Day 13

[Ward]

Day 13
weather low 60's
wind 1-2 miles from th west .

[Highlander]

After getting up and eating, Jordan went back into his tent and grabbed his rifle, which he slung over his shoulder, and his pistol which he put at his side. Giving his horse a pat on the head Jordan walked into town.

Many people looked at him with suprise as they saw him; as he lived on the outskirts of the community, no one really knew him. Jordan took no notice, and instead walked on into the colony, looking to see if he could be of any assistance.

---------------------

Later that night, Jordan sat in front of his nightly fire. It has been a long day, and he was tired. One a skillet, which was resting over the fire, he cooked some fish and cornmeal. Listening to the crackle of the fire and watching his food, he didn't even notice his visitor.

When he looked up to the edge of the clearing, Jordan jumped in surprise. A red fox sat on the edge, watching him intently. From his days of being here, he had not seen one fox. He'd just figured it was because of all the commotion they were causing, but now he was prooved wrong.

Jordan expected it to run at any minute. But it didn't; they both sat there and stared at each other. Finally, realizing what he must want, Jordan ripped off a piece of his fish and through it at the feet of the fox. It sniffed it, and quickly scarfed it down.

"I'll call you Washington," he said quietly to it, smiling. It was the first visitor he had at his camp, even if it wasn't human.

The fox stayed for a couple more minutes, then turned and ran off.

[Flocculencio]

Flocc cantered past Othniel who, with the help of two Rangers was laying out various coloured pegs for some reason best known to himself. Slightly father off, Sion was pacing the ground making markings on a map.

"All clear, Lieutenant?" called one of the Rangers

"Nothing to report yet, Private," called back Flocc, "What're you doing anyway?"

"Someday soon this'll be Main Street, Flocc," replied Othniel, "I intend to make sure it gets laid out right."

"Jolly good," said Flocc swinging Betsy around. In the middle distance a column of smoke rose from the campsite where Dr. What and Leo were no doubt making even more additions to the Miwok-English Dictionary. Somewhere towards the sea he could see another moving speck- GBW also on patrol.

Back uptime I wouldn't have been able to see that far even with my glasses on. Thank the ASBs for 20/20 vision...

"Fancy a bit of a gallop, girl?" Flocc said to Betsy who whinnied eagerly.
"Let's go then," he continued, getting her to speed up with a click of his tongue. The little Waler mare might not be as big or impressive as some of the mounts others had brought but she was tough as nails and relished the challenge. After all she had been bred for the harsh, dusty outback- the Bay was a picnic compared to that.

[Norbert]

It had been a little shocking during the night when the termor occured. But at least it was a minor one. Norbert had been used to them at one time, nad years ago he wouldn't have noticed it at all. But now, after being in a geologically stable area for so long again, it was disconcerting.

Today they were scouting close to base camp, looking for clearings that would be suitable to the communities purpose. They were close enough to the camp that they returned to it for lunch, and looking about, Norbert started laughing out loud.

'Whats up?' said Flocc.
'Those stakes! That is just hilarious!'
'Why?'
'You are probably going to be missing 90%, if not all when we get back here! We may not have seen them, but the natives who are more than likely keeping an eye on us will find them very pretty!'
'????'
'They have nothing like them, and in that color! Just study the clearing, visualize how it will be laid out, and have a head start when the first team gets here. That way your stacks won't be creativly aquired!'

[Ward]

Getting up Early I told the Wife if anyone wants me I'm teaching a class in how to plow . Grabing Fred my youngest and having him help me bring th plow down to the area the wood cuters have been , Leaving my son there I went and got two horses and headed back to to the field and hitched the team to the plow .
I started to plow the area for crops .

[pisces74]

I'll hobble over and se if I can do anything to help Ward, If I can't I'll hobble back and help Jen and Jenna teach the germlins about the local ecology.

[Ward]

Well I ask you to pull up a stomp and sit a spell . Don't over do it on that leg just yet . By the way did you ever tell us were you wagon is . If so it my make make scince to go get it and the iteams still left there.

