4 Vhalar 722
Dan accepted his bowl of pea and mint soup from Agnes and glanced around the tables in the Hall. As far as he could tell, everyone was here this evening, which made it a good time to talk to everyone at once and arrange a few things in regard to living in Rosebay. The last of the settlers had only arrived here a handful of trials ago, and those trials had been hectic with trying to get everything dealt with. The evening meal offered a chance to breathe and think. It was also one of the few times that everyone in Rosebay was likely to be in the same place (although not always, sometimes people were late back from wherever they had been, or preferred to eat in private for once, or just wanted to get something finished). During the trial, everyone was split up, scattered among the tasks that needed to be done.
Central platters of bread were placed on each table, along with the bowls of soup. Dan waited until everyone was served and Agnes had sat down for her own meal before he picked up his spoon and dug into his meal. As far as he could tell from the look and taste, it was made simply by soaking dried peas (from the supplies they'd hauled in) overnight, then simmering them in vegetable stock until they fell apart, and seasoning with mint. The mint went well with the peas, though. He ate neatly, quickly, and efficiently, as he had learned to do in the orphanage, devouring his food before anyone had a chance to take it from him. He wiped the last traces of soup from his bowl with a piece of bread, and settled back to eye the rest of the crowd.
Rosebay's mealtimes were quieter than Eureka's had been - less verbal speech echoing around and more hands waving in Sign, but no less vibrant. He waited until most people had finished and then, before anyone left or he lost his nerve, he pushed himself to his feet and moved to where everyone could see him. He held up his hand in a signal that he needed them to pay attention to him, and waited until they had all noticed before he began. He kept his signing and his body language open and easy to read.
"I won't keep you long, but there are a few things to set up and set in motion. First, if there are problems that aren't urgent, the best way to get hold of me is to catch me at the evening meal, like this one. Obviously, if they are urgent, find me sooner. In regards to that, I'm going to set up a board where everyone posts where they are going if they are going out beyond the fields here, past the boundary line of Rosebay. That way, if we need to find someone, we know where to look - and if anyone gets hurt or lost, or something happens, we also know where to start looking. Ok?"
There was a general nodding of heads and understanding grins.
"Right. Now, I know that some of you specialise in one thing or another." He nodded to Agnes, Rosebay's cook and translator, to Raven, their head builder, and to Jack, who was taking charge of the fieldwork. "But there are some things that have to be done without skills - those bowls won't wash themselves for instance, so I'm going to set up a chore rota so that no one has to do more than their fair share. I'll be including myself on that rota, so don't think any of the rest of you will escape."
Laughter, some rueful, most approving.
"There will also be a work rota, so you know whether you'll be helping in the kitchen, or in the fields, or with the building work, and so on. Rotas will expand or contract as needs change and different things become necessary. If you're particularly good at something - or particularly terrible at something - let me know, and we'll work with it. Specialists, please let me know how much help you will need for the things you oversee. Are there any questions?"
There was some muted discussion and cautious looks, but few questions, at least for now.
After a bit, Dan thanked them and went back to his seat. The specialists joined him at his table, and he flipped open the notebook he carried everywhere and drew up a crude calendar for the rest of the cycle. He didn't worry about it getting lost in the stack of pages. As long as no one tore the page out of the notebook, the calendar would reappear as the top page whenever he wanted it to. The same went for anything else that he wrote in the notebook, which was why he tried to make all of his notes and plans in it.
He passed the calendar around, letting the various experts pencil in various needs like planting and therefore harvests, and building projects starting and approximately finishing, and harvests needing to be processed. When it got back to him, he added the probable times of when some of the wild resources would be ready, and then frowned over it, trying to assign the needed bodies (not enough) to the needed work (too much).
The planting urgently needed to be done if they were going to have a harvest at all, but then they needed somewhere to store it, and somewhere for the animals to live through the cold seasons, so the barn and stables were also a high priority. Tom's team, who were here temporarily to help with that building, would be focused on the barn and stables, of course, but more hands would make the work go faster.
