Camp Western 2025

Camp Western is in full swing out in Starshine Ranch and its surrounding areas! It's been hectic at times, since we have such a strong drive to participate in all of it every day, but mostly it's been great fun! 

The regular ranch activities, like the tumbleweed-themed races, lunging, leading or herding lost animals back to Mary, and western-themed arena races, are all still there.

We don't bother with most of that during Camp Western, but we can never resist returning the lost animals.

Our focus, naturally, is on the limited-time Camp Western activities. Most of the stuff from previous Camp Westerns is back again too. The wolves, bears, and bull are on the prowl.

Nearly all of the wolves are the usual gray, but we have also spotted a white one and a black one this year! Interestingly, both turn the usual gray when they move in to attack. 

Before we got too close:

And after:

The big ore boulders and floating gold nuggets are all over the place again as well - much more welcome additions than the beasties!

We've only seen one glitchy ore spawn so far, but it was an entertaining one!

The ranch chore board has returned, and - knock on wood - so far we haven't had to find that elusive shovel. (That was our least favorite chore.)

the lovely chore board, and a chuckle-worthy AQH placement.

Many of the tasks involve picking up or delivering items, which perch amusingly on the horse's rump for transport.

Our favorite chore, herding 3 ranch horses to the beach, is back too!

And of course, we still have the chance to track down multiple renegade chests and wandering equines every day. Many thanks to the players who post the daily chest and horses locations - you have made ranch life so much easier!

As expected, there's always a chest somewhere in the wolf den area, and frequently one in or by the bear cave as well.

We love the pinpoint location feature on the game! It makes riding to a specific spot so much easier.

They're hidden all over the place - sometimes in spots I never would've thought to check on my own.

The same 4 equines from last year wander off daily, but this year they have been joined by a new mule!

Come along, everybody! 

Occasionally, we'll go collect all 5 at once, leading to some unfortunate mule-Chincoteague overlaps.

Now for some of the brand new Camp Western features!

Some special color variations of existing breeds (mule, Saddlebred, and Mustang) are available for purchase and will leave when Camp Western does.

I especially like this new Mustang!

The Renegades have introduced two new races that include lots of slippery mud. They are made extra exciting by the roaming beasties. Thank goodness for beast repellent! 

Any time you land a jump in the mud, it splashes quite pleasingly. 

All that would've kept us busy enough, but Star Stable went even farther this year and introduced another round of the champion ranks, this time with a western-themed collection of ribbons to earn.

They're cute, but none will be as special to me as that flying pig! I'm eager to see what the cowboy mule looks like. We haven't seen anybody wearing it yet, surprisingly, but we're bound to soon.

We love how most other players are embracing the western gear, which we have time to admire before championships.

Invisible Daisy Coyoteclover has been joining the party sometimes when champs are not that full. 

*Sighs* Lady would've gotten the gold in this one if it wasn't for Daisy's ghostly participation.

Jasper and Dorith are having a fierce pumpkin-growing contest on the ranch grounds. We could've chosen to help just Jasper or just Dorith grow theirs, but we're helping both. So far, every day they have us ride out to a spooked mule, approach it carefully on foot to calm it, bring a bucket of water back to the pumpkin patch, and water the respective pumpkins. The pumpkins have grown only slightly since Wed. when the activity began, and both by about the same amount. We'll see what happens by the end!

The other brand-new task: Conrad the blacksmith's hammer challenge. Various strength levels include Fripp, Sabine, Conrad, and Garnok... and you have to keep swinging until you achieve Garnok to get the daily reward. XD

We get there eventually, but so far just by luck.

All of this effort... and we don't even care much for either of the exclusive new sets you can buy with the tokens this year. (The brown and light blue are the new ones, while the salmon is a repeat from last year.)

We don't love the color scheme of the first set, and while we like the color scheme of the second, it isn't our style. We wish there were some new bitless bridles, fun camp-themed t-shirts, or jeans that fit inside boots, but I guess we're in the minority with our preferences. Oh well, we'll gladly take the free stuff anyway. 

The new pets this year are less disappointing: Sahara the brown tabby cat and Eggatha the spotted chicken. We're happily saving up our nuggets for them! Buying lots of chest keys and horse lures has meant the nuggets don't pile up without significant mining effort, but we're confident we'll gather enough for them both by the end of camp!

Well done, Star Stable! Bring on the second half of the festival!

Long Locks and Silver Dapples

We didn't have time to go into it last time, but Star Stable has introduced a new horse breed, the Jorvik Mountain Horse! It is based on the gorgeous Rocky Mountain Horse. Apparently because the breed name is trademarked, they couldn't use it in the game. No huge loss if you ask me, since the "Rocky Mountain Horse" wasn't developed in the Rocky Mountains anyway, but instead in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky.

At any rate, these horses are often silver dapple, and Star Stable ran with that to give us some stunners.

I think Tigertin was impressed. Our pup... not so much.

To our delight, they do not do anything annoying while idling!

Rocky Mountain horses do a special ambling gait called the "single-foot" rather than trotting. Jorvik Mountain Horses do something called a "trail walk." Either way, it must be fantastic for real-life trail riding!

The rest of their regular gaits are lovely...

...and they also have two special movements!

a faster "pleasure gait"

and a cute animation sequence where the horse plucks a drifting cardinal feather and gives it to its rider.

The rider then places it in the horse's mane.

You get four thumbs up from us on this breed, Star Stable! Fantastic job!

We're savoring one last slower-paced week before Camp Western kicks off next Wed. Not looking forward to the beasties, but we're excited for the rest of it! Time to dust off our Western gear!

And now onto a little real-life update:

As Bethany mentioned in her last post, we were on vacation for a week mid-July. We dolls had a technology-free camping expedition in the backyard. We were planning on doing this anyway, but it actually became even more desirable because the house's AC broke down while the humans were gone. After a few days, it was often cooler outside in the shady backyard than in there!

The humans took off for a week in South Haven, MI. Mom slept in a chilly basement room, but she came prepared with extra blankets and fuzzy socks. Ruby the reindeer got to go along, of course.

It was warm and often sunny and humid during their stay, with each day hotter than the one before. It rained on the last afternoon/evening, but other than that it couldn't have been better for South Haven's big draw, the beach! Mom went swimming in Lake Michigan every day.

Not as many puzzles got put together as some years, but here are the ones they did get to:

done in honor of a Spiderman-loving kid in the family

Mom's favorite. (And yes, she got to do the horses.)

This one - from the rental house - had velvety sections

Another one of the puzzles that was there, The Creature from the Black Lagoon! 

Alas, 2 pieces were missing. 

There was also a lot of white dog or cat hair mixed in with the pieces, which was weird because no pets are allowed in the rental house...

This one was a group effort. Mom spent most of her time on the fire pit and sky.

So tropical!

This one was too big for the table the traditional way, but it just fit diagonally.

A few of the other activities: 

stopping at Sherman's for ice cream

walking the pier and watching the sunset

shopping in downtown South Haven

These are Mom's practical... and not-so-practical souvenirs. The story on the owls: the brown one was lying sadly on the ground by a stuffed animal display tower, face down. Mom picked him up to put him back where he belonged... but decided he belonged with her instead. And, naturally, she couldn't buy him without also buying his gray buddy. Mom felt like she did pretty well leaving the toy store with the just the owls - there were some beautiful Breyer horses also on display that she forced herself to resist. She has named them Myth and Merlin.

Until next time!