[pisces74]

OOC: which wagon are you referring to?

[Ward]

OOC: which wagon are you referring to?


Sorry wrong person Was thing about some one else . By the way have you ever worked a team before . If so you can show the other people how to hitch a team up to a plow and un hitch them .

[pisces74]

Nope unfortunately I'm a nigh useless suburbanite.

[Ward]

Nope unfortunately I'm a nigh useless suburbanite.

well you and my youngest can work on that .

[Flocculencio]

'Whats up?' said Flocc.
'Those stakes! That is just hilarious!'
'Why?'
'You are probably going to be missing 90%, if not all when we get back here! We may not have seen them, but the natives who are more than likely keeping an eye on us will find them very pretty!'
'????'

OOC: Hey the stakes weren't my idea :) I'm just along as the hired muscle to make sure you guys don't get gutted, remember?

[Norbert]

Scouting Expedition:

'Guys, I think we've found the best site in the area, lets pack up and head back a day early and use the extra time to find the best path to get the others here.'

[SionEwig]

Scouting Expedition:

'Guys, I think we've found the best site in the area, lets pack up and head back a day early and use the extra time to find the best path to get the others here.'

Sion will come over with a couple of maps.

"Good idea, there's not much more we can do here. Except for things that will take weeks or longer. Besides, I would really like to see if we can find better crossings over several of the larger creeks and rivers that will keep the route further away from the hills. I would rather not have a repeat of last weeks episode."

[Doctor What]

Dr. What and Leo were on their third day with the survey of the future site of Berkeley.

The Redwood Forest Chai tea that Ahmick had made for the group the evening of Day 9 was a big hit--several members of the group had claimed that they had the best night of sleep they ever had so far and woke up feeling 'energized' (one guy even claimed that his sense of smell had improved a bit). Doc had no idea if the results were purely psychological, purely physical or some weird combination of the two--but it gave him an idea.

There was a way for him to kill three birds with one stone here-- obviously Ahmick's people had a great deal of knowledge of the local flora (made sense--after all, they've been living in this region for several thousand years--they would have had an opportunity to examine every plant in the area for anything remotely useful for them)--this knowledge would be of immense help to Doc Glen and the rest of the group. Of course, they would be running all over the place collecting specimens--thereby assisting the survey group with mapping the area. Finally--this would give Leo and Doc an opportunity to do a hell of a lot of 'show and tell' stuff with Ahmick--and increasing their knowledge of his language.

And that's what had been happening for the last several days. It became a bit of a routine and a physically demanding one at times --Ahmick could run rings around any of the ah.commers (the ah.commers were physically healthy thanks to the ASBs but really out of shape for the most part--Ahmick on the other hand, was physically healthy and in top physical shape). Ahmick would casually run around for an hour collecting various plants in the forest or climbing trees or running up hills or whatever--and be mildly amused to see both the Doc and Leo struggling to keep up with his pace.

"I'm telling you--the guy must have a battery pack stashed somewhere--he's a friggin energizer bunny" said Leo at one point.

Doc was out of breath keeping up with all of this--he had been avoiding going to the gym for quite some time back Uptime and his body was making it very clear to him that it didn't appreciate all this 'healthy exercise' --"Would it...gasp...be considered...gasp...a major incident if I were to shoot him, Leo?"

Leo grinned "It just might be considered a major doplomatic incident, Doc..."

"How about if I just wound him in the leg? A little fleshwound? It would hardly be noticeable. No? Crap..."

Despite the wounding to Doc's pride (and a promise to the powers that be that he'll "start going to the gym on a regular basis--as soon as one is built..."), the work was quite rewarding--they ended up with samples of over 50 different types of plants. The plants covered everything from berries to ferns to herbs to wild grapevines (Doc was amused by this discovery, as he had brought over 30 grapevine cuttings from Uptime and here was at least half that many just in this one spot). There was even a small but apparently edible wild onion that grew here. Okay--so the onions were barely bigger than his thumb but still....

