The First Winter
1241 Words
For the next following days, work had already ceased at the fields as the flooding and sowing of the winter wheat seeds had been completed. With the help of Penelope, right after the seeds had been sown, tiny sprouts measuring about an inch or so had begun sprouting from the ground and it would continue to grow slowly and steadily by itself without any tending or care during the end autumn and throughout the winter season.
"It's great to have our citizens to rest during these few months in winter. Besides, have you got the men to distribute the winter clothing we had gotten from Darlington before?"
Heather inquired and I assured her that the task had been underway. 3 large chest filled with winter clothing that was stored in the windmill area for some months had been distributed and to those who had not received theirs, they were compensated with thicker cotton or woollen materials.
Everyone had their own individual 'hand warmers' that was made by Farah and distributed at Gracehaven's General Store. So even if a person was wearing thin linen clothes, he would be able to stuff these hand warmers inside the pockets of his tunic and breeches and would feel warm during the chilly winter winds.
The Sales for these 'hand warmers' were pretty brisk and Farah had stocked up close to 2,000 of the products and had been distributed among the 15 towns as well. An additional 2k silver coins had been generated and all of the takings had been pooled inside the treasury.
THE PROBLEM — THERE'S NO MORE FLAT PEBBLES IN THE RIVER....!!!
Farah was scratching her head for some time as the boys and girls that helped her to gather the flat pebbles from the streams had gone almost 2 miles upstream and downstream to look for them. There was practically nothing to collect and since there wasn't any adult supervision, the children that were assisting Farah would only go to the extent and not going at further.
Looking at Farah dishevelled hair, she looked kind of a mad and delirious witch... As if she was caught unawares with a really bad hair day.
"Oy... Why are you so worried about? We can get Earl to help us since he got nothing better to do at the moment, right? Penelope had done her part, Isabela's tending to the chicken, Michael and Andy were doing the arrowheads while Samuel was making the arrow shafts."
"In fact, almost half of us are not engaged in any real deals so let me guess, I round them up so we all could help out with this business, don't you think it's a swell idea?"
After pondering for some time, Farah agreed and Imelda rushed to find Earl and the rest of those who are not engaged in any work to hurry down and assist in making these hand warmers.
Once Earl had conjured up the earth and unearthed flat pebbles from the ground up, everyone chipped in to help sew the pockets of the hand warmers once the flat pebble had been warmed by Farah.
After warming up several hundreds of flat pebbles, Farah had depleted her essence and have to be brought aside to rest under the shade of the tree while the remaining priest and priestess inserted the treated pebbles inside the pocket made from linen cloth.
After some hours, Farah managed to retain back at least half of her essence lost during her arduous 'work' warming up the flat pebbles using her special abilities.
Firestone, who was tending to some grilled corn on the cob with some animal fat greased and salt on them, brought quite a basketful of them over to where his daughter was working. Even when it was off-season to acquire those baby corns of Farah's favourite, he promised to himself that he would dedicate a single crop field just to grow baby sweet corns for his only daughter.
When Firestone brought the steaming basket of grilled corn on the cob with dripping grease on it, everyone whipped in joy because it was a definite pleasure to eat such foods on a chilly day.
There was an earthen plate inside the basket to catch the grease and preventing it from seeping through the basket. The group was simply thankful for the simple thoughts that Firestone had shown to them.
Who in the world would not resist a hot, steaming, Greasy and salty grilled corn on the cob on a cold chilly autumn's day, eh?
The sweet corn was perfectly grilled to perfection and it tastes pretty great. By the end of the simple meal, everyone's lips were Greasy and they were tempted to wipe their mouths on their cloak if not for the presence of Firestone...!
"Don't overstress your body, child. There's quite a lot of pebbles for you to work on and frankly work around here in Gracehaven can never end. If it does end, it would be replaced with another task. How many would you be making these hand warmers?"
Firestone spoke up after he had finished the grilled corn and he wished he had grilled wine earlier. With a dollop of animal fat that was sizzling the grilled corn when he was serving them makes him crave for more.
Actually ever since he had gotten together with his only daughter, he did gain an extra few more pounds due to increased appetite.
Plus cheap chilled ale...!
"Hmm... Alright, Daddy. I'm almost finishing up over here. If we could make about 200 a day, I won't feel too tired after all but since there's nothing much for me to do right now, I would be extending to work on 500 pebbles. The rest of the brothers and sisters would be able to help me out as well as our economy too."
"I heard from His Majesty that it would be best to save up on our gold coins as much as possible, so the next meeting with the conglomerates, Gracehaven would play a big part in the trade industry here. Am I right, my brothers and sisters?"
"That's right Mister Firestone. It's good to have Farah and the rest around. At least each of us would be able to contribute to the economy one way or another. But I could say that Imelda is the one that makes the most contribution for the Standing Icebox and Chilled Copper Tuns for the ale dispenser."
Penelope highlighted to everyone and Firestone quipped, "No matter how big or small the contribution is, we are all heading towards a better and brighter figure for all."
Everyone nodded their heads in apprehension and packed their ready products to bring it to Gracehaven's General Store where the hand warmers would be pushed out in small batches to all the 15 towns.
As they went to Gracehaven's General Store Gracehaven's General Store to submit the hand warmers, a few excited herbalist and gatherers came over and were carrying a few large hemp sacks over their shoulders.
It seemed that the herbalist and gatherers had nothing much to do right after they had tended to my poor little vegetable garden and the herbal Garden. So, a group of women 'sneaked' out and discovered another kind of plant where they could Cultivate for our consumption in the near future...!
The herbalist and gatherers were waiting for old Kayla and when she arrived she was delighted upon their finds...!The
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