Day 174: Basement work

Day 174:

Spent the day as deep down in the bottom of a pit as I could be, tamping down the floor so that I could use it as a cut-through if I need to.

One of the things I’ve learned since I got here is that it’s always good to have more than one exit or path through a space. I’d much rather be up on the surface, normally, if I needed to run from one place to another, but if I can’t be, this isn’t a bad way to be.

Watercolor of a one-foot-by-one-foot board with a human-height stick coming out of it.
This is my tamping stick, for pushing the dirt down and making the floors easier to walk on

Day 173: Disappearing sheep

Day 173:

Went back out to where I found the sheep yesterday, but they were gone.

Guess I’ll have to wait on my hope for a wool sweater.

Spent the whole day out in the field hoping to see sheep, left disappointed.

Made some tasty mutton burgers though. On home-made bread!

Watercolor of a two-patty mutton burger.

Day 172: Sheep!

Day 172:

I’m still digging toward the big mountain. This morning I decided to take a little time to scout the ground level before going back underground. I came up over a hill and there was a sheep! I must not have startled it much because it looked at me, baaa’d once, then walked over to me.

I did startle the exploding giraffe-corgi behind the tree next to us. It blew sheep, sheep guts, and sheep fleece all over me.

Well, these clothes are shot.

The sheep had enough skin that I might be able to tan it for some new pants though, so once I dragged the sheep underground into my cavern I started skinning it. It’s a big job to skin a sheep when one doesn’t have proper tools, and I don’t consider my home-made sword to be the proper tools. I have a few knives, but I think I might need to design a proper knife for the job. My cows aren’t going to live forever either and when they die (hopefully of old age and not exploding giraffe-corgis) it’d be nice to be able to do something with their bodies other than making burgers.

Mmm. Burgers. I haven’t made anything out of red meat in so long. This sheep is likely to be burgers too.

Watercolor of a white sheep on a green field with a blue sky
It was a cute sheep, too

Day 171: Once more into the abyss

Day 171:

That cavern I’ve been working on is finally finished. I made enough glass block to carry light all the way down the fifteen levels that I’ve dug.  So with that finished, I said I was going to start digging up, but now I’m not so sure.

I’m only about one “level” deep from the bedrock, which my digging tools can’t penetrate. If I go down that one last level, then anything I dig from there up will be a baseline for anywhere that I’m going.

It’s also well-known that the most valuable stones and ores tend to be closest to the magma layer, and as I can hear lava bubbling below my feet, well, I have to admit I’m a bit greedy.

And probably stupid. I’ll likely get killed doing this.

Watercolor of a stick figure on one side of a river of lava, and a large rock with multicolored gemstones sticking out on the other side.
It feels like this sometimes.

Day 170: more sand

Day 170:

It’s miserable and rainy but I woke up this morning out of sand for making glass. “Big deal”, you may think, but glass is the best way for me to funnel light into the caverns, and light is the best way to keep monsters away, so I’m a big fan of glass.

Years ago my grandfather took me on a tour of a maritime museum. The ancient sea ships used glass insets called “ship’s prisms” to diffuse the sunlight that was hitting the deck so that it would light larger areas of the decks below. I’ve started making a few for some of the caverns where I can set a prism into the rock surface above me and capture light.

It’s no plasma torch, but it’s better than my usual torches.

The other nice thing about making glass on a cold rainy day is that when you’ve spent the whole day on your knees in a river bed shoveling sand into bags, a roaring hot furnace is kind of a nice thing to have.

Watercolor of a six-sided ship’s prism.
A ship’s prism, upside-down.