Abandoned - Green Pastures - Story 3

[Abandoned]

Intro




  This is the 3rd story in the New World Series.  The 2 houseboats carrying Jenser and Shie, and you, eager explorer, left the town of Rainbow Falls of story 2 and were hoping to find other towns and settlements on the way back to Newburg of story 1.   Their goal is to find more stops for a trade route in this part of the new world.  The river was slow; there had been little rain.  The river took them south, then wound its way to the west, the direction they wanted to go.  Autumn was rapidly changing to winter; the houseboats were not heated.  They knew they would not make it back to Newburg before winter set in.  They checked the crystal ball they were given in Rainbow Falls and saw all was well back home; Jenser and Shie's 2 girls appeared fine and a few more houses had been built.  When the eager explorers finally came across a small settlement, they asked if they could stay until spring.






Map seed # 661112244         Fresh Spring Valley,  Small,  fair,  Disasters Off,  Shepherd (4 Families)

 
Mods activated for this map and load order are:

Map Changing and Starting Mods:   Banished UI Maps, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status, CC Light Rain,  Kid Deco Tree Spring.

Tweak Mods:   Better Fields, Busy Pastures MM, Fishing Dock +25%, Hunting, Increased CC, 1:1 Alternative (Voeille), Rock Respawn, Tiny Smoke.

Major or Must Have Mods:    An Empty Square, Nomads (Kid), override Uneducated, Kid Workshop,  RkEditior's Choice -Full, Jinxie Bitty Rabbit Hutch, Kid Abandoned Places SE, Kid Workplace Village.

Supporting Mods:   Kid Animal Shed Plus, Kid Deco Farm Animals, Kid Farmyard, Kid Hedgerow, Kid Houseboat, Tiny Chopper.



Of course you can stay here with us until spring, eager explorers.  We're only a small settlement but we do have a boarding house.  I'll tell you about our settlement while you settle-in.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 1


  There were 16 of us who came down along the small stream from the northwest; there were 8 of us adults with 8 children and a cart of supplies.  The small settlement we came from struggled every time there were more mouths to feed.  The winters there seemed longer and colder; a group of us came south hoping it would be warmer and less of a struggle.  We were young and inexperienced; not skilled in anything but sheep herding.  We found several mountain sheep along the way here.  We saw some mountain goats and a wide river ahead of us so we went east around the big hill and found a clearing where we could settle. 





  We gathered building materials and built this hostel with room enough for all of us.  We began building a medium-size barn by the stockpile, and a fishing pier down by the riverbend.  There was a muddy low-lying area where a large group of wild hogs had taken up residence.   We built a pasture shed and fenced in the area to keep the hogs from roaming free.  There was an apple tree and mushrooms growing there in our new pig pasture and across from it was a hedgerow, bordering the trees, that had more mushrooms, wild oats, asparagus, hazelnuts, and branches to gather.   





  We built a house and another pasture shed so the sheep could graze in the clearing and on the hillside.  The goats we had seen were just on the other side of that hill.  My husband, Bertrude, and our son, and I moved into that house. My name is Karandee.  As the temperature dropped in autumn and the wild grasses began to die-off, those goats made it over the hill into our valley and our small farmyard next to the hostel.  We had transplanted 2 apple trees there where we planted some oats and carrots.  We weren't farmers; we didn't have many seeds, but we were glad to share our meager crops with the goats in exchange for some milk for the children.  We would see to it that the pigs, sheep, and goats had enough thatch to eat over the winter.  The woodcutter we built by the stockpile was already bundling some of the thatch to use as firewood.  Winter was fast approaching.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 2


  That 1st winter here was pretty cold; the thatch supply was running low; we had to go to the forest to collected firewood.  Our old clothes were pretty worn, and we did not have any warm coats.  We had some hides and wool and built a tailor workplace next to our house, but it was just too cold and windy to work outside.  I just had a baby girl.  That cold north wind kept the hostel pretty cold too, so the other families were looking forward to their own cozy wooden houses and warm hearths. 





