Apinsig
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Chapter 12 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2022-08-02 09:25:09 +0000 UTCDuring my sleep, I had an epiphany. I could use the shield to make a new plow. It will need to be able to turn over earth, so I can make new fields with it too.
I have the charcoal needed for a forge, just need to make a blower so I could make the forge fire stronger. It was time to start using the clay deposits I found. It will be a nice change of pace. I wonder if I could pull off a gear system for the blower that would make it a lot more efficient.
I have found two different kinds of clay. One was white looking, the other one was brown. I don’t know if there was any difference, so I decided to use the closer one the brown clay deposit. The design would be one that I have seen before, but I’ve never actually built it. I just used electric power back on earth.
Traditional bellows are way too slow and need to be too big for anything useful. Moving them up and down will be annoying. I know that from experience. I once visited a museum where you could try out everything old smiths did.
I will need to make a wheel-like shape where the blades will move air inside it. There will need to be an inlet and outlet holes. Inlet will be on the side and the outlet will come out like a snail shell. First, I made a mould into the dirt.
I wanted it to be thick it was going to be a stationary, so it didn’t need to be that lightweight. But before I actually started laying out the clay, I added to the mould the wood structures to support and hold the spinning center.
When finished, I left it do dry in the sun. I went and found the chainmail that was too small for me. Taking it to the center yard where I was going to make my temporary forge. I didn’t want to use any of the existing buildings in case there was a fire.
I couldn’t afford to lose any buildings currently. I also brought the old plow, I could use some of the reinforcement metal from it and its old but strong wood to help build the new version.
The chainmail I brought in case I needed some more reinforcements, but I hoped that I could use the rest of this steel to make some stronger arrowheads. I had the feeling that some of the creatures I was going to face, stone will do nothing against.
I needed to make at least a small anvil, and for that I will smelt that shitty iron I got off the goblins. I had better spears than they did, and their armour pieces smelled so bad that I was not able to actually clean it off them, so it would be best to just melt them down.
Do melt them down. I will need a crucible, and I only had the clay and mud to make it. I think I could use it, but it will not survive multiple fires. Quickly making 10 in total and leaving them to dry.
Next, I went and brought some more clay. Making the forge burning area out of clay and mud, I also made all the moulds I think I will need for the build. I got a new skill for all the work, basic ceramist. I didn’t recognise the name, but I guess it's something to do with clay.
When all that was drying, I went to explore the other side of my property beyond the fields where my sight is cut off by hills. It was a cloudy day, but warm, so it will take some time before everything is dry. I just hope I don’t have to wait until tomorrow, but I guess you can’t change physics.
This time I changed my equipment a bit. I want to make a proper adventuring kit, so I could defend myself, hunt and explore with it. This was the perfect time to start testing what works and getting myself familiar with what I was missing.
Exploration was important and keeping myself from getting lost was needed. I didn’t want to bring the property map and that wouldn’t help me if I went further afield. I will need to make some good paper to help map out what I find.
This was only the five first minutes of me moving, still in my fields and already find things that I am missing. If I needed to make a map, I will need something to write with.
Another problem is how I will keep it all waterproof. I will need a proper waterproof backpack. I have the leather to make that, but not the wax needed.
Not to mention I will also need many other survival items to keep me alive. It always amazes me how much gear you actually need to do anything out in the wild. Just going there to survive you need a knife, but do anything more and the list of items will grow quickly.
If you do not want to spend all your time on survival, you will need to bring food, cooking utensil, sleeping place and many more things. Want to be able to hunt, need to bring traps or weapons. You will need everything, to be weatherproof or have backups for those items. Not to mention if you have colder weather.
You went to explore unknown places. You need things that will help you find your way back home and make sure you can find your way back to what you find. And after all that, you will need to bring more of everything if you go on a long trip.
And who knows what else I will need in this fantasy world? The books and movies I know will be a good reference point, but if I would believe them, that could get me killed quicker tell anything else.
Making it on top of the first hill I see forest beyond many hills. The up and down land would be a bad place for farming, but a good place for sheep or goats. I couldn’t see very far because this hill wasn’t the biggest, but looking back, I saw my entire farm. Even saw the bridge and the forest beyond it.
I decided to see if I can see where the river went that my bridge was on. Eventually, there was not a proper forest, but trees blocking the site further down the river. But I think I got a glimpse of a larger water area, something like a lake maybe, a long way down the river.
But that was not the direction for today. I looked forward into the hilly landscape and already felt my legs burning from what I was going to put them through.
When I made on top of one of the biggest hill, the burning in my legs was real. It was not a pleasant sensation, but it will be after I get back home and can put my feet up.
There was a forest a bit further out and beyond that I see mountains. The forest itself was not just a forest, it was a hills forest. Hills that grew bigger and bigger until mountain started to come out of the forest. Towards the road, the land leveled off into a large grassland. That the forest was slowly devouring.
On the other side was more grassland that another river separated it from the forest. That river run parallel to the river my bridge was on creating an area that was boxed in by two rivers.
From this hill I got a better look down river and both the rivers led into a big lake. I really needed to start naming things, but every time I tried to think of one I couldn’t, I guess I am not in the naming mood.
If I couldn’t make the forest near me safe, then I will need to bring wood from here. It will be a lot more effort and time to do so, but being save is more important. I took a rest on top of the hill and just drank in all I could see. My head swam with all the ideas I had.
How to expand my fields, how I could make more pastures if I could find proper animals for them, and how I could use the forest to my advantage. This forest was an excellent place for me to practice hunting, if it was safe.
Which I was expecting it to be, because otherwise I would have been already attacked. This farm has been here for more than a century, so anything in the forest should know it’s here, if they have any intelligence at all.
Making it back home, I went and looked at my drying creations. As I feared, this cloudy day was not so good for drying them out. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better one.
One side of the blower was dry enough so I could lift it out and layout the second-half in the same mould. Then it would be exactly the same as the first one and will fit together perfectly.
I just had to make some changes because this side is the one that has the bigger hole in the middle for the air inlet. Like the other side, the shaft will be supported by wood supports, not the clay.
I just hoped the connection holes will line up and don’t have any problems. Rest of the day I spent making arrows. I was going to run out of feather soon but this time I did not add heads to them, hoping I can add steal arrow heads later.
Hopefully, I can find some more birds to hunt. I might need to start making lures for them so hunt them will be easier. Feeling a bit sweaty, so before the day ended, I went for a swim and also to wash my clothes. I had piled up a lot of dirty clothes and I finally needed to take care of them. Or else I was going to run out of clean clothes.
This also brought up a problem that I was going to have in the future. I was going to have to learn how to make bigger clothes for myself. I simply wouldn’t fit into anything in a few years. It’s a far-off problem but a problem still and something that will take a lot of training do actually complete.
Making clothes is hard, making clothes that could survive hard labour even harder. Eventually I want to be able to learn how to make later armor. Maybe I could even reinforce it with metal if I ever found a nearby source of metal or be able to trade with humans again. Hopefully the latter will be true because that would solve many of my problems.
The dinner today was the same as the days before and I was really missing salt. I was never really without salt before in my life and the food really is a lot tastier with it. Currently, I would fight a dragon to get a bag full of it. I was a bit melancholy when I finally fell asleep.
