenger hunt in which team members careened around the property, racing to find clues to the location of the hidden treasure. These events are the perfect way to get to know other puzzle fanatics. We’d love to see you there next year!
Jennifer

See more photos here!

Cyclone Carol descended on Staveland this past Monday and Tuesday… that’s her below at Blackberry Farm (last year) where another Stave Puzzle Party will be held in 2 weeks. Carol (our former Marketing Director now living on a Maine island) and Jennifer, with husbands in tow, will be hosting this wild and crazy event February 22 and 23. Since Martha and I will be in Boise visiting our grandson Simon that weekend Jennifer came up with the idea of putting me on a DVD with a "Welcome" message and hints for the Treasure Hunters. (Carol has dreamed up this creative and challenging Treasure Hunt which involves some players rocketing around BBF on golf carts collecting clues.) So on Tuesday Paula was chief videowoman, Carol was the director and script writer (no unions here), and I was the pigeon in front of the camera following directions (at least trying to). We did 4 different scenes, each in one take. Then we loaded the video onto a Mac, fiddled/fumbled around with iMovie and iDVD and, by golly, we actually figured out to burn a workable DVD. Hey, it’s actually pretty good…. watch out youTube… Paula has the video bug now. The party will take place in the Guest House living room, shown below. Only two(2) rooms are left for the party!

Blackberry Farm is a fabulous resort just north of Knoxville, Tenn. Wonderful facilities and wonderful food. We’ve gotten lots of interesting new customers from there. Check it out!

To learn more about Blackberry Farm visit their site.

Ya shoulda been there!!! Late yesterday afternoon around 4:45 it was
wrap-up time…. time to bring the 2 days of puzzling madness to a
close. During these wild 2 days we rewarded correct answers to the
various mystery challenges with poker chips…. 100, 1000, 5000
denominations. Three of the teams had accumulated nearly 100,000 worth
of chips. Paula had the brilliant idea of auctioning off 4 Teaser
puzzles, the players using their accumulated chips. So everyone took 5
minutes to divide their team chips among themselves… then the fun
began. On two puzzles the bidding reached 50,000 per puzzle… I wish
we had had a video camera recording all of this craziness…. it was
wild!

Then the grand finale… the players took their remaining
chips and ‘purchased’ chances for the BIG drawing for 5,000/chance. All
of the chances were then stuffed into a fishbowl and then John, Twin
Farms marketing director, drew the lucky winners for a 250 Stave puzzle
and a 2-night stay at Twin Farms. The winner of the 2-night stay was a
former NBA star, a Twin Farms regular, it turns out.

For more blog enrties about the Twin Farms Mystery Puzzlenut Party go to www.stavepuzzlenuts.com.

First, let me tell you about Twin Farms located nearby: 2007 Mobil Five Star Award winner, Zagat 2007 says #1 Best Small Hotel in the US, Best Rooms, Best Service. Andrew Harper’s #1 Top US Hideaway 2006. Twin Farms has 10 amazing cottages and 10 fabulous rooms in Barnard, Vermont.

November 8, 9, and 10th Stave Puzzles and Twin Farms are co-hosting a mystery/puzzling weekend with all sorts of fun and games. As I write this there are only 4 rooms left for this first-of-a-kind entertaining weekend. Yes, we have done many puzzle parties over the past 20 years but we’ve never done anything quite like this with a mystery thrown into the middle of the puzzle party. Talk about FUN!

This is the 2nd year we’ve conducted a wild and crazy puzzle party at Blackberry Farm, one of the finest luxury resorts in the USA, located near Knoxville Tennessee. It’s a Relais & Chateau property.

The puzzle party was a 3-day event in mid-February. The party organizers were Carol Pierson and hubby Hank Conklin plus Jennifer and Rick Lennox. Carol was Stave’s markeing director and Jennifer is our VP in charge of puzzle crafting. Carol/Hank live in Maine. Jennifer/Rick live near Norwich.

Friday, Feb 16th, everyone made their way to BBF hrough thick and thin. Most of the party participants stayed in BBF’s Guest House where there is a large living room perfect for puzzling. Friday night lots of puzzles were spread around the living room for everyone to work on before and after their gourmet meal. The BBF dining room is nationally recognized for its gourmet meals.

Saturday the fun and games began with all sorts of light-hearted competitions held regularly during the day including a NASCAR-like event involving the famous BBF golf carts. Teams fo 3 raced all about the magnificent property to search for clues and puzzle pieces. The main weekend prizes included a two-night stay at BBF and a 250-piece Stave puzzle. All participants received a small Stave commerative puzzle.

Fun was had by all. Check out the the below photos taken and prepared by Hank: