Bob the Piggie

 

Meet Bob. He's a Berkshire pig, bred for fairly quick growth for meat. We picked him up about a month ago, to give us some bacon for this year's meat harvest. Bob was the runt of his litter and was malnourished. The prior owners managed to get him from a neglectful home into their own dairy farm, where Bob (then called Bones because he was so skinny) thrived on their waste milk. When we picked him up, he was doing pretty well.

Bob isn't alone now; we picked up a couple of pink piggies from a big growing operation, similar to Peppa and George last year (fast-growing meat pigs). When we got them, they were the same size as Bob. Now, however, they've both outgrown him by a significant amount. And I found out that Bob isn't eating the hog pellets we put in their pen. So, he's not growing at all. In fact, my wife thinks he's actually lost weight. That's not good.

So, we consulted with some friends, and we picked up some milk replacement. After some quick instructions on how to mix it and give it to him, we tried it for the first time tonight. Well, Bob definitely loved it, and gulped down quite a bit. We're going to give it to him a couple of times a day for about a week to see if there's any improvement.

You can't tell in the picture above, but Bob's spine is protruding; there's no back meat on him at the moment. So, we're hoping the milk replacement will give him a bit of an opportunity to catch up to the others, or at least keep pace with their growth so they don't muscle him out of the food altogether.

We're also going to be looking at a replacement feed; the other pigs all like it, but Bob's not thrilled with it; he barely eats it, which is the main reason the other pigs are surpassing him so quickly. We're not giving up on the little guy, though. We'll try the milk replacement and a new kind of feed and see how that works for him.

14 Years

The love of my life, now and forever.

Habemus Episcopum!

Well, that was quite the experience. Today was a huge day here on Prince Edward Island, at least for the Catholic part of the island. Today, our new bishop was installed. The prior bishop retired at the height of COVID due to age and cancer, and we've been without a bishop for over two years.

So, as of right now, that is over. Bishop Joseph Dabrowski is officially the Bishop of Charlottetown and all of Prince Edward Island. And my wife and I got to be there, with great seats.

 Bishop Dabrowski is Polish, and the mass was livestreamed so his parents back home could watch it happen. Here's the livestream replay:

How good were the seats? The video starts at 7:30; my wife and I are in the very first shot, behind the Filipino nun (there were two nuns in front of us, but one is hidden behind the man in the next row). Beside us is one of the deacons from our old parish in Ontario and his wife; they know the Bishop well, and wanted to be here for the mass.

The coolest thing about this for us is that Bishop Dabrowski was the auxiliary bishop in our old diocese, the Diocese of London, Ontario. In fact, he confirmed our oldest boy six years ago. So, it was great to see him attain this position; from what we can tell, he is definitely worthy of the post. I pray that our faith is not misplaced.

After the mass, we got to meet the Bishop, and while he didn't remember us (no surprise there), he was very pleasant and said he'd be happy to come to our farm (we grow potatoes, which apparently are a big deal in Poland). Deacon Richard took the picture below for us.

So, plenty of prayers for our new bishop; may God guide him and strengthen him in these trying times, and may he remain faithful to the teachings of the Apostles. We really, really need that today.

Transitioning From Planting to Watching

Finally, everything is in the ground. The garlic is growing well, and I've got potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, cucumbers, peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, blackberries, elderberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherry trees, pear trees, apple trees, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, celery, and peas in the ground now. And, as always, the rhubarb. Oh, and I just planted fifty pumpkin seeds this afternoon before the rain came down.

So, altogether, I've got thirteen fifty-foot rows, as well as a mounded area for the corn/beans/squash/ sunflower combo, four rectangular patches, and two rows for the fruit bushes and plants (not counting the trees). Not bad for our third year doing this.

Now comes the fun part: waiting, watching, and weeding. And killing potato bugs; that's almost an hour every single morning, just scraping bright orange eggs off the leaves. But it has to be done; I'd rather do that than spend two or more hours every day pulling full-grown bugs off the stalks after they've devoured all the potato leaves. This year, I'm going to win the fight. It's not perfect, but since we don't use pesticides or the like, it's the old-fashioned way. I'm working on some natural ways to beat them, but it really boils down to scraping off the eggs and grabbing any bugs that are still around to lay more.

And waiting them out isn't really an option; apparently, they can live a couple of years. So, I have to keep them from getting past the egg stage if I don't want them to overrun the row. I read last year that garlic was a good deterrent, but I'm realizing that I have to actually plant the potatoes in amongst the garlic to keep the bugs from getting at the potatoes; the garlic is in surrounding rows, twenty-four or so inches between the closest garlic and potato plants. So, it's not close enough to have any effect.

And so, after I feed the animals every morning, I spend time on the potatoes. The rest of the weeding can wait until later in the day, since my fifty-two-year-old back isn't up to doing more than that early in the morning. And the rest of the garden isn't really that bad, anyway; the weeds are pretty well contained so far. The grass, however, is annoying. To a gardener, grass is a weed. To a lot of college students, too, but that's a different kind of grass.

So, why do this? I live on an island that is literally the potato capital of the world, where potatoes are cheaper than air in some places. Why spend all this time growing some myself, when we can just buy them at the store? And I don't even like eating potatoes that much; I can't eat them mashed due to the texture, and other than fried, I rarely touch them. So, why go through all of this?

Because, like everything else we are growing, this is OUR food. We know what's going into it, and we know what's coming out. No chemicals, no sprays, no genetically-modified weird stuff. Fresh, healthy, natural food. That is the entire point of doing this. And with the latest news that synthetic, lab-grown meat is being rolled out for public testing in California, it's even more important that we do this. I sure as hell don't trust something grown in a lab, not after what the world went through over the past three years.

So, I'll continue this morning routine until I see no more bugs and no more eggs. And this time, I'm going to win the potato bug war. There may be casualties (my back, my legs, my sanity...), but that's the price to be paid when waging a war to the bitter end. And the reward at the end of it all? Real food, the way God intended it to be. That's worth it.

Why We Chose to Farm

Hello to any new readers who have stopped by thanks to the Big Based Book Sale. I'm honored that you chose to visit me here, and you're probably wondering what a guy who writes fantasy, sci-fi, mysteries, and steampunk superheroes is doing talking about living on a farm.

It's simple, really. When we moved out here in September of 2020, we had been living in a small town for the entirety of our marriage; our two youngest boys were born there, and raised in that same small town. But we always knew that wasn't our forever home; we just didn't know where we would end up.

The decision to move was an easy one; we knew that we weren't happy where we were, and we wanted to give our kids a better place to spend their remaining childhood years. But we were still thinking about suburban life, near a big city; San Antonio, Texas, was one place that we actively looked at, years ago. But moving to the States isn't easy, and during Covid...well, that was just out of the question. So, that eliminated Tennessee, Florida, the Carolinas, and a few other places we had been considering.

That left moving somewhere else in Canada. Again, rural life wasn't on our radar, but when we started looking at the Maritimes, the thought of living outside the city and out in the quiet land was more and more appealing. So, we picked a small hobby farm in western Prince Edward Island, bought it, packed everything up, sold our house, and trekked across Eastern Canada for five days to get here.

So, why farm? We're not doing anything commercially; it's a small, 20-acre farm, half of which is woods, so there's not a lot of room to grow anything significant, like wheat or barley. It's an old dairy farm, so there are buildings set up for that, and grazing fields for the cattle. But we don't have cows.

But we took a long, hard look at the economy in Canada, and realized that things were going to get much, much worse before they got any better. Inflation wasn't jumping up the way it is now, but the writing was on the wall for those who knew how to read it. Add to that the issues with the food in the grocery stores (overpriced, processed crap, for the most part, including the produce), and we decided that we'd have to learn how to grow our own food. And by 'we', it was obviously going to be 'me'. My wife is amazing at prepping food; she is a kitchen goddess, a living cheat code for cooking. And she even has experience working in her parents' garden centre when she was a teenager. But when it came to actually digging into the ground, planting stuff and making sure it grew, that was on me.

And it's a challenge that I have learned to relish. I've spent decades looking for some meaning in the work I do, whether it was working in retail, selling life insurance, bookkeeping, teaching...but none of it had the impact that this life does. It's an incredible thing to put seeds into the ground and watch them turn into amazing, delicious food. Not only that, but we've got plenty of meat as well: chickens, pigs, and possibly rabbits, if the ones we do have start producing young. I'm planting trees today that my grandkids will sit under and pick apples from. That's an amazing legacy to leave behind.

It's weird, especially for someone who grew up with a military father and a lifetime of city or small-town living. But it feels amazing. To get up in the morning and just breathe that fresh air (okay, it's not infrequently seasoned with fresh cow manure from the surrounding fields) is an experience in and of itself. And every morning as I step outside to go feed the animals, I thank God for giving us this opportunity. It's His farm, after all; I'm just tending it, like we were commanded to do all the way back at the beginning.

I've learned that this life isn't for everyone; there are a lot of people who would never be able to make the transition from city or suburban life to this way of living. And it is a fundamental change, something that requires a wholly different mindset. Out of the rat race, focusing on building something sustainable, something long-lasting, something my grandkids will be able to come home to someday. It's a challenge I never thought I could even contemplate, but it's a challenge I'm facing head-on. And with a beautiful, loving wife by my side, and three boys with their own unique contributions to make, I really believe it's possible.

And if the world really is going to hell and society is teetering on collapse, then we're giving ourselves the best opportunity to pull through it and make it to the other side. And if not, at least I'll eat better than ever before, knowing where everything on the plate is coming from: My own backyard.

Combining Two Passions

I have been quite focused on the farm lately; understandable, since it's finally planting season here on Prince Edward Island, so I've been doing a lot of digging in the ground to get the seeds and transplants in. And I haven't touched the writing side of the blog since the end of the April A to Z Challenge. But that doesn't mean I'm not writing anything.

I'm working on both the new Meterra book as well as another Cameron Vail mystery. But I'm also looking at doing something completely different: A children's picture book. Not with art by me, since I utterly suck at that. But I'm starting a book about a city kid whose family moves to a farm. It's a topic I have some familiarity with, after all. I've got some great ideas to work with, and it is starting to take shape. I'll have to find someone who can do the art, of course.

I'll keep this updated as I go along; it's an idea I've been toying with for a while, and now it's ready to go, writing-wise.

What a Crazy Week it's Been

Wow...I didn't realize I hadn't posted in a week. But then, I haven't had much time to actually do minor things like think in the past week, either.

After the rain finally finished, I got back out to the garden and worked on getting it finished. I only have eleven rows; I had originally planned to have sixteen, but I miscalculated and made the garden too narrow. For a guy who is pretty darn good at math, I screw up a lot of calculations. Maybe it's lack of sleep. Or getting old. I dunno.

Anyway, eleven rows. They are, in order of planting: garlic, potatoes, garlic, carrots, onions, onions, beets and red onions, lettuce and the rest of the red onions, and tomatoes in the final three rows. Almost seventy tomato plants, in fact. We are going to be swimming in pasta sauce this winter.

I sometimes feel like I'm not moving fast enough; it's mid-June, and I haven't planted anything in the other two gardens yet. Yes, we've added a garden in the front, shaded by a large tree so it's not in full sun all day long. This will make it ideal for peas and other crops that don't like being in the hot sun for hours and hours. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower...all good.

And then there's the third garden, the original one I dug up when we first started on this incredible journey. That one is going to be an experimental garden this year. I'm trying the 'Three Sisters' method, which is actually indigenous to this island; the Micmac tribe used to do this. Maybe I'll end up teaching their descendants; who knows? Anyway, it's a mixture of corn, beans and squash that complement each other and grow together to create really nice harvests. I hope. We shall see; it's getting late in the season already to do this, so I'm not sure how it's going to go. But I'll be working on that tomorrow.

But today was a sort-of relaxing day. I decided that today would be strictly devoted to the animals, particularly since we added a few. We've got four baby chicks that were hatched by a friend of ours last week; they're in the kitchen, and they're all from our own eggs. We don't know what breeds they all are, though. Probably mixed breeds.

And last night, we went to a chicken farm near Summerside and met a nice couple who showed us their setup. I thought we had a lot of chickens; they've got several hundred. We were there to buy some of their Chanticler chickens. We have three of our own (the white chickens we received a few weeks ago), and while these ones are younger, we picked up sixteen of them. Some are roosters, but they make good eating if we have to cull a few of them. For those who don't know, the Chanticler is the breed that was developed right here in Canada; it's designed to withstand Canadian winters and still lay a bunch of eggs and produce great meat. And we now have nineteen of them. I'm looking forward to that.

But before we picked them up, we set up the outdoor pen for Samson and Delilah, our breeding pair of pigs. No, we aren't eating them; they're going to provide us with lots of bacon seeds next year. Here they are, getting accustomed to their new, green digs. Not that it will stay green for too long...

As you can see, they're only kept in by electric fence wire. I couldn't come up with a way to incorporate a gated fence into the setup without spending way more time and money than I had available. So, we went with this method instead. It was a bit of an adventure last night, as Delilah tried to crawl under the wire...which wasn't connected properly, so she made a break for it without being shocked. Samson naturally followed, and after we chased them down for twenty minutes, we had them back in. This time the wires were charged, and...Delilah crawled under anyway. She got zapped, but she was already halfway out, so she just bolted forward and out of the pen. But Samson didn't follow her this time, and she came back to be with him, only to be shocked again going through the wires again. Silly girl...