Thanks to Ahmick's assitance, they even had the recipes for a dozen or so assorted conconctions--from more kinds of tea to some kind of poultrice that healed wapsu-bagwaa ('skin-burning').

Doc and Leo were so engrossed in writing their notes and in their discussions with each other and Ahmick that they almost didn't hear Norbert.

"Guys, I think we've found the best site in the area, lets pack up and head back a day early and use the extra time to find the best path to get the others here."

[Flocculencio]

Flocc made a quick check over his gear and that of the Ranger squad.

"Everyone ready?" he said, "Same pattern as before guys- two men on point, two to each side and two riding rearguard. Two hours mounted, two on foot, half of us mounted at all times."

He turned to Sion

"We had a clear run up but if we were spotted there might be a little reception party waiting for us somewhere along the way so if no one has any objections maybe we should alter our route a little, swing a mile or two closer to the coast."

[SionEwig]

Flocc made a quick check over his gear and that of the Ranger squad.

"Everyone ready?" he said, "Same pattern as before guys- two men on point, two to each side and two riding rearguard. Two hours mounted, two on foot, half of us mounted at all times."

He turned to Sion

"We had a clear run up but if we were spotted there might be a little reception party waiting for us somewhere along the way so if no one has any objections maybe we should alter our route a little, swing a mile or two closer to the coast."

"No real way that we can bring the convoys that close to the coast at this time. Those water crossings are going to be impossible without either ferrys or bridges. Phred and I were almost hugging the edge of the hills, but that was the only route I found for getting across these 3 rivers."

Sion unfurled the map and motioned Flocc and Norbert over to look.

"We do need to look along these stretches, there was only so much we were able to see on the first trip, I'm sure there will be other crossings, except over this one here, the San Antonio. That's where we got hit, but there was only about a hundred yard stretch that could be crossed with the wagons. But we should have the time since we're leaving early.

[jolo]

I printed a few maps of the proposed fishing areas for day 15. They'd be distributed to the Fort, the market, the fishing camp, the loggers, and so on.

After asking a few questions I found our money supply in a storage room in the Fort. Luckily, nothing appeared to be missing. I took out some money I thought would likely be needed tomorrow. I made sure that from now on the Fort would always be checked by at least one guard, besides the ones stationed on top of it.

I went to Glen Finney and we signed the money.

At the market was the box with all the money from the sales, built into the improvised market building. About 95% of what was given away last week was returned via the market. Together with the new money, there'd be about 120% of what was given last week, to award bonuses and have some reserves.

I visited all the other groups to make sure they'd be noting down who'd be eligible for bonuses. I limited it to 20% of each group for the best (who'd get 20% more), and another 40% for the good (who'd get 10% more). I found out that a few people bought stuff from the market even though they could have gotten it for free. We'd have to find a solution for that - like "group money" to buy "unusual" equipment, or personal stuff.

My wife was busy with gardening and chatting.

At the fishing camp, large deposits of useful clay were found. I told a few people who appeared not to know what to do to go there and build a pottery. To that effect I gave them a book which had a few chapters about the matter in it.

The first forms were returned to the market - with most spots empty, as the people said they couldn't find anyone else on the list. One more duty to be done by someone. I told the people from the market to do it, and to get one more person to help them - tomorrow in distributing the money, after that with the forms.

I used the round trip to inform everyone that day 15 would be used for fishing big time, and that people needed wagons, baskets, water storage, boots, medikits, and whatever more. I also told them where they could find the according map.

[Glen]

I didn't think to do stamps...why would I order it? Rather, I would think you'd suggest it, and I'd agree that that would make it easier...though it raises concerns about security. And how do we make the stamps, especially in a way that can't be easily duplicated? Quite frankly, jolo, the most secure part of our money supply is the fact that it was printed using uptimer materials and equipment, not a signature (though every little bit helps). Keep some reliable guards on that money, jolo...