Chapter 183: Building Frenzy

Editor:nnpdad 20 Sept 2021

It was mid-August and autumn was just around the corner. Little tell-tale signs of the rapidly approaching change of the seasons were starting to show; our time-travelling corn and tomatoes were starting to ripen and the fruits we ate were different as summer waned. The good news was fresh sweet corn and potatoes, the bad news was we were running out of time to build winter shelters; we were going to end up with more Pawnee style lodge houses than I had originally intended.

The lodge houses made up for their lack of privacy with sturdiness and warmth that a quickly built log cabin would lack. The boatmen would have a couple of large lodges for this winter while we’d build smaller ones for the individual families. I also planned one for my little family compound to have someplace for us all to retreat to in the worst of the blizzards.

The newly recruited families each got a tent or a tipi depending on what was available. Those would easily keep them warm and sheltered into the middle of October. By mid-November however we needed everyone to have a solid structure as the storms would start. We also needed plenty of food and fuel put up, everyone was going to be busy.

After I cleaned up and got presentable, we went back out to do our civic duty. Mouse made a beeline for the kindergarten (children’s garden) while I mounted up to take my tour. A couple of the Council members were waiting for me but most of them were busy. It was still early enough in the work day that things could be done, so I started off on my inspection tour with Michelle, a few council members and Brin.

The day was growing short so we focused on the town and the landing for the afternoon, then I’d head to the crop fields, pastures and hay tomorrow morning. The main road was nice and clear, it was still just a one lane dirt path but it was clearly defined; that hadn’t changed too much since I left. The town itself had suddenly started to take shape. While the buildings were still crude structures; mostly skeletons in fact, you could see the shapes and placements of the permanent stuff coming slowly into focus.

It was amazing what that amount of manpower could do in a very short time. If we managed to get a saw mill and grist mill put together soon then we’d really be able to move things along. It was apparent that Holder had gotten a bit of mastery with the tractor and had been helping with the heaviest of the lifting. I was glad they were putting it to use because those hydraulic hoses and tires wouldn’t last forever and we needed to leverage it while we could. I was hoping we could cannibalize it at a certain point and get decades of use from the various components; until then we just had to baby that precious machine until it lifted its last load.