Chapter 7: 07.Making new living place
She already knew the sight but it amazed her so when she heard excited gasps from others she realized that she did the same.
There was a knee-deep river that came down from the top of the hill. On the flat ground from one side was a forest and from the other side was a meadow filled with various flowers and bushes. Looking downhill they could see the forest and other hills as well. Unfortunately, this place is many days' walk away from the seaside and many hills were between. But it was still an amazing sight.
She planned to make settlement from one side and fields from the other. But looking at the hard ground she realized that it won't be that easy.
''We could just cut the grasses and clear just enough for everyone to have a simple garden for now. rest we can clear next year. But first, let's prepare camp. Everyone get ready. Children, you are all free. You can go check the forest and the meadow. Take books with you. You might find some berries that we could eat. We would then transplant them later on. Check for healing plants as well. We better think about our health as well.'' Older children choose to go down to the lake and fish while smaller kids choose to take books and search trough the meadows for something useful.
Only grown-up stood in front of her and she counted 57 people including herself and sighed. ''This year we have enough to eat. But we do not know how will weather change. What season is it now? First, we will make camp and then in that corner... ''She pointed the place that was above the water level. '' ...we can make the wooden cottages. We will use the trees around but I plan to replant the trees as we might need them again in the future. I need ten people that will go to the forest and check if some trees are dry and mark them. We will use dry trees as our heating. I saw that the river has nice stones. we could use them to make fireplaces. So many things to consider... So, any volunteers?'' She saw half of the people raising their hands so she let them all go.
She gave them one more task to bring as much dry wood as they could. They will need fire anyway. After they were gone, the rest of them started preparing the tents. They put up all the tents they had. Luckily all of them took her recommendation to heart and bought old camping gears.
That was strange tho. She really didn't think they would listen to her words. But this way is good. One older man was smiling at her mother and she got sunned. Wait, mom, flirty? But that was fine. It's better than being alone, like herself.
One of the men tried to explain something he read in a book and everyone listened carefully.
''We have enough people. We can build houses by need. First for children, then for everyone else. We can use strong threes to cut their sides straight from three sides and the last side could be natural isolation. We can try first that way and later on we can make clay houses.''
One woman smiled. ''On our way here I saw clay near the lake. We can make bricks and build houses next year. Or with time. The wooden houses are not bad deals. What about making first a fireplace and then the house. Let's just try building one house and then more. Without trying, it will be quite hard.''
Everyone had ideas. And everyone brought some manuals and books. So what they did was to sit and compare the best way. When the group of people came back with a bunch of dry wood, they could hear clamor and laughter.
''No. First houses should be simple, why complicating it so much. By the way, you all do know there is no glass in this world. So do not think too much about making s many windows. You will just make your house lose precious heat.'' Sandra laughed when one man explained what kind of house he wanted.
''But sitting by the window and looking how the white snow falls...'' He tried to explain his dream but it was ruthlessly killed by her.
''You will wish that the whiteness passes as soon as possible. The winters last for months and all you can do is sit inside and wish not to kill you.'' She then saw the people coming back and smiled.
''Welcome back. Found many dead trees?'' She saw them bringing a bunch of dry branches and two men even pulled one long log behind them.
''Yes. But isn't it easier to just cut the woods here?'' One man showed nearby trees.
''We need these for house building. After that children will replant again the trees. I want you to clear as many dead trees as they are extremely dry. If there is storm and it hits dry trees we could be caught in mid of huge forest fire. To prevent that we need to clean as many dry trees as we can. That is one reason. The other is the fresh trees give bunch of smoke but no real heat. I read it here."
She opened one of the manuals about surviving that had almost all pages completely yellow and green as it was in some corner rotting.
They read it inside and were quite stunned. ''Oh, does that mean its better for us to use dead branches? What about houses. Fresh trees or dry ones?''
''Those pages are all unrecognizable I am not sure. But I think it's better than fresh ones. Next year we can start making clay bricks. Or this year we can try at least. But for this winter we need to be ready. I have no clue what date it is or time in the year. But, it is better if we hurry. We have enough food supplies for winter. We can plant some spring plants on time so we can have some fresh vegetables. And when we are done with making houses and clearing some garden space, I will give you bows and arrows and some of you can go hunt and another half can search for wild vegetables that we can dry. I will check with kids for wild herbs and healing plants. If nothing else we can drink some nice tea and enjoy wintertime like that. There is no more automated living space. You all came because you knew this.'' She could see the mood going down and smiled.
''I saw in one of your books something else that made me interested. If some of you like it, you can make tree houses or even a whole tree village. The trees in here seem to be strong. Making such a thing would be interesting for all of us, right?''
Everyone became excited again. ''What about storms?''
She thought about it and smiled. ''We can use the houses in this corner as winter houses and those on trees as summer houses. Like that we will have nice air in summer and no bug bites and in winter we could be safe and sound by earth and enjoy the heat of the fireplace.''
They all suddenly had many ideas that made her laugh. ''I know you all have amazing ideas. Let's do it this way. We finish as planned winter houses and straight after that summer houses. We can cut some trees over there in the other forest and leave our trees standing as our protection. Then we can bring trees and dry wood here and prepare everything at the same time. It will be hard, can you all do it?''
Everyone cheered in agreement and they separated jobs. Part of men and females went first to try to cut some trees while rest started clearing the place where they will build up the houses. Soon cheers could be heard from the hills and soon first logs could be seen as they were pulled back.
Strangely, everyone had understood the way the cottages were made, so soon a big one-room cottage was made. Then second then third. Not small ones... Big ones.
They had enough people and with all those ideas they just stated making houses like crazy.
To transfer logs they used smaller logs that they put on their path and rolled over it.
Of course, they saw it from the books about old Egyptian people. So dozen people cut trees, dozen people clean the trees from branches and cut them in a sizable manner and rest of people ( including Sandra) brought the log after log near the place. After they saw a mountain of the logs they started making houses by the manuals.
Of course, there would be arguments, broken fingers, cuts and loud laughter after all. By evening all the children came back and explained what they found.
''Miss, we found wild potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, strawberries and mushrooms, so many of them.'' The children that went to the forest explained.
She sighed. Her memory was so bad that she forgot their names as soon as they got out of her eyes. She could remember unrelated things, but names...
But she had time. These people and children will stay around here for a long time. She will learn their names after living with them for a while, right?
''Good job. If there's a lot of potatoes, we will harvest it when the leaves start to whiter. Tomorrow go and mark places where you found potatoes. Next year we can plant it. Same with everything else. By the way. You can gather fruits and bring them here. We can eat some and dry some for wintertime. Just enjoy. This year you can play as much as you want. With the caution of course. About mushrooms. If you are sure that they are edible bring them. If you are not completely sure, don't pick them up. With time we will learn about them as well.''
They should just enjoy a nice time while they can.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ZeljkaZZ
ZeljkaZZ I am trying alway to write a few chapters whenever I can. I hope you won't mind if I just have no idea how to continue :) Just gathering new information.
Of curse this sis just some imagination. Not real-life possibility. If you want someone to explain to you how to make things...Google it. I will as well.
Wait, should I post links here?
If you like the book so far you can support me here:
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Thank you for reading so far :)
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