Author: kirabug

Day 758:

I’m rethinking the wool mittens.

They’re great at keeping me warm, but once my hands are in them and they get wet they’re not much help.

That’s a problem when you’re climbing a mountain and swinging a pickaxe in increasingly cold and humid weather. It’s stuffy enough to snow and I’ve only made it to the peak of the first mountain. (Technically I didn’t even do that since I drilled through a big part of it chasing an ore vein through the middle of it.)

Maybe leather lined with wool?

I know from my previous journeys that the leather gloves I made when I first arrived are definitely not warm enough. And wool would be warm enough if it was waterproofed, or at least, if I could keep the wool wet from sweat from getting to the air.

A project for the evenings back at my cave. Because I’m definitely not sleeping out here. So far I’ve only seen sheep and cows, but that’s enough to tell me zombies could fit here if they wanted to.

Day 757:

What I thought was a lot of sand was… well… not a lot of sand. There was a thin layer of sand covering a whole lot of gravel and I know because I dug up all that gravel until I hit the bottom of the river bed.

All in all, a disappointment.

I’m still heading east to see if I can find more sand. I’m not  super optimistic since the thing directly in front of me is a large mountain, and behind it I can see the peaks of an even larger mountain. Covered with snow even! Thank goodness I have wool mittens now.

So I’m cold, wet, exhausted, and without the sand I need. Not a good day.

Day 756:

Well that lasted.

I went to bed so tired last night that I forgot to make more tools, which meant when I woke up this morning I had to fit some shovel handles to some shovel noses so that I could dig sand… and I did get some digging done after I also killed a bunch of zombies outside my door (not the pig people, just the regular type) and then finally made it out to the site.

Then I stayed out so late that I’m all but falling asleep in my dinner while I’m writing this.

So much for early starts.

I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow so I don’t endanger myself through lack of sleep. It’s not like anyone else has my back out here if I screw something up. Like drown.

So much for swimming in the buddy system.

Day 755:

This is as officially northeast as I’ve come. If I’m guessing correctly, that village that I spotted is directly east from here… but how far I’m not sure.

I’ve decided to use this as a mapping opportunity as well as an opportunity to gather more sand. The river is deep here and turns from a north-south direction almost directly east. On the eastern side of the river the ground is very steep, so I guess I’ll have to do some grading over on that edge just so I’m not getting jumped by monsters, etc.

To give myself as much time to mine as possible, I’ve also moved to the easternmost “bedroom” in my complex. That way I can get up, hike out there, and get work done.

Today, for example, I gathered quite a bit of sand and started the smelters running at full blast to get everything going. They’ll melt down overnight and I can do the same tomorrow (I hope).

Day 754:

I’ve used up so much glass in my mining that I’ve got to stop mining for now.

Usually, I use glass to mark the spots on the floor where I’m putting torches. First, I want to protect the expensive granite from soot and such. Second, it’s nice to have the light filter down to the next level of digging and saves on torches. Third, in the few places where I’ve put down wool rugs to keep my feet warm, the glass marks out the places where it’s not safe to put carpet because the torch will set it on fire.

So without glass, the unlit corridors are even more unlit, the torch locations are less predictable, etc. etc. Plus you know I just like the way it makes me feel.

I think that there’s more sand a kilometer or more away, along the river to the east. (Not that I have a good way to judge a kilometer. Right now it’s pretty much “how far can I walk without a side stitch?” I wanted to map that area sometime soon anyway, so at least for the time being, that’s where I’m headed.