Two and a half months passed in a blink of an eye once again. There were plenty of changes during that time frame. The most important change was that they were almost done with the house itself. At least done with producing a place to sleep inside a building itself and not in a tent, not that that was happening all that often anymore. By this time summer was in full swing and it was actually getting fairly close to harvest time. They left the tent out so that on windy, or stormy nights they had a calmish place to sleep. But for the most part they slept at the top of their hill curled up together under some blankets, under the night sky.
It was during those 2 and a half months that Bjorn got to see something for the first time during his entire 3 and a half years in the Eld. That was a night sky without a celestial body in sight. On the darkest night since he came to this land he finally got a clear look at the thousands of stars that twinkled above his head. Meira commented on how it was a rarity, but that was all that was said as they lay there staring up in wonder.
From where they lay what was above them looked like something captured by the Hubble telescope. There were hundreds of thousands of stars that were visible to the naked eye. There were streaks of white that ran across the sky, similar to how you could see the milky way from earth. But the thing that drew his eye was a nebula. It was orange, green, and blue, with the different colors streaking around each other forming a spiral pattern in the night sky. The colors all converged with a single black point in the center. As if a black hole had come in contact with the nebula and was eating it slowly. That night he didn't get much sleep as his gaze was transfixed on what was normally hidden by the moons.
By the end of the two months they had made massive progress on the house itself. Bjorn did most if not all of the stone work, while Meira worked with the wood. Bjorn had made a total of 4 chimneys while Meira had the framework of the house built and in place. She apparently had learned considerably more about good construction from their first attempt than he did. Because when he would give a suggestion she would tell him how it wouldn’t work, or a different way that would work better. After they talked it through he would realize that Meira was right and they would go with her way.
The framework of the house was slightly different from the framework of the storage shed. Bjorn had made holes in the stone bricks that made up the basement so that the wood of the frame could be held in place by its weight and the holes in the bricks. Bjorn thought that was a terrible idea, due to the fact that any water that did get in would pool up and start to rot the beams away. Meira had found a solution to that problem. One of their neighbors actually kept bees, and he had plenty of excess wax that he would sell them for a small cost. They would then use the wax to seal up the small gaps between the support beams and the brick.
On the main floor of the house there were the three rooms that could be used as bedrooms or whatever else they needed to use it for. Those three rooms connected to a much larger room. That would be where they would welcome guests, or lounge. It also would double as their dining area. This area was where the stairs up from the basement would lead to. Meira also had the idea to build a second floor on the main large room. So the plan was to build a set of stairs that led up in the back corner of the house right next to the stairs to the basement. In the space where the two stairs conjoined they planned on building the kitchen, but that would probably be a project for next winter, or even next summer.
With the main part of the house having a second floor they had to change up the way the roof worked. Even though everything was still open to the night sky, and honestly the elements because not much of the house was framed in, they had already started on making the roof for the room part. This was because with their smallish kiln for firing the clay they had to slowly cook the roof tiles a few at a time.
Making the clay tiles took a lot longer and was a much more involved process than Bjorn thought it was going to be. The first thing that they apparently had to do if they wanted the clay to produce anything strong was prepare the clay. This required them to mix other materials in with the clay, some things such as straw, and a white powdery substance that Bjorn couldn’t ever pronounce correctly. They spent an entire day kneading it into the clay, after that they had to let it sit for a few days to let the materials set into the clay.
Once those few days passed then they needed to form the clay and let it dry. At first Meira wanted to make squares with a knob so they could be stacked upon one another. Bjorn managed to convince her that there was a better way. They ended up making each tile 6 inches across, and a foot and a half long. They were shaped into half circles and then let out to dry for several days. This was to make it so that they would hopefully keep their shape and help draw excess moisture out of the mixture.
The next step was to fire the tiles. That was the slowest part of the entire process, as they could only fire a few at a time. The unique way that they made the tiles made it so that they could stack them very tightly without having them touch inside the kiln, and they could get more in the kiln than they would have if they had made them squares. They then had to fire the clay tiles for roughly 7 hours each set. They could fire them for longer, but it ultimately wouldn’t do too much for the durability of the clay tiles.
They were able to make them in batches of 20. They were also warned by the lady who made them their kiln that they should let the tiles sit for at least 18 hours after they put out the fire before they tried to remove them from the kiln. The entire thing added up to them only really being able to make 20 tiles per day.
Once they started playing the tiles on the roof was when Meira’s skepticism faded away. When she saw how easily the tiles fit within each other she was sold. They ran two lines of tiles all along the wooden support structures for the roof, both facing upwards. As they put the tiles in place they secured them with nails, and then overlapped the next tile over the area where the nail hole was. For extra security they mixed a different type of mortar that they also learned from the kiln lady. This mortar went in between the tiles to provide a better bond and make it even more waterproof. Then to finish off the section they applied a generous amount of mortar to the next set and placed them 180 so that they filled in the gap that they left between the previous two lines.
The end product was both functional and aesthetically pleasing. So to further add onto their daily chores they worked tile making into it. The entire process didn’t take overly long, they would make a large batch of clay, roughly 5 days worth at a time, and leave it so that it could cure. Every morning right after Bjorn cast his two spells he would go and start work on the clay tiles. He took the 20 tiles that they had fired the day before out, then replace them with 20 that they prepared 2 days prior and place them in the kiln. Then he would first build the fire and let it build up to a good steady fire. As that was happening he would shape 20 more clay tiles and leave them to sit. After that he only had to go back every once every hour to check on the fire and make sure that it didn’t go out.
With it being midsummer it was rare for them to get any real rain. This made it so that they were actually most of the way finished with the roof that they were going to use for their room by the time the next rainstorm hit. To no one’s surprise the clay tiles worked exactly how they expected them to. Happy with the end product, Bjorn teased Meira for not believing him with how it would work. In a rare moment for most men in a serious relationship, she apologized.
For the walls they changed up how they built the walls. Instead of just building the posts for the support structure on the corners like they did for the storage shed, they built 4 by 4 studs every 2 feet so that they had more to secure the planks to. They decided to do basically the same thing as they had previously for the siding itself. Their several support beams came in handy when they decided to frame in the windows.
For many people in the Eld the concept of glass in their windows was a foreign concept. Apparently they hadn't mastered how to make glass yet, so large panes of glass were both expensive and brittle. That is the reason why out of the 9 windows they planned on making in the house they only had plans to put glass in 3 of them. One nice thing about that was that they decided to put a light blue and a light red glass pane In the main house itself.
They got the measurements for the glass and sent it into the glass maker so that she could Make the glass to specifications. When they went to pick up the glass there was a nice almost cyan blue colored glass, and an almost pink colored glass. The last one was clear, the reasoning behind that was so they could put the last pane into the window facing west. So they always had a fantastic view of the sunsset.
When they went to install the windows it was surprisingly easy. They made two different thin strips of wood that they nailed in place around the frame, then they slid the glass into place. To finish it out they applied the other thin strip to the other side of the glass. The end product held the glass firmly in place, the only down side was there was no possible way to open those windows. Which they were fine with.
The two windows on the front of the house were the colored glass, with the window facing west was clear. As for the other windows they built thick shutters that they could latch closed from the inside helping keep heat in and cold out. As well as making it easy to open and close the windows. They built the shutters out of thick sturdy wood, there were two main reasons for that. 1 was to decrease the likelihood that they would break from extreme weather. The other reason was for added security. Even though they no longer traveled around and adventures they still didn’t trust people fully, but to them people were less of a worry. Monsters were what they were mostly worried about, even though it was a safeish area, that didn’t mean that there weren't monsters that weren't dangerous.
For the siding they made planks roughly the same size as that of the storage shed, only this time they were just a little bit wider. Making it so in total it took less work to finish siding the outside of the house. After the siding was in they covered the wood in a different mix of the clay that they found. This mix when dried turned into a more white color. Bjorn was pleasantly surprised at how good the color mixed with the dull red color the roof tiles made. The main purpose of the clay outer layer over the siding was to make the walls waterproof. The color was just an added bonus.
Even though they worked on the house each day it wasn’t the only thing that they did. They each had different chores to complete. For Meira it was weeding and gardening the herb garden. Bjorn did the same with the field of crops, he kept an eye on their crops and made sure that there weren’t any invasive plants. He also kept an eye on the plants themselves to make sure that they weren't being eaten by bugs, or other larger animals.
