25 Ashan 724
Wealth Skill: Fieldcraft
Dan tested the ladder to make sure that it was secure, and then scrambled up it to the roof. With all the storms and ice recently, a rare dry day seemed like a good time to inspect the roof and make sure that there were no cracks, leaks, or broken tiles. The weather had, at least, warmed up enough that they wouldn't freeze doing repairs, although the rain might be a problem.
He climbed cautiously over the guttering and moved crabwise along the slanting roof, inspecting the tiles as he went. When he got to the end of the roof, next to the chimney, he took a deep breath and moved higher up the roof to do another pass. He had been higher in trees, sometimes, but trees had branches to hold onto, and to grab if you slipped. Here, all he had were the tiles, damp from persistent storms, threaded here and there with moss and lichen, slowly warming in the patchy sun, and the promise of hard ground meeting him if he fell.
There were cracks in a couple of roof tiles at the door end of the Hall, nothing serious - probably a result of rain soaking the tile and then freezing - but worth replacing before it got any worse.
The third pass took him to the peak of the roof, where at least he could sit straddled across the ridge like one of his ponies. From there, he could see all of Rosebay laid out before him like a particularly good map.
There was the lake with faint splashes indicating that someone else was also taking advantage of a dry day too - this time to get laundry done. Hopefully it would dry before the rain came back and they wouldn't have to string up lines of washing all over the Hall this time.
The lake was running high from all the rain and snowmelt, and the ditches running down from the fields to the lake were almost overflowing. Not quite, not yet, but it was something to keep an eye on. If this kept up, they would have to dig those ditches deeper.
The fields themselves were a wide stretch of mud and, as yet, too sodden to be ploughed and sowed.
The hollow where they had dug clay out now looked like a pond and one side had slumped, eroded, into the water. The pit traps weren't much better, but it was all probably fixable with a little work. Dan started a mental task list.
The posts that marked where the pit traps were stood firm and sturdy, and the assorted dings and dents and chips (glinting slightly paler than the original wood) told the tale of how hard those posts hard been used for a wide assortment of tasks. Even now, the erratic thwack that echoed up to his ears told him that one or more were being used for target practice, although it took him twisting a fair bit before he spotted the slingers practicing.
Closer to where he sat, the wall stood solid, its rammed earth seeming to rise out of the ground like a living plant. It's limewash was faded and ready to be renewed, but that was a small thing. Across from the wall, figures darted in and out of the stables with buckets of water and barrows of manure for and from the animals kept there.
Dan's gaze swept on, over the barn and the piled high midden - they would have plenty of fertiliser once the fields were ready for it - and onto the spaces where he hoped to build a dairy and an actual inn. The Hall had been a priority the first arc - somewhere to gather, a multipurpose space to eat and drink and work and play - but he was beginning to hear rumours sifting through of people wanting to visit Rosebay and try Cal's brewing on site and, being Rharnians, they would expect a proper pub when they eventually got here.
Beyond Rosebay's boundaries, on the far side of the lake, he could just make out the willow trees he'd planted when he was scouting the land in preparation for the settlement, now glowing almost red with new, rising, sap, and a flight of mud hens heading off to feed.
He smiled, small and private, and swung his leg over to start checking the tiles on the other side of the roof.
*
Later, once he was safely back on the ground and had passed on the results of his inspection and what would need to be done, Dan went back to those spaces with string and pegs. Neither building would be started immediately, other than being marked out. There were more urgent tasks to complete first, like getting crops in the ground and making any necessary repairs. But this much he could do, as a pledge and a reminder.
He began with the dairy, hammering in a peg for the back corner furthest from the barn, and then pacing out the length and breadth of it to mark the other corners. The walls would have to be extra thick to make sure that the milk and other products in the dairy stayed cool even under the fierce heat of the Saun suns, but that would only require more materials and effort rather than more skill. He tied string between the pegs to mark the outer line of the wall, then made a second line where the inner edge of the wall would be, and considered the amount of room that would leave inside for the shelves and storage and workspace he hoped to have there eventually. The extra thick walls did not leave as much space as he would have liked, so he went back to the pegs and string and shifted the lines outward until the inner space was right and the thickness of the wall was preserved. It was far easier to do that at this stage when it was all just pegs and string than it was once the walls actually started going up.
