14th Galena, 222
To hopefully maintain high morale, I've decided to not spread ourselves quite so thin while working on construction projects. Building the guardhouse, hospital and tavern at the same time is pretty much beyond our ability to do in a timely manner, so I've chosen the tavern to focus on first. Having a new, more spacious place to eat should give everyone something to smile about. I'm sure Shortstack will appreciate having a decent place to cook too. Cooking over a campfire probably got old the third day we were out here.
In preparation of its completion, I drew up some quick plans with Patina's help for a cellar for food storage and set Silver Rush to work on it. It should provide gracious plenty space for what we have now with room for expansion.
Hmm, now that I think about it, we should probably start considering expanding and moving the fields closer to the tavern and to a better organized location. I'll mull that over and discuss it with Tunda the next time I see her.
26th Galena, 222
Well, the farmers are definitely busy now. First, I'll start off with the 'bad' news.
We almost lost the halfway built tavern to a fire this morning, if you can believe it. I suggested to Tunda that she could start clearing out space for a permanent set of fields behind the new tavern, and it seems that whoever she had helping her with that tried to clear it out with a controlled fire. That's fine in theory, but it got out of control and burnt a lot of and shrubbery that we didn't want burnt and it nearly caught the tavern itself!
See, what had happened was... I actually mistyped some things with DFHack's Tiletypes command while trying to clear out some annoying pebbles and crap so I could put the farms down and accidentally cleared all of that space. No real fires were involved, only imaginary ones.
Everything is under control now though and there's no smoldering left.
The better news is that she made sure to scrap that attempt and instead got some help with doing it the old fashioned way and has already made good progress. So long as everyone is okay and everything is in one piece I'm happy, but we have to be more careful out here.
Even better, is that a lot of the cherry and plum trees nearby have started dropping their fruit now that it's ripe, so we've all taken some time away from the excitement of the flames to get some fresh fruit for Shortstack to incorporate into our next few meals.
9th Limestone, 222
Fargo approached me this afternoon with some mixed news. First, the good news:
I rushed out to greet the newcomers as they rolled into our little proto-town, and I'm thankful they came by the partially assembled tavern and the houses. From out east and up on the hill it doesn't look like there's much to Shadytrails.
After showing them around briefly and explaining how things are going, I met with Lute, the pegasus mare who is over the caravan. She was happy to see that we're doing so well (singed grass aside), but I can tell she was hoping we'd have more to show her.
She was definitely hoping we'd have more to trade, and I take full responsibility for that shortcoming. Even with all of the trinkets that Rosewood managed to make in her spare time, plus the odd little stone carving and some smelted lead bars, we weren't able to afford to trade for much. I got some fine cloth and thread, plus a few fruits and plants we can't grow locally. It wasn't much, but at least it shows we're willing to work with them.
I've made it a point to prioritize industrial development as soon as it's possible, since it would be very embarrassing indeed to have a repeat of this next year.
The bad news is that Fargo is planning to leave when they do. I tried talking him out of it and offering as much as I could to sweeten the pot, as they say, but he wasn't having any of it. Life is just too safe for him to feel useful here, so he's moving on.
I don't like having even fewer guards, much less losing one of the better adjusted ones, but it's not my choice. He's not a formal contracted employee of the Prestigious Confederacy, so it's his right to leave when he pleases. I'll just have to suck it up and prioritize finding a replacement for him even sooner. I should probably start looking for one for Lucky immediately as well, since I sincerely doubt she's going to be here for the long haul eiher.
27th Limestone, 222
The caravan has been here and Lute tells me that they're going to stay for a little longer if we'll have them, since it's a long trek home and they're all very tired from the journey. I can hardly blame them, and welcomed them to use what facilities we had for as long as they stayed.
One of Lute's other promises was fulfilled this morning though, when a small group of newcomers rolled into town along the same path:
An earth pony stallion carpenter named Alpine Ash,
A zebra mare farmer named Yusra,
A unicorn stallion mason named Marble Tiles,
A unicorn mare glass worker and jeweler named Crystal Clear and her husband,
A unicorn stallion guard named Gleaming Shield
It seems we got a lot of useful people, and at the very least this time I was able to show them somewhere halfway decent to rest and eat. The tavern is still far from finished, but does have a serviceable dining area now, which can seat twice as many comfortably as we could before. By the time the tavern is done it should be able to seat three times again as many, but that is some months off still.
