Chapter 2 Homesteading in a fantasy world

Waking up as the sun rises, has been my way of life for a long time. So, I didn’t find it hard to wake up. Deciding to take my time I went to the kitchen to look over what I have to work with.

It was a one story building a long 80 square foot building. In the largest room in the center of the building is where the kitchen and the living room is. Off to both sides are 4 bedrooms.

It seems the main purpose of the living room is to use the loom and crafting space. There is a furnace where the two bedrooms meet and it’s the same on the other side.

For cooking, there is a stove and oven combination. It probably takes all 3 heating elements to heat the entire house.

Near the oven is a trap door that takes me to the basement. There are a lot of root vegetables and flour. But the basement is over half empty. I take some potatoes and lard and go upstairs to cook

It doesn't take me a long time to get the fire going. Meantime I make a mental note that I have a cast iron pan, a cast iron pot, a large and a small copper pot, and a few sheet trays.

Only two knives, one small, and one large but they seem to be of excellent quality. I remembered that I should have the identify skills restriction lifted.

Knowing how it should work from games and books. I stared at it and tried to understand it not just physically but spiritually. That seemed to do the trick.

Large kitchen knife good quality

I also opened up the new notification.

You have gained a new skill basic identification level 1

I start to identify as many things as possible. While at the same time peeling the potatoes. I decided to dice them up so they will cook faster. When I finished with my potatoes, the stove was hot enough, so I started cooking.

When I finish, I noticed the new notification.

You have gained new skill basic cooking level 1

“hmm”. I guess cooking goes under survival skills, I guess that makes sense. Barely started a new day and have gotten two skills. Next is to do a quick survey of the surroundings.

Going out, there was still a nip in the air, but the sun's rays are already warming everything up. There are three other big buildings. The barn, the workshop, and where the wood is kept. There are two smaller sheds also.

I know that one holds tools, so I made my way to the last unknown building. The first thing I noticed was the wall thickness. Opening the door completely, I now know why it’s so thick. It's where they kept the seeds for vegetables and some root plants.

There wasn’t much light that could get inside here but what I could tell there was tomato, cucumber, pumpkin, and some more different seeds. That I didn’t know from a quick look.

I was really happy to see them, I can get a lot of food out of all of these. “Now let’s see” walking to the center of the buildings I try to familiarise where everything is.

If the sun rises from the east here, then to the north is where the barn is. East lies the main house and west is the workshops and woodshed. The seed house is between the workshop and the barn. All buildings look like they can handle the cold.

To the South, leads the road to the village. From my memories, it is quite a long way off. To the west are the fields and east is a small river and behind that, the forest begins. Behind the barn, looks to be at least two acres of fenced off crazing area.

But the question is how far too my land actually go. From his memories, I know they own a lot of land and there should be a map in grandfather’s room. Going back to the house and searching grandfather’s room, I noticed the smell of death still there.

Before I looked for the map, I decided to clean out all the beddings. Behind the main house seemed to be the beginning of a fire pit. Getting that done didn't take me long. Finding the property map was easy enough.

It looks like we own two properties side by side, one from my grandfather's and one from my mother's side. Both are around 160 acres big, but my mother's side did not have any development, only untamed lands and forests.

Having gotten the lay of the land, I search all the rooms for valuables and other needed things. I found two more spears, a large iron shield and a chainmail shirt too small for me to wear.

Nothing else of importance was found. I also identify everything I found and got a skill level increase.

Skill increases basic identification now level 2

Taking the shield and the spear with me. I moved towards the river and walked over the wooden walkway. The river crossing was a 4 meters long narrow wooden walkway, where only a single person could cross it at a time.

Luckily there were supports already driven in for expansion. I continued onwards, to see what the forest is like.

Forest is an extremely important resource and it’s going to be a pain in the ass getting wood back home. The forest is on this side of the river and quite a long walk from the river crossing.

Took me another 15 minutes to make it to the edge of the forest. During my walk, I search for any useful plants, but mainly only grass was growing.

Too early in the season for anything else that caught my eye. Now in the forest, it was a different story, I already found deer and smaller forest creatures' tracks. After another 30 minutes of searching while not going too far into the forest, I also saw rabbit footprints.

I also found a lot of different forest berry bushes. There were also a lot of new plants that I have never seen before. I did find some known roots, that I dig up for snaking on the move. That got me a new skill after I found a few.

You have gained a new skill basic foraging level 1

I decided to follow the rabbit prints I found, and after a few minutes, I got another notification.

