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Abandoned - North Pole Fishing Hole - Story 5

Started by Abandoned, December 09, 2016, 02:50:55 PM

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Abandoned

Intro

  This is the 5th story in the Smallville series, it tells the tale of the 3rd expedition to leave from that town.  The story takes place far to The North of Smallville, farther north than Pumpkin Hollow, farther north than most have gone before.  The story begins the year after the 2nd expedition left in search of the choo choo to lighten their heavy load.  This group seeks a magical flying sleigh with eight tiny reindeer. Crazy, I know, ho ho ho.

  The map is # 912155136, Nordic Valley, small, mild, disasters off, Builders start condition.

Mods used:  UI improvement (for longer map name), Skill Experienced Gathers, The North, CC Impossible Trees, Forest Outpost, Christmas Mod, Color Roads, Covering, Decorative Plants, DS Fences & Deco, EB Apothecary, Farmhouses, & Windmill, Fantasy Castle, Garden Shed, Green House, Mini Buildings, Nordic Wooden House, Old Bakery, Blacksmith, Hunter, Tailor, Proper Time, Resized Profession Box, Red looking Creamery, Simple Tombstones, Small Well, Tiny Town Hall (for nomad well), Tiny Quarry, Vegetable Garden.

So, weary traveler, the weather outside is frightful so come sit by the fire, which is so delightful, while I tell you about the North Pole Fishing Hole.

kid1293

Sounds like you are inviting us to sit by the fire like in
Tolkien's Book of lost tales. :)
I'm looking forward to it.

DesoPL


brads3

DesoPL, she is playing the north and that has a few differerent options that were recently added.plus she changes her mod list for each town she plays. its nice to see how some of the different mods look or function.

Abandoned

@kid1293 No hobbits in this tale, just elves.

@DesoPL, @brads3 is correct, the North has new starting options and terrain types, I was impressed by how many choices.  There's Nordic Mountains, Nordic Valleys, Vast Forests, and Lakeland.  Starting conditions are Villagers, Builders, Farmers, Hunters, Survivors, Anders & Ella, and nomads.  The builders start with 5 families plus building supplies and other supplies, there's a picture in chapter 1.  I also included some magic fairy dust.

Hope you all will enjoy my story.

Abandoned

#5
Chapter 1

  My name is Leannemary, I'm an elf, a wood elf to be precise.  My husband is Waver, the grandson of one of Smallville's founders. My grandparents traveled to Smallville from the vast forests of the North; my mother, a child at the time, needed a milder climate.  She had been naughty;  she did not listen to her mother who told her to take her warm coat with her when she went out into the forest.  The weather turned suddenly cold and snowy, she became seriously ill and never fully recovered.  Because she had been naughty, she only got a lump of coal in her stocking that winter solstice time from Santa.  From who?  From Santy Claus  ...  ? ... Sinter Klaas ... ? ... Kris Kringle, Grandfather Kringle, Jultomte, Pelz Nichol, Saint Nicholas?  He's known by many names throughout the world of Banished, but not by all.

  The people of Smallville didn't know of Santa Claus either and they didn't believe our tales of his big red sleigh and flying reindeer, or presents left in our stockings hung by the chimney with care.  They hadn't even heard of elves.  A couple of naughty boys made fun of my pointy elf ears, Waver among them.  He laughted at me and didn't believe me when I said one day he would get a lump of coal from Santa.  He got a trip out behind the woodshed for making me cry and I learned that "sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me".  We were married and had our first child before he got his well-deserved lump of coal.

  It was the second worst winter the people of Smallville had ever known, with a damp cold that chilled one to the bone.  Everyone was sick with fevers and coughs and colds and sore throats.  And then one frosty morning we awoke to find that our washed stocking hanging by the chimney to dry had been filled with apples and oranges and bright yellow lemons. Some town founders remembered lemon mixed with honey for sore throats when they were children but never knew where the lemons came from.  Some claimed that during the night they heard the jingle of bells and others said they heard noises on their rooftop.  Waver said when he awoke he heard a ho ho ho, he found a lump of coal in his stocking . Our expedition left the following spring and headed North.

  We were sent on our way with plenty of supplies and words of advice.  We were to always remember the old ways and if we ran into difficulties in The North there was a wise Nordic woman named @Nila who we could seek out for advice.  It was a difficult journey, colder and snowier than we expected, and we were nearly out of supplies.  Just when we thought we wouldn't survive, we were rescued by Santa's elves.  Santa saw us in his magic snow globe and sent his helpers and sleigh team to help us.  We were whisked away to Santa's village at the North Pole and were well fed and bedded down for the night in the cozy warm guest house.  Next day we were greeted by Mrs. Claus herself.

