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Abandoned - Westward Ho - part 3 - Prairie Homestead - Story 27

Started by Abandoned, July 15, 2018, 07:46:37 AM

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Abandoned

Intro:


This is the 27th story in the Smallville series and is a continuation of the Westward Ho journey that began in story 25 in the Outskirts of Smallville.  The wagons left Outskirts and headed west in year 45 SVT.  The wagon train carries 6 families plus the wagon master and his family (Domington and Doree and their 3 boys, Linwoodrow, Lion, and Greggie).  They traveled through forested valleys and over steep hills and spent over a year at the Rest Stop of story 26.  They traveled on, crossing the vast prairie, when 2 families decided they did not want to go any farther west.  They would find a suitable place to homestead. You, weary traveler, were there in Prairie Homestead almost from the beginning but  now when this story is being told, you have been reunited with your family and the rest of the wagon train.


The map seed is #  278555841        Prairie terrain,  Small,  Mild,  Disasters On,  Prairie Hard Start


Mods activated for this map and load order are:

Map Changing and Starting Mods:  Call of Nature Soundtrack, Banished UI Maps & UI Town Names, Labor Window, Rk Minimized Status, Tiny Rain

Tweak Mods:    Better Fields, Hunting and Gathering v3, Hunting Season,  Increased CC, Longer Living Orchards, 1:1 alternative (aging mod)

Major or Must Have Mods:  Nomad Sign Complete, Kid Alotofseeds Trader, Kid Tiny Separate, Kid Westward Ho, Kid Work Place

Supporting Mods:    Deco Sunflower, I See Fire, Kid Animal Shed SA2, Kid Ghost Flower, Kid New Pump, Kid Vegetable Garden, Kid Washing Mod, Kid Yard Cover, Storage Crates, Vegan Scarecrow.


Special thanks go to @RedKetchup for his contribution to Westward Ho's prairie landscape and to @kralyerg for the CC bison.


Theme song:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJJGikSD9ho



  It is truly amazing that you are alive and well, weary traveler.  It was getting dark when we circled the wagons for the night after leaving Rest Stop and first realized you were gone. How were we to know you had gotten off the wagon while waiting for all the wagons to get in line outside of Rest Stop.  And then to have fallen asleep by that pretty pond and not even hearing the wagons begin to roll, unbelievable.  Just as well that when you woke up and tried to follow us you took the wrong set of wagon tracks and ended up in Prairie Homestead instead.  We made good time that day traveling across the prairie and were quite far ahead, you would not have been able to catch up to us.  Your family went back but could not find you.  They rejoined the train hoping you had somehow returned.  Well, you are here now and reunited with your family, that is what matters.  But let me recount what you have told me about Prairie Homestead, I am sure I will be asked about it many times.

Abandoned

Chapter 1


  As you know, weary traveler, it was early summer before we were finally ready to leave Rest Stop.  On the other side of the small stream and hills to the west was endless prairie as far as the eye could see.  It was hot, dry, and dusty, there was only a tiny amount of rain.  There were few trees and very little shade.  We were wise to have taken as much water with us as we did.  How you survived alone and on foot, I'll never know.  What you didn't know at the time was that 2 of the couples decided they had had enough.  They did not want to go any farther west but wanted to head north instead and find a good spot to homestead.  Reluctant to see them go, we divided up the supplies and gave them one of the storage wagons.  They took only 10 iron tools and 10 hide coats but they had 200 firewood and plenty of roots and mushrooms.  They also had half the seed potatoes to plant.  It was a good thing you followed their wagon wheel tracks and not ours, from what you told me they did not travel too far north before settling.  They couldn't cross the river.

  As you said, it could not have been easy for them when they first arrived having the animals and young children to care for and hurrying to get those potatoes planted.  At least there were several large deer herds close by for fresh meat, and the prairie has plenty of wild herbs and foods, even wild corn.  There may not be many trees but thatch can be burned and there is plenty of deadwood for firewood too.  And they did have some of the seedling we brought from Smallville,  it was certainly worth a try setting up a forester tent to plant them, they would probably not grow anything like the trees in Smallville but they would still produce logs.  So, when you arrived in Prairie Homestead they were already building a small house.  We here know how long that can take when there is a shortage of logs and workers. Of course you were in no condition to help much after your ordeal.  Certainly, they would not have wanted to spend the winter on the prairie in the wagons.