Larger animals eating his crops was actually one of the things that helped Bjorn cope with his desire to no longer take lives. One day when he went down to check on the crops he saw a baddit that was decimating their carrots, almost a quarter of their crops had been systematically pulled out of the ground and only partially eaten.
Understandably he was furious at the creature and even without thinking ran back to the storage shed and pulled his bow down from where it sat. He hadn’t kept any weapon on his person up until this point. He made his way back out to their fields and took aim at the creature, pulled back, and shot. Even though it was almost a year since he had fired his bow his skills had not atrophied at all. The arrow flew true and skewered the baddit, killing it instantly.
For the first time since he had killed the mauler his body didn’t have a visceral reaction to killing a creature. Instead he felt a sense of calm and vindication come over his body. Although he didn’t know it at the time, it was the first baby step towards healing. When Meira came over and saw Bjorn pulling the arrow from the baddit’s skull and walked over and wrapped him in her arms.
“I know that was tough.” She said in a solemn voice.
“Like hell it was. I think that was the easiest thing I have done since I came to the Eld. Look at what that bastard did to our carrots! If I was a necromancer I would bring it back to life just so I could have the satisfaction of killing it again. I mean look at our carrots. The cretan didn’t even have the decency to eat a whole carrot and then move on. They are underripe, and won’t grow if we replant them. The carrots are now completely useless, I guess we could turn them into compost.” Bjorn ranted, completely skipping over the fact that he killed something.
Meira just smiled to herself, she saw the change he was starting to show. She had seen him go from someone who had no qualms doing what was needed to protect those he cared about to a gentle, almost docile person. It didn’t bother her, as she still loved him, but a docile person in the Eld was someone who would end up killed. She had resigned herself to being the one who had to take care of the two of them. It was nice to see him start to heal, and fend for himself once again. It took a stress off of her shoulders that she hadn’t realized she had been carrying.
That night they roasted up the baddit that Bjorn had killed and he tore into its flesh with abandon, way over eating. He didn’t care, he ate every scrap of meat off of that creature's body. It honestly didn’t taste that good, but to Bjorn it was the sweetest meat he had ever eaten. It was flavored by justice. As for Meira she just sat there and watched him go, smiling to herself watching that slight blood thirsty part of Bjorn start to rear its head again.
Besides Bjorn starting to regain his ability to take a life, Meira made amazing progress with the herb garden. The garden itself was nestled between the river and the cliff faces making it easy to contain. Once they built a basic fence they didn’t have to worry all that much about pests getting in and eating the herbs as they grew. There were currently 7 sections to the herb garden. There were 6 raised beds and 1 large area. In each of the raised beds they filled them with different types of soil to give them a wider range of plants to grow. The large area was filled with herbs that were native to this area.
On the far side leading to the cave that they could potentially use as a refrigerator they built another fence to further keep out pests, and protect their herbs. More than that though, it was very picturesque and made the garden feel quaint.
Meira was also the one who did most of the work for the clay tiles. She took over that task from Bjorn as they decided that they really wanted a kitchen. So a lot of Bjorn’s time and tasks were dedicated to gathering stone, shaping stone, and placing stone. It was almost every other day that he would have to make a trip out to their meadow full of stone so he could collect some to bring back and then begin shaping it. He often would have to take several trips back and forth to collect the stone that they needed.
The work he was doing took considerably more time to do, but the end product would hopefully last longer. The hope was that it also would provide better protection against loss of heat while cooking, provide better insulation against potential fires, and finally make the counters and what not inside last longer.
They built the walls in the kitchen out of smaller, thinner stone blocks. Making it easier to produce the stone that they needed to build the kitchen. But at the same time he couldn’t just mass produce the same sized blocks of stone like he had done for the basement and for the chimneys. He actually had to spend some time cutting stones of different sizes to fit the two windows, the two doorways into the house, and finally a doorway out of the kitchen out onto the hilltop.
The easiest part of the entire stone cutting process was making the stairs down from the house’s main floor to the floor of the kitchen. The step down was actually about 2 feet, as they had made the basement just barely above the ground level, then they built another stone layer for the main floor to be set into. He also had to make a second set of steps that lead into the building itself. He had been just a little bit lazy and hadn’t even considered working on the stairs that would lead up into the house from the basement.