They spent the night inside this shelter (in a large dog crate, just to make sure). This morning, I let them out of the crate and watched them for a full hour to see what they would do. Samson got curious about the white string surrounding him, and sniffed at it. He then received a sharp lesson in how mixing electricity and biology is bad. It took him two tries before he decided he wanted nothing more to do with that nasty wire. Delilah, being female, was a bit more stubborn and needed another lesson in 'don't touch the white wire' before she finally gave in and settled in.

By the way, Samson is the one with floppy ears; he's a bit thicker, and he's got a rather obvious feature that's visible when he's upright or walking. Delilah's ears are straight, and she's skinnier than Samson. Otherwise, it's not always easy to tell them apart. In fact, I only realized the ear thing today.

Being pigs, they're rooting around in the grass and the bushes against the barn wall. The only thing I don't like about this setup is that it's behind the barn where we can't see them unless we take a long walk around. I'm hoping to install some cameras so we can keep an eye on them from the house, but that's not going to be happening any time soon. For now, we'll just do it the old-fashioned way.

Anyway, we moved them out because we had new guests arriving. Well, one of them arrived today. His name is Bob, according to Tanner. He wanted to name him Road Hog, but I nixed that on the spot. So, Bob it is. Here he is:

Unlike Samson and Delilah, Bob is destined for the freezer. And he won't be alone; we're picking up two more meat pigs this weekend past Charlottetown. After that, we're pretty much done with our livestock for this year. Within a week or so I plan to have their own outdoor pen ready; they'll be in the barn until then, and Bob's going to have to wait until Saturday to meet his new roommates. He had a bit of a rough day, with all the driving and moving around he had to do. But he's home now, at least for the next few months.

So, with today being dedicated to the animals, it was a more relaxing day. Except that the Chanticlers are small enough to fit through the fencing we had them in, so we had some fun chasing them around the yard to get them back. I'm going to have to build another coop just for these birds. Sigh...

In veggie news, we have our first crop of rhubarb in the freezer. We also have a lot of potato plants and onions sprouting up, as well as the first hints of carrots and lettuce peeking out from the ground. The beets haven't popped yet, but we'll get there. For now, I'm going to kick back and relax for the evening, then get back to planting and weeding tomorrow. Again, Sigh...

Enough with the Rain Already!

Okay, it's rained at least part of the day every day since last Thursday. That is officially overkill. We've had more than two inches of rain now, and it's getting ridiculous. I've only been able to get some of my stuff done in the garden; I've spent more time out in the barn and in the shop doing things that need to get done, but I really want to get the gardens finished.

Still, today wasn't a complete waste of a day; the weather was nice enough this morning (we even got some sun!) so I was able to get another garden row ready and full of beet seeds. I have another row just about ready to go, but I'm not sure what to put in there just yet. I'd like to get the lettuce in, since it grows pretty quickly. But we shall see.

Our next big project/purchase will definitely be a greenhouse. We're still looking at where is the best spot to put it, but we've narrowed it down to a couple of places on the property that get good sun throughout the day. Now we just have to actually get the darn thing. Greenhouses are not cheap.

In livestock news, we have some news from our friends who are incubating some of our chanticleer eggs: We have hatchings! At least two as of the last report I got, so that's great news. Unfortunately, we're having issues with the hens in our main coop: Some of them are eating eggs. That is NOT good news, but it's almost impossible to tell which hens are actually starting it unless we catch them in the act. I've already caught two, and they're out with the roosters waiting to be culled. If we have to, we'll cull the entire flock and start over with the babies that are hatching now.

We're getting three meat pigs instead of two, and you all know what that means: LOTS of bacon. We made good money selling pork last year from our two piggies, enough that we effectively paid nothing for the meat we kept. This year, we're going to make a profit. Samson and Delilah are growing, and I expect that within a few weeks they'll be able to go outside. I just have to get their pen built and ready to go.

And both our bunny-girls are pregnant! At least, we're pretty darn sure they are. Bugs certainly did his part to get them that way, and Artemis (the gray bunny-girl) has been decorating her new lair with fur and straw. We'll be selling baby bunnies by the end of summer, whether as pets or as stewing meat. I'm fine either way.

So, all in all, it's been a decent few days here on the farm. More stuff will be happening soon, but we'll have to wait for the weather to improve. Eventually.

What the Hell Was I Thinking?!

Dear God, that was a day and a half compressed into ten hours. I got a lot done, but I'll be paying for it in the morning.

So, Week One is done. Since I 'retired' from my job, I planted potatoes, carrots, and onions, as well as dealing with pigs, chickens and rabbits. And driving kids back and forth. I forgot about that part of the deal of being home. Well, it's time to be a dad, anyway.

So, today started bright and early; I was working by seven o'clock. And it was raining. Drizzling, really. Barely any precipitation until the afternoon. So, I got done as much as I could before the rains came. And here are the results of my efforts today:

You can see the garlic to the right; that's as far as I got as of yesterday. The heat was too much yesterday to do any planting, so I did other work instead. But today, there are carrots and onion in the garden.

The tall white stick to the left is the marker for the shallots. They go from the top of the bed to that post. Well, she wanted lots of onions; she's going to get them.

This marker is for the carrots that I planted today. That was from one packet full of seeds left over from last year; it wasn't even a full packet. But it made a lot of carrots. Or, it will. I'm going to stagger my carrot planting weekly; next Friday, I'll plant another packet. The following Friday, another one. I expect I'll be able to do four packets before I run out of space on that bed. I'll have to see if that's enough carrots to start; she might want more. If so, I've got plenty of other rows to fill. But staggering the planting means I can have a regular, continuous harvest throughout the summer. And once the first batch is out, I should have enough season left to get another batch planted. We shall see.

These two beds are full of onions. One hundred feet of onions. I mentioned the shallots; this is the other end of the bed. You can see our next-door neighbour's house in the background. The first sticks in both beds mark the boundary of the yellow onions. Both beds have yellow onions up to those sticks. That's a lot of yellow onions.

These sticks mark the white onions. The shorter brown stick on the right and the tall white stick on the left. Again, lots and lots of onions. I think I planted them five in a row for the most part, so they are close together. That's bio-intensive farming, where there's less space between the plants so as to help crowd out weeds. It works best for plants that don't have extensive root systems, such as carrots and onions, since their roots don't compete with each other. Everything I've planted so far is a root veggie (garlic, potatoes, onions, carrots), so they will all work for the bio-intensive method.

That narrow gap between the two sticks on the right is for multiplier onions. I have no idea what they are, but she bought a box of them, and there were only eight in there. So, they get a small area for themselves. Beyond them and all the way to the shallots' marker are the scallions, or green onions. On the left from the stick to the end of the bed are Spanish onions.

