Puzzle Description:

So now she's out there chopping away,and doing a better job than me,i might add.

#1: Kurt Kowalczyk (bahabro) on Sep 16, 2012

sounds like a "keeper"! gotta love a woman who plays with your wood!

Is her Nikki-name "Juggles with Logs"?

without spending too much time on it(like last night), I'm gonna go ahead and say it's not logical. love the image and how you stay true to features(like the goatee, Destyny's curly-cue, etc) Niki looks hard at work! had to peek though...

No kidding Kurt,lol.:)

Her juggling skills is a different story,maybe for a future puzzle John,lol.:)

I didin't guessed! After LL I tried EL on the 4R1, got a few dots. Then tried the 2 in R2 and after that it was all LL. Nice one Al!

Thx Jota.:)

Ended up peeking, too. Thought I had it and was merrily filling in squares when the ugly red dot popped up. Anyway, great puzzle. And more importantly, great wife.

Lol,thx Norma.:)

EL on the 4 in r1 dots c1,2. It can't go into c15. That's all I see. I don't see any EL on either 2 in r2.

I've never seen a woman chop wood.

It's very sexy Tom.:)

scratch what I said earlier...it is do-able. came back to it and seen a few things. forget the 2's in r2, Tom. look at the 6....you can narrow down where it fits in and place a few dots and blacks. it has to start c6 or later or you'll violate r3. and before that even, you should have dotted r1,2 in c15. maybe that'll get you started

Kurt, I looked long and hard at that clue. I still don't see it.

the longest clue number in r3 is "4"....so the 6 in r2 cannot cross more than 4 c's that have 3 or more in their first clue #, or you'll get greater than the "4" in r3. therefore r2c4 must be a dot. and you should already have r's1,2 in c16 as dots from ll...the "6" in r2 must fall within that space. that's what got me started after initial ll.

don't quote me on this, cuz I did this days ago and I don't quite remember exactly, but I think I further narrowed that space that contains the "6" due to a "1" in one of the c's that woulda violated r1 if the 6 crossed it as well. hard to say without re-solving, cuz I don't remember what dots and blacks I had when I saw that, and God only knows what dots and blacks you have while looking at that clue

which is exactly why we need to be able to post images of the point we get stuck in puzzles
it is so much easier than trying to describe the point at which we get stuck

finally wiggled my way through this one logically. knew i should have tracked my moves. sorry.

After all the hints above, I was still stuck. I eventually found internal edge logic on the 4 in column 6, forcing r19c6 and r20c6 to be white/dots. That allows for more line logic.

When the purple arrow stops, I found the white/dot square r16c13. This didn't seem to help much.

After this I'm not able to find anything that wouldn't be considered at least deep look ahead, maybe even trial and error. Here is a link to my current puzzle. I'll take another look tomorrow.

http://www.b8t.us:8090/webpbn_puzzle_19815_partial.jpg

not sure if this breaks much loose or not, but how about:

whether C19R2 or C19R9 is black, C18R2 will be black

haven't recreated your board to see how far things go from there

Good catch, David.

I have my settings set to use white squares instead of dots. If you don't use the same settings, replace "white" with "dot" when you read my hints below.

It might be slightly more logical to say it doesn't matter if C19R2 is white or black, it forces C18R2 to be black. This is because it is hypothetically possible at this point in the puzzle for both C19R2 and C19R9 to be black in two different clues, though I think the end result is the same.

I think my next find might count as deep look-ahead. Space C17R2, whether white or black, forces C20R5 to be black. If C17C2 is black, C19R2 is white, thus C19R9 is black, forcing C20R9 to be white, making C20R5 black. The other way, if C17R2 is white, C17R8 is black completing the 3 clue in row 8, causing C20R8 to be white, and making C20R5 black.

LL then gives us C15R5 as white.

The next deep look-ahead I see is that whether C19R8 is white or black, C17R9 is white.

More deep look-ahead, whether C17R8 is white or black, C20R9 is white.

I feel like there might be better ways, maybe with less steps, to prove the last 3 spaces, but I haven't found them.

Some deep look-ahead internal edge logic (sort of), if C14R7 is black, C7R1-7 is white, forcing a contradiction in row 3 because both C7R3 and C14R3 are also forced white.

Using the same trick, if C13R7 is black, C7R1-7 is white, forcing C13R2 to be black, C13R3 to be white, causing the same contraction in row 3 with both C7R3 and C13R3 being white.

I'm not sure if I've left the "logically solvable path or not. I'll take another break and look at again in a few days. For anyone interested, here is my latest board:

http://www.b8t.us:8090/webpbn_puzzle_19815_partial2.jpg

yeah, i shorten my two-way logic clues and don't include the preface "At least one of C19R2 or C19R9 must be black but....."

haven't relooked at any other logical steps, but looking at your board.

- EL (watching R2) dots/whites C3-5R1
- once you black C5R6 you can EL dot C6R1 (watching R6)

again, not sure how far that'll get you. one of these days i'll attempt a walk-thru :P

Solved using logic only, no guessing required.

Found to be solvable with moderate lookahead by blurglecruncheon.

The 4 in R1 and the 5 in C1 help with edge logic. I used 2-way logic to place the final 2 of C2 in R19/20. The upper left gets some contradictions as well, especially placing the 6/7/8.

A lot of fiddling but nothing too deep, so based on my own findings and other people's notes, moderate lookahead.

Goto next topic

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