Eventually, he had the work rota sorted. This group to build the barn and stables. These to plant, these to help Agnes when she needed it, the rest to build other things. He was mostly on planting - they were making use of what knowledge he had of plants and gardens, which wasn't much, but more than many of the settlers had.
Then it was on to chores. Scrubbing dishes. Cleaning. Tending the animals. Hauling rubbish. Mending clothes. Mending other things. Checking the pit traps. Running messages and errands. Sorting and gathering fuel for the kitchen. General maintenance.
He put himself down for all of them in turn, particularly the ones no one liked doing. If he, their supposed leader, was seen to be doing the dirty work, then everyone else was less likely to grumble about having to do it as well.
The chores rota took longer to draw up, because it had to be cross-checked with the work rota to make sure that no one was being expected to be in multiple places at the same time, but they got it done in the end. It probably wouldn't eliminate all the grumbles, but that was inevitable. Nobody was happy about everything at all times.
Dan used his writing slate - actually a board covered in a layer of wax, allowing him to smooth out the words that had been written there and reuse it indefinitely - as the example to copy for the noticeboard.
He took a smoothed board, one big enough to hold quite a bit of writing, and rummaged in his woodworking kit for a lump of wax. When he found it, he warmed it in his hands until it was soft like spreadable butter, but not melted so much that it was likely to either soak in to the wood or run straight off it.
He placed the board flat on the table and spread the soft wax in a thin but even layer across the whole of it, like spreading butter on bread. The wax, once it had set again, could have words or images scratched into it with a pointed stylus, and then be smoothed out again once the words were no longer needed.
It didn't take long for the wax to set again, and once it had, Dan hung it up next to the main door, where it could be easily accessed by anyone coming or going, and tied a stylus to one corner on a long piece of string. Next to it, he pinned up a rough map of the area, and the next ten trials or so of the chores rota and the work rota. He would update the rotas on a regular basis, of course, but for now, that would probably do. He stepped out of the way, and the settlers surged in to find out what they were doing.
Watching them as they studied the rotas and listening to the tone of the buzz that they created, Dandelion decided that it was probably going to work out. At least for now.
"Signed words" Spoken words
Dan accepted his bowl of pea and mint soup from Agnes and glanced around the tables in the Hall. As far as he could tell, everyone was here this evening, which made it a good time to talk to everyone at once and arrange a few things in regard to living in Rosebay. The last of the settlers had only arrived here a handful of trials ago, and those trials had been hectic with trying to get everything dealt with. The evening meal offered a chance to breathe and think. It was also one of the few times that everyone in Rosebay was likely to be in the same place (although not always, sometimes people were late back from wherever they had been, or preferred to eat in private for once, or just wanted to get something finished). During the trial, everyone was split up, scattered among the tasks that needed to be done.
Central platters of bread were placed on each table, along with the bowls of soup. Dan waited until everyone was served and Agnes had sat down for her own meal before he picked up his spoon and dug into his meal. As far as he could tell from the look and taste, it was made simply by soaking dried peas (from the supplies they'd hauled in) overnight, then simmering them in vegetable stock until they fell apart, and seasoning with mint. The mint went well with the peas, though. He ate neatly, quickly, and efficiently, as he had learned to do in the orphanage, devouring his food before anyone had a chance to take it from him. He wiped the last traces of soup from his bowl with a piece of bread, and settled back to eye the rest of the crowd.
Rosebay's mealtimes were quieter than Eureka's had been - less verbal speech echoing around and more hands waving in Sign, but no less vibrant. He waited until most people had finished and then, before anyone left or he lost his nerve, he pushed himself to his feet and moved to where everyone could see him. He held up his hand in a signal that he needed them to pay attention to him, and waited until they had all noticed before he began. He kept his signing and his body language open and easy to read.
"I won't keep you long, but there are a few things to set up and set in motion. First, if there are problems that aren't urgent, the best way to get hold of me is to catch me at the evening meal, like this one. Obviously, if they are urgent, find me sooner. In regards to that, I'm going to set up a board where everyone posts where they are going if they are going out beyond the fields here, past the boundary line of Rosebay. That way, if we need to find someone, we know where to look - and if anyone gets hurt or lost, or something happens, we also know where to start looking. Ok?"
