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Abandoned - Railway - part 2 - Holiday Hometown - Story 51

Started by Abandoned, November 20, 2019, 08:40:34 AM

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Abandoned

Chapter 10


  By autumn of year 9, Cleon and Chann returned home with news from Iron Ridge and with our belongings.  Grandma and Grandpa did not want either of our families to move out of the old boarding house, instead each of us was given one of the side wings.  We were all happy with the arrangement especially the grandparents and the children.

  We were all delighted to hear that our friends, Kareeman and Mauriel, were now planning to move back to Hometown with their families.  However, they had a lot to see to before then.  They had in fact begun building another train even though they were still working on the abandoned tunnel.  They would build a small passenger train for the trip home.  They were teaching the young ones how to build and operate trains and lay tracks.  They would need to build a bypass of tracks so 2 trains could pass each other, especially those going in opposite directions.  We would also need to build such a bypass.  The talk in Hometown that winter was all about future railway plans.

  In early spring of year 10, we had a surprise visit from none other than Mr. and Mrs. Claus.  Santa heard about Grandpa's toys and about our train.  The world had gotten larger with more towns and more children to visit each year. The frequent trips back to the North Pole to reload his sleigh were making it more and more difficult for Santa to complete his round.   Santa wondered if we would be willing to load up a few sleighs with toys for him to pick up on his rounds.  He would provide the sleighs and elf workers to help.  Santa also wondered if our train could in the future take toys to distant towns for him to pick up.  We said yes a warehouse freight car could be built to serve such a purpose but a lot of tracks would have to be laid first.

  While the men talked sleighs and trains, Mrs. Claus, Grandma, and us women talk about  food and special holiday treats. The 2 little old ladies were so much alike wanting to keep everyone well fed.  We already had chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and we kept a kettle of soup or stew hot for anyone who wanted a bowl.  Mrs. Claus gave Grandma several holiday recipes and a few special plants to grow some of the needed ingredients.  Mrs. Claus said elves work better when they have treats to eat, but don't give them mulled wine before Christmas, it puts them to sleep.

  We were honored, and agreed to help Santa.  We were so excited about Christmas coming that we put up the town Christmas tree early.  We choose the perfect spot, in the center of the railway turnaround.  We gathered around the tree and began to sing "Welcome Christmas" and then we saw him.  The Grinch had come to stop Christmas from coming somehow. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiOBwLLSpI4


What?  No, that's not right.  That another story entirely.  As I was saying:


Abandoned

@Goblin Girl nice to have you back and glad you are enjoying the story  :)


A Holiday Hometown Challenge can be found here:  http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=3546.0

Note: new mod to be released here later added to map - override Christmas Clothes


Chapter 11


  Shortly after Santa and Mrs. Claus left, 2 sleighs of elves arrived.  There were 8 adults and 2 children bringing Holiday Hometown's population to 86, 43 adults, 23 students, and 20 children.  Grandma had 2 more pairs of warm woolen mittens to knit for the children.  We would need to build more houses.  A small pasture was built for the reindeer.  The elves brought several sacks of gifts for us.  Like the elves, we all got a set of Christmas clothes just like Santa and Mrs. Claus were wearing when they visited.  We were now full of Christmas spirit and began hanging Christmas wreaths around town. Yes,  It's  beginning to look a lot like Christmas, we all agreed. The colorful elf houses added to the festive appearance of our Holiday town.  More elves would arrive soon with the sleighs we were to fill with toys . 

  In the meantime we had a lot of work to do.  Our workforce was still small but we could begin producing the ingredients that we would need for Mrs. Claus's recipes.  We began by building a small greenhouse for the cocoa bean plants she brought us.  With enough milk we could make hot chocolate.  We ordered milk cows, and then bought 4 of the ones that Furmann, the general goods merchant brought.  Charlow, the seed merchant, arrived at the same time with plum seeds; we would need plums for several recipes.  A large greenhouse for oats was built by the mill so we would not run out of flour.

