Abandoned - Old Fishing Village - Story 80

[Abandoned]

Intro


  This is the 80th story in the Smallville Series.  This Old Fishing Village has been around since the beginning of Smallville Time and hadn't changed much from one generation to the next.  The village is east of Newport (story 12), and south of O'Leary's Farm (story 41) and Springfield (story 23). The story begins in year 52 SVT, the year the tornadoes touched down in those towns.






Map seed   # 90452507      Valley,   Small,   Fair,  Disasters Off,    Easy Seeds-8 Families


Mods activated for this map and load order are:


Map Changing and Starting Mods:   Banished UI Maps, Banished UI Town Names, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status, CC Light Rain, Spring Terrain, Settler Deco, Jinxie Natural Decorations, Kid Deco Tree Spring, Kid Tree Replacer Spring (new, testing), Maritimes Riffle, Kid New Flora Edit, Family Start

Tweak Mods:   Better Fields, Better Stock Pile, Better Stock Pile Storage,  Fishing Dock +25%, Hunting, Increased CC, 1:1 Alternative (Voeille), Rocks Respawn, Tiny Smoke

Major or Must Have Mods:    An Empty Square, Nomads (Kid), override Uneducated, Storage Crates, Jinxie Bitty Chicken Coop, Jinxie Bitty Rabbit Hutch, Kid Abandoned Places SE, Kid Old Hovels,  Kid Workplace

Supporting Mods:    Kid Deco Farm Animals, Kid Deco Magic Mushrooms, Kid Deco People, Kid Farmyard, Kid Hedgerow, Kid Jam & Wine, Kid Market Foods, Kid Mist, Kid Washing Mod, Kid Work Shop



Welcome, weary traveler.  Sorry to hear your place was destroyed by a bad storm.  Storms like that came through these parts some years back but we knew a bad storm was coming down from the north.  What?  No, we are no fortune tellers and have no crystal balls.  We just know how to read the signs of nature like our parents and our grandparents did.  Our fisherman caught a lot of fish just before those storms hit, there was a real feeding frenzy.  Sit awhile and I'll tell you more  of what we learned from the old folks.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 1


  We learned that fishing is not so good when the wind is coming from the north or from the east.  It was early spring, and we had a few nice days so the men decided to do some fishing anyways.  They went out each day around noon giving the shallow waters a chance to be warmed a little by the morning sun.  The fish were really biting, especially the large-mouth bass.  The fisherman knew a storm and a cold spell was coming.  By midafternoon on the third day the north wind picked up and the temperature dropped.  They got off the piers and in off the lake in time to secure the boats before the storm hit.  It was ominously dark for awhile and the wind was fierce.




  The storm passed doing only a little damage.  Another piece of roof was torn off the old barn, and the top corner of the house next to us was gone.  None of the village buildings were in good shape to begin with, they were pretty old.  Some were in ruins that we were scavenging wood, stone, and iron from.  The storm and wind brought more dead branches along our shore, they would make more good fishing spots where bass would lurk beneath.

The year of that storm was the first year we thought maybe we should fix up the village a bit.  My name is Dannalia and my husband is Hillip.  We live in the old hovel by the shore.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 2


  The old school, the old clerk's office, and old tailor were untouched by the storm.  We nailed up a couple of boards on a few of the old hovels and then got to work planting the potatoes.  According to the old folks, crops such as potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage that like cool weather should be planted when the new leaves on the lilac trees are the size of a mouse's ear.  Crops that like warm weather such as corn, beans, squash, and tomatoes should wait until the lilacs are in full bloom to be planted.  That left most of the planting to us womenfolk because when the lilacs were in full bloom, the men were out in the boats catching crappies.






  Our old hovel town may look like a rundown shanty town but we have the most beautiful lilacs anywhere around.  We have the standard Green Wood pines, some birch trees, and willows along the river but we also have pretty spring green trees, pink blooming wild cherries, and lilacs in purple, violet, and white.  Spring is beautiful in our Old Fishing Village.

[Abandoned]

Kid Tree Replacer Spring, Kid Deco Tree Spring, and terrain Spring have been released.  Find link to downloads here:

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=4187.0

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=4186.0

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=4185.0

[Glenn]

I like the trees - another great addition

[Abandoned]

Thanks @Glenn    In the last story @jerica ask about the lilac trees I was using that are from a CC mod that is no longer available.  I ask @kid1293 if he would want to make some spring flowering trees.  I knew they would turn out beautiful.  He makes great trees    Glad you like them.

