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Abandoned - Shangri La - Story 67

Started by Abandoned, March 30, 2021, 07:04:19 AM

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Abandoned

#15
Chapter 9


  At the beginning of year 5, our food surplus was still low.  Weather permitting over the winter, land was cleared across the river for a bigger mulberry orchard.  The 9'x18' field would give us plenty of berries to eat.  In spring another rice patty was prepared but it was too late to plant.  Another pit house was built and 14 year old Nico moved out of the Iwate Inn.  Another Kyoto farmhouse was built and 15 year old Mayne also moved out of the Inn.  That left only 12 year old Irenee who was quite content to stay where she was for the time being.

  Between those 2 houses a Yayoi Granary was built to store food.  The tree leaves were already changing to autumn colors by the time the harvests were complete and the wild foods were gathered.  The gathered foods gave us a bit more variety than our diet of fish, rice, soybeans, and mulberries provided.  We need more field workers and gatherers but no new foreigners arrived this year, neither did the river boatmen.  Our resident foreigners were eager to get word to their families but also to report their surveyor findings.  The town they came from built railroad tracks in 3 directions and every so often they sent surveyors to report if it were possible to continue building in those directions.  Reports were always the same, it would be impossible to build tracks and tunnels through this mountain range where many surveyors have become lost.

Perhaps a river boatman would come next year but now our work was done for the year and it was time to think of a bit of entertainment.

Abandoned

Chapter 10


  We had been busy in our spare time preparing for a traditional Kabuki theater performances.  The men made a small stage at the front of the main 1st floor room of the theater with curtains and changing rooms behind.  They also made benches for spectators to sit on.  We had a few flutes and samisens which the foreigners said were like their banjos.  The oldest traditional Kabuki dance dramas were preformed by all men, but our Nara tailor could not resist making a few traditional female dance kimonos.  Our first performance would be a traditional female dance with samisen music and song.

  We were all excited for that first performance.  It would be the first time our children would see an important part of their heritage.  They would be taught to carry on the traditions.   Our foreign friends were eager to see and learn more of our culture.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bZWfAmuKIY

Abandoned

#17
Chapter 11


  By spring of year 6 we had a beautiful gazebo built on the lake.  The view of the lake and surrounding mountains was spectacular.  There still was no sign of a riverboat trader.  Our food supply was low after another winter.  We took to the forest areas to gather from the wild.  We should have planted more soybeans in the new field but we had hope that the trader would come in time to plant. 

  We built another bridge crossing the small stream to make it easier to collect the wild foods on that side of the stream.  The area across from the Kabuki theatre was very beautiful and the perfect peaceful place for another shrine.  First we built a Torii gate and laid the foundation for the shrine.  We only had 5 laborers so work had been slow as the laborers were busy gathering more wild foods.  There was still no harvest from the new mulberry orchard and the riverboat had not come.  It was late autumn and snowing by the time the Ise Shinto Shrine was complete. 

Abandoned

#18
Chapter 12

  Our Shangri La was indeed a place of peace and tranquility, especially in winter when we had more time to observe the beauty of nature.  That winter of year 6 the population of our town had grown to 64, 29 adults, 9 students, and 26 young children.  Irenee, the last foreigner living at the Iwate Inn, turned 15 and moved in with foreigner, Mayne who she met at the Inn.  They had a baby girl.  Demarcel and I had our 3rd son, Lenaro, that winter.  We had a baby girl, Tessika, the winter 2 years before.  We were teased by the other founding families because we were the last to start having children but had now caught up to the others with 4 children.  Like the other Japanese families, our marriage was arranged by our parents, but unlike the others we were strangers when we wed and took time to get to know each other.
 
  We all looked forward to spring of year 7.  We spent a lot of time out in the cold gathering what wild foods we could find.  In spring we planted soybean in the new field and dug another rice paddy.  Our food surplus increased that year and we had the first harvest from the new mulberry field.  It was a small harvest which barely began before another winter was upon us.

Abandoned

#19
Chapter 13


  Early spring of year 8 was very cool and rainy, we had to be out gathering wild foods so we would have enough to eat until harvest time.  Our firewood supply was good but we all agreed that the tradition way of heating was better.  We built a Ishikawa charcoal kiln so we could heat our homes by burning charcoal in habachi bowls.  We could do the same to heat the new Tokyo bathhouse across the stream from the kiln.  The tradition bath house was not for bathing but for relaxing and socializing and restoring ones spirit in the comfort of the fragrant warm waters.  The bathhouse was completed by autumn and we looked forward to winter days relaxing there after our gathering chores were done.  Our food supply was good after the harvest but there was much gathering to be done.  I looked forward to some time to relax, our 5th child, another daughter, was born that autumn.

Abandoned

#20
Chapter 14


  The gazebo was a wonderful place to relax in spring and summer.  The lake was now a place of tranquil scenic beauty, many water irises and water lilies now bloomed.  It was agreed we did not want that tranquility disturbed by riverboats even though after 8 years we did not hold out much hope of ever seeing a riverboat man.  We often felt we existed on a lost horizon forgotten by the rest of the world.  But nontheless, we decided to build a new Edo trading post out on the point directly on the river.