By the time he had a rough layout of the kitchen’s exterior, Meira had finished siding the outside of their room, as well as finishing the clay tile roof. That amount of progress was already impressive as she was the one mainly working on the wooden part of the house for the time being. As impressive as their room was, it wasn't quite complete yet. Only two sides of the walls that made up the room were completely sided. At least partially sided. The exterior siding was completely in place, but not the interior layer.
They decided that it would be in their best interest to build a double layer to the walls of the house. Again for two real reasons, the first one was the added protection that a second layer of wood would provide, even if that was less of a concern. The second reason was considerably more practical. They planned to fill the gap between the walls with straw to provide a layer of insulation. Making the walls to the house basically at least 6 inches thick, including the two layers of wood. That addition was one suggested by Bjorn, trying to emulate some sort of insulation, even if the materials used would be less than ideal.
This was a task that they figured they could work on during the winter. For the time being getting the siding in place on the house itself was the more important task at hand. But hopefully with their crops this year they could cut the wheat down and use its stalks for the straw to fill the gaps, but they didn’t have any yet. They could always ask their neighbors, but they wanted to see how far their own straw could go before doing something else.
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Another little side project that Bjorn worked on was solidifying the pathways. Such as the stairs leading down from the hilltop down to the meadow floor. As well as building paths between the stairs and their front door, from the bottom of the stairs to the storage shed. From the storage shed to the herb garden. And finally from the herb garden to the bridge crossing their small river.
With how much stuff there was to do to properly make their farm Bjorn felt like he had ADHD. He never stayed working on a particular task for more than a day. It was probably inefficient, but it was how he stayed sane. As it turned out, spending every single day, day in and day out, doing the same repetitive task, was not good for mental health. He took that to heart and constantly bounced between projects, which so did Meira. Although each task was as important as the rest of the tasks they didn’t care. They did what they wanted to each day, and gave each project their all. This way they were never productive, just that their productivity was sporadic.
The last task that Bjorn spent most of his time working on was actually clearing space for more fields. They learned that they had greatly underestimated how much land they could work this first year. It wasn’t terrible as they had other projects to fill their time. But if they were going to be full time farmers then they would need to increase production. The crops that they had now would most likely provide enough food to last them through the middle of the next year, that is accounting for their need to replant for another harvest. A year was a long time, and if they wanted to make a profit then they would need to obviously further increase productivity.
Which is why Bjorn spent several days in the 2 and a half months leading to mid summer clearing more space of plants, weeds, rocks, as well as flattening it out slightly. The unsung hero of their construction projects was both Bjorn’s bag of holding as well as Meira’s portable pocket. They would be considerably slower if not for the spacial folding abilities of the bags. He never regretted how much he had to spend to acquire the item. If he was to do it all again he would happily spend the money for the portable pocket again.
As they worked they got side tracked here and there by a pair of certain children. They would come by periodically and harass the two mages. Caiden would spend his time watching Bjorn and helping in with whatever task he needed. Adriana was more helpful, as Caiden only ever really gave a token effort to whatever he was doing with Bjorn. Adriana on the other hand gave Meira her full help as the two of them worked and talked together. They were at the farm so often that it eventually became an annoyance for Aiden. That was until harvest time came around.
When it came to harvest, oftentimes neighbors would come together and help each other pull the crops in. When it was time for harvest Bjorn and Meira put a stop to all of the various tasks they were working on and worked together to harvest their crops. Almost everything was ready at the same time, the only thing that wasn’t was the corn. Bjorn learned that most of the skill growth for being a farmer came from harvesting the crops.
Due to Bjorn’s light rain spell their crops were larger and there were more of them than there would have been normally. This led to their crops doing surprisingly well. It took several days but they were able to pull in all the crops except for the corn. Seeing how they didn’t really have a good place to store the food for the time being they decided to use the basement for now. It was a good utilitarian use for the basement as for now it had remained empty since they built it.
After they finished harvesting they moved on to Aiden and helped him, Caiden, and Adriana pull in their crops. They spent a few days helping them, Aiden has mostly grown wheat and barley. After some haggling they were able to convince him to let them have his straw for a few copper coins. He normally didn’t have a use for it, so it was just him being stingy. Not that Bjorn and Meira minded.