So, as I mentioned, that was a lot of work. Not only did I have the planting to do, but I had to get the beds ready. This is virgin territory; the big garden only saw limited use last year, and that was on the other side closer to the barn. So, I had to make all those beds. Snow shovels work wonders for making the pathways, and the rain helps keep the cardboard down. The cardboard acts as a mulch, eventually decomposing from all the rain but keeping the weeds out of the pathways. The weeds in the beds, on the other hand, I'll have to cull by hand. Still, it helps to have the cardboard down. Except when it's windy. And it's always windy on PEI.

The scary thing? I'm not quite halfway across the garden. And I've still got tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, pepper plants, and more to go. Again, what the hell was I thinking? I gave up a comfortable, air-conditioned office job so grub around in the dirt and rain. I must be as crazy as everyone always thought.

If so, the world could use more of that kind of crazy. I wouldn't trade this for anything right now.

Alright, time for some bonus pics. First...a much clearer shot of Samson and Delilah, who have learned that when Daddy comes to the railing, there's usually food involved. Not always, though; this was just for a camera shot.

I have no idea which is which; unless I get a profile from a low angle, I'm not going to know, either.

Finally, here is some inspiration for us all. I mentioned last year that we suffered minimal damage from Hurricane Fiona. One of the things we lost, though, was the heritage apple tree behind the barn, the one we didn't even know about until last year. Fiona uprooted this old tree, which was rather disappointing. But this tree isn't done yet, apparently:

That is a lot of apple blossoms. Here's a closer look:

We're going to get apples this year. We thought we'd be cutting this tree up for wood chips to smoke bacon with (applewood bacon! Yum!). But God had other plans.

Here's the tree from the other side of the treeline. As you can see, it is definitely knocked over. No surprise we expected it to be dead, right? But take a look at the roots:

It's still in the ground, just enough that it's still drawing water and nutrients from the soil, enough to blossom like crazy. It's like the tree knew we'd given it up for dead, and was determined to prove us wrong. And I'm very happy to be proven wrong.

Dannielle wants to fence off this tree and call it 'the garden of Eden'. I can't blame her, really. This tree got taken out by a hurricane and didn't even slow down. There's a lesson there for us all.

The Changing Seasons

Good Lord, that was a hot one. The temperature around suppertime was 34°C today. And it's only June 1st. I thought PEI didn't get weather that extreme. Stupid Wikipedia.

Anyway, it's been an interesting week. I haven't got everything done that I wanted to do this week, but I've still got a couple of days left to accomplish a few things. I was supposed to be planting carrots and onions yesterday, but the garden needed a proper tilling first. I still don't have a handle on how the whole tractor thing works, so I had to wait until Ashton got home tonight. But it's done, so I'll be moving in on that tomorrow and Saturday. Along with corn, squash, peas, and beans. Yes, it's going to be a very busy weekend. And it's supposed to rain.

So, what do I think so far? Well, I've put new bunny hutch doors on (much thicker than they were at first), fixed a rooster coop twice, and brought our meat birds out into the fresh air for the first time. They're still young, only developing their feathers, so we didn't leave them out too long, especially in this heat. Still, they had a good time. At least, I think they did. They didn't tell me either way, so I'll assume on the positive side.

The piggies are doing well; they're eating pretty much anything I throw in there, and they're a lot less skittish than they were. It's a good start to their lives here. Oh, and Artemis, one of our bunny-girls, is definitely expecting. Good work, Bugs! Jellybean, on the other hand, hasn't given Bugs the time of day yet. I'm sure it's going to happen soon. The three of them are down in the chicken coop instead of the nice bunny hutch I built for them. Catching the girls isn't easy; they don't trust anyone. Bugs is used to us, but the bunny-girls? Nope. It's like chasing chickens. Except they're smarter and faster.

So, now that June has begun, it's time to really kick this into gear. The gardens are pretty much ready for planting; I've got a big day ahead of me tomorrow, and another one on Saturday. I hope to have at least half the planting done by the time the sun goes down on Saturday night.

Yeah, life as a farmer. What the hell was I thinking?

Day One on the Farm

Technically, it's not Day One; it's more like Day 850 or something. But today was the first day I was officially no longer part of the rat race. That's right, no more alarm clocks for me. I don't need an alarm; I've got roosters and a cat that wants to be fed VERY early in the morning. Sleep? Bah. I'm a farmer now.

So, Friday was my last day of office work, and I spent the weekend with the boys doing stuff. We split a whole bunch of logs on Saturday, after which Tanner was confirmed in the Catholic Church, which was quite the big deal. On Sunday, I cleaned all the straw off the garlic that we put down last year before the snow came. The garlic is doing well.

Today, the big project was getting the potatoes planted. We were storing the potatoes in the basement over the winter, since we didn't get around to eating them all. We were told last year that storing potatoes with apples would cause them to sprout like crazy, so we made sure they weren't anywhere near any apples over the winter. Here's the result:

Charming. So much for the apple theory. And these ones were just the ones inside a bin; the ones that were out in the open air? They had beanstalks growing out of them. Apparently, those can still be planted. So, I cut up a whole bunch of them, keeping the sprouts on, and planted them in between the rows of garlic.

My second major job for the day was putting cardboard down in the pathways between the garden rows. This will keep the weeds down, as well as reduce the amount of dirt I get on my clothes. Because fastidiousness is obviously an important part of farming. Here's the results of my work over the past couple of days:

There's a lot of garlic in there; those are 50-foot rows, garlic on both sides, four garlic bulbs per row, planted about every eight inches or so. We're going to have more garlic than we know what to do with by the end of the year. And I love it.

The garlic has done well under the straw, so it's going to be a good crop in October. There's still some residual straw on the beds, but that's fine; it'll have no effect on the garlic.

And yes, we have a lot of dandelions on our property. Turns out that they aren't just weeds; they're useful in adding essential nutrients into the soil. Not to mention, my wife makes jelly out of it; we call it 'poor man's honey', and people seem to like it. We'll be selling some this year.

So, that's the start of this crazy farming journey. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

A Very Big Announcement

Well, there's been a lot of soul searching, a lot of discussion with my wife, and a lot of praying. And the decision has been made. It was actually made a couple of weeks ago, but the turning point is just around the corner. So, here it is:

As of this Friday, I am retiring.

Okay, that's rather dramatic. But I am leaving my job, and I'm not looking for another one. I've been looking, but nothing has come up that would fit the circumstances our family is in. And so, as of Friday I am going to be home, full-time, working on the farm. Raising the animals, growing food, doing building projects...yeah, I'm taking the plunge.

