Solo [The Empyreal Demesne]Strike the Earth!

Djinn and others begin the process of cultivating the earth

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While Sylira is by far the most civilized region of Mizahar, countless surprises and encounters await the traveler in its rural wilderness. Called the Wildlands, Syliran's wilderness is comprised of gradual rolling hills in the south that become deep wilderness in the north. Ruins abound throughout the wildlands, and only the well-marked roads are safe.

[The Empyreal Demesne]Strike the Earth!

Postby Wa'Djinnabi on July 29th, 2019, 6:37 am

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Wa'Djinnabi wasn't what you would call a farmer. That is, while he liked to grow things and get his hands dirty, he tended to only really assist actual farmers in things like tilling, sowing and harvesting. If anything, he was a gardener, and he wasn't very good at that. He hadn't grown up learning all the tips and tricks that a good farmer had to bring his crops to yield. Even if he had Bala's blessing, that was less from skill and more from passion.

It was early morning in the Empyreal Demensne not far from the pavilion Kelski set up for them. At dawn the night watch came in and woke up the next shift and food and preparation for a day of hard work was started. Considering his blessing, Djinn was assigned the task of starting the farm. From what he did know of farming and agriculture, they would be at a disadvantage. They missed out on a whole season of growing time so they would not be able to grow the tradition kinds of grains and vegetables. Even with Bala's gift between him, and another lady named Mercy, they would be hard pressed even getting quickly growing foods to harvest before the winter frosts killed the plants, but Dawson was a professional and he would guide Djinn and Mercy into getting the farms up.

Djinn sipped a mug of aromatic tea as he surveyed the land he was assigned. A somewhat small plot, all things told. Though he would be able to expand it over the course of several days if he ran out of space. "So, what do you think Dawson?" He asked gesturing the soon to be farmland, grass and weeds dotting the area in the cool predawn light. "Well, let's see... there are what 20 of us? Give or take. To feed one person for a year we will need about... a half to a full acre of cropland, assuming that we use Bala's gift to supplement the growing time and the food we get from hunting, fishing and trading, we should probably start at 5 acres this year and expand to 10 next spring. The better we get at it the less space we will need and gods willing, if Bala grants us even more favor we could shrink that space even more." Djinn nodded to this and considered.

"In that case. We should go with as compact crops as we can. Corn is probably our best grain, we can make that into flour or eat it as it is." Djinn mused, more of a stab at being helpful in this planning, "Tomatoes will be good to help prevent scurvy and potatoes will be useful because they can grow over the winter months, provided it doesn't get to cold here, same with carrots. Grapes would be a nice summer treat that we can press into wine. Speaking of wine, we might want to grow barley for beer. Even if we drink it ourselves, we can also sell to the Svefra or even Zeltiva." He turned to mercy with his upper arms crossed, his middle set on his hips and his lower set behind his back, in his homeland this was a contemplative pose, though it didn't take much to make it confrontational.

Mercy replied with, "I'm thinking barley, corn, and something called amaranth for grain. You bring up a good point about brewing." She smiled, "Life is hard enough without some beer to take the edge off. Anyways, tomatoes, rhubarb and maybe some gourds. Though I wonder if we will have enough space to grow such a diverse amount of crops at the amounts we need."

The trio was silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
Planning out fields was harder then Wa'djinnabi ever supposed it would be.
Last edited by Wa'Djinnabi on August 5th, 2019, 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Wa'Djinnabi
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[The Empyreal Demesne]Strike the Earth!

Postby Wa'Djinnabi on July 30th, 2019, 11:15 am

Between the three of them, Mercy had staked out about a large 5 acre portion of land and was busily subdividng it for other crops, whereas djinn and dawson were hooking up one of the horses to a plow and gathering up hoes and rakes. There was a number of things they would have to do, but thankfully a fellow member of their organization whose name was Vasin (whom Djinn had yet to meet), had cleared away the land to prepare for their efforts in setting up a farm. Honestly, Wa'djinnabi had rationalized it as just gardening on a much larger scale.

Djinn guided the horse to one of the marked out locations and guided the beast and their burden to one of the corners. The trick was to keep the tilled earth in straight rows, and to do that, he had to lower the mechanism of the plow into the earth and guide the horse. Easier said then done. Djinn made some clicking noises with his mouth and the horse started to slowly plod forward and the blade sank into the earth. Like shovels it was important that the blade was sharp. Djinn naturally had no idea how often they needed sharpening or that they needed to be sharp at all until recently. Additionally using a horse for this job was a bit of an extravagance as far as he knew. All the farms that he worked on used oxen to pull this sort of thing about. Horses were... much more expensive and higher maintenance, supposedly. He had very little experience with the beasts.

It was either kindness or just how busy they were to have Dawson let Djinn plow the fields. To be fair plow the fields was fairly simple process and easily corrected. So he let the eypharian work as he got supplies for the next step, namely nails and wood planks for fencing. After all, the animals and horses ought to have a place to graze. He would also have to mark out areas for potential storage sheds and for other things for this minor settlement.

The soil was fertile and almost springy to his feet. Some sort of mix between clay and sand without much in the way of gravel or stones. It was ideal for the crops that they had in mind, though truthfully neither Djinn nor Mercy were entirely sure if that would be the case at this scale. When it came to potted plants and gardens, this dirt would be a dream to work with, Loamy on the side of Sand and clay.

His beastly coworker patiently pulled the blade across the land, occasionally straining as they hit a rock, though Vasin was thorough collecting the stones from the field and hitting a rock was rare. They were starting to drift a bit to the left so Djinn tugged to the right. Unfortunately this caused his coworker to over correct and it took some panicky corrections to get them back on the path. He looked back the way he came and winced at the zig-zag pattern in the dirt and resolved to go back and redo the line after he was done with this subdivision. As they came to the marker that Mercy set up, Djinn let up on the plow and they made a half circle turn to begin the process again on the next row. Djinn managed much better on his second row, the blade plowing through the dirt like some great sailing ship breaking through waves on the sea.
Last edited by Wa'Djinnabi on August 5th, 2019, 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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[The Empyreal Demesne]Strike the Earth!

Postby Wa'Djinnabi on July 30th, 2019, 11:16 am

Another thing for Djinn to consider would be irrigation. They did live near the sea and rainfall should be more common for this region, but would it not be better to set up some system for watering the crops on regular intervals? After tilling and sowing he would have to look into it. But working through the rows was monotonous work and it gave him time to think on various methods that they might use. He likely ought to make irrigation ditches that fed into a depression set in rows along the rows of crops, that would help with watering the fields as well as provide the roots with drainage. It would be quite a bit of work to dig that and it would need a source of water to fill the irrigation ditches. There was a river nearby and could divert some of it for irrigation; maybe with a lock so it wasn't constantly flowing and water logging the fields... unless they planted rice. He shook the thoughts of rice away, he