There was a general nodding of heads and understanding grins.
"Right. Now, I know that some of you specialise in one thing or another." He nodded to Agnes, Rosebay's cook and translator, to Raven, their head builder, and to Jack, who was taking charge of the fieldwork. "But there are some things that have to be done without skills - those bowls won't wash themselves for instance, so I'm going to set up a chore rota so that no one has to do more than their fair share. I'll be including myself on that rota, so don't think any of the rest of you will escape."
Laughter, some rueful, most approving.
"There will also be a work rota, so you know whether you'll be helping in the kitchen, or in the fields, or with the building work, and so on. Rotas will expand or contract as needs change and different things become necessary. If you're particularly good at something - or particularly terrible at something - let me know, and we'll work with it. Specialists, please let me know how much help you will need for the things you oversee. Are there any questions?"
There was some muted discussion and cautious looks, but few questions, at least for now.
After a bit, Dan thanked them and went back to his seat. The specialists joined him at his table, and he flipped open the notebook he carried everywhere and drew up a crude calendar for the rest of the cycle. He didn't worry about it getting lost in the stack of pages. As long as no one tore the page out of the notebook, the calendar would reappear as the top page whenever he wanted it to. The same went for anything else that he wrote in the notebook, which was why he tried to make all of his notes and plans in it.
He passed the calendar around, letting the various experts pencil in various needs like planting and therefore harvests, and building projects starting and approximately finishing, and harvests needing to be processed. When it got back to him, he added the probable times of when some of the wild resources would be ready, and then frowned over it, trying to assign the needed bodies (not enough) to the needed work (too much).
The planting urgently needed to be done if they were going to have a harvest at all, but then they needed somewhere to store it, and somewhere for the animals to live through the cold seasons, so the barn and stables were also a high priority. Tom's team, who were here temporarily to help with that building, would be focused on the barn and stables, of course, but more hands would make the work go faster.
Eventually, he had the work rota sorted. This group to build the barn and stables. These to plant, these to help Agnes when she needed it, the rest to build other things. He was mostly on planting - they were making use of what knowledge he had of plants and gardens, which wasn't much, but more than many of the settlers had.
Then it was on to chores. Scrubbing dishes. Cleaning. Tending the animals. Hauling rubbish. Mending clothes. Mending other things. Checking the pit traps. Running messages and errands. Sorting and gathering fuel for the kitchen. General maintenance.
He put himself down for all of them in turn, particularly the ones no one liked doing. If he, their supposed leader, was seen to be doing the dirty work, then everyone else was less likely to grumble about having to do it as well.
The chores rota took longer to draw up, because it had to be cross-checked with the work rota to make sure that no one was being expected to be in multiple places at the same time, but they got it done in the end. It probably wouldn't eliminate all the grumbles, but that was inevitable. Nobody was happy about everything at all times.
Dan used his writing slate - actually a board covered in a layer of wax, allowing him to smooth out the words that had been written there and reuse it indefinitely - as the example to copy for the noticeboard.
He took a smoothed board, one big enough to hold quite a bit of writing, and rummaged in his woodworking kit for a lump of wax. When he found it, he warmed it in his hands until it was soft like spreadable butter, but not melted so much that it was likely to either soak in to the wood or run straight off it.
He placed the board flat on the table and spread the soft wax in a thin but even layer across the whole of it, like spreading butter on bread. The wax, once it had set again, could have words or images scratched into it with a pointed stylus, and then be smoothed out again once the words were no longer needed.
It didn't take long for the wax to set again, and once it had, Dan hung it up next to the main door, where it could be easily accessed by anyone coming or going, and tied a stylus to one corner on a long piece of string. Next to it, he pinned up a rough map of the area, and the next ten trials or so of the chores rota and the work rota. He would update the rotas on a regular basis, of course, but for now, that would probably do. He stepped out of the way, and the settlers surged in to find out what they were doing.
Watching them as they studied the rotas and listening to the tone of the buzz that they created, Dandelion decided that it was probably going to work out. At least for now.
"Signed words" Spoken words