I'm debating on changing priorities again on construction, but I think I'll wait and defer that decision until after I've figured out how to put our newcomers to best use. If some of them can help contribute then we can get it done all the quicker.
If not the tavern itself, then the new fields out back definitely can use some new hooves and claws to tend them.
At least once we have these matters taken care of then we can focus on something other than just subsistence.
11th Sandstone, 222
I'm making the call now that work on the tavern has to be put on halt. It's taking too long and we have too many people without personal shelter. Right now it's complete enough that all of our food has been moved to the cellar and Shortstack can work indoors, but half of the first floor is still incomplete and we haven't begun on the second floor. So, today, I asked Rosewood and Patina, who have been heading up the construction work, to focus on getting Shortstack's room completed upstairs so we can get to work on other things. I think I'm going to focus on getting part of the hospital built next so Gunther has his own room and somewhere to work. Bless him, he's been tolerating the conditions far better than I could have hoped.
Related to that, Tunda at least has good news. She and her new helpers have planted for the autumn growing season already and she provided me with her current plans for our crop rotation.
Spring – Celery, strawberries, red beans, red spinach, leeks, rhubarbs
Summer – Longland grass, barley, rye, leeks, onions, celery
Autumn – Spelt, blueberries, millet, alfalfa, barley, onions
Winter – Fallow
I'm eager to expand our options some, but that's a respectable variety and I'm certain that having a few more flavors to cook with will improve both Shortstack's and everyone else's morale a bit.
Of course, there's no need to leave the farms fallow in winter because this is DF, but I'm doing it for realism's sake.
11th Sandstone, 222
I have some even better news today! It seems that Fargo wasn't so keen to leave us behind after all. When the caravan departed he left them to rejoin us!
I'm very happy to have him still with us. A sensible griffon among the guard is going to go a long way, and he's been a dedicated and enjoyable citizen of the town so far. I'm willing to forget the entire episode if he is, and I hope that he won't reconsider his reconsideration...
12th Sandstone, 222
Something very alarming has happened today.
Shooting Star came bursting into my office to tell me that Fargo had lost his mind! I flew after her to see what she was trying to communicate, but I have to admit that when I got to the craftshop he'd commandeered I still had no idea.
He's just standing there, picking through the scraps of wood lying around and muttering something about 'Violetsmoke'. Nobody knows what's wrong and he won't talk to anyone! Not even Gunther knows what to make of it!
I'm currently at a loss for words. Right now we're taking turns just... watching him to make sure he's okay.
18th Sandstone, 222
Much to everyone's relief, Fargo snapped out of his strange daze this morning during breakfast. For whatever reason, he was working on what appeared to be a crown of all things.
He doesn't seem to have any idea why he made it or even how, since he has no real skill as a carpenter of any sort. Regardless, it's nothing short of beautiful, and if it was made of gold it would be the envy of any king.
For now I simply don't know what to do about it. He made it, and while it was done on company time and with a company workshop he's not employed for that so I can't just keep it or sell it. I told him to do with it as he pleases, which he unsurprisingly didn't have any plans for.
Until he figures that out I've asked Gunther to take a look at him to make sure he's well, and to return to duty only if he feels fit for it.
I don't know what to do about this. I really don't. The caravan left and took my letter home with them already, so I can't ask for help if it could even get here in time to be useful.
There's little we can do about it... so... unless it happens again to someone else... we can't do a whole lot but hope it, well, doesn't happen again.
1st Timber, 222
At long last, Shortstack's room is ready to move into. With that done and enough space in the tavern to let everyone eat at their leisure, I'm calling off further construction for now. We're moving on to new housing again as well as the hospital. That will be followed by the guard house...
I've been feeling a bit down lately, knowing how far behind we're getting. Even with the new help we haven't produced anything of value in months, and still have a great many people without proper shelter. Myself included...
I know it will be fixed in time, but that time can't come soon enough.
I tried drawing up a map of the entire town to put it all back into perspective, and maybe that's what has me feeling like we've accomplished so little.
This doesn't include the mine, just the top two levels out on the surface. As you can see, there is a haphazard smattering of workshops on the hill, and down below is the partially completed tavern and housing blocks.
Then again, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself since we did come out and put all this up in less than a year.
Nevertheless, we absolutely must go back to working on producing things to trade. I know that we'll have more merchants showing up soon, since word will have gotten out that we're here by now. It would be very embarrassing to have nothing to show.
