@Abandoned   poor village, a lot of repairs, but there are beautiful colorful trees, maybe spring has come? , it will be better, and what about the bullies - bears? Regards

     I love spring, the grass is green, flowers are blooming in different colors, trees are blooming, the sun is shining, it's warm, "you can warm up your old bones like a cat" is OK. Warm greetings Kit - you're not bored in retirement, are you?

Chapter 4


  The families moved back to old town even though the houses were in bad shape.  One couple with no young children moved into the small house by the old fishing pier.  The wife, Moriane, lived there before with her first husband, the blacksmith, who died.  There was an anvil in the yard.  She married a younger single, Gerhardin, before they left.  Her daughter, Alizabette, moved into a vacant house with another couple, Roosevelyn and Suellar, to help with their 4-year-old twins.



  There was a ruined house on one side of them and a ruined animal shed on the other.  His grandparents raised mountain goats years ago.  The couple's house was over by the river and was a complete ruin now after a few windstorms and heavy snows; they could not live there now.  In front, of the vacant house they were in, was the old clerk's office that was in pretty good shape.  The storage barn was not; the roof was badly damaged.  Across from it was the small overgrown field where potatoes were always grown, and 2 other damaged houses were there by the field.



  Down the road, the tiny stone chapel was in pretty good shape, the cemetery next to it needed a good tidying-up.   The house across from the cemetery was not in bad shape but did need major repairs or rebuilding to be really livable.  The last couple to return, with their young son, used to live there; they were now staying in the vacant house at the end of the road. Thor and Ryannabell got to work gathering some of the flax from the tiny patch next to it when they discovered how low the clothing supply was getting.  A young adult girl, Ryannabell's younger sister, was staying in the vacant house with them.  There was a lot of work to be done in the old part of town.

Those bears got to eat too.  They like the take-out 

Not the bears! Though I too would be tempted by fish...

Chapter 3


  The problem with drying fish would be the bears.  We tried it once.  We hung the fish on racks in the sun to dry and we soon had several bears coming to eat our fish.  Anthon, the fisherman, could not fish or even leave his house.  When the fish were gone so were the bears but as soon as we hung more fish on the racks, the bears returned.   After the third try, we gave up; the bears lingered and prevented us from doing a lot of our outside work until they left.  The drying racks became firewood.



  Smoke fish?  A smoker?  We never tried to smoke fish or ever had smoked fish.  I suppose we could try it if you would tell us how to build a smoker and smoke the fish.  We could trade some of the smoked fish for wool and keep some to have in winter when fish and wild foods weren't so plentiful. 



  As it was, we always have to save some of our potatoes to plant the following spring.  That 2nd spring we prepared a small field next to the clerk's office.  I cut the potatoes into small pieces with eyes and Matticus planted them.   We almost had the small field planted when the families, that left old town before we did, returned.  There were 3 couple with 3 children and 2 young adult girls.  We were all happy to see them again and sorry they had a rough time since they left.

  It was just after their return that we tried to dry the fish since there would be more mouths to feed the following winter. 

Chapter 2


  We built an old clerk's office next to our house to keep birth records and other town statistics.  My husband, Matticus, was our town elder at age 22.   All the old records are still in the clerk's office back in the old town. 



  We built a woodcutter back behind the stockpile.  We were concerned that our firewood supply would not last the winter.  We were out often picking up branches that came down every time the wind blew stronger or the snowfall was heavier.  We built a forester shed back off the road from the asparagus hedgerow.  We wanted to be sure to always have enough logs.  There was a lot of stone, iron, and wild foods growing in that area that needed to be gathered.



  We were concerned for our food supply, we weren't farmers but we grew some potatoes like our parents and grandparents did.  It was cold fishing and gathering food and firewood; we only had light clothes.  We weren't hunters so we had no hides, only wild flax to make linen clothes with.  There was flax growing wild, and some growing in the 2apple tree hedgerow, as well as a patch in old town that one of the grandma's planted years ago.  The flax still comes up there every year.  What? A town up-river has wool and will be a stop on the new trade route?  Yes, it would be nice to have wool.  We could certainly figure out how to make warm clothes with it.  But what would we have to trade for it except fish?  No, fresh fish does not keep long but drying it would be a problem.

Hi @taniu
I hope all is well and that spring is coming to you too.

      

kid1293     Thank you very much