kirabug's idea files

Day 774:

I needed a break from the usual nonsense, so I connected one of the lakes to the river. It makes my map look better, like this place actually makes sense.

I still haven’t figured out how it can rain for days and days here and the water levels never get higher. For that matter I haven’t figured out how I can accidentally dig a hole in the bottom of a lake into a cavern, have the entire lake start draining into the cavern, and the lake’s water level doesn’t drop.

I need a physicist. Someone in fluid dynamics or something.

Anyway, one lake connected, one to go, feeling good about myself.

Day 773:

Did I mention the mountains? I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned the mountains.

They’re in my way.

Yeah, I know, that’s how life goes. First you get stranded on a planetesimal in the middle of nowhere for no obvious reason, then it turns out that the nearest sources of sand and other critical survival elements are surrounded by mountains.

Fortunately, I am a miner. So I have all intention of getting these mountains out of my way even if it means I have to carve them down single-handedly.

Which it might.

But, I mean, not like there’s a whole lot else to do.

Anyway, I’m trying to make the paths between here and where I’m going clearer, and that may mean removing one or more mountains.

Things happen, you know?

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:

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:

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.