[catty-cb]

Thanks great looking trees to go with the blog   

[Abandoned]

  Thanks



Chapter 3

  Summer is beautiful too and the fishing is good especially on warm overcast days.  When the wind is from the south you have to fish in the right place at the right time.  The best time to fish in the summer is an hour or 2 before and after sunrise and sunset.  During the hot summer days the fish will be in deep water.  They may be hiding in the shade of piers or overhanging trees and branches.  Fishing at night is good when the moon is bright.







  The cool weather and warm weather crops were planted on time and we got a nice yield of potatoes from our small crop field.  The small farmyard provided us with berries, corn, cabbage, a few more potatoes, and chicken eggs.  The old farmhouse had been in ruins for many years, and most of the old folks have been laid to rest in the old cemetery.  Since the last disease outbreak, the village consisted of us young people ages 22 and younger.  The population in late spring was 32, 17 adults and 15 young children. 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 4


  In the fall when the wind is from the west, the fishing is best.  Both the bluegills and the perch will be biting.  The bluegills can be found lurking in the reeds along the shorelines and the perch can easily be caught as they swim around the point where the fishing pier is.






  That first year we built a smoker so our catch of fish would keep longer.  A few of us young ones had been to a Hobbit festival or two before the storms hit, and we learned some things there too.  Now that we were on our own, we would put some of those things into practice.  The smoker was much appreciated by the fisherman who would not have to go out on the lake during the cold winter months. My Hillip would still do some fishing from the pier.  Ewel and Katrica in the house next to where the smoker was built liked that the room where they and their 3 young children slept was much warmer now.





  Hillip was glad that I remembered the festival demonstration we saw on how to make warm coats from flax and down.  I was tending the duck pond at the time and knew that we had a nice supply of down in the barn.  A tailor workplace was built outside the tailor shop and I experimented with down and flax and with down and leather until I got it right. The winter was cold but we had warm coats.  We all still waiting eagerly for spring.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 5


  And then it was spring and there were baby rabbits in the hutch where we got the leather and rabbit meat from.  And there was asparagus and herbs coming up in the hedgerow along the road there by the tailor and hutch.   There were baby ducks in the duck pond too and there were more duck eggs to be gathered and duck meat to be had.  The spring hedgerow there by the pond had more asparagus and mushrooms.  There were wild oats and a hazelnut bush and there were branches to gather for firewood.   From there the fishing boats could be seen in the afternoon heading out to their favorite fishing spots.






  Over by Ewel and Katricia's house another spring hedgerow had a hazelnut bush and a plum tree and more rabbits for meat.  The bees were already making wild honey on those first warm spring days.  We could make plum jam like we saw at one of the festivals.  The row of elderberry bushes by the cemetery were just beginning to bloom when we found great grandma's wine barrel in the farmhouse ruins.  We tried to remember how grandma made elderberry wine.





  That spring of year 2, two families with 1 adult child and 1 young one came down along the river from the north.  Their neighboring farms were hit again by early spring storms and they decided to migrate south.  They would be happy to stay in our Fishing Village with us if we would have them.  They too had been to Hobbit festivals and they knew how to make elderberry jam.  They built a hovel house and a jam maker down past the farmhouse ruin.  They built another smaller house with scraps of wood.  It was good to have another builder and a few more laborers.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 6


  Katricia set up a preservist workplace under the wild cherry tree in front of her house.  She would make plum jam from the plums she picked in the hedgerow.  Later she was told by Trenada, the newcomer who was making the elderberry jam, that the plum jam would surely win a prize at one of the festival judging tables.  We credited both jams and the extra fruit for the rise in our overall health.  It was a bit low but had risen to 100%.






  By summer our tool supply was dropping.  Mitchie, who was scavenging for materials from the ruined building next to the stockpile, went to work making tools.  Our coat supply was holding steady but we were again out of leather.  The newcomers suggested that we could probably trade tools for leather.  As far as they knew, tools were needed just about everywhere.  To them it seemed that we had a lot of logs and iron.


