Day 772: Signs of old forest fires

Day 772:

I’m still working on clearing the sand from the lake so I can make some glass. On the way there, I’ve discovered the remnants of what must have been a forest fire.

The trees — if you can call them that — are mostly stumps, though a few still have branches. Some of the stumps are quite tall, but still not what one would call “trees”. And despite the obvious “burnt all my branches off” design of them, they don’t have scorch marks or anything else indicative of a fire.

But then again, when my bridges kept catching fire near the lava lake, they didn’t have scorch marks anywhere near there, either, even when the trees were on fire.

This place is so weird.

Anyway, no guilt for harvesting the mostly-dead trees, which means extra wood and a clearer path to the sand.

Day 771: Found a lake

Day 771:

I cleared enough brush to reach a lake, which is good! It has sand, which is better! It’s ridiculously close to the river, which is ridiculous because why isn’t it just attached to the river?

As I think I’ve mentioned before, there don’t seem to be microorganisms to break down carbon-based life here. So the lake hasn’t gone toxic bloom or any of that… but on the other hand, I can’t figure out how a world with no microorganisms functions. And a lake with no inlet or outlet makes me a little nervous.

Solution: at some point I’ll connect this lake with the river. (Seriously, they’re like fifteen yards apart.)

But not today, because there’s sand to harvest.

Day 770: Brick path

Day 770:

I was able to lay part of a brick path today, from the easternmost plains outpost to the edge of this section of map. But this is all land I cleared earlier this year, so it’s smooth and free of brush and brambles and cliffs and such.

The next part involved going into the mountains and laying brick path there, and I think that’s a distance away. First, because I really do need glass. Second, because I need to clear a path to the places where the sand bars are so I can collect the sand. And third, because there are mountains.

day 769: connected the buttons

Day 769:

The roads around the border of the new map are connected.

The buttons for my steal-my-minecarts-back project  are also connected.

I feel like I have some control over things again.

Next up: I want to build a brick road from my current outpost up the mountain to my mountain outpost. But that didn’t happen today because I’ve worked really hard lately and it was a good day to spend in the back fence making sure the animals were ok and the pumpkins were growing.

Day 768: duckens keep stealing my minecarts

Day 768:

Since I’ve got the borders mapped and know what I need to do to get the sand efficiently (take down a mountain), I’m falling back to a more western place to sleep. I should number them or something for posterity so these log entries make sense. (But not right now. That will require map drawing for the book here and this particular log is almost empty so there’s not enough space.)

I’ve been using the two small rail systems I set up to get from my home base to the easternmost parts of the complex. Problem is that, lacking any kind of switch or wiring, my “brakes” have mostly been ramming into a dirt pile at the end of the tracks.

And now the duckens like to jump into the mine carts while I’m not around and ride them back and forth, which as you can imagine means they’re never where I expect them to be.

I’ve been designing a button switch and a wire which I think will keep the rails unpowered (at least at the ends) so that I can count on my stuff being where i left it. Might try it out tomorrow.

Tonight I had a meal of lamb and fresh veggies, then took a hot bath, and I feel good. Now it’s time to sleep.