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Abandoned - Forest Haven - Story 53

Started by Abandoned, January 31, 2020, 07:43:38 AM

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Abandoned

Intro


  This is the 53th story in the Smallville Series.  It takes place in the wooded highlands north of Cottage Grove (story 42).  Forest Haven was settled by three groups of people who met in the forest.  Two families were migrating from the area because of the worsening weather  conditions, but they did not think they could go much farther.  Neither did the 2 families from Cottage Grove who were looking for their lost sheep that were scared away from their grazing area by wild dogs.   The last group was the 4 families of wood elves that remained from those that were sent from the North Pole South Annex (story 21) to the Winter Woodland to care for the wild animals who were struggling to survive.  Part of their group headed northeast to the polar region to help the animals there.  They founded the Ice Mountain Nature Preserve of story 52.  These wood elves and the 4 families they met would establish a Forest Haven in these northern highlands in year 63 SVT.

 
Map  # 877396556    Plain,  Small,  Harsh,  disasters Off,  Easy Seeds (8 Families)


Mods enabled in load order:

Starting and Map Changing Mods:  Call of Nature Soundtrack, Banished UI Maps, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status, CC Light Rain, override maps, Jinxie Natural Decorations, Kid Tree Replacer Deco, Kid Tree Replacer Xlight, Maritimes Riffle,  New Flora Edit, Override Fewer Trees, Family Starts

Tweak Mods:   Fishing Dock 25%, Hunting, Hunting Season, Increased CC, 1:1 Alternative, Rocks Respawn

Major or Must Have Mods:   An Empty Square, Fenceless Pasture, Nomad Sign Complete, Kid Forest Deep, Kid Forest Haven (new, testing), Settler's Deco, Kid Workplace

Supporting Mods:   Campfire, EB Small Storage Mod, Kid Fish n Ships, Kid Market Food, Kid Nativity Chapel, Kid's Workshop Deco, RK Ducks as Livestock, Tiny Chopper, White Picket Fence.



Mod info:  Kid Forest Haven  - Kid and I both like the wood textures of Kid Nativity Chapel and agreed there should be more of it.  This mod has no special terrain, climate, or start conditions.



Welcome, weary traveler, come sit by the fire and I will tell you all about our Forest Haven.

brads3

i'm curious to see what the override fewer trees does.how much of an affect will it have on the gatherers? doubt it would work with other start mods thou.

Abandoned

#2
Kid made fewer trees a little while ago and I tested several times and did not notice much difference even after it was adjusted.  I thought to try it again and I do believe it did work this time - there are several spots on the map with no trees. I do not see much wild foods or branches in those areas.  I am also using his override map mod though so maybe that is also affecting.  It is an override like the tree replacer mod so it seems to work with other tree mods, at least with that one.

If you are between maps and would like to do some experimenting with it, I can ask @kid1293 to release it now.

Abandoned

#3
Chapter 1


  Yes, weary traveler, Theador and Thaly were the first to leave the North Pole South Annex to go to the aid of the animals in the Winter Woodland.  My husband Rollan and I were part of the group of wood elves that left next, my name's Mckaylan.  Most of our group went further north to the polar region leaving our 4 families to look for animal in need of aid in the woodlands.  What we found was 4 families in need of aid.  Two families were farmers migrating from the area and two families from Cottage Grove were looking for their lost livestock.  Earlier, we saw lost sheep and advised a group of monks to go after them. We headed in the direction of Cottage Grove but the going was rough and the families were exhausted.  There were 24 of us, 16 adults with 8 toddlers and infants.  The 2 migrant families had 2 carts containing all their belongings, and the cottagers had one cart of supplies.  We elves travel light and live off the land.  When we reached the main river we agreed to settle rather than travel on.  Our town would be our haven, our Forest Haven.

  There were several large herds of deer in the area, they would need thinning out.  They and the weather were responsible for large areas that were lacking in trees and other vegetation.  We being elves had the finest elven bows and arrow enchanted for accuracy and pain free hunting.  We soon had venison in the supply carts with the vegetables.

We needed 8 houses and a school before winter.  Rollan and I built a tree topper a short ways away with a porch where we could sit with our morning cups.  The 2 migrant families built ground houses side by side.  Being farmers, they had seeds with them and immediately planted wheat and cabbage. Another tree topper was built by elves near the river west of the stockpile.  East of the stockpile a school was built and a house for one of the Cottage Grovers.  Elves built another tree topper next to the school and another near the farms by the small stream.  It wasn't long before the 2nd cottagers had a house built next to the 1st.  Both were true settlers with a swing and a quilt out on the line, and hollyhocks planted and already blooming.  The summer was hot with temperatures in the 80Fs. By late autumn it was near freezing but the crops were harvest in time.   We built a storage barn and we gathered wild foods and branches.  There were a lot of dead branches.

Abandoned

#4
Chapter 2


  That first winter was exceptionally harsh with freezing temperatures and lots of snow.  The large areas lacking vegetation allowed the wind to pick up speed and snow, leaving huge drifts around the ground houses.  Several times the occupants had to be dug out.  No, they did not want tree houses, they feared for their children.  Our elven children of course had a natural connection with trees and were climbing in them before they could walk. Not only do we elves have a connection with animals and trees but we know a fair amount of Elven magic and as soon as the snow melted in early spring Ramir and Pamaliya had a magic garden planted.  Our farm families prepared another crop field, a bit smaller than the other 2 fields, but they wanted to get their bean seeds planted.  Our food supply was further supplemented by fish caught from a fishing bridge built across the small north stream by the river.

