The Prairie Fire

Hammond's Leisure Hour, 200 pieces. Antique puzzle with relatively thick wood and unusual, swirling cutting style.  I quite enjoyed putting it together and it was a bit harder than it looked.  3/5

Berga: Auf offener See Chalutiers au grande large

Penelope, 1500 pieces. This translates as "on the open sea" and it is by far the largest Penelope I've done, though I have another similarly sized one on deck.  This puzzle had a very high "this must be incomplete; I've looked through the whole table and I can't find this distinctively shaped and colored piece ... oh wait" factor.  Subtle shade differences kept it from being completely overwhelming, but it was not for the faint of heart.  7/10 Stave scale (it was complete after all)

Fish teaser

Bert Nuckols, Woodworker on Wheels (Etsy seller), 28 pieces.  Hand-cut puzzle (I did it without the frame) that would make a nice housewarming/guest gift for a puzzle fan.  3/5 quick and fun

Animals of the World

Keystone, 836 pieces.  Lots of multipiece animal whimsies, some parts of which remained mysterious until the end, so kudos there.  Muted colors increased the difficulty, as did some color-line cutting around the outlines of the animals.  Very challenging.  8/10 Stave scale.

polar bear

elephant

giraffe

lion

ram

rabbit (in one piece)

stork (blurry)

lioness

wolf

deer

eagle

The California Puzzle

Hardwood Art Creations, 163 pieces. Laser cut puzzle from a cutter who's new to me (via Etsy).  Thin pieces--a bit thinner than Wentworth even.  Nice California-themed whimsies; the lack of printing on the wood means that some of the whimsies can be burned into pictures.  Cutting style random enough that the puzzle stayed challenging throughout, especially given the uneven edges.  I enjoyed it and it would be nice for someone looking for something a bit different or for a California-themed puzzle.  3/5

Go for the Gold

Stave, 110 pieces.  Lovely Teaser (Xmas present, thank you!) with clever dropouts to make it a little harder to assemble.  7/10 not the hardest but very pretty.

Alpha bet Soup

Stave, 1035 pieces. It's possible that this is Stave's best deal, piece for piece, but it is not for the faint of heart.  Some very clever piece associations with different letters, and then very difficult swirly pieces to finish the job aided (sort of) by vague color coordination between the swirls and the specific letters.  9/10 pretty serious puzzling.

clowns and themed pieces

everything else

mostly assembled except for swirls and a few themed pieces that remained mysterious

another closeup of this stage

hah! not in order because I didn't quite manage to complete them in order

That "yellow" submarine had me confused for a while

"zephyr"--sure, that's what the wind is 

This fish didn't fit in until the swirl was in place--very unusual and if more of the pieces had been like that I would've gone bonkers

"jalapeno" took forever to figure out too

alphabetical order courtesy of my daughter