Why? Especially in this economy, with jobs being hard to find and inflation hitting us hard? Because it's necessary. And it's a leap of faith, no question. But the truth is, this was inevitable. This is what we've been moving toward for three years now, ever since we started looking eastward for our family move.

I've spent my life jumping from job to job, hobby to hobby, always looking for something that was the right fit. I've worked in fast food, book stores, grocery, teaching, music, insurance, telemarketing, telephone customer service, bookkeeping...and nothing, not even the book stores, gave me a sense of satisfaction, or made me feel I was doing something truly worthwhile.

And ever since we moved here, I've had that feeling when I worked on the farm, whether it was feeding the chickens, digging out a garden, planting seeds, even building a rabbit hutch. This feels like it matters, like nothing else ever has. For the past three years, I've been drawn more and more to this life, and I'm finally surrendering. And while it's scary as hell, it's also exciting and amazing at the same time.

Frankly, when I stop to think about it, it's not at all surprising. After all, what was the very first thing God commanded Adam and Eve to do, after telling them to have lots of kids? He commanded them to till the land and keep it, and to have dominion over the land and the creatures on it. It doesn't get any more elemental than that. So really, I'm just doing what God told me to do.

So far, we've had a lot of support from friends and neighbours, as well as family. Which is gratifying, to say the least, not to mention surprising. In a good way. We will need that moral support in the months to come as we go through this change.

So, what does this mean? Well, it means that I'm going to be able to give the gardens the attention they will need. Instead of a couple of days a week plus evenings, I'll be full-time in the gardens, using them to their fullest capacity. I'm planning to enroll in a couple of courses that will help me maximize the garden's output so we have enough not only for ourselves, but also to sell. After all, there are still bills to pay. And there's a lot of work to do on the farm that I just don't have time to do when working at a full-time job, things that absolutely have to get done.

It's a big deal, I know. And it's going to be an incredible journey, one that I wish I could have taken years ago, but one that I wasn't ready to take until now. But I am ready, and so is the rest of the family. And yes, I'm still going to write. And I'll have more time for that, too.

A Little Pair...A Huge Step

Well, we are taking the plunge for real. Below are the newest additions to the Sprigg family farm: Meet Samson and Delilah.

No, these are not bacon seeds. They are a breeding pair. They are going to be with us long-term, providing us with lots of bacon seeds in the future. Seven weeks old, we picked them up this weekend in New Brunswick. It was a long drive, and they spent hours and hours in that crate in the back of the truck. But they made it, and after spending a night in the chicken coop to get acclimated to the new digs, they moved into our makeshift pigpen yesterday.

And they immediately started looking for ways out. Because pigs do that. I spotted their first attempt at freedom, and boarded it up before they could get through. I thought I was clever, but apparently I'm not pig-clever. Because within an hour, they'd found the spot I hadn't blocked off, and were merrily exploring the barn and the surrounding areas.

Fortunately, I was able (with Tanner's help) to wrangle them back into their pen. Mom was amused, of course. But I'll be at work all week, so if they get out again, that might be a problem. Hopefully, though, I've closed off their last remaining avenue of escape.

So, they're getting used to their new home. We're going to have to make some adjustments to the outdoor area; they're too small for it right now, being able to squeeze in between the wall and the first posts. So, we're going to make a new section that they can work on; that section will be a new garden next year, because that's what pigs do: They till up the ground real good.

Anyway, that's the big news on the farm today. Yes, I'm planning to get back to writing and blogging about writing, but there are some significant changes going on in our lives right now, so adjustments will be made. But in the meantime, it's piggy-time here on the farm.

More Farm Fun

So, now that we have meat birds, it's time to add to our collection of critters. The chickens are producing lots of eggs, but eggs on their own don't make a breakfast. We need bacon.

So, this weekend we are driving to New Brunswick to pick up a couple of breeding pigs. These aren't going to be like our pigs from last year; these aren't fast-growing, so we won't see any babies until next year. But the babies, when they arrive, will indeed be bacon seeds.

So, tonight we put together the pig pen. It's a temporary one, just to hold them for a week or so while we get the outdoor pen ready. It's the same one we used to hold Peppa and George last year, and they turned out alright. These two piggies will start out there, then expand to a larger outdoor area. We'll have to split them up at some point; the boar will be a little too interested in the sow earlier than we'd like, so they'll have to be separated until it's time to breed them.

Look at me, writing about this stuff like I have the slightest clue what I'm talking about. We haven't even successfully bred the bunnies yet, and we're bringing home some pigs to breed. Man, it's crazy.

Anyway, a short post tonight...but a big announcement coming next week. Stay tuned.

Hot Chicks on the Farm

Well, it's springtime, and that means babies. Lots and lots of them on a farm. In our particular case, I'm talking about a box full of baby chickens. Meat kings/Cornish Cross birds, like we had last year. They grow really fast (and eat an ungodly amount of food in the process), and are ready for butchering in eight to ten weeks.

Here's Garrett, holding a two-day old baby chick (with Daddy's help). He's very excited, but he doesn't like having them poop on his hand. Totally understandable; I didn't enjoy it, either. Still, he is enthusiastic about the experience.

They're staying in the house tonight; we weren't expecting them until Wednesday, so we aren't fully prepared for their arrival. There's a makeshift bin with a warming plate, food and water for them, so they'll be fine overnight. Tomorrow, we'll get the bin in the garage ready for them. Much roomier, to give them room to grow. And they will grow. Last year, our meat birds averaged 6.75 pounds. We had a couple reach the eight-pound mark.

And don't worry, the birds will be totally safe tonight; we have a volunteer to watch over them, all night long if necessary.

I totally trust him; don't you?

Did I Actually Do That?

I've spoken before about my ineptitude with tools, handyman projects, and pretty much anything to do with manual labour. Well, I'm putting all that aside now, because I didn't just finish a project; I finished a BIG project.

Big for me, at least. And for the new occupants, it's pretty big, too.

That's right...it's a rabbit hutch. Doors at both ends, a partitioned area for sleeping and getting out of the wind (we get lots of that here, especially in the wind tunnel that is between our barn and garage), a slanted roof that will shed the precipitation (hopefully), and space for them to move around in. Best of all, we put them in inside a chicken run, so we can let them out to play in the grass once in a while.

That's Artemis, peeking out from behind the partition. The two lines of light at the back are the outline of the second door. The straw will allow them to stay warm and give them a nest for their young, once they have them.

And there they are in the partitioned area; obviously, I came in through the back door for this picture. The brown bunny is Jellybean. Neither of them have any use for people; I had a heck of a time getting them from their barn cage to the new hutch. The problem is that I forgot the first rule of dealing with bunnies: Wear gloves.