  That had us wondering how our town must seem to them.  Did they think it was just some old hovel town?  There was not much we could do about our houses short of tearing them down and rebuilding.  No one really wanted to be moved out of their homes.  A few more boards and some extra firewood wouldn't hurt though.  By autumn we picked up fallen branches from around town, and cleaned up the weeds and plant debris from the potato field and the old cemetery.  We put some new fence pieces up around the cemetery and transplanted a few more flowering shrubs around town. We started work on more roads.  We had to admit that the town looked a lot better.  A trading post was built over by the duck pond.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 7


  A small jetty bridge was built across the stream.  There were plenty of branches, wild foods, and herbs that could be gathered there.  The jetty by the trading post was extended with stairs to climb the hill.  In spring and summer it would be a nice walk with a view of the lake from the bridge to the trading post.





   When spring came, several townsfolk walked over to see the cemetery now that it was tidied up and fenced in.  The potatoes were just being planted in the weeded and cleaned crop field when 2 families arrived from the south.  They were migrating from the swamp.  They said it seemed recently to be getting hotter and more humid, with more bugs and mosquitoes.  They weren't impressed when we said If the mosquitoes are biting so are the fish.  They only commented that they ate a lot of fish and frog legs.  They may have been tired of swamp living but when it came down to choosing where they wanted to live, they chose on or near the water.

  I couldn't blame them for that.  Living on the shore myself I know how special it is to wake to a misty morning and walk by the shore.  All is hushed and peaceful with only a gentle lapping of the water on the shore or a fish jumping here or a frog hopping there.  The trading post jetty was extended out into the lake and by early summer the first house was being built.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 8


  A family with a toddler and a newborn moved into the first jetty house.  Their 13-year-old daughter moved into a jetty cottage next to them and would fish from the jetty.  A jetty market was built and the husband of the second family would be the vendor keeping it stocked with supplies while his wife caught crabs from the jetty and watch after their 2-year-old son. 





  Messie, the general goods merchant, came to port and confirmed that tools were needed.  He would also take hide coats, some of our stone, and smoked fish.  We placed an order for flour.  We only had some wild oats and a bit of corn.  Flour to make bread would be most welcome.  Messie said he would have no problem navigating under the high jetty even when visibility was low, there often was rain or fog.   

[Abandoned]

Chapter 9


  We thought it might be difficult for the boatmen to navigate the channel between the two lakes in bad weather so we began constructing a lighthouse at the end of the jetty.  Work was slow because of the cold and snow, but the swamp folk did not mind the cold and snow too much, it was new to them.  After the year-round heat in the swamp, they found it refreshing.  The woman were out trying to catch crabs and fish even though the wind was straight out of the north.  By early spring the lighthouse was completed.






  The newcomers in the jetty houses wanted to contribute more than just fish and crabs to repay for all the goods that were now in their market.  They soon had pots of berries, flax, and herbs that they dug up from the wild.  When leather was in short supply, the tailor could make warm coats from flax and down.  The herbs could be used to make herb bread when the boatman returned with the flour that was ordered. 






  Naniel, the food merchant, stopped at our trading post and we ordered flour from him also.  Messie, the general goods merchant, arrived in winter with flour and a small amount of leather.  He said he made it safely to port through the heavily falling snow because of the lighthouse.  We traded for flour and all the leather that he had with him.  It seems that both leather and livestock were in short supply worldwide due to the floods and tornadoes in the east and central parts of the world, drought in west, colder weather in the north and hotter in the south.  We ordered more of leather and flour plus wheat seeds.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 10


  We had a workplace grinder ready to make flour whenever our seeds would arrive.  The workplace baker oven was already built too and immediately used the flour from the merchant and the herbs from the jetty to make herb bread.   A hunter workplace was set up southwest of town to supply venison and some of the leather we needed.  A forester was built there too, we were often short of logs despite scavenging from the town's 3 ruins. 





  We needed the scavenged logs to build houses for the 3 displaced families that arrived in spring.  There were 6 adults with 4 children.  Two houses were built close to the hunter and forester for the families with children.  The other new house was built on the jetty, the couple thought it would be nice to open their door and see the pots of flowers and herbs.   The newcomers thought the town was very pretty despite the rundown condition of most of the buildings.