After they finished the 5 moved on to help the half-elf neighbor with their crops, and then so on and so forth. Over the span of 2 weeks they managed to harvest everything along the path between Bjorn and Meira’s and Leefside. As they went people would split off to go help other neighbors in the surrounding countryside. Once they were finished they made their way back to their farm and began work again.
At first he thought that most of the skill growth for farmers came from harvesting crops. He realized after the 3rd farm that was wrong. Where the skill growth came from was from maturing your own crops and harvesting those. He had barely gained any skill growth from harvesting others crops, while the lion share of his progress came from his own crops.
After they were done with harvest they fell into almost the same routine. Going back to working on the house, now that the winter was starting to rear its ugly head again Bjorn abandoned the majority of his other projects and focused on helping Meira more. Now that they had the hang of making clay tiles they had the lady come back out and build them two more rudimentary kilns of roughly the same size. Effectively tripling their output.
It then became a race against time to finish with walls and the roof before the snow set in once again. As they worked they wished that they had put more focus on the house itself, but didn’t let it bother them too much. After they finished the entire north side of the building they began making their way down the west side and then moving on to the south side.
They moved faster as 1 of them was always focused on producing planks. The other was focused on putting them in place, and collecting and preparing more logs for planks. Their efficiency was honestly quite impressive as they churned planks out by the dozens per day. This let them make impressive progress on the siding each day. Within two weeks they had finished with the west side of the building and were halfway down the south side. That area had been the big push zone as they wanted to protect the way down into the basement from water; it wouldn’t do to let their crops get wet and then rot due to the moisture.
There was a brief break at the end of the two weeks as Leefside threw a harvest festival. It was something that they did every year. After everyone was done bringing in the crops they scheduled the harvest festival exactly 1 week after the last person was done. This was a welcome break.
Those in town had spent the week planning and preparing for the festival. Normally Bjorn and Meira would have wanted to help, but their minds were elsewhere and focused on trying to finish the house before the winter set in. They debated briefly about skipping the festival but decided against it, they decided that a break would be a nice change of pace.
On the morning of the festival they spent it making their tiles and making sure that another batch was cooking. After that they made their way into town, collecting people as they went. By the time they made it to Leefside they were surrounded by a group of their neighbors.
It was nearing noon when they made the last little turn and Leefside came into view. The field in which they had the snowball fight had been transformed. It was where the town had large gatherings while the weather was still nice. Tables surrounded with benches and chairs were set out in the clearing itself. Off to one side a large line of tables were set up with no seats around them. Banners and flags were dotted around the clearing, there was even another area off to the side where it was lined with seats. In the middle of it all a 6 foot tall bundle of wheat had been constructed out of wood. Around the bundle there was an 8 foot radius of clear space.
With it being early, before noon, they got roped into helping set up. Although that wasn’t an entirely true statement. When they went to help they got delegated to the task of helping keep the kids corralled away from the space where the festival was going to take place. Their show during the snowball fight made them quite popular with the kids, and every time they made their way into town that popularity only seemed to grow.
When they made their way into another clearing where the kids were being kept the group of 30ish kids stopped playing and ran over to the newcomers. An incessant babble escaped from the children as a portion of the kids began speaking all at once. Instead of answering any one in particular they let themselves be led into the clearing where they joined the kids in their games.
A few hours after noon a parent came over and got all of the kids and began leading them back to the clearing where the festival was to take place. The other 4 adults, Meira, and Bjorn followed after the group corralling the kids even as they walked through the trees heading to the harvest festival.
When they came upon the clearing this time not much had ultimately changed decoration wise. Tables were already starting to fill up with people and cheery voices began to fill the space of the meadow. The tables that were set off to the side were now laden with food and a line had started to form as people began getting ready to eat. As they entered the clearing the kids began running every which way trying to find their parents. With the kids now dispersed they no longer had a need to keep watch over them.
So instead of finding a place to sit they made their way over to the tables laden with food and joined the line. It wasn’t overly long before they had their food and at the end of the line. There sat 12 large barrels on the ground, with a 13th one set up on top of the stack on its side. Near the bottom of the barrel there was a spigot that was driven into the wood. Next to the stack of barrels sat a table full of mugs. They helped themselves to two mugs and then filled them with a pale pink liquid.