  By spring of year 11, we had a pasture built for the cows and hoped we would have enough milk and eggs from the animal sheds for eggnog.   The new orchard of plum trees was off to a good start.   We build a sugar house and looked forward to sugarplums this Christmas.


kid1293


Abandoned


Abandoned

Chapter 12


  In spring of year 11, 11 more elves arrived.  They brought 5 sleighs with them for us to fill, yes 5, and 5 more reindeer were added to the reindeer pasture.  The children were having fun getting bits of sugar cane from the sugar house to feed to the reindeer.  The elves said we only needed 500 toys in each sleigh because Santa needed room for other things too.  We were happy to hear that.

More colorful houses were built around town that year and more Christmas decorations began to appear.  We were amazes that summer when we had a 92F degree day and the snowman by the school did not melt.  There must have been some magic in that old silk hat the children found and placed on the snowman's head.

  By early spring of year 12 we had a grape house built and hoped the extra fruit would help improve our overall health.  The herbs and herbalist did not seem to be doing the trick.  The cold weather wasn't helping either and we had snow just after things had finally started to turn green.  One of the sleighs had just been moved closer to the toy shop and Grandpa was out there making toys. He loved when the children stopped by the shop and he spent more time telling them train stories than he did making toys.  He would need help and we would need to build more toy shops if we had any hope at all of filling those sleighs. 

  Both our schools were nearly full.  Our education rate was rising, we did not want any children missing school.  Another tiny school was built near the elves' housing.

Work began laying tracks again this year.  A bypass would run from the trestle bridge to the turnaround.  There were a lot of trees to cut and rock and iron to move.  We frequently cleared branches from the track.

  Cleon and I spent quite a bit of time going over inventory counts this year.  Grandma always wanted to know how many apples we had, or how many eggs, how much of this or how much of that.  She was pretty sharp for her age.  We agreed we needed more spices so a small spice house was built next to the blacksmith.  She reminded us that there were young couples that wanted houses of their own.

Abandoned

Chapter 13


  As soon as the snow melted in early spring of year 13 work on track laying continued.  Several new houses were being built and Grandma said the folks up by the mill should have a place where they could check inventory records too, as well as statics.  We build a small gingerbread house to keep those records.

  Grandma was still concerned with our overall health.  We agreed a bigger variety of foods was needed.  The pumpkin plants in the greenhouse were again being tended and the Bakery was now making herb bread.  We collected more wild foods on each side of town so some would be available all around town.   We again began exchanging coal for apples from the train food car.

We also collected branches for firewood so more logs would be saved for toymaking.  We built 2 more toy shops.  We began cut trees selectively from around town and along the railroad tracks.  We did not want to run short of logs or firewood over the winter months.

Abandoned

Chapter 14


  The weather outside was frightful that winter but despite the cold and snow the railway bypass was completed.  We built a hot chocolate stand by the park and children who didn't want to drink their milk were now eagerly waiting for a mug of hot chocolate.  The workers too enjoyed stopping by for a hot drink on a cold day.

  In the summer they could stop at the newly built Yule tap for a cup of apple cider.  They could sit outside in the shade to enjoy it.  Someday they will be able to watch trains go by.  In fall and winter there will be hot apple cider while they are working on the railroad.  There was talk again now of extending the tracks to the coal mining mountain to the west.  First priority was those toys for Santa.  One sleigh was nearly full so another was moved closer to the toy shops.  Our log supply had improved after cutting more trees from the area alongside the tracks.

  When autumn came and went we knew another year would go by without our dear friends and their families returning from Iron Ridge.  We also knew how much Grandma and Grandpa wanted to see the other 2 boys they raised.  Knowing our friends, they probably would not leave until the train they were building was completed and on its way east through the abandoned tunnel.  We were eager to send one west.  We thought we could help speed thing along in Iron Ridge if we built a train engine and send freight cars full of food, textiles, and materials to them.  By the end of the year the engine was built, by spring the freight car was ready be loaded.

kid1293

Ha! :) The Grinch wants some chocolate!
It was in plain sight, I missed it at first.

Good job. I will continue.

Abandoned


angainor88

So far I've found "It's beginning to look a lot like christmas", "Frosty the snowman", "Let it Snow", and "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire". (Not sure of the names of some of these haha).