You have gained a new skill basic tracking level 1

“Interesting” so I needed to do a lot less to unlock the tracking skill. Why was this so much faster than the foraging skill? Maybe it’s to do with how complicated and hard the task is because it’s a lot harder to track a rabbit than it is to dig up some roots to eat.

Looking at the wood all around me, I regret not bringing an axe. Finding a big tree, I decided to practice my spear trusting. Now I’ve never actually needed to use a spear before, but I have made one before and had a bit of fun with it.

So, I tried for some time, but all I got was a stinging hand and no skill. After that, I went back home. I had no water skin for a longer stay or any other useful thing to find here currently.

I put away the spear and shield and went to the tool shed. There I found the axe and other useful tools. There was also a wooden harrow with iron reinforced spikes. Mounted on the wall was a wooden plow with iron reinforcements.

But the problem was the plow looked ancient and it was meant to be pulled by hand. None of the tools were meant to be used with animals, they were old and meant for only people to work them. This didn’t look good for me to be able to work the land effectively.

I did see some harnesses in the workshop where the wagon is. Going there and investigating the harnesses I found them to be meant for the horses. Of course, there were no horses anywhere around here.

I got the impression from my memories, that before everyone got sick here, someone came here and took the horses and a lot of food for the village.

Thinking more about the harness I think I could make a few alterations, so I could use the bull for some farm work.

But It’s too early to think about that. First, I need planter boxes for tomatoes and cucumbers. But I guess they did not use planter boxes.

They only put seeds in the ground, while this is perfectly fine for most plants it’s not the best strategy for them all. I started looking for the wood I need to make that happen.

Finding some good-sized pieces of wood to use for the bottom and site. I almost started to cut them when I remembered I needed to select the rest of my classes.

I decided to read them over just once again.

Animal husbandry: This class lifts restrictions on animal interaction skills, this class unlocks empathy stat.

Handyman: This class lifts Restrictions on all basic crafting and building skills. This class unlocks intelligence stat.

“I decided to just get on with it and selected them bought.”

Level up animal husbandry

Animal husbandry now level 1

Strength +1

Dexterity +1

Vitality +1

Empathy +1

Level up handyman

Handyman now level 1

Strength +1

Dexterity +1

Vitality +1

Intelligence +1

New trait gained

Strength reaches 10 new trait gained better bone density

Now on with it. My hands were already itching to start working, but then I started to look around for something to measure with but came up short. I started to think up a solution.

It took me quite a while to remember, that the property map had distant reference markers. Quickly I found a good piece of wood to make it into a ruler.

It took only a few minutes to smooth it out with the sanding stone. Finished with that I moved into the house.

I could make an accurate mark every half a centimetre, I was lucky that the map had that length. I also calculate how far away from the village I am.

Turns out about 10 kilometres away by road but there is also a closer mark. Its depicted similarly to a watchtower symbol and it's only four kilometres away, at the edge of my territory.

Not finding anything better to mark with I used charcoal for the moment. Knowing that charcoal will come off easily, I went to the living rooms crafting space to carve out everything I need for a 1-meter ruler.

While doing that I also noticed the two huge windows. I didn’t note that as weird before, because I was used to them in my previous home but in this medieval world, they do not fit the time.

Ruler finished; I inspected the windows they looked like modern once. Not possible to make using medieval techniques. I bet they were made using either high level skills or magic.

The windows were placed perfectly on both sides of the living room to let in the morning light and then the evening light. Perfect for lighting the room for activities.

I also decided to make a string measurement tool, going over to the loom. I searched for a good roll of string to use.

I also needed some dye to mark it. There were yellow, blue, green, and red but I picked the red, so I can better see the markings better.

I also used the dye to make the carvings more visible on my ruler. It was also easy to mark the string every 1-meter using the ruler.

When finished I got a 34-meter measuring string. Now back to making planter boxes. There was also a notification that I got and now opened.

You have gained a new skill basic wood carving level 1

Now I was able to make perfect 1 meter in length and half a meter in width boxes. When I finish the box I got a new notification.

You have gained a new skill basic wood crafting level 1

Now for the dividers, I wanted to use extremely thin wood pieces. I ended up using 4, 1-meter-long thin wood boards attaching them simply by carving grooves into the Inner sides of the box.

I also made more small pieces of wood to use as horizontal dividers to put them in later, when the box was already filled with soil. Now this gives me 40 plants per planter box.

I will need to make quite a few of these boxes and honestly, I don’t want to use the good wood boards I have. I looked if I could use the firewood to make the boards that I need.

