Recipients
1319 Words
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, the community gathered for the morning meeting after they cleared the dining tables and leaving the benches in the courtyard as usual.
The new inductees were sitting at the foremost along with Samuel and Isabela where they would take turns to meet Heather and me to record their biodata.
"Carlisle, could you haul in the Gracehaven's Community Chest over to the front, please? Thank you, my trusty treasurer." I motioned for Carlisle who was in charge of the safekeeping of the Community Chest to bring it to the front. This could only mean one thing — for the new recipients.
"Yes, Your Majesty..." and in a short, while Carlisle came walking in a brisk manner and lugging the Gracehaven's Community Chest on his shoulders and from the looks of it, there's some substantial weight and value in it.
The Gracehaven's Community Chest was placed on a bench and after the deployment of the day's work had been announced, only Carlisle, some of the pioneers and the new 24 inductees stayed behind.
The recordings of their biodata ran smoothly and after they had returned to their seats, I had Carlisle to distribute 100 coppers to the new inductees. It may not mean much but at least there's something for them to roll in the next few weeks.
"Eh...? What're this coins for, Your Majesty? We have not done any work for you and yet we are being paid?" old Mann spoke up after his name was called and a trail of coppers were placed into his open palm.
"Don't worry. This is from Gracehaven's Community Chest where every month the community would disperse 8 coppers each into the basket and this would be used for the welfare of those who are incapacitated to perform work or just for a headstart while starting life anew. Take it... "
I explained and with much reluctance, Old Mann took the coins and stored it inside his own coin pouch. After everyone had their share of love from the Gracehaven's Community Chest, Carlisle brought the basket back and stored it in the domain.
"Right, since the first order of the day had been completed, let's move on to the next. Samuel, at this moment you would be assisting Old Jack and Andy in the blacksmithing area, as for Isabela, she would be assisting the herbalist and Old Kayla in the infirmary."
"Old Mann, for those who are injured but able to perform light-duty, Ben and Frank would be directing you to areas of deployment and also to those areas that require light work. You do not have to exert too much beyond your capabilities, just to help around would be better than nothing."
"The harvest period commences today and everyone had brought their sickles and other tools to the crop fields to begin harvesting all the 45 crop fields at the moment. So in the meantime, for this week, it's going to be a bit busy to monitor the new inductees, so we need your assistance greatly, Old Mann."
I emphasised on the importance of this week's schedule as we would be rushing to harvest the wheat as well as the cornfields to prepare for the harsh winters ahead. Besides, with the aid of the grains drying kiln installed, the drying of grains could hasten tremendously.
Coupled with the millstones from the windmill and the grain husker, things could never be easier for citizen's lives. Work commences soon and everything seems to be in clockwork.
There would be no classroom for the whole week so the children were helping about to ferry the cut stalks of wheat and corn into handcarts.
Once it was filled, the children pushed the handcarts to the courtyard where the wheat was beaten in order to release them from the spikes.
Once a substantial amount of grains were collected, it was laid on drying trays and pushed into the drying kiln with the supervision of adults.
Once the grains were dried, it would then be collected to the windmill area to be dehusked and stored into the storage vats and later placed into the storage barns in the courtyard.
There was a lot of movement that day from the fields and back to the courtyard et cetera.
My little vegetable garden was not spared too.
The herbalist helped to harvest the vegetables according to their varieties and was wrapped in dried banana leaves to resin its freshness. Bundles of vegetables were packed accordingly and placed in wicker baskets where in turn were stored inside the cold storage barns.
The same goes to the herbal Garden where those plants that could not withstand the cold winter season were harvested and stored individually inside the cold storage barn as well.
Fortunately, the temperature within the cold storage barn was meant for chilling and not for freezing so certain game meats were wrapped in dried banana leaves and stored in their own meat section. After all, was completed, the previously barren cold storage barn had been filled close to 65% capacity and Eagle can't help but signalled his men to hunt for more game meat.
Before the end of the day, there was plenty of fish and game meat especially boar that everyone anticipated. The innards were stored in vats and kept inside the chiller. The boar had been skinned and it was hung on a treble hook near the rafters after the blood had been totally cleaned off its carcass.
There were 4 young adult wild boars and each weighs about 400 to 500 pounds. It seems the men assigned by Eagle took great pains to hunt these boar when it's nearing hibernation period for them.
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"Bravo... Bravo...! We now have close to full capacity for the storage of game meat and vegetables for our cold storage at the moment. We would not have to worry about meat and fish that has been stored and would start consuming them when the time comes, eh?"
"At the moment, we would make do with what we have and right after the harvest, we would sow our winter wheat so it would sleep through winter and would sprout out once spring comes, what do you think, my dear citizens?"
I lauded the hard work that was put up by the citizens as they toiled the fields non-stop and bypassed their lunchtime. I had never seen the citizens put in so much effort before for their livelihood as they had cleared almost half of the 45 crop fields.
Even the wheat had been beaten off from its spikes and corn had been removed from its cob and temporarily stored in hemp sacks before taking its turn to be dried in the grains drying kiln.
Since the operations for the grains drying kiln and the windmill operations were running 24 hours a day, the men took turns and used their own initiative to rotate the work at hand.
Same goes to Gracehaven's Finest Bakery as the operations were running 24 hours a day as well. Besides having a total of 30 bakers operating 20 Ovens at the same time, work had always been smooth and there had been no hiccups so far from the bakery since.
I looked around and can't help but to appreciate what the citizens had accomplished to do. Even the senior citizens and the invalids had put in effort despite their age and disabilities. By this time the new inductees had familiarised themselves with the trade and commercial zone on Gracehaven's part and had learnt about its past history and mine too.
As usual, after dinner, we would wrap up with a night conference and I was elated to announce the citizens' achievements. Marcel had returned from his trip and had joined us and was delighted to share his piece of news to us once we went to the conference hall in the domain.
- Writer