They made their way over to an open space at a table and sat down to eat and drink. At first Bjorn took a few tentative sips from his mug, it was a strawberry mead. Happy with the contents he began eating and drinking to his hearts galore. It wasn’t long before they were joined by neighbors, children, and friends in town that they had made.
Long hours were spent in pleasant conversation. By the time that dusk was starting to fall the tables were filled with villagers talking to each other. Loud joyful conversations could be heard throughout the entire clearing. It was very common for laughter to be heard sounding through the clearing. Over the long hours the people they were talking to rotated in and out. With them being the ones staying in place everyone else came to them.
As evening approached, lanterns were brought out and hung by the poles and in the trees surrounding their celebration. Some were filled with candles, others with oil, but the most unique ones were filled with a stone that emitted a constant bright white light. After some inquiring he found out that it was what was known as a light stone. Which was much like the other elemental stone that Bjorn had gained when Meira, Alaric, and he had first escaped the gnolls encampment and entered the above ground again.
As the light began to fade a quartet of villagers brought out musical instruments and began to play. Music began to sound through the space making the joyous mood and atmosphere even more so. As the night moved on more and more of the casks of meads were drank and they would open another one. They had all sorts of flavors, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, and something called a gorseberry. Of course they weren’t all meads, there were a few kegs of beer and even a single keg of cider.
Of course as the alcohol began to flow faster and faster the townspeople became looser and looser. Soon pockets of villagers were singing along with the music that was being played. And eventually someone finally gained the courage to even dance. That opened the floodgates and soon the clearing that had chairs surrounding it was filled with people twirling around as they danced along to the music.
The last major thing that they had to do was burn the wood shaped like wheat. That didn’t start until the suns had fully set. Hunter had even come over to Meira and asked her if she wanted to start the fire with her magic. She very politely and wisely declined. The only spell that she knew that could potentially work with starting the fire was weak lightning bolt. She wasn’t sure, but she figured that the destructive nature of the bolt would destroy the sculpture instead of lighting it on fire.
In short order they managed to start the fire and people began to crowd around it as the night air was starting to get a bit chilly. As they sat there side by side watching the musicians work their magic he could see that Meira wanted to dance. Instead of doing the typical guy thing and pretending that he don’t want to dance with his significant other, he asked her to dance.
She readily agreed and the pair made their way out onto the dancefloor and began to dance, not to the beat of the music. They began dancing to the beat of their own drums. Meira wrapped her hands around the back of Bjorn’s neck. He pulled her in close and the two of them kind of danced. It was more akin to how middle schoolers danced to slow songs. The main difference here was both the music and the fact that they were superhuman beings by earth's standards.
The two of them slowly circled the dancefloor with her head resting on his chest. What surprised him was the fact that this was actually the first time they had danced in all of the time they spent together. It didn’t matter to them, it was the first dance they had together and was perfect. They just sort of slowly glided around the dancefloor.
The night continued much as they expected it to go. Everyone was having a great time, and slowly getting drunker. Bjorn and Meira both danced with a wide assortment of villagers and children. They continued long into the night. The festival was supposed to last until the fire went out. It continued long after the fire burnt down to a bed of coals.
Instead of stumbling their way home that night they got a place to sleep in the community center. Luckily for them everyone else stayed with others so they had the place to themselves that night. That night they got a little adventurous and a little frisky. That night was the first time and definitely not the last time that he was glad that the Eld didn’t have security cameras.
The morning after the festival Bjorn and Meira made a hasty retreat back to their unfinished house, and got back to work. It then became a race against time. Trying to finish first the siding and then the roof by the time the snow set in. The reason for the order was because the siding was definitely going to get finished first, as they were only limited by their ability to make planks, and not reliant on the space in their kilns.
As they raced against the clock the mornings grew colder, and the days got shorter. It was starting to look bleak, but then they finished the siding. That included all of the sides to the first floor and the entire second floor. Which was a major weight off their shoulders. They now had a mostly enclosed house.
The roof on the other hand was were they failed. They only needed probably 2 days worth of tiles to complete the roof on the first floor. They decided to finish the roof on the second floor first and then do the first floor. It was on the north west corner of the house, one of the area’s for the three rooms. That was the last part of the roof that needed to be finished. There was a 6 foot wide section of roof left over where they could see the sky when the first snow of the year hit.