He marked out the spaces for doors next. One door to enter from the outside, and one door to connect to the milking parlour they would build beside it, both wider than usual to allow for easier access while carrying multiple buckets of milk.
With the corners of the dairy marked out, and the door into the milking parlour in place, Dan moved on to marking out the milking parlour itself. It was simple enough - four walls, a handful of milking stalls for the animals being milked, and then a doorway for the animals to move through. The stalls would probably be wattle and daub rather than rammed earth, as the willows on the far side of the lake looked to a casual, distant, view as though they would be big enough and strong enough to provide withys for the wattle part, and there was always manure and mud available to mix for the daub.
When he was satisfied, he crossed the length of the barn and midden and stables (where the mounts of any visitors would be cared for) and began to mark out the foundations for an inn.
As with the dairy, he started with a back corner and from there began to pace out and mark off the outer walls. The inn would be trickier to lay out. Not only would it have multiple rooms, but it would also need a cellar to keep the drinks in. So. This much for the main room, and that much for the kitchen and its storage. So much for the cellar itself and the extra for the steps down. He criss-crossed the area. It would have been faster if the cat that belonged to one of the settler families hadn't decided that his work area was the perfect place to nap. He had to keep stepping over and skirting around it. It could have been worse, he supposed, as he hammered in a peg to mark the edge of one of the doors. The cat could have been trying to play with his string instead.
"Signed words" Spoken words
Wealth Skill: Fieldcraft
Dan tested the ladder to make sure that it was secure, and then scrambled up it to the roof. With all the storms and ice recently, a rare dry day seemed like a good time to inspect the roof and make sure that there were no cracks, leaks, or broken tiles. The weather had, at least, warmed up enough that they wouldn't freeze doing repairs, although the rain might be a problem.
He climbed cautiously over the guttering and moved crabwise along the slanting roof, inspecting the tiles as he went. When he got to the end of the roof, next to the chimney, he took a deep breath and moved higher up the roof to do another pass. He had been higher in trees, sometimes, but trees had branches to hold onto, and to grab if you slipped. Here, all he had were the tiles, damp from persistent storms, threaded here and there with moss and lichen, slowly warming in the patchy sun, and the promise of hard ground meeting him if he fell.
There were cracks in a couple of roof tiles at the door end of the Hall, nothing serious - probably a result of rain soaking the tile and then freezing - but worth replacing before it got any worse.
The third pass took him to the peak of the roof, where at least he could sit straddled across the ridge like one of his ponies. From there, he could see all of Rosebay laid out before him like a particularly good map.
There was the lake with faint splashes indicating that someone else was also taking advantage of a dry day too - this time to get laundry done. Hopefully it would dry before the rain came back and they wouldn't have to string up lines of washing all over the Hall this time.
The lake was running high from all the rain and snowmelt, and the ditches running down from the fields to the lake were almost overflowing. Not quite, not yet, but it was something to keep an eye on. If this kept up, they would have to dig those ditches deeper.
The fields themselves were a wide stretch of mud and, as yet, too sodden to be ploughed and sowed.
The hollow where they had dug clay out now looked like a pond and one side had slumped, eroded, into the water. The pit traps weren't much better, but it was all probably fixable with a little work. Dan started a mental task list.
The posts that marked where the pit traps were stood firm and sturdy, and the assorted dings and dents and chips (glinting slightly paler than the original wood) told the tale of how hard those posts hard been used for a wide assortment of tasks. Even now, the erratic thwack that echoed up to his ears told him that one or more were being used for target practice, although it took him twisting a fair bit before he spotted the slingers practicing.
Closer to where he sat, the wall stood solid, its rammed earth seeming to rise out of the ground like a living plant. It's limewash was faded and ready to be renewed, but that was a small thing. Across from the wall, figures darted in and out of the stables with buckets of water and barrows of manure for and from the animals kept there.
Dan's gaze swept on, over the barn and the piled high midden - they would have plenty of fertiliser once the fields were ready for it - and onto the spaces where he hoped to build a dairy and an actual inn. The Hall had been a priority the first arc - somewhere to gather, a multipurpose space to eat and drink and work and play - but he was beginning to hear rumours sifting through of people wanting to visit Rosebay and try Cal's brewing on site and, being Rharnians, they would expect a proper pub when they eventually got here.
Beyond Rosebay's boundaries, on the far side of the lake, he could just make out the willow trees he'd planted when he was scouting the land in preparation for the settlement, now glowing almost red with new, rising, sap, and a flight of mud hens heading off to feed.
He smiled, small and private, and swung his leg over to start checking the tiles on the other side of the roof.
*
Later, once he was safely back on the ground and had passed on the results of his inspection and what would need to be done, Dan went back to those spaces with string and pegs. Neither building would be started immediately, other than being marked out. There were more urgent tasks to complete first, like getting crops in the ground and making any necessary repairs. But this much he could do, as a pledge and a reminder.
He began with the dairy, hammering in a peg for the back corner furthest from the barn, and then pacing out the length and breadth of it to mark the other corners. The walls would have to be extra thick to make sure that the milk and other products in the dairy stayed cool even under the fierce heat of the Saun suns, but that would only require more materials and effort rather than more skill. He tied string between the pegs to mark the outer line of the wall, then made a second line where the inner edge of the wall would be, and considered the amount of room that would leave inside for the shelves and storage and workspace he hoped to have there eventually. The extra thick walls did not leave as much space as he would have liked, so he went back to the pegs and string and shifted the lines outward until the inner space was right and the thickness of the wall was preserved. It was far easier to do that at this stage when it was all just pegs and string than it was once the walls actually started going up.
He marked out the spaces for doors next. One door to enter from the outside, and one door to connect to the milking parlour they would build beside it, both wider than usual to allow for easier access while carrying multiple buckets of milk.
With the corners of the dairy marked out, and the door into the milking parlour in place, Dan moved on to marking out the milking parlour itself. It was simple enough - four walls, a handful of milking stalls for the animals being milked, and then a doorway for the animals to move through. The stalls would probably be wattle and daub rather than rammed earth, as the willows on the far side of the lake looked to a casual, distant, view as though they would be big enough and strong enough to provide withys for the wattle part, and there was always manure and mud available to mix for the daub.
When he was satisfied, he crossed the length of the barn and midden and stables (where the mounts of any visitors would be cared for) and began to mark out the foundations for an inn.
As with the dairy, he started with a back corner and from there began to pace out and mark off the outer walls. The inn would be trickier to lay out. Not only would it have multiple rooms, but it would also need a cellar to keep the drinks in. So. This much for the main room, and that much for the kitchen and its storage. So much for the cellar itself and the extra for the steps down. He criss-crossed the area. It would have been faster if the cat that belonged to one of the settler families hadn't decided that his work area was the perfect place to nap. He had to keep stepping over and skirting around it. It could have been worse, he supposed, as he hammered in a peg to mark the edge of one of the doors. The cat could have been trying to play with his string instead.
OOC notes
While I intend to rp the building work, experience has taught me that paying cash removes a lot of problems, so wealth points and then rp it is.
The dairy and milking parlour I have tentatively priced as 1 average room + one large room (matching a small stables plus a large workshop) for a total of 12 WP
The inn is a standard Tier 6 building and is therefore 30 wp.
Tentative total is therefore 42 wealth points
If adjustments to cost are required, I am happy to negotiate.
The dairy and milking parlour I have tentatively priced as 1 average room + one large room (matching a small stables plus a large workshop) for a total of 12 WP
The inn is a standard Tier 6 building and is therefore 30 wp.
Tentative total is therefore 42 wealth points
If adjustments to cost are required, I am happy to negotiate.
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