  After all these years our communication with our foreign friends had greatly improved.  We now spoke some of their language and they spoke some of ours.  The told us of some of the many things we could trade for. 

  We had so few workers but we assigned 2 to the new trading post who picked up the trade goods as they were emptied from the old one.  It was hard heavy work moving iron, stone, logs, and firewood.  The few remaining laborers worked extra hard gathering to keep our food supply stable. So it was extremely disappointing in summer of year 9 to spot a riverboat on our lake and then to watch it go right on by without stopping.

  The bright spot that year was the beautiful Koi Pond built outside the cemetery gate.  We had planned a walled Japanese garden there but did not want to disturb the grazing ground of the deer families.  They were such beautiful gentle creatures and a large part of the scenic beauty of the area.  They did not even mind the presence of the children who came to watch the pretty fish in the pond.


angainor88

Hmm I've never had that problem with the trading post before, but I will look into it when I am feeling better.

Abandoned

@angainor88  I am not certain it is the trading post.  Only once before did I have a boat go past without stopping, and never had a problem with the trading post on the lake rather than the river, but others have had the problem.  I found this thread:

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=3920.0

At first I thought maybe I did not place trading post good.  I built the new one and it was barely completed and here comes the boat  :) and there goes the boat  :(  ;D  It was not long after that the boat did return and came at regular intervals with no problem.  Problem may be random depending on the map itself.  :-\

Hope you feel better soon.

Kristahfer

Such a beautiful way to display @angainor88 's mod. Thank you again, great work.
Oh by the way, how long did you have to wait for that great Koi Pond capture?


Abandoned

Thanks @Kristahfer  :) Actually I planned a walled garden but did not want to disturb the deer.  I built the pond and took the screenshot then saw the child, it was unexpected, I took another screenshot.  You would not believe how many screenshots I end up with in the screenshot folder.  ???  The culprit is usually rain, I will take shot so I don't miss it all together and then take another when the rain stops.  Sometimes rain or snow shot is better.  Japanese mods are making it easy to get a nice looking screenshot.  :)

Abandoned

#25
Chapter 15


  It was winter of that year, year 9, that another riverboat was spotted on the lake.  This time it did not pass by.  It was the same boatman who passed us by before, he could not stop because the spring snow melt and summer rain made the river run too fast at that time.  We were thrilled that he had mountain grown tea seedlings from a town called Morningside far to the north.  We ordered potato, onion, and cabbage seeds.  He agreed to take some of our silk for a very good trade value, he would see if a place called Riverboat Junction would think there was a market for such a cloth here.

  Chann, the merchant, also had news for our foreign friends about the railroad town they came from.  It was pretty run down now and almost deserted. He would see to it that word reached them that they were alive and well.  There was little hope of expanding that railroad through the mountains in this direction.  There was however rumors of another railway being built in the northwest.  There was also word of a deadly giant frog invasion in the swamp southeast of us.  There was news of a group of surveyors who were mapping the whole world.  He doubted they would ever find us here in our remote hideaway.  He was sorry but he heard no mention of any boats arriving on the far west shores.  He would make a few inquiries and keep an ear open and let us know if he heard anything.  He had no idea where the rice he had came from, he could ask at the Junction. He would return with at least some of our order soon.

  We had few workers but we cleared a crop field for whatever seeds he might bring and an orchard was cleared and planted with the tea tree seedlings.   Our rice and soybean harvests were good that year.  In late autumn Chann returned with cabbage seeds.  By the time the snow began to fall, the old trading post was emptied and demolished, we would have a worker for the cabbage field. 


angainor88

Yay the trader boat came at last! No longer forced to eat only soybeans and rice :P

Abandoned

#27
 :)

Chapter 16


  Chann, the riverboat merchant, had mentioned that there was some disease spreading because of the invading frogs dying.  Our foreign friends told us of other more common diseases know to the area.  We have had no illnesses whatsoever but decided it would be wise to build a hospital if ever needed.  We cleared land next to the Bathhouse and by summer our 1 builder had the hospital completed.  Patients would be able to recover in the peaceful beauty of the area across the stream.

  Our builder's next project was a teahouse.  We chose a spot with the beautiful view of the tea orchard.  We would make herb tea like we did at home until the orchard produced tea leaves.  We were excited at the prospect of being able to have traditional tea ceremonies.  The teahouse's floor would be covered with mats called tatami and wall a nook called a tokonoma would have a decorative hanging scroll and vases of flowers.  Preparing and serving the tea in the traditional ceremony is complicated and has strict rules on how it should be done.

There would be no tea leaves harvested that year but we had the first harvest of cabbage.  Chan returned in summer with onion seeds and since we had a surplus of soybeans we decided that the small soybean field would be planted with onions the following spring.  But before then, we would enjoy hot herb tea in the Soan teahouse and another traditional production at the Kabuki theatre.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIQJa-j5Sxs

jerica

@Abandoned, beautiful as always! May I ask which mod lets you see your fields' yearly production?

kid1293

@jerica - see picture. The production is always available.
It is a vanilla function, no mod.