Chapter 5
In spring of year 9, 7 nomads arrived. We needed more workers. We built a 3rd forester, we were always short of logs. We also built a 2nd gatherer hut and hunting cabin, and more houses. By autumn our food supply was quite a bit lower than it had been. We just could not seem to get ahead.
The seed merchant arrived but only had lemon seeds, we ordered wheat seeds and cleared a 10x12 field. We hoped the wheat seeds would arrive by spring. Riverboats have been few and far between and mostly they have been livestock merchants who came from Animal Refuge. There were not many suppliers upriver from here. The Refuge usually took what merchandise the riverboat men had in exchange for livestock. That made this a good location for a supply of stone to Riverboat Junction, the riverboats had plenty of room by the time they got here. That fact didn't help us much but hopefully we would have enough stone to trade for special orders.
By winter we were low on firewood, the lumber mill was helping out but we were still short of logs. The labors began cutting more trees as well as gathering more wild foods. Lenn, the laborer, died of a weak heart. It had not been a good year.
The river boatman returned in spring of year 10 with the wheat seeds we ordered. It was too late to plant the seeds, peas were already planted in that cleared field. The boatman said if we build another trading post it may lure other river boatman here. Also if we made perfume out of all our flowers we would get a much better trade value for them, 6 units instead of only 1 for the flowers. So we began construction another trading post and a perfumery nearby. Much to our dismay we realized we needed a foundry to turn our copper ore into usable copper. This would take awhile.
In the meantime we built another school. Being busy with building projects and wood and material shortages we miss the fact that our school was filled to capacity. Some children missed getting an education. The wheat was planted in Spring of year 11 and the foundry, trading post, and perfumery were completed. We had glassware but needed water to make the perfume. We built a watertower nearby and a fishing pier.
Our hard working laborers were so busy hauling heavy building materials and ores that we neglected to gather wild foods. Our food supply was quite low, as was our supply of tools. The foundry began making iron and a 2nd blacksmith was built nearby. Of course we were still short of logs. Laborers were sent to help the foresters cut more trees. Hopefully we were in time to avoid a tool crisis. We were all exhausted by this time.