There's Jellybean. The hardware cloth is very securely attached, so there won't be any predators getting in there. The only vulnerable spot right now would be the doors themselves, which aren't very thick since I didn't have good material to work with; I repurposed some thin (1/4") plywood for the door section. I'll be replacing them once I have some fresh plywood of the proper thickness. For now, though, it should suffice; as you can see in the first picture, they're three feet off the ground as it is.

We are going to be putting in a second partitioned area so that each of the girls has her own section to sleep in and raise their young. The food and water bowls are temporary; we're going to be setting up dispensers on the side through the hardware cloth this week. Easier to fill from the outside, and more  secure for the girls and their kits once they are born.

So, it's bunny farming time. And Bugs, our buck, is going to be spending some quality time with both of them this week so as to encourage production of the aforementioned kits. Yeah, it's going to be a busy summer on the Sprigg farm...

Ramping Up the Farm

Well, with everything going on, it's important to remember that there's still a farm to build and run. This week hasn't been productive in terms of getting that rabbit hutch finished, and we have chicks coming next week (meat birds) and pigs after that. Time flies when you don't know what the hell you're doing.

So, this weekend is going to be busy as heck; we have to get the pen ready for the pigs and get a miniature coop ready for the chicks. We picked up a nice little enclosure to keep them in while they're growing, but they'll be too small for that for a few weeks.

Some of the things we're talking about doing include: Purchasing tools to butcher our own chickens. Yes, we're going to be doing that soon enough. We have to; it's expensive to get someone else to do it for us. We had a line on a used chicken plucker that would have been a great help, but it sold right from under our noses. So, we're looking around some more.

The weather is getting nicer; we're expecting the last frost day by the end of the month, and that means it's gardening time. I've got some plants growing in the house right now, but there aren't that many. Still, it's an experiment; we failed miserably two years ago and didn't even bother trying to grow our own seedlings last year. This year...let's see how it turns out.

There's a lot of transition at this time of year, so it's going to be a challenge to get things up and running the way we need them to. But we're up to the challenge.

Fortunate Son: Enterprise Retrospective

I haven't done one of these in a while.

So, this was the first episode to focus on Travis Mayweather, the ship's helmsman. His backstory at this point was basically 'he was raised on a cargo ship and rarely spent any time on Earth'. Okay, that would be an unusual background for that era, less than a century from the invention of warp drive, but certainly possible, even plausible. After all, at low-warp speeds, it takes a long time to get from one star system to another.

So, here's the plot recap from Wikipedia:

An Earth freighter with a crew of twenty-three, ECS Fortunate, is attacked by Nausicaans and Enterprise is sent to help. When they arrive, the freighter is relatively unharmed apart from Captain Keene, who is lying unconscious in the ship's infirmary, but the rest of the crew are secretive and reluctant to provide explanations. While helping repair Fortunate, Sub-Commander T'Pol detects a Nausicaan bio-sign. It transpires that Commander Matthew Ryan and his men are secretly torturing the captive for his shield access codes. Ryan admits the Nausicaan pirate is their prisoner, but refuses to let the Starfleet personnel see him, and Captain Archer threatens to retract his assistance to Fortunate.

Ryan seemingly relents, but as Archer and his away team enter a cargo section of the freighter, the cargo pod is suddenly jettisoned with the away team inside. Before Fortunate warps away, it attempts to damage Enterprise in order to delay pursuit. Enterprise recovers its people and begins pursuit of the rogue freighter. Meanwhile, Fortunate arrives at the asteroid used by the Nausicaan pirates, but discover the acquired shield codes are useless. The pirates attempt to board the freighter and rescue their captured crewman just as Enterprise arrives and begins to engage the Nausicaan ships.

Archer is soon able to broker a temporary truce: if they can return the Nausicaan captive, the boarding party will stand down. Ryan is uncooperative until Ensign Mayweather intervenes, saying that Ryan's motivations are not about preventing future attacks on Earth ships; they are about personal revenge, and doing so simply exposes other freighter crews to revenge attacks as well. Ryan relents. Later, Archer and Captain Keene of Fortunate discuss Ryan's actions and his demotion to Crewman 3rd class. They agree Ryan acted rashly, but Keene also muses that acting on their own is the primary motivation his people are out here — to both challenge and prove themselves.

**************

Okay, so this was our first look at civilian life in the warp era. Cargo hauling has been around since cavemen started trading shiny rocks; only the methods of transport have changed. Imaging long-haul truck driving, except your destination is light-years away and takes four years to get there. That's what life is like on low-warp cargo transports. And when you're out there by yourself, there ain't no cavalry to come riding in to the rescue when bad things happen. Unless, of course, the Enterprise happens to be around.

The Nausicaans are a race that originally appeared in the TNG series; most famously, they are instrumental in the episode where Picard dies and Q shows him what life would have been like had he made different choices. Here, the Nausicaans, much like the humans, are living a much more primitive life than they would two centuries later. We don't get much on their culture; they're basically a 'bad alien of the week' race. But for long-time fans, it's a nice touchstone.

Overall, I'd say this episode gives us a glimpse of what 'Space Boomer' life would be like. The image of the football slowly flying across the entire cargo bay with hang time that would make Aaron Rodgers jealous is a great visual, and the crew's attitude feels authentic. After all, they've been dealing with these situations for decades, and they're not interested in the government (in the form of the Enterprise) sticking its nose in their business. There is a lot that feels predictable (the shield frequency not working, the crew having a Nausicaan prisoner to torment, and Travis' instinctive defense of the Boomers, etc.), but the episode is still decent, if not great. Sadly we wouldn't get much more of a look at the Boomer culture until season two.

So, what rating does this get? I'd say 6 out of 10; it's an average episode, nothing groundbreaking, but not bad. It helps to develop the feel for human culture of the time, which is always good.

I still say that if I were to run a Star Trek game, I would run it in this era. Weaker tech, but so, so much to explore. And there's no telling what else might be found out there.

Construction Season

Well, now that we're into May, it's time for actual spring, as opposed to official spring, which is a joke here when the last frost date for the season is around May 28th. And so, that means it's time to get farm stuff done. Our first building project of the season: A bunny hutch for the Flemish giants. The goal: To breed the bunnies and sell the babies, either as food or as pets, I don't really care either way.

My wife got me a book on homesteading projects for the rookie builder. That would be me; I've mentioned before my lack of affinity for tools. But I'm getting it done, and it's looking pretty good. I'll get some pictures up when I get it completed, which I hope to be around tomorrow or Sunday.

The best thing about this project is that both the older boys are helping me with it. Ashton's better with the tools, but Tanner is learning and doing stuff as well. It's important bonding time for a father and his sons. And with every project we do, our collective skill and understanding of how to do it will improve as well.

As for Garrett, well...he's starting to do more stuff outside, but he's nowhere near ready to be working with tools. But maybe I'll get him to help some other way this summer. It will be good for him.

