Chapter 19



    In spring of year 6, Coats & Cloths population was 71, 47 adults and 24 children.  We were healthy and happy.





  We were especially happy when 2 horse-drawn carts came from Riverboat Depot to pick up the coats and textiles.  We celebrated together gathered around the mead barrel.  As much as we would have liked to take all the credit, we couldn't.  Our seamstress, coat maker, and cloth maker could have done very little if not for the rabbits, ducks, and grouse in our weed patches and around the glade.   From the glade we got rabbit meat and furs, duck meat and down, and even some wild oats.   The grouse in our weed patches gave us eggs, game, and down, and there was rabbit meat and furs to be had as well. 





  The river boatmen?  No, eager explorer, we did not have to rely on the river boatmen, but we were always glad when they stopped by to ask if we needed anything and to tell us news from the Depot.  Larker, the food merchant, said on his next run to Rainbow Falls he would pick up a couple more enchanted bows for us; we will have more hunters helping to refill the warehouse.  We are more than happy to be providing the river boatmen and their customers with coats and cloth.

It was nice of you to stop by, eager explorer.  Safe journey.





The End

Chapter 18


  And then it was early spring and, as it had done before, the spring-green birch leaves began to open and the colorful spring flowering trees and shrubs began to bloom.  We were very proud of our settlement and what we had accomplished in the past 5 years. 





  We had a meeting hall and chapel, and we were making mead and fruit jam, and milling our own flour and baking jelly buns.  We had a duck pond and fishing pier, hedgerows, and patches, plus a field of potatoes, and a wildlife glade.  We had an animal shed and a pasture full of sheep.  We supplied ourselves with food, firewood, and everything else we needed.   We had a warehouse filled with coats and clothes and textiles waiting to be picked up.





  We had nords and humans living in cozy cottages, and elves living in treehouses and in haven houses.  Coats & Cloth was a good place to live.

Chapter 17


  In early autumn, one of the river boatmen stopped by to tell us that the warehouses in Riverboat Depot had been completed, they built more than one, and there was now room for our coats and textiles.  We could expect the horse carts to arrive at any time.  And then it snowed; not just a little snow, enough to keep the carts from coming.



  Well, that would give us a little more time to fill the warehouse.  We actually had to take a bit of wool out to make room for the linen clothes and furs.  We still needed hide coats.  Some said we should have taken the leather out for the seamstress to use since she often had to wait for leather. 



  There were 2 herds of deer that were often spotted not far from the warehouse.  Another hunter's workplace was built, and the hunter came from the riverside workplace to try his luck at the new one; the deer by his original workplace kept going across the river out of range.  More hide coats were made, and the warehouse was soon filled to capacity.

Chapter 16

  We found we had plenty of flax for the cloth maker from the patch next to the market and from the forsythias row.  We decided to grow more oats where the other flax patch had been.  We prepared 2 oat patches next to the existing one but as soon as the weather warmed in early spring, the weeds, rabbits, and grouse moved in.  One of the new patches only needed a bit more weeding and the oats came up nicely. The 2nd new patch was a lost cause.  The grouse scratch the soil and ate the newly planted oat seeds before many of the seeds had a chance to sprout; they built nests and laid eggs.   We had another weed patch.





  Because we had more wild honey than the jam maker needed, the nords decided they wanted to brew some honey mead.  They could have made ale if we had planted some of the wheat seeds we brought here with us, but they were just as happy to have mead instead of ale.  A brewer barrel was set up across from the meeting hall and folks were soon gathering for a cup of mead and a friendly visit.



  By late summer, the cloth maker had made enough linen clothes for the warehouse although some of the clothes were still in the storage barns or markets.  We decided to spend some time making use of all the scraps of cloth to make some patchwork quilts.  There were soon quilts of many colors hanging on clothes lines all around town.

Chapter 15


 By winter of year 4, there were linen clothes in the storage barns, but none had made it to the warehouse yet.  There was some leather and wool in storage, but the warehouse still needed hide coats and wool coats.  The only textile that was in short supply was fur. 



