Chapter 10: Act 1: Chapter 6

Second day, Sixth Moon, 229 AC

I slowly woke and felt my wife laying beside me. It had been nearly a year since we were married, and it was a very welcome feeling. She looked peaceful sleeping amidst the furs and pillows. It was a weird sensation sleeping in furs, pretty comfortable too, though not as much as my old bed in America. Not wanting to disturb her I gently eased my way out of bed and went to start breakfast.

As I was getting the fire going, Nyra woke up and kissed me good morning. She dressed quickly and went to attend to the birds and get some eggs for breakfast. I started dicing potatoes to fry since we still had bread leftover. By the time Nyra was back, the potatoes were almost done, and I began cooking the eggs.

Nyra began laying out my clothes for me while I cooked and said, "It's not too cold today. Will you finish with the fence today?"

Over the past few weeks I had started to stake out and build the fence for my new pasturage. I replied, "Depends on the ground I guess. I still need to get a few posts in but digging through frozen ground takes forever."

When we sat down to eat I mentioned, "I also want to go visit some of the nearby farms today. I talked with them before our wedding about expanding their farms and using some of my machines. I wanted to see if they were still interested."

She nodded, "How much will you charge them?"

"Not sure yet. I was thinking five stones worth of wheat each harvest? With how much more they can expand their land, they can easily make that back."

She looked uncertain, "Five stones sounds like a lot, really depends on how much more they can harvest."

I replied, "Hmm, maybe I'll start off at five and let them talk me down for this summer. Increase it the summer after?"

She agreed it was a good idea and began to clean up the dishes. I went and got dressed and left the house to start my day. It was a warm one today, below freezing still, but warm none the less.

As I entered the barn I began to let the animals out to the pasture. Luckily there was only a light dusting of snow from last night, so nothing needed to be shoveled. Since there was only a thin layer of ice on the river today, getting water for the animals was easy.

After loading up the watering trenches, I went back to the barn and began cleaning it out. It took longer than I hoped and after a few hours, the barn was in better shape and I went back out to give the animals some more feed.

It was near midday when Nyra came out and gave me a sandwich, which we ate while sitting near the river. It was a beautiful day. The air was crisp and fresh, the snow on the other side of the river made everything bright, and there were only a few clouds in the sky. We enjoyed each other's company while we ate, but we didn't spend much time. We both still had many things to do today. As she went back into the house, I put on my snowshoes, and started to walk to the other farms.

As I walked through the trees, I made a realization. Something I clearly overlooked. Bark.

Nyra had asked me if I could teach her to read and write, but I hadn't had paper or parchment, so I had been at a loss. I had started to use ash to draw on to the table, but that wasn't permanent and wasted a lot of time. However, birch bark may be the answer I was looking for. Light enough to treat it like paper and it had good contrast between the bark and the ash.

Birch trees weren't overly numerous around the farm, but more than enough to teach Nyra with. Another thing to add to the list, but soon, I would actually have a list.

My first stop of the day was Ethan's farm, and his family greeted me and welcomed me into their home.

I began talking with Ethan to get a feel for what he was planning this summer. He responded, "Was hoping to expand the plot east a ways. O' course we also are working on Zane's farm. Making it to the west o' here. Got much o' the land cleared, so we'll need your machines for that too."

I accepted that, having expected it for quite a while. "Got any marriage plans yet for Zane and Koryn?"

Ethan grunted, "Aye, found a good girl for Zane from a farm up northwards. Knows her way 'round the farm she does. Perfect for a new farm. Comes with two sheep, and a pig. Real good price."

I was impressed, that was a good dowry especially around here. "And Koryn?"

"Not yet for Koryn. Got my eye on a merchant's daughter from out of the large village down south. Her father is offering a large bolt of good quality cloth and a bull. She doesn't know much 'bout farming, but she'll learn."

Wow, he's getting some really good offers! I'm a bit jealous actually; not that I wanted to marry someone other than Nyra of course. I replied, "Those are some really good offers."

"Aye, no marriages till after the first crop's planted, but we'll have Zane's first since it's been agreed. I've not accepted Koryn's offer yet, but in a moon or so when her father comes by I'll talk to him."

I was shocked, "A moon? He's going to brave the snows?"

Ethan looked at me weird, "Well, mayhaps a week or two. Haven't your crops started to seed yet?"

"No, I didn't notice. But I didn't take a real close look. Damn, this is a short winter!" I was pretty happy, my first winter would be a short one.

Ethan chuckled, "Don't look so happy there. Such a short winter doesn't hold anything good, mark my words."

Oh? "Bad summer you think?" I asked, a little confused by what he meant.

He shook his head, "Maybe, something bad'll happen. Nothing's free."

Damn, that's some doom and gloom right there. We continued to talk for a while and set a price of 3 stone for my equipment per harvest, before I moved on to the other farms.

The next three farms were all still interested in using my equipment and planned large expansions for their crops. After seeing the success at Ethan's and my own farms they decided to accept, and we set a price of 4 stone in wheat for the use of my equipment for the next summer per harvest.

The last farm I had some trouble at. It seemed Torrhen didn't really trust my crop rotation and wanted to stick with what he knew. He was mostly a bean and turnip farmer and alternated between the two and a fallow field. It wasn't the worst system I had seen, but it could be better. He raised a lot of cattle, and before I showed up was probably the wealthiest person in the area.

I knew he likely harbored some resentment for me, though he never said anything.

He wasn't interested in planting wheat, rye, barley or oats. Nor was he interested in expanding his farm, as in his mind it would just be more work for him and he doesn't have the time.

After failing to convince Torrhen I started to walk back to my farm. It was nearing dark, so I made my way quickly. I was disappointed to have not convinced him, but ultimately, I wasn't worried. Firstly, I wasn't sure if I would have enough time for everyone to use the same machines before everything went bad. With farming there were so many risks, and I wasn't sure enough of the technology I had at my disposal. With modern equipment and transportation, sharing a machine between four or five farms this size was nothing. Secondly, he would come around next summer once he saw everyone's food supply increase and his own trading power decrease as a result.

When I arrived home, dinner was almost already ready, so I quickly checked on my barley and saw that it had indeed began to seed. I would have to start planting my other winter crops soon, so hopefully the weather remained warmer to make it easier. By the time I finished, dinner was ready, and we began to eat. One thing about this new life, the food was almost always the same. Depending on the season, or more accurately the harvest date, their might be different types of food; but usually in winter it was the same thing every day. It was good that farming worked up such an appetite.

After dinner, we decided to take the night off and play a game of checkers while drinking some pine needle tea. It was a nice relaxing way to end the day, and while I planned to make a chess set eventually and maybe some wooden cards, for now we both enjoyed playing checkers.

We only played one game before going to bed; I needed to begin planting crops, so tomorrow was going to be a long day.