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In the mind of the wood selector is making a log building.




I told you! Stupid flying chickens. Apparently my island is a bit of an autumn vacation home for these things or something. Perhaps they're attracted by my field and the numerous berry bushes around. In an effort to protect my crops, I end up leashing Skadi to a tree next to the farm plot. If they are after my peas, beans, and turnips, hopefully Skadi will scare 'em away.




Broadaxe firmly in hand, it is time to finally build my cabin. First though I make sure to deploy my nets, and I make sure to use the "Fisherman's Request for a Catch" ritual before setting tehm. Much like the Hunting Incantation, the Request for a Catch increases my fishing skill significantly for a short period (30 min or so for this one). I don't know if it is that big a help or if I got really lucky, but during construction my nets haul in a couple huge catches of fish. I mean, look at all that! In general, I seem to be having a lot more success laying my nets in the normal "river" tile near the rapids, rather than in the rapids themselves.







With a healthy reserve of food, I begin working on the cabin. Logs are rolled into position, hewed down with the broad axe and notches cut with a carving axe before being fit tightly into other logs. Tree trunks are smoothed into more logs or split into boards for the door, windows, and other uses. Day by day, tile by tile the cabin walls go up. While the log cabin is being built in wall tile segments in URW, this isn't how they would be built in real life, of course, it is just a simplification for the game. Note the date in the bottom of the screen shots. Between constructing segments and preparing new logs once my stockpile runs out, I average about 1 wall tile a day.

Bonus Content: Here is a video of a log cabin being built in modern Finland using traditional methods and no electric tools. The methods and cabin design these guys are using date to about the 1600s-1700s, thus it is a few hundred years more advanced than Miska's time (I doubt he has any nails for example). Still, it should still give you a good idea for the kind of work Miska is undoubtedly having to do! Plus, it is just fascinating to watch. The audio is in Finnish, so be sure to turn on the English subtitles. Also, notice that almost all their work is being done with a nice assortment of axes!








With the walls built, next comes installing the roof and floor. More tree trunks are split into boards and the floor and ceiling (which are built as a single tile) go in much quicker than the walls did. Oddly the graphic makes the floor look like a dirt floor and not a wooden one, I guess the boards are just for the roof? The cabin is basically finished as far as being a structure goes. In all, starting from the two previously standing wall segments, it took two and a half weeks of work to bring it this far. Not bad for just one man, though once again, big shout out to old Vetka for his help a while back cutting down all those trees.





The cabin interior still needs finishing. After celebrating by sleeping inside for the first time, I set out on a nice long walk around the island. Along the way I collect large stones and shoot dead a grouse that let me sneak way too close to it. Unfortunately even after collecting every stone on the island I could find, I don't have enough to build the fireplace. It takes 35 stones to do that. Oh well, time to go to the mainland.



Wandering down the lakeshore I pick up several stones before I stumble across a Hare. I get the brilliant idea to unleash Skadi and sic her on it. The two bolt off into the trees and I quickly realize several things; A) I'm weighed down with stones and can't run without quickly tiring, B) Hares are FAST, I'm not sure Skadi can't actually run it down, C) Hares are lightweight and don't leave tracks much, unlike big heavy stags, elk, and reindeer and I quickly run out of tracks to follow. I wait around for a few minutes, hoping Skadi will start barking in alarm to reveal her location but hear nothing. I come to the conclusion that the barking means her prey has been run down/exhausted and worry that if she loses her target she doesn't bark.



I try using the shout command to call out to her, "Come, Skadi, Come!", but receive no response for the longest time. I continue wandering around for some time, grabbing stones when I can and calling out for Skadi. Eventually she shows up again and I thankfully leash her. Sure, I can always get another dog, but I'd feel awful if I'd lost Skadi like this.





A Hare isn't the only thing we run into. After collecting the stones I need, I dump them back in the punt and Skadi and I go looking for big game to hunt. Eventually I see a blue-cloaked human figure in the distance. Approaching them, I find its not just one person, but a large group. With strange names, funny accents, unusual manner of dress, and many carrying gleaming swords and mail armor that even a master inehmo blacksmith would struggle to produce, these men are clearly foreigners, come seeking valuable furs to bring back to their homelands. Sadly I didn't bring any with me, but the couple of them I checked didn't have anything interesting besides a few swords, maces, and other weapons.

Leaving them behind I encounter a bear near the coast. A bear would be a fine prize, if a dangerous one. However not wanting to step onto its tile and begin the encounter at close range, I try to sneak in from a neighboring tile and I end up never even running into the massive creature. Oh well.





I return home and construct the fireplace. The next day I travel again to the mainland to hunt and this time luck is with us. Encountering an Elk, I fire my bow and score a nice hit to its hindleg, crippling the animal. I don't even have to sic Skadi on it, as with a bit of a run I'm able to catch up to the lamed Elk and finish it off with my spear. Hide and a plentiful amount of meat in hand, I return home. While a few dozen pounds of Elk meat roast, I grab one of the rougher furs I made during my overly-long broadaxe shopping trip and cut 5 pounds of it up into ten cords. Next up, I use these cords to hang raw cuts of elk meat up in front of the fireplace to smoke. Protip: You can smoke up to 19 cuts of meat with a single cord. If you do 20+ you have to use more, thus if you want to stretch a limited supply of cords, set them up in batches of 19.

It will take the 114 cuts of meat 16 days to finish smoking, and during that time I have to make sure the fireplace stays heated or the meats will make no progress. Thankfully this doesn't mean a fire has to be going in the fireplace 24/7. The advantage of fireplaces over building fires outside is that the charred remains will actually keep providing heat for many hours even after the actual fire goes out (and this counts for smoking meats). Also don't try to build a fire indoors without a fireplace, you'll just burn your cabin down. Anyways, smoked meats are an important part of my winter preparations as they'll last a lot longer than roasted meats will, especially when placed into the cellar.





With the meats smoking I grab more of the boards outside and construct some furniture, a table, a bench, and a sleeping bunk. I grab one of my nicer furs and throw it onto the sleeping bunk to use as a mattress/blanket. You actually do sleep more restfully when you sleep on a fur, or so I'm told. Waking up from my first night in my new bed, I get another message reminding me I'm at unity with the world. I've had a ritual I've been needing to learn for a while, so I finally decide to take care of that by heading up to the Kiesselais islands in the other great lake. Once there I find that not only are the Kiesselaiset now calling me "Frequent Guest" instead of Stranger or "Kaumolais traveller", but they actually missed me, asking where I'd been. Awww.

After staying with them overnight, I return home. There is only a bit over six weeks until winter and September is just days away. My cabin is built and meats are smoking, but there are still things I could and should do to prepare.