Luckily for them, this year was not the same as it had been the year before. Instead of a massive snowstorm that dumped 3 feet of snow all at once the first snow of the year was barely a quarter inch. That small grace gave them the time that they needed to complete the roof and they finally had a fully enclosed house.
Although for the time being that didn’t really mean much. Even if the shell of the house was complete there was a lot of interior work that needed to be done to finish the house itself. For example they skipped building the dividing walls in between the rooms, meaning they had a very open floor plan. They also wanted to do Bjorn’s idea of double layering the walls, as right now all that separated them from the winter elements was 2 inches of wood. Which was better than their accommodations the winter before, but still, not ideal.
What was actually very surprising was how well that 2 inches of wood was able to retain heat. The thickness of the wood played a large role in the houses ability to retain heat. The other part of that equation was the layer of mud/clay that they put on the exterior of the house. This did a fantastic job at preventing wind and keeping whatever heat they produced in the house, inside the house.
Heating the house wasn’t that big of an issue either, as they had a total of 4 fireplaces built into the house that they could use to heat the house. The main issue with that though was that they had 4 fireplaces built into the house. This meant that there were a total of 3 places for the heat to escape while one fire was going. That wasn’t an issue that Bjorn thought about while he had been busy building the fireplaces.
To solve that issue they talked and devised a way for metal grates to be installed in the fireplaces that they could close off to the elements while the fireplace was not in use. So Meira made her way into town to talk to Chrome about making those grates. Meanwhile Bjorn began on their next project, which was to build the second layer to their walls and install their terrible insulation.
Over the next few days they would make trips back and forth from Aiden’s farm to collect the straw from his wheat. They at first wanted to grab the barley straw as well, but after they started to take it they changed their minds. They very quickly learned how barley dust got everywhere and made you insanely itchy. After they got all of the straw, which they stored in the basement for the time being, they got to work in earnest, reinforcing their walls.
Somewhere in the middle of collecting straw the winter came in full swing. This made their woodworking slow down considerably. At first they were going to move everything inside and begin working inside the house. That idea was quickly abandoned. They decided that currently the house was fairly clean, they wanted to keep it that way, no need to make more sawdust to go with the dust that already existed from making the planks.
Instead of moving inside they decided to take a page out of Chrome's book and built themselves a sheltered area where they could work on their wood out of the elements. All of the work that they did outside for the first few weeks of winter was to cut support beams, and plant them in the ground. Then build the rest of the frame. And then finally finish off with planks that they put on for the roof, as well as the exact same siding pattern that they had used for the other 2 buildings. Hey if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
They built their carpenter’s hut up against the hill. They built it so that it was right next to the storage shed, only this time it was rotated roughly 45 degrees. Making it so that each corner pointed to an intercardinal direction. They only built walls on the southeast side and the southwest side. As those were the two main directions that snowfall came to their meadow. Lastly they leveled out the ground before the frost had time to truly set into the dirt and make it nearly impossible to move.
Happy with the shelter they built, production of wooden planks began again in earnest and soon they were once again chipping away at building the insulation for the house itself. They ultimately decided to start work on the east side of the house first, as it was one of the sides that they could finish fast, as well as one of the major sides that wind came from.
They began cutting wooden planks down to size and nailing them in place. With this project they decided kind of arbitrarily to make the planks for the interior of the house 5 inches tall and the same 2 inches thick. They put 4 of them in place and then began to fill the space between the two wooden walls with straw. They put in enough straw so that the space was full, but not compacted in. Seeing how the straw was Bjorn’s idea, Meira just went along with it. His reasoning for not packing it in was that he once watched a tik tok that said that compacting insulation reduced its r value.
It was one day while they were working on store straw in the walls of the house when Meira came back in from the bathroom. Bjorn paid it no mind, that was until she drew close to him and then stopped, she stood there quietly. Her actions were highly unusual so Bjorn stopped what he was doing and looked up.
Her face was a mix of anxiety, excitement, fear, and joy. It was weird that somehow her expression expressed all of that but somehow he got it all. “What?” He asked her putting the handful of straw that he had in his hands between the walls. He turned around to face her.
Meira took in a slow calculated breath, held it for a few seconds and then slowly let it out. As if she was trying to steady herself for this conversation. She drew in one more and then spoke a sentence that would change his life forever. “Honey, I’m pregnant.”