   Santa's wife had a favor to ask of us.  Santa had been so busy, he hadn't been to his favorite fishing hole in years.  She wanted to surprise him with a vacation spot where he could stop and do a little fishing and pick up some extra stocking stuffers before beginning his yearly rounds.  He would need a small castle with plenty of snacks and milk and cookies, a small workshop, and fruits and nuts to load on his sleigh.  The elves already delivered building supplies to the construction site.  It was a ways south where the weather was less harsh.  How could we refuse, Santa had just saved our lives and the lives of our children.  So we agreed and before long, Santa's elves had two wagons loaded for us with supplies, potatoes, seeds, and a herd of sheep. They sprinkled the wheels with a magical fairy dust and we were off, dashing through the snow to Santa's North Pole Fishing Hole.


Tom Sawyer

There is a lot of magic in your story. I am excited which way it will continue! And I wonder where this wise Nordic woman is. Lost in the vastness of the North? Retired in a small cottage between ancient trees and overgrown with grass, far away from any civilization?^^

Abandoned

@Tom Sawyer, I too have been wondering where wise woman is.  I was hesitant to venture to The North without her.  I hope she is only having internet connection problems and nothing more serious.  The North is just beautiful, wonderful mod.  So far the settlement is doing well.

Abandoned

#8
Chapter 2

  We spoke not a word, just check our supplies and got straight to our work.  Harvid grabbed a fishing pole and Waver a bow, Isador took seed potatoes and a hoe, ho ho.  Cariellee herded the sheep and the children to the hillside nearby.  The rest of us grabbed the building supplies.

  We got quite a bit done that first spring and summer.  There were 20 of us, 10 adults and 10 children.  One of the boys was named after his Uncle Drakeem, one of the founders of Pumpkin Hollow.  Since one of the girls was almost school age and several others not far behind, we build an outdoor classroom first thing, adding the mini town hall made it feel like back home in Smallville.  By late summer we all had homes and a sturdy small storage barn had been built.  And like we learned back in Smallville, we all took to the woods to help Agusta gather wild foods and herbs.  To our relief, we found plenty of branches on the ground to use as firewood, as of yet we had no woodcutter or forester. 

  Despite all our labors we took time to marvel at the beauty of our surroundings.  The towering pines, the birch trees, and the grasslands were a vibrant beautiful green.  The sky was clear blue, the air was clean and fresh and the birds would sing.  We loved to hear the call of the cranes.  We didn't expect it to snow so soon, we lost some potatoes even though Isador worked until dark,  but even then we noticed the beauty.  The snowflakes were the biggest fluffiest flakes we had ever seen, and the golden leaves still clung to the birch trees.   Now that we had nice warm reindeer coats, we often stood outside just to watch the setting sun. The long shadows on the new fallen snow was a sight to behold.   But the days now were short and the nights were very cold.  Most of us now were ready for a long winter's nap.

Nilla

The wise ??? old Nordic lady is back! I was pretty ill but now I feel a bit better and strong enough to take a look at the WOB page.

A small advice to you @Abandoned: If you're not already doing this; try to start the harvest manually. I'm not sure of the best point on mild but I would try when the growth has reached 90% probably sometimes in late august.

Abandoned

@Nilla ,   Sorry to hear you were ill, glad you are feeling better.    I did not start the potato harvest early and lost 9% of the crop.  I think I solved that problem by making 2 smaller fields with 1 farmer each.  Got a full harvest.  Now I see in chapter 3,  I only got 50% of the apple crop so I will try to start the harvest manually.  Would I be better off using 2 workers?  It is such a small orchard.  Glad you are back and hope you feel even better each day.

Abandoned

#11
Chapter 3

  The winter was long but the nap was short.  There was much to do, there was firewood to gather and when spring finally came, there was an apple orchard to plant.  We enlarged the potato field and then divided it into two smaller 6x12 fields.  Waver took over my job as builder so I could farm the new field and be closer to home.  Our daughter, Maiyana, was the first child born at the North Pole Fishing Hole settlement. 

  No one had more work to do than Agusta, who was now the blacksmith.  He wasn't very happy with this bog iron.  It was easy enough to collect but not easy to work with, it needed processing before it could be made into tools, and we needed tools, and we needed charcoal to process the bog iron into iron bloom and more charcoal to process the bloom into iron before it could be made into tools.  Poor Agusta went from the charcoal pile to the bloomery to the workshop and often he even had to stop to make reindeer coats when needed.  We just did not have enough workers for all the work that needed to be done.  We considered closing the school but Agusta and Cariellee wouldn't hear of it.  Their oldest child was about to become the fifth student for our mini classroom, we needed to build a schoolhouse before the other children became of age.

