Category: One Among the Dead

Day 578:

Like Little Bo Peep, I lost my sheep… sort of.

There were so many pigs and cows and chickens in my giant fenced-in area that I couldn’t find the sheep in the ruckus.

It took me all day, but I used up the extra fence posts I’d had laying around from the last time I extended my “pasture” area. Now I’ve got three pastures, and can put the pigs in one, the cows in another, and the sheep in the third.

The duckens just go wherever the heck they want anyway so I’m not worried about them. Certainly are enough of them.

Day 577:

The invisible human and the llamas were long gone this morning.

But last night, they’d been heading toward the hills where I’ve been working.

I climbed them again today and saw nothing that indicated there’s any kind of life in that direction…

but…

in the direction of the big mountain, I saw what just might have been a whisp of smoke, as if there’s a cooking fire, or maybe even a village over there.

So my hope is renewed.

But I’m not yet prepared to climb the mountain. I have sheep now, and their wool is just about long enough to shear off, I think, so I need to make sheep scissors. Shearers. Thingies.

And then I need to teach myself to spin

Fortunately, I know how to knit. One needs something to do between the stars, and pretty much everyone in The Company knew how to turn a heel and bind off a cable stitch when I left.

(I wonder if they’re still out there. I waffle between furiously hoping they are and furiously hoping they aren’t.)

So tomorrow: sheep shearing. And maybe cracking open one of these pumpkins to see if it has seeds.

Day 576:

I don’t know how to describe what I just saw.

Okay, first of all, my day: dug holes, worked on hill, chopped down trees. Considering planting more trees.

When dusk came I headed back home, only to find two llamas tied together with a rope, wandering around outside my house.

First: llamas. What the heck?! There are llamas here?!?

Second: These llamas were, like, party llamas or something. They had fancy outfits on. And they had harnesses and rope on. So clearly, there’s someone else here on the planet because otherwise are these magical self-dressing llamas?

I will admit I tried to talk to the llamas, but only in the “who’s a good llama?” kind of way, not in the “I expect these llamas are sentient beings who would like to converse over my presence and housing” kind of way.

Third: there was some kind of grunting noise and bubbles. I thought it was the llamas at first but then I realized it was coming from the point right in front of the llamas, as if there was someone there. But if there was someone there, they were invisible.

I, of course, did not believe in invisible people, in fact I would generally assume sentient llamas (especially in this place) before I would assume that there was an invisible person on the scene.

And then it weird.

Weirder.

See, I reached into my pack to see if I had any carrots, because, still believing that it was two loose llamas and that for some reason I couldn’t grab their harness, I was going to try to lure them to my house.

I pulled out a bunch of things, including a pile of emeralds.

And then the pile of emeralds disappeared.

I was too shocked to do anything but squawk incoherently.

And then a bunch of other things appeared — a whole variety of flowers, some pumpkins (!!) and ice (!!!)

SO I CAN BUILD AN ICE BOX

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep an ice box with only a little bit of ice but I DON’T CARE, I HAVE ICE

AND PUMPKINS

I CAN MAKE SOMETHING TO EAT THAT ISN’T FISH AND CARROT STEW

I scooped up everything and stuffed it back into my bag and before I could stop them, the llamas –and invisible human? magical presence? llama-leading mosquito?– walked off. I chased them for a ways but couldn’t catch up.

I’m gobsmacked.

Totally confused.

THERE MUST BE PEOPLE HERE.

I need to find them.

Maybe they know how to get out of here!

I’m never going to get to sleep tonight.

Day 575:

There are feral cows up in the high reaches of the hills!

I’m not sure what to do with that information.

Cows, at least Old Earth cows, which are the ones we transported all over the world, generally don’t climb big steep hills. When you weigh a few hundred pounds (or in some cases a few thousand), steep angles aren’t always your friend.

But these cows are way way up in the hills. The same hills I’m landscaping into much lower hills.

That puts me at risk of falling cows.

Not sure I’m up for falling cows, to be honest.

I usually dig underground with a sharp ear for skeletons and other murderous beasts. Now I have to look out for cows.

This is a weird life.

Day 574:

I’ve got a big bin where I keep my vegetables — carrots, potatoes, wheat seeds for storage, stuff like that. It’s full to capacity now, because I just brought in everything that was growing in my garden.

I was keeping it outside, but the animals kept trying to break into it, so now it takes up space in my bedroom. That’s okay, but it’s not great, because I tend to pile things on top of the bin during the day…. it makes a pretty decent table… and then at night when I’m hungry or I want to feed the animals, I have to clear the whole mess off so I can get into it.

Maybe that’s why refrigerators always opened forward instead of on top? So we wouldn’t drive ourselves crazy with our bad habits?

I wrote that in past tense, like refrigerators don’t exist anymore… I have to remind myself sometimes that all those things do still exist, just not here.