  By early spring of year 2, one family moved into the house that was built by the pig pasture, they also had a newborn daughter. Another family moved into the house built by the fishing pier; they'd only been in the house a few weeks when their oldest child, a boy named Therford, became an adult and moved back into the hostel.  The 4th family moved into the house that was built north of the woodcutter; a forester's tower was planned for that area.  The couple had a daughter who was about to become an adult; we had no school.
 




  It was autumn before I began making warm coats; our supply of coats was very low by then, so was our supply of tools.  An anvil was set up there by my workplace across from the woodcutter.  We were left with only 1 laborer and 1 builder.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 3



  In early spring of year 3, Therford moved from the hostel to a small workplace cabin that was built by the forester's tower.  We had no worker to spare to become the forester.  We were very happy when 4 more families arrived from the north.  There were 4 couples with 3 adult children and 5 young ones.  They agreed to stay with us.  One couple moved into the workplace cottage that was built near Therford's; they became our 2 foresters and Therford went to work gathering oats, onions, mushrooms, and berries; a gatherer's hut was built next to his cottage.





  Our firewood supply was very low again.  Bertrude took over my job as tailor, and our son, Rooseveland, and I became woodcutters.  We could do nothing about our tool shortage; we had no iron, only iron ore.  A blacksmith was built next to the woodcutter and the smith began making usable iron from the ore.  Basic tools would be made at the anvil once there was iron to be had.

  One of the new couples brought some corn, potato, and cabbage seeds as well as a few chickens.  They built a wooden house at the far end of the sheep pasture and planted a small farmyard across from it.  The pasture was getting pretty full of sheep.



  Another wooden house was built by the other one just past the new blacksmith.  The last couple, with their 4-year-old twins, moved into the small workplace house that was built across from us by the new school that was built there.  They would take turns being the teacher.  So many children already missed starting school.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 4


  As usual, we had a frost in autumn followed by snow shortly after.  We built a covering and 2 coops for the chickens.  We put out some thatch in the sheep pasture; with so many sheep there was less grass to graze and now it was covered with snow.  The pasture needed a good cleaning.  Folks were complaining that the animal fertilizer was being put in the storage barn with the food and other supplies. 





  The goats got a covering and a little thatch too.  They multiplied and we now had 5 goats.  The pigs were doing alright and were given potato peels and cabbage leaves to eat so there was less garden waste to deal with. 

  By spring of year 4, we had cleared land for another sheep pasture and moved half the sheep to it.  We fenced in that pasture so the sheep would not roam off into the forest.  We put a cart near the gate for the fertilizer that was cleaned from the pasture, and we moved the offending manure out of the storage barn and into that cart.  We would have to start a pile somewhere in the forest.




  While clearing the land for the new pasture, several rabbits were spotted.  A small hutch was built and with a little food, the rabbits were soon lured into the hutch.  Our food supply was good but we could certainly use more hides to make the warm coats with.  By the time the rabbits got in the hutch, it was autumn again and it would soon be winter.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 5


  Winter came and went and then it was spring again.  With less sheep in the pastures the new grass had a chance to grow, and with more cleaning, the pastures were clean and green in spring.  The leaves on the birch trees were a bright spring green and the wild flax was blooming beautifully. 





  Six northerners with two children arrived that spring.  They were impressed with our pastures but saw we had a lot of fertilizer.  They had been through a town in the northwest that was using their fertilizer in greenhouses to grow grain and vegetable all year long.  They also saw our goats were in our small farmyard; they said the goats would eat less of our crops and give more milk if they were in a barn or animal shed.  They learned a lot about survival and town management in that northern town they came through; it had a survival school.  What?  Your town has greenhouses and a survival school?  Well, maybe it was your town then, eager explorers.  They told me the name, but I don't remember.  Newberg?  That sounds familiar.  You'll have to ask them; they live here in the houses by the hostel.



  They moved into the hostel and built the goat shed across from it.  They left 2 of the goats in the farmyard to keep it from getting overrun with thatch.  They built one house and then another by the new sheep pasture.  That left 2 young single males in the hostel where they could stay for a while.  They built a small storage barn by the stockpile next to the hostel. The women thought we must have a lot of wool from so many sheep.  We agree but didn't know exactly how much; we said we also had cotton and flax we gather from the wild, but we didn't know what to do with it. 



  They told us something important they learned at that school and that was to survive you should know exactly what you have and what you don't.  If you discover too late that you are short of tools, clothes, food, or firewood, you may not survive.  They suggested we build a town hall and keep an inventory of what we have.  We took their advice and built a town hall behind the main storage barn by the new sheep pasture.  They said we should give our town a name especially if we want to be on the trade route those northerners wanted to start, so we named our town Green Pastures.  You don't say?  Well then, it must have been your town those families came through if starting a trade route is what brought you here. 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 6




  Those women knew what to do with cotton and flax, and suggested we build a tailor shop.  It would need lumber to build it, so we built a lumber mill, and then a tailor shop was built.  After taking the inventory we discovered we had a lot less cotton and flax then we had though.  We had plenty of wool but not enough leather.   The tailor made some cloth and linen from what little cotton and flax we had and could use those fabrics and our wool to make some warm coat without leather.  Our gatherer said the flax was just too pretty to pick.





  Our gatherer did supply us with a nice assortment of berries including blackberries, mulberries, raspberries, and strawberries, as well as mushrooms, oats, onions, roots, and firewood.   Our inventory showed we had an awfully lot of mutton and pork.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 7




  We were concerned that a lot of the meat might spoil.  We thought to preserve it the old-fashioned way by curing it with salt.  There was a rocky clearing to the northeast of town that had stone, iron, and other ores; we thought it might also have a salt deposit.  We were correct.  We promptly built a salt mine there.  We built an Old Saltery shack across from the new barn and wove a road from there through the forest to the salt mine.  We would make salt meat from our mutton.
 






  Across from the pig pasture, behind the fishing pier, we built an Old Dry Shack.  We would start by drying some fish but would then switch over to drying pork.  Our fisherman would not catch any more fish until our supply of fresh meat and fish was reduced considerably. 

  The woodcutter at the lumber mill would also stop working.  That would give us 4 laborers and 2 builders.  We were still a relatively small settlement with only 28 adult workers.  We had 2 foresters and 2 woodcutters, 2 smiths and 2 tailors, and 4 herdsmen who took care of the sheep, pigs, and rabbits.  The goat shed, fertilizer cart, hedgerow, gatherer's hut, 2 farmyards, the salt mile, dryer, saltery, and school each had one worker.  It would be a few years before any of the 8 students finished school, and the same number of years before any young couple got together.  The rest of the population was made up of 14 young children.  Towards the end of year 6, Green Pasture's population was 50 citizens.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 8

  As we thought, our supply of fresh meat went down, and the amount of dried and salted meat went up.  Our supply of goat's milk was a bit of a problem; in summer our surplus spoiled and in winter it froze.  We built a cheese shed to use the surplus to make goat cheese.  Now you tell me that cheese would be a very good trade item because of its keeping quality, just like our dried and salted meat.  Well, we could certainly increase our cheese production. 



  We are most interested in this trade route you speak of, eager explorers; we've given a lot of thought to all that you've told us over the winter.  You said your town of Newburg has a tiny stone quarry and you have oats grown in greenhouses.  If you had more fertilizer, you could have more greenhouses and more oats.  You said the town of Rainbow Falls has apples, walnuts, and leather, but needs stone and wool.  We have plenty of fertilizer and wool, as well as our preserved meats and cheese.  We could use some of your oats.  If anyone needs logs or firewood, we have 2 large forests but only 2 foresters as of now; we could always increase our output of logs if needed.  We also have a lot of copper ore that could be collected, and there is a bit of gold and silver ore too if anyone has a use for them.  We think this trade route will help a lot of people, especially those here in the north.

[Abandoned]

Chaper 9









  As you can see looking around Green Pastures, eager explorers, we've done okay with our pigs, goats, and sheep.  We're shephards, not farmers, so we could certainly use more grain as our town continues to grow.  Over the winter we built that workplace trading post we talked about, and we began stocking it with wool, fertilizer, meat, cheese, and ores.  We look forward to the arrival of the first riverboat trader.




  Now that spring is here, we know you are eager to be on your way.  We delivered a crate of cheese and dried and salted meats to each of your houseboats.   Fare thee well, eager explorers.  Safe journey.






The End