It would be a bit more work, but the firewood is plenty and can work because they are over a meter long. Next, I went to the seed house to see how many cucumber and tomato seeds I have.

There was less than I was hoping for only about 200 of both. For them all, I only needed to make 10 planter boxes. It took me until around 4:00 o'clock when I finished the boxes.

I used up about half the supply of small nails I have. Eating another lunch of potatoes. I noted that I need to make some food that I can bring with me, so I don’t have to cook lunch or miss it. This can save a lot of time and make sure I am well feed.

I also level up my basic wood crafting to level 4 and food carving to level 2. Taking out the shovel I went to fill up the planter boxes. But first I need to find good soil.

Luckily that was the easiest part good fertile soil was all around. Deciding to see how deep the fertile soil went I was surprised that it was deeper than 1 meter. Not wanting to dig any further because it would just waste time, I noticed a new problem.

The problem was there were too many rocks from small to medium size. So, I’ll need to sieve the soil I use for the planter boxes.

But there is no soil sieve here and to make one I’d need green park. It’s the only material strong enough to make a sieve mesh part that can withstand the rocks and the weight of the soil.

So, I need to make a trip to the forest, but this time let's make it a proper one. First I need an axe and a knife. Let's fill up a waterskin from the well. Let’s also find some thicker clothes.

I have also been a bit too careless, and I should always carry around a weapon. The spear would be too cumbersome to always carry around. So, I guess the sword will have to do luckily there's a sheath and belt for it.

It took me an hour to get everything ready. I was now wearing a rainproof cape, some thicker shirt and pants. Better boots that looked like hiking ones.

My sword was on my left side, and I used my sword belt to also keep the axe on my right side. I also found a belt for my knife that was also on my right side.

So, I was wearing three belts, one to hold up my pants, second to hold up my sword and axe, and the final one to hold the knife.

I think I’ve never looked quite this ridiculous, but I guess I need to get used to this for my own safety. I also put a waterskin with a sling over my shoulder and I wore a backpack that was meant to bring back wood.

When I finished my last check, everything worked fine, and I could run and move without anything coming loose.

I had the brilliant idea to bring some rope and string to make traps to catch animals and get some meat.

That taking care of I start to go towards the forest. I almost slipped when I walked across the narrow walkway over the river. But luckily after that, I made it safely to the forest.

My goal was to find some young trees that are the thickness of my arm. Then stripped them from their park and cut them down to about 1-and-a-half-meter length. After the second one, I got a notification

You have gained a new skill basic logging level 1

I got logging to level 2 when my backpack was full of wood and park. I started to move to the edge of the forest.

Making it to the edge of the forest I decided to go and set up the traps for the animals. I dropped my backpack and went back into the forest

I started to follow the tracks to see where most of the animals would walk. It took me some time and I had to move quite far into the forest to find a constant deer trail.

Following it took me to a small stream. Moving back some distance from the stream. I started to set up a snare to catch a deer.

I just made a simple one that I bound to a medium sized tree. I spaced them out and made three total snares on the deer trail. I continue to move and familiarize myself more with the forest, so I know where I left everything.

Next, I set up smaller snares where I found the rabbit tracks. I ended up with a total of 6 in different spots.

Not knowing how many animals there are or how often they came through here, I decided that these were good numbers to start with.

During that time, I got two skill levels in tracking and a new skill basic trap making. Finally finished I headed back home picked up my backpack on my way and noticed that it was quite late. I maybe had two hours of light left.

When I made it home I off loaded all the wood into the woodshed. The wood bark I brought with me to the house.

Getting some more potatoes but this time also some onions. I decided to make onion potato pies in the oven, so that I could take some food with me if I needed to spend all day in the forest.

Making pies was easy, I have done them so many times before. When I finished all the preparation and the dough was rising, I started to process the wood park. But the natural light was almost gone, and I had to use the furnace light to do anything more.

I started by making the strips thinner, then starting to weave them into rope. When I continued to weave them into rope, I quickly got a new skill.

You have gained a new skill basic weaving level 1

My practiced hands made quick work of the material. When I was half done it was time to make the pies. I also got two new skill levels in weaving by that time.

Making the hand sized pies was easy, the problem was that I am unfamiliar with the oven. I needed constantly monitored the temperature. It took a bit of effort and adjustment, but they come out excellent.

You have gained a new skill basic baking level 1

20 hand size pies ready I went to bed exhausted from all the work I had done.