Reflections on the A to Z Challenge

Believe it or not, I wrote the title before grabbing the graphic. Serendipity.

So, I would have to say that this was a successful endeavour. Twenty-six blog posts over the course of a month dedicated to expanding and describing the fantasy world I set some of my books and games in. And I added some new stuff on the way, such as the Yethrin; that was made up on the spot since I had no prior thought of what it even was.

It also gave me some inspiration and ideas for the next Meterra book, which was one of the whole purposes of the exercise for me. As I mentioned near the beginning, it's going to be a story involving Bartinus of the Royal Rangers and the Evergloom. Not everything I mentioned in the A to Z challenge will appear in the book, but several bits and pieces will definitely show up.

I appreciate the visitors I had from other websites, and I'm going to start my journey looking into other people's challenges. I did look at a few, mainly people who commented on my own posts, but not enough. I will rectify that over the year; I'm downloading the Master List to make sure I get to as many as I can.

It was also an excellent exercise in blogging discipline. I mean, I've done streaks more than a month long before, but those are random posts on whatever topic comes to mind at the time. This time, it was a purposeful journey through the alphabet on linked topics. And that is definitely a challenge.

So, what's next? I'm definitely going to do this again next year, but as to the topic...I have no clue yet. It'll come to me eventually, but I've got nearly eleven months to figure that out. In the meantime, there are books to be written and veggies to be grown. Maybe next year's challenge will involve the farm. We shall see. 

Z is for Zuerith

Holy cow...I did it. Or at least, I will have done it once this post is published. A to Z completed!

So, what is a zuerith? I'm glad you asked. There's a picture of one below. Nasty critter, isn't it? The image comes from The Dragon #8, dated July, 1977. It it from a time before the Monster Manual was printed, so it predates Advanced D&D. It was part of a monster-designing contest; the image was given, and submissions were made to the magazine. The eventual winner was posted in...Dragon 16, I think? I don't remember. But since I was doing a read-through of Dragon magazine and adding stuff to the D&D rules, I made my own version of the monster: the Zuerith.

The Zuerith is (only one has been seen so far, but there may be more) a creature that lives in a ruined place called the Decayed Pits. These pits are located between Meterra and Xebeoris. The adventurers who found the Pits explored them, naturally enough. The survivors emerged and told tales of this deadly creature discovered therein. Here are its gaming stats:

FREQUENCY: Very rare

NO. APPEARING: 1

ARMOR CLASS: 3

MOVE: 9"

HIT DICE: 9

% IN LAIR: 40%

TREASURE TYPE: E

NO. OF ATTACKS: 1

DAMAGE/ATTACK: 4-16

SPECIAL ATTACKS: Thrown boulders, tail strike (3-18 damage)

SPECIAL DEFENSES: immune to fire, electricity

MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%

INTELLIGENCE: Low

ALIGNMENT: Neutral evil

SIZE: L (12' long)

PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil

  Attack/Defense Modes: Nil

LEVEL/XP VALUE: VII/1600+12/hp

The zuerith's ruddy skin and mottled tail strikes fear into the hearts of even the most experienced adventurers, for its strength is equal to that of an ogre, and it can hurl small boulders and other objects at opponents up to 24" away, doing 2-12 points of damage. Although its intelligence is low, is has an evil cunning with which it sets up ambushes in its cavernous lair. Its treasure is usually hidden, and it can use certain magic items (rings, potions, etc.). It cannot read scrolls, nor does it use weapons other than boulders. It always has a supply of at least a dozen boulders in its lair in case of unwanted guests.

The Zuerith does not speak, having no vocal chords. It does have a bellows-like vocal apparatus that allows it to make groaning sounds, but these are decidedly unpleasant and chilling to the listener. Its magical nature gives it a natural immunity to certain types of magic, and resistance to all magic; one-quarter of all magical attacks against it will fail. It will chase invaders out of its lair, but it will rarely follow them, unless it is particularly hungry.

And that will do it for this brief but fulfilling exploration of Meterra, its people, its cities, its geography, and its creatures. I've had a blast doing this, and I look forward to doing it again next year.

For those who have visited, thank you. I will reciprocate now that the month is over; in the real world I work in an accounting office, and Canadian tax season just ended. So, I will have more time to explore other blogs in the A to Z Challenge. I'm looking forward to it.

Y is for Yethrin

Every culture near the sea has its myths and legends about what might dwell under the water. Tales of mermaids, sea monsters, lost cities, sunken ships laden with treasure, and the like can be heard in every dockside tavern. Meterra is no different; the taverns and shanties along the North Coast and in Everton itself are full of such stories, including stories of the shark-men, the Yethrin.

Except in Meterra, the stories are true.

The Yethrin are creatures that live beneath the waves. They are rarely seen by those on the surface, for which those men are grateful. When the Yethrin do rise to the surface, they do so for the hunt. And their prey is men.

Reliable reports on the Yethrin are rare, since most of those who see them end up dragged under the water to be drowned and devoured. But what is known is that they are humanoid in shape, with powerful legs and webbed feet and hands to allow them to travel quickly through the water. Their heads are a horrible combination of man and shark, with their eyes somewhat wider than on a man's face, and two rows of razor-sharp teeth in their wide mouths. Their skin is leathery-gray, and they must keep it wet at all times; they are never seen out of the water for longer than it takes to snatch their prey and drag them underwater.

Since it is only through the use of magic that men can descend deep beneath the waves and safely return to the surface, knowledge of the Yethrin in the deeps is scant, almost non-existent. It is believed by some scholars that they are intelligent enough to have developed a crude civilization of their own, although their vicious temperament and predatory instincts would prevent them from having large communities. However, there are whispers that some of the Yethrin have learned the use of magic.

In combat, the Yethrin are lightning-fast, striking from beneath the surface of the water with precision and surprise. They hunt in small packs, attacking small boats when they find them, and sometimes even larger ships that offer tempting targets. None have ever been captured alive, although they can be killed.

Here are the gaming statistics for old-school D&D players; newer players will be able to convert them easily enough.

FREQUENCY: Very rare (rare underwater)
NO. APPEARING: 2-8 (3-30 in lair)
ARMOR CLASS: 5 (8 if dry)
MOVE: 6" on land/24" in water
HIT DICE: 3
% IN LAIR: 20%
TREASURE TYPE: I, Y
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 (claw/claw/bite)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4/1-4/3-12
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Surprise 1-5
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to fire
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low to Average
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (evil)
SIZE: M (up to 7' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
   Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/XP VALUE: III/105+3/hp

Yethrin are often accompanied by 'tame' sharks (25%) or sea lions (25%), but never both together. These animals will obey simple commands, although they are impossible to command once a battle has begun. If there are more than 10 yethrin in a group, one of them will be a leader with 4 or 5 hit dice and doing +1 or 2 damage on all attacks. In a larger gathering, the strongest yethrin will lead; he will have a minimum of 6 hit dice and do +4 damage on all attacks. There is also a 10% chance that there is a spellcaster amongst a group of yethrin; this caster will have the abilities of a magic-user between 2nd and 5th level.