  A small storage barn had been build by the magic a garden and farm fields, and the carts still had supplies in them.  We wanted inventory records kept all in one place so we built a town hall by the main storage barn and school.  It was a beauty building with a nice view from the top deck with a nice breeze in summer.   We were concerned with our food supply records but realized we were short of firewood, a situation that must be rectified before another winter set in.  We set up a Tiny chopper near the main stockpile, and down past the farms we built a small branch gatherer workplace.  We already cut more trees than we would have liked.  We build a firewood storage shed so that firewood would be closer to the families living near the farms.  They would have less far to go for firewood in the snow.  We all welcomed the late winter thaw we had that year.  Ground house dwellers only had to be dug out twice that winter.

  The thaw allowed us to see how large the deer herds were becoming and they were doing a lot of damage to the newly sprouted tree.  Something would have to be done about the herd sizes and the forest damage and regrowth.

Abandoned

 :) The oak tree is part of the schoolhouse and is new to Forest Haven set.  The tree houses are Kid Tree Toppers retextured to match.

Abandoned

#6
Chapter 3


  The woodcutter and branch gatherer increased our firewood supply and kept it stable.  The magic garden did the same for our supply of wild foods.  Our supply of coats was low now and tools would be need soon too.  It was time to build a workshop.  We had a good supply of hides for the coats  and enough smoked venison but we needed to reduce the size of the deer herds.  We used another of the beautiful sturdy oak trees to build a hunting platform with storage underneath.  From the platform large herds of deer could be seen to the west and to the south across the stream. A sturdy rope bridge was built to cross the stream.

  From our tree topper platform, Rollan and I could see a large herd of deer grazing nearby.  The were a lot of new fawns.  We had a new baby too, a girl we named Trica.  Several more babies were born in Forest Haven that year. The population was 34, 16 adults and 18 children.  One or two of them would be starting school soon.

  We had the first snow already in autumn, the leaves had not even fallen from the trees yet, but we could see there were very few new trees sprouted in the forest.  There were a lot of downed branches that would keep tree cutting at a minimum.  It was cold work collecting them but we thought some hot soup would help.  We had cabbage, potatoes, and fish but decided to start making mushroom soup.  There's nothing quite as warming as a bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day.

galensgranny

I really like that hunter with storage!

Abandoned

 :) The hunter is a unique piece.  I did not realize until tested now that it had storage.  Good use of beautiful oak tree too, very forestry.

Abandoned

#9
Chapter 4


  It was another bad winter with ground residents having to be dug out of the snow drifts several times.  Several of them came down with very bad head and chest colds.  We wished we had ingredients for chicken soup.  Warmer clothing may have help them too, we elves were a bit hardier.  Fearing the worst we build a small cemetery in the center of town and a small Nativity chapel.  Everyone survived until spring.

  Rollan and I agreed that something had to be done about reforestation.  Last autumn I collected tree seeds from the forest, and by spring we built a potting shed and had seedling coming up in small pots.  I also started pots of flowers from seeds picked from the cottager's plants. 

  That summer we began construction a trading post.  We had not seen a river boatman since we got here but figured sooner or later one would come down the river.  We hoped to get potato seed, chicken meat, and wool if not live chickens and sheep.  We had plenty of hides and hide coats we could trade plus iron tools. 

  The trading post was completed by autumn.  The leaves had fallen and the temperature was already dropping.  As usual we went to the forest to collect wild foods before winter.  I would gather more seeds.  I came across some walnut trees in the forest east of town, the nuts were just starting to fall but by the time I got back to collect some of them the snow began to fall and the walnuts were buried somewhere beneath the snow.  I had an idea I would tell Rollan.

(Mod note: a worker in the seedling shed produces seedlings for trade, there are no seedling on the map to collect.)

kid1293

:) Good hint about the Seedlings. I had forgotten that.

Abandoned

I thought I should clarify. I read back what I wrote and it sounded like seedlings needed to be gathered but I didn't want to change story.  Easier to make note.  :)

Abandoned

#12
Chapter 5

    In early spring of year 5 I took Rollan into the forest to see the walnut trees, he liked my idea and sent a builder over to start working on it.

  We could not believe our luck that the first merchant to stop at our trading post was a livestock merchant who had sheep to trade.  We barely had enough trade goods for 2 sheep but he said he would gladly take as many seedlings as we had.  He said there had been tornadoes to the southeast near Newport and drought to the southwest.  Smallville was doing its best to supply seedlings to those areas but they only had the one greenhouse. 

  While he waited for our trader to bring the seedlings to trade for 4 sheep, 7 migrants arrived from the North.  They did not think they would survive the winter and were very happy to find our Haven.  There were 7 of them, 2 families with 2 young children, and 1 single young man.  We warned them about the winter storms and snowdrift but they wanted ground houses.  We built 3, one by the new pasture, one by the new fishing pier, and the 3rd one by the nut haven.  Wooden platforms were built around the 3 walnut trees.  When the nuts began to fall in autumn they would be easier to find on the wooden platforms then they would be on ground in the snowdrifts below.  Nuts could easily be picked from the trees and there would be plenty fallen throughout the winter onto the platforms.  They could be harvested from there all year long.  The idea proved to be a good one when the snow began to fall at the same time as the nuts.

  It was not long after that first snowfall of the season that our sheep produced the first bundles of wool.  Our workshop worker immediately switched from making iron tools to making warm coats.  Havenians would be much warmer this winter.

(Mod note: Thanks @kid1293 for adding the matching fishing pier.  Someone please comment how great it looks.)


kid1293

You're welcome! :)

Havenians...? Is that a word? :)

Abandoned