  There were a lot of rabbits in the weed patch and in and around the glade.  It was time we did a little more about them. We would add more rabbit meat and furs to our supplies.





  We thought it would help if we brought one of our supply carts out of the storage barn and use it to get the furs from the storage barns down closer to the warehouse.  Instead, it got the needed textiles farther away from the seamstress, tailor, and cloth maker.

Chapter 14


  We were surprised in autumn to discover how many elderberries had been picked from the bushes down by the mill.  There were also quite a few berries in storage that were gathered from the wild and picked from our berry patch.  Berries do not keep very long in storage, and we did not want all those berries to go to waste. 
 




  We built a jam maker's hut next to the berry patch but used the elderberries to make the jam; we had plenty of wild honey to use.  Next to it we built a baker now that we had a mill making flour.  The baker decided to bake jelly buns instead of bread in order to use up more of the berries; the baker would make the jelly herself.  We all enjoyed fresh baked jelly buns through the winter and little crocks of jam were on our pantry shelves and in our storage barns for later use.  The berries were not wasted.

  The warehouse was slowly filling up, but it still needed hide coats, wool coats, linen clothes, and furs. 

Chapter 13


  In early summer, Larker, the food merchant stopped by on his way back to Riverboat depot.  He could tell us nothing much either about when our coats and textiles would be picked up, only that he heard they had to build another warehouse first.  He would not take any of our coats or textiles, but he would take a little of our iron; there was room on the Depot's stockpile for some.  When asked if we needed anything, we ordered apples and walnuts.  Our plum tree and berry patch were producing well, but we could still use more fruit.

   By late summer, a nord couple with a 5-year-old daughter moved into a cottage next to the chapel by the trading post, and the other nord couple with a 5-year-old son moved into a hut built next to the gatherer's cottage across from us.
 




  We had an unexpected frost in early autumn followed by a light snowfall.  We figured that no one would come to pick up our coats and textiles that autumn.  We also thought we had probably seen the last of the workers that would arrive from Riverboat Depot.

Chapter 12


  In spring of that 4th year, one of our tailors switch over to the new cloth maker that had just been built next to the market.  Flax would be made into cloth and then into linen clothes as long as the weather was warm enough to work outside.  As of yet we had no linen clothes in the warehouse, we had plenty of flax.





  We also had enough oats that we thought it was a good idea to build a mill to grind the oats into flour.   The mill was built on the road just past the elderberry bushes; it was near the haven market.  It had just been completed, and the first oats had just been delivered when 11 workers arrived from Riverboat Depot, there were 9 adult and 2 children.

  A second story was built on to the 2 low-level houses of the haven; you know how elves like to save on wood.  An elven couple with 2 adult children and a young adult elven girl moved into the 2 haven houses.  Two nord couples were waiting for their houses to be finished.



  None of the newcomers could tell us when our coats and textiles would be picked up.  They could only tell us that a few of the laborers became river boatmen and the Depot was a bit short of workers now that they too had left.  They were impressed with how much we had waiting in the warehouse already.

Chapter 11


  After the river boatman left, we again took stock of our supplies.  We had plenty of logs, firewood, stone, iron, tools, and clothes.  We had plenty of food but not much grain or fruit; we had only the 1 plum tree and wild berries.  In late summer, a couple of the women dug up some wild berry bushes and plants and planted them in a small patch by the cemetery.  There were wild raspberries and strawberries.  It did not take long for the grouse to discover the berry patch.  We would have to do more about the wildlife soon.
 




 We discovered that we had more warm coats and textile in storage that could go to the warehouse.  It was a cold and snowy winter, so it was slow going for our 2 warehouse workers.  The snow lingered into early spring, stopped, then started falling again.  The oats and flax were already coming up and the grouse were laying eggs.  The seamstress stopped making warm coats and began making wool coats instead.  We wanted a good selection of coats and textile for the workers from Riverboat Depot to pick up, when they come. 

do eet !