Board game rules digest
The first version, made early in 2026, was ugly but useful, and most of the work since has been quiet improvement.
Halfway through I changed my mind about the handles, which cost a weekend but was worth it. The most useful thing I learned from an uncle with a very full shed was to ask before you buy. The design of this page is kept simple so that it will still work long after I stop fiddling with it, much like a drawer of string and tape.
I kept a short log in the small room above the stairs while working on it, mostly so I would remember which screws went where. Pages here change slowly, usually every couple of months, and that suits trail running just fine.
How it went
- Fix whatever broke
- Live with it for a few weeks
- Tidy up and write notes
- Show it to someone honest
Notes
I return to it every few weeks, fix a sticky drawer, and leave the rest for later. I try to answer every letter, whether it comes from Lisbon or further away, even if it takes until the weekend.
Thanks for stopping by; everything here was made stubbornly, mostly in the spare room. Some of the older notes about trail running are out of date, but I keep them as a record of how things went. Materials came from a swap group in Lisbon and a car boot sale, which made the whole thing much cheaper.
Everything here was done with basic tools, mainly a pair of binoculars and a lot of patience. There is a short list of next steps, starting with a loose joint and the heavy lifting. If you want to try something similar, buy the cheap version first and stop while it is still fun. I took photographs at every stage at a friend’s place across town, which turned out handy when things went wrong.
On a long weekend in 2025, I finally got it to the point where the whole thing cost less than expected. A reader from Lisbon helped with the fiddly bits, and the result is better for it. My grandmother came round one Monday in September to look at it and suggested changing the size. Truth be told, it took a long weekend and one borrowed clamp before the result looked like something I would show anyone.