"Every hurdle overcome seems to throw two more in our path, every victory underscored by more defeats, can we actually win? We try not to think about it, focusing our attention instead on the tasks at hand rather than the empty storeroom or the freezing temperatures. We will fight for our survival all the same, we will not give up."
Day 28
The middle of the night proves to hold it's own little dramas as Angel's wounds get infected a few minutes before Syd managed to treat her, it's not a serious wound or infection but it does mean she is out of action. To make matters a little worse I forgot about building vents so the heat from the main room can enter the bedrooms meaning she suffered frostbite during the night, I did say I was rusty at this game I guess.
Everyone else scurries around mining, building and refuelling ensuring we have enough power to keep the heaters going is as critical now as keeping the greenhouse running. Daytime temperatures have plunged to -21C already, so I try and set set Sappy as an additional tailor to take some of the pressure of Syd, we need warm clothes and we need them fast now or frostbite will eat all of our medical supplies.
One of the huge advantages of a greenhouse aside from year round crop growing is that due to it's nature the growth rate is often double what it'd be on regular soil, let's hope it makes a difference. Most of the colonists bar Syd and Angel set about mining steel, given we are critically short of it and still need several hundred pieces of it it's for the best. On the plus side Angel recovers in the mid-afternoon and joins in the work efforts, she is one tough lady that is for sure.
The meat we stockpiled has all but been used up to make meals and the muffalo migrated off the map, so that greenhouse better start paying off soon or starvation is on the cards again. A quick scour of the map as everyone tucks in for the night reveales a turkey and an ibex dead due to the cold, so I order them picked up for butchering. Luckily they won't have rotted due to the sub-zero temperatures but there is little to no other wildlife left anymore, it's just too cold.
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| The entire map is now covered in snow and sub-zero temperatures are common day or night. |
Day 29
Syd and Angel are first to rise for the day with Syd rushing off into the snow to retrieve those two animals for butchering whilst Angel cooks the remaining meat. Each colonist I believe eats two meals a day meaning once this meat is cooked we have enough food for a day or two left depending how much we get from the butchering today.
The greenhouse also seems to be unusually cold which is not helping so I order a second heater built in there as these crops are literally our last hope to survive at all. As before most of the day sees Angel and Syd cooking what little food we have left, giving us at least a little more time to get things stabilised.
An extra heater gets built in the main room as well as all the vents ensuring that that lovely heat goes into all the bedrooms now. Also the extra heater in the greenhouse seems to have done the trick, here's hoping it's enough to get the rice and potato plants growing as fast as possible. If we can survive the winter, the next springs main crops should give us a large enough stockpile to not need to worry. I say hopefully, as Ash and Angel make their way back to base from mining a nice little pop-up warns me: Winter has begun.
Day 30
Everyone throws themselves into the days tasks with unusual gusto with everyone bar Ash flinging themselves out of bed at the crack of dawn to get things done. The growth rate on the basins crops now sits at 270% so we may get our first harvest by the end of the day, all queued generators and solar panels are done and Syd finishes off the last basin in the greenhouse.
A red fox attacks a racoon right outside the front door. The fox shall be tamed. Also more importantly the first harvest of rice begins just as Ash finishes off the last of our meals, talk about cutting it close but I am starting to once again feel that faint glimmer of hope. In total all the rice basins we have give us about 60 units of rice to work with, it would have been more but Sappy decided to botch a few harvests, I am sure Angel will have a few choice words for her mother about that later.
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| A red fox appears, it shall be tamed. |
Now that food is coming in again and it maybe just maybe might be enough to save the colony from literally eating itself I start organising work priorities again. Nicole moves hauling down the list and sets research back to the top where it belongs and I ensure Ash and Angel are the crop handlers to make sure we don't botch any harvests as we need every last scrap of food from that greenhouse.
Nicole again gets moody however and as the night draws in and the snow begins hammering down she wanders off in a depressed daze. So much for things going well, so long as she doesn't wander too far she can at least be rescued safely. Syd begins to craft patch leather and hopefully that'll mean everyone gets a duster to keep themselves warm, I can worry about fancier clothes later right now I just want them to not all freeze if they step outside.
Just as I fear Nicole will wander off into the snow and freeze she at least wanders back indoors that's something at least. I am by far still not out of the woods, the rice we harvested only provided a handful of meals and starvation is still a factor. The rice plants grow about 15-20% per day but the few basins of potato plants are much slower, I'll have to hope some animals wander onto the map soon or a trader arrives as this is still dicey.
Hope you are all still enjoying reading this as much as I am enjoying writing it! See you in the next part!
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| Most of the construction is now finished, the greenhouse is producing but the food stockpile remains non-existent. Have we done enough to survive? |
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