All these songs make me really concerned about the fate of Grandma :P

Abandoned

@angainor88  :) very good, but you missed one song in chapter 11.  I was so surprised I did not know the name of the "chestnuts roasting" song  ;D It's The Christmas Song.  I will probably post a list of songs and Grinch pictures later in the challenge thread and give more hints until then.  Grandma does a lot of singing.  :)


Chapter 15   


  In spring Cleon, with the help of our son Sharald, moved the passenger car from the station to the tracks behind the new train.  Sharald was 14 now and learning everything his father knew about trains, unlike our youngest son, 10 year old Lamare, who was already learning wood carving from Grandpa.   It took some maneuvering, but the passenger car was moved.

They then considered what would be loaded first into the freight car destined for Iron Ridge.  The train's material car held wood, firewood, iron, and stone.  There should be a lot of iron and stone in Iron Ridge already from the abandoned tunnel mine.  We had plenty of firewood but were short on logs.  If we loaded firewood into the freight car we would have trouble replenishing our supply, and logs were needed to make toys.  We wouldn't send any materials to Iron Ridge, and until our wood supply improved, only one toy shop would be making toys.  The tracks to the east were getting overgrown with trees that needed cutting and there were branches down on the tracks to be collected.  We would begin there.

  We were still trying to improve our health and our diet.  An old apothecary was built not far from the tracks near the river.  Our plum orchard was doing well, and when Charlow, the seed merchant, arrived we traded for walnuts seeds and later for cabbage seeds.  A new orchard was being cleared near the turnaround and a food storage unit and a house were built nearby.  We debated growing walnuts because tonight Saint Nicholas would come and fill the children's Christmas stockings with apples and oranges and walnuts and candy.  The oranges, walnuts, and candy were such a rare treat for the children, but we would need walnuts to help fill the freight car with food for Iron Ridge's train.

  We were hoping that Santa would come and pick up one or two of the sleighs this year.  Earlier in the year we moved a third sleigh closer to the toy shops.  We were still short of logs.

Abandoned

Did anyone discover the 2nd song hidden in chapter 11?  Hint - it's in the first paragraph.  :)

Abandoned

Chapter 16


  Year 16 was a busy year, cutting wood and clearing fields.  The cabbage would be planted next to the walnut orchard and the wheat seeds we traded for next to that.  Clearing the land only temporarily added more logs to the stockpiles.  Toy making was using a lot of wood.  The 3rd sleigh was almost full by the time the snow began to fall.

By late winter a garden shed was built across the tracks not far from the stations.  A shack for the forester to live in was being built next to it.

  A second freight car was being built.  The first would be stocked with food and the second with general merchandise, herbs, textiles, and tools.  We would need to collect more herbs, and see what we could do about producing the rest of the items ourselves.  We would load enough items into each car to get Iron Ridge's new train off to a good start.  The 2nd freight car was finished by spring of year 17.

Abandoned

Chapter 17


  We carefully went over what items the train's food and general cars contained.  We would not take any of those items from the train to load into the freight cars but we would stock the same items.  We had apples, potatoes, beef, mutton, and venison.  The walnut orchard was doing well, and cabbage and wheat fields were planted.  One of our small oat plots would be planted with corn, the other with beans.  That only left cherries.  If a trader brought cherry tree seeds, it would take a few years to get cherries, we would place an order for cherries instead.

  The general goods car was much simpler.  We had leather and wool and warm winter coats.  Our tailor could easily make leather coats and wool coats too.  We had iron tools, and coal to make steel tools.  The train's coal car was full, we would not need our coal to trade for any more goods from the train, so our smith would make steel tools from now on.

  We would have herbs to send, but we were again in short supply, we would have to send laborers out to collect more.  Whether it was our herb bread, our larger variety of fruits and vegetable, or the apothecary that we built, our overall heath had finally improved to 100%.  Grandma said it was about time.  We began making ale at the Yule Tap but many workers complained there was no hot apple cider being made and then we ran out of wheat to make the ale so we decided not to send ale to Iron Ridge.  The Yule Tap switched back to making cider and Grandpa was happy to have a hot cup while working in the toy shop.  The 4th sleigh was almost full.