In combat, when striking from the sea they will have a 5 in 6 chance of surprising their target and gaining a free attack sequence before the target can react and respond. This makes them extraordinarily dangerous. However, if the target can spot them coming (rolling a 6 on the surprise roll), the target automatically gets initiative and can attack the yethrin before it can strike. Being of the water, fire holds no fear for yethrin; they can shrug off even magical fire such as fireballs without harm.

X is for Xebeoris

Xebeoris (pronounced KHE-beh-o-rees) is not part of the kingdom of Meterra. Instead, it is a city-state many leagues to the east of the Stesard Plains. This city-state has recently begun trading with the Meterrans; their wares are unusual, but not totally unfamiliar to the European Crusaders, who had seen similar produce from Greek and other Mediterranean traders on Earth.

The Xebeorites are similar to the Europeans, in that they too were the subjects of an Arrival, albeit one that occurred centuries earlier. The Xebeorites were originally Greeks from the time of Athens' glory. But these men and women were not all Athenians; they were from all across the Greek-controlled regions. There were Spartans, Thebans, Syracusans, and many others. These disparate groups banded together for safety against the treacherous creatures that inhabit this strange land, many of them all too familiar to the transplanted Greeks from their own myths and legends.

Today, the Xebeorites have grown into a city-state numbering well over 25,000 people, more than twice the population of Everton. They retain aspects of their Athenian democratic heritage, but the city is ruled by a council of nine oligarchs drawn from the original tribal groupings. The citizens have an elected assembly that advises the council and can, on occasion, extract concessions from the oligarchs when they overreach their power over the citizenry. The military leadership is also subject to popular election, although the people have, to this point, demonstrated enough civic wisdom to ensure they have competent officers.

Xebeoris controls a wide area many leagues across, with a peasant population of at least 100,000 people. They cling to the worship of their ancient gods and goddesses; the Olympian pantheon is alive and well in this land. The priests of the Olympian gods have demonstrated some powers similar to those of the Meterran priesthood, and the magic of Xebeoris has surpassed that of Meterran wizards. And while their cultural traits and language are still based on the Classical Greek, it has evolved over time into a language that the Meterrans fluent in Greek can only partly understand. Still, the language barrier has proven to be less of a burden than originally feared, and the Xebeorites are glad to hear tidings of their legendary ancient homeland.

W is for Wardhurst Castle

Being European, the newest residents of Meterra like castles. Not the huge, concentric fortresses that came to dominate the later medieval period before gunpowders and cannons made castles a relic of the past, but the smaller forts of the earlier Middle Ages. Motte-and-bailey, rough-hewn stone, buildings that are meant to dominate the landscape and allow its inhabitants to cover a wide area for security. And since the Europeans have only been in Meterra for a few short years, they've only begun to dot the landscape with these magnificent edifices.

Wardhurst Castle is the newest of the Meterran fortifications, having been built just over a year ago to defend the western lands against the tribes of the Krypons Plains. It is the only castle commanded by a woman: Lady Jacquelle Guiffart, a blacksmith's daughter who took up arms in defense of her home in Aramar, and eventually became a respected adventuress. Although the Europeans were strongly opposed to her choice of profession, her skill and experience were undeniable. It was her efforts to thwart a kidnapping attempt against a pregnant Queen Ellisabeth that cemented her reputation, and she was rewarded by the king with a title of nobility and an assignment as the commander of Wardhurst Castle.

At first, many of the men assigned to the castle were, at best, reluctant to take orders from a woman. As such, more than half the troops in the castle are Ramai, who are less beholden to European views on gender roles and respect the fact that she is a successful and experienced warrior, regardless of her sex.

Lady Jaquelle is a proud woman with a willingness to take advantage of what people see as feminine weakness on her part. Many a time has she used her sex as a weapon to disarm opponents who see her as weak and unsuited for battle. However, with her new elevation and position, that advantage is whittling away as more people, including the Europeans, realize her competence. She leads a troop of one hundred men, and is said to be interested in taking a force into the Krypons to seek out and destroy grend encampments.

V is for Vonreston

This town is the only settlement on Kiralt Island. Home to 1,800 people, it is a town that thrives on the fishing industry as well as farming. It was settled after the Arrival by some of the German knights and soldiers who had been brought along. Although they pledged their allegiance to Eadric in the early days, they requested permission to settle away from the other towns and villages so as to preserve their own heritage. King Eadric agreed, and on the advice of some of the locals, they sailed to Kiralt Island to settle. As a result, Vonreston has a much different feel than the other settlements in Meterra.

While medieval Germany, France and England aren't really all that similar to their modern counterparts, there is still that regional sense of community in each nation. Obviously, England had it easier, being an island. But despite geographical closeness, the Rhine was a strong border between France and Germany in medieval times. Combining that with the Germanic resistance to the Roman Empire a millennia earlier, and Germany developed quite differently from the rest of Western Europe. Those differences are emphasized in Meterra, as the German Europeans are determined to maintain their unique culture while still being part of Meterra and the Church. Ironically, here it is Vonreston and Kiralt that will likely develop in a similar manner to England, with the island providing natural borders to cultural influences from the rest of Meterra.

Vonreston is led by His Grace, Graf Rickard, formerly of Bremen. The leader of the German Crusaders, and the military leader of the original expedition to the Holy Land, Rickard was badly injured in the initial battle against the grends and ogres the day after the Arrival. It was due to his injuries that Bishop Marten appointed Sir Eadric the Saxon as his replacement; Eadric would, of course, go on to be named King of Meterra after his triumph against the dragon. After Rickard's recovery, Eadric elevated him to the title of Count, or Graf, assuring his loyalty. Rickard is the epitome of a Germany knight: brave, almost to the point of foolhardiness, faithful, and loyal to his liege. He is the model for all of the German Europeans, and there are some who have suggested that he might hold out hope to replace Eadric as King someday. However, Rickard has made no such overtures, nor has he shown even the slightest bit of ambition beyond his current station. He is, in effect, a German king, albeit one subject to the Meterran king, and that's as far as he cares to go.

The biggest challenge for the German emigrants of Vonreston has been adapting to a fishing lifestyle rather than a farming one. The isle is pleasant and does have suitable pasture and farmlands, but the town's economy is largely fish-related. Strangely, however, there have been very few pirate raids on the island despite the growing economy and wealth. The Germans, after all, are fierce fighters, descended from Germanic barbarians, and the local pirates have learned that the Germans are more than happy to revert to type.