  The school children watched as the foundation for their new school was laid.  They build a snowman out back and when the late afternoon sun broke through the clouds and the wind blew the branches above, it was as if the snowman came to life that day.  Must have been some magic, I thought I saw that snowman wave.

  It was magic that brought 2 of Santa's helpers our way in April of year 3, actually it was Santa's magic sleigh and reindeer who dropped the husband and wife off at our well.  Mrs. Claus sent them, she had the elf who exercises the reindeer team take a little detour. She would sent more our way when she could.  Connell and Ressandi would become our forester and woodcutter.  We needed firewood for the charcoal pile.  Carielle had taken over as charburner & smelter to help her husband.  It was a dark snowy day when she died of smoking lung.  We did not expect to lose one of our own so soon, we had no cemetery in which to lay her to rest.  It was a dark day indeed.  She would be missed. 

  It was that year that Mrs. Claus began sending an elf with treats for the children's stocking.  She didn't want our children to miss out on a visit from Santa but she didn't want Santa to know about her surprise at the Fishing Hole.  She borrowed his magic snow globe so he wouldn't see.  Until the project was done, she would be the one to keep an eye out for who was naughty and who was nice, she would make the list, since Santa was so busy.  It sure was nice to see the children's delight when they found their stockings stuffed with fruits and nuts and a cookie man made with gingerbread spice.

brads3

 i could find you a mod to fix your tool problem but they would be cheaper grade tools. stone and logs.but i think it would take the north"s iron challenge away from you. as for the farm yields,Nilla will have #'s for you. she likes micro-managing. i usually use 10x10 fields with a 500 food yield. yes i get more but that is easier to figure quick math with. plus it is nice to have extra for mistakes. in the harsh climate,i agree with you playing with field sizes. the other thing that can impact yields is where the workers are in spring. if they are busy collecting or clearing far from the fields, they will plant later. your growth season will be way behind then. i am bad at this ,i always keep my workers busy. but by building too far ahead or clearing a big pasture my farmers dont get back in early spring.  the banis always seem to go be laborers at the farthest point they can find.
    glad you did get Nilla some soup and tea. i thought she got hijacked on her trip back from being down south. must be she caught a cold when she was out kicking the snow in winter to steal nuts from the squirrels.

Nilla

I agree with @brads3, that experimenting with fields size makes sense, especially in the North. But don't make the fields too small. A bigger field, where you occasionally lose some of the crops to frost, gives average more, than a smaller "safe" field. But if it's too big, there might be problem to plant it all in time. @brads3 is right here as well; if the farmers get to their fields too late in spring, there will be a bad harvest, because it will be planted too late. Of cause larger fields are more critical than smaller. Always stop laborer work far away in time. I use to look at the temperature rather than the month.

The orchard farmers however could be used for other things most of the time. I use to close the orchard, when the harvest is done and let the farmers do other things until summer. You don't need two farmers for a small orchard. In the North they are faster harvested than fields, one farmer can manage quite a large orchard. The 50% harvest might be because the trees wasn't fully grown that first year. I think @Tom Sawyer changed the fruits a bit, but before that, you got an average of around 60% on harsh and I guess, that on mild there will normally be 100%.

I am sure that you're right when you choose not to close the school, even if you would need the laborers. You would have had to pay for that later, especially as Mrs Santa occasionally sends a few poor educated "Nissar". (I guess that Santa couldn't spare the best educated) ;)

But @brads you are wrong when you think I'm trying to steal the nuts from the squirrels. I've given that up a long time ago, absolutely useless to try.  ;) We do have a lot of hazelnutbushes (nut trees doesn't grow in my part of the world) but you will never harvest one ripe nut. Whole summer you don't see one squirrel but on good nut years, they suddenly appear in early autumn. They don't stop by stealing my nuts. In winter they steal the birds food.  >:(  ;D

But the cold part wasn't entirely wrong. I have an autoimmune illness. So every little infection has bad consequences. But I'm recovering this time, too.

Tom Sawyer

#14
Nice to see you again @Nilla. That does not sound really good. I wish you the best!

What a tragedy to lost this young woman by burning charcoal. It is not healthy and has the same risk as mining.

I find, this small group of courageous adventurers is doing it very well. They are becoming better farmers and experts in iron processing. Ironworking is definitely too much for one man. It requires teamwork. With a small settlement it might be the best to do it in winter. When the fields are empty and no wild fruits are to be gathered. And keep the distance between the parts of iron processing short. Nilla is right. An apple orchard should have 100% yield in mild climate, even without manual harvest. But the amount is less than in vanilla or CC.

It's a hard life in the North but a hard life writes the best stories. ;)