  Yes, you did say there was a herd of bison spotted nearby.  All the more reason to want sturdy wood houses to live in rather than wagons.  Did Manning or Landrea tell you about the stampede.  Yes, it was terrifying.  We heard rumbling in the distance and thought a storm was approaching, the sky did look threatening.  The rumbling got louder and a cloud of dust arose and the ground began to shake and then we saw them.  A whole herd of stampeding bison coming our way.  Dom said it may have been a streak of lightning that started that stampede. Lucky for us, a streak of lightning turned them away from us just in the nick of time.  Shorty after that narrow escape, Manning and his wife, Jessee, decide to leave the train, Landrea and Yarita decided to go with them.  Yes, lucky for you they did.

kid1293


Abandoned

Thanks @kid1293, the prairie is beautiful and I am enjoying the journey west.  :)

RedKetchup

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kid1293



Abandoned

 ;D oh you are right, @Goblin Girl, donkey does look like a unicorn from that angle.  :) Cool but it is just donkey with big ears.  :)

RedKetchup

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Click here to Donate by PayPal .

Goblin Girl

Quote from: Abandoned on July 16, 2018, 10:03:21 AM
Cool but it is just donkey with big ears.  :)
That's what a person trying to hide a unicorn in Banished would say.  :o

Abandoned

 ;D Unicorn - maybe someday  ;D


Chapter 2


  Oh, I do agree with you, weary traveler, autumn is a beautiful time on the prairie, cooler days with some clouds but still little rain.  And it is so much easier to spot those stalks of wild corn.  You must have all enjoyed fresh roasted corn with newly harvested potatoes.  And by then the second house was complete and you had a wagon all to yourself.  Who did you say you moved in with when the weather got colder?  Oh yes, Landrea and Yarita, and he was the one that spotted the bison not far from the forester tent. And in early spring of year 2 more were spotted south of the homestead. 

  Yes, you're right, when logs are in short supply so are tools.  At least the blacksmith in the tiny workshop could make hide coats while he waited for logs.  You did say coats were also in short supply.  Life is not easy on the prairie as I am sure those refugees that arrived in Homestead told you.  Having come from Smallville yourself, you know that those earlier floods displaced many families and farm animals.  Smallville sent out expeditions to rescue them and established the Refugee Camp and Animal Refuge.  How nice that those refugees found some chickens, a cow, and two sheep and brought them to Homestead with them.  Yes, it was important to build sheds to protect those animals, the refugees could stay in the wagons temporarily.  Goodness, they spent the winter in the wagons because there wasn't enough wood, oh my.  We all know what that was like.  At least by fall of year 3 the seedling that were planted were growing into useable size trees.  I image the forester was pretty nervous having buffalo roaming so close by.
 
  As you said, by early spring of year 4 Prairie Homestead had a population of 19, 13 adults and 6 children plus yourself.  Good for them, they built a school as soon as they could even before more houses and a tiny town hall.  No, you did not get to see them completed, you were found and returned to us before then.  We were all overjoyed to see you.  Now, let me tell you what has been going on here and with the wagon train while you were gone.


To be Continued

rkelly17

What would be truly perfect for a Prairie Homestead map would be sod houses. They were fairly common as a first house on the prairies of the US and Canada. The one thing about those prairies was that there were few if any trees, so folks made do with what was available: lots and lots of sod. My Grandmother was born in a sod house on the prairies of North Dakota in the 1890s.

Abandoned

 :) @rkelly17 yes, I think Tom Sawyer's Nordic Log Cabins (separate from the North) with grass roofs would look good on the prairie, even Kid Swamp Houses would work.  US does have a variety of landscape types.  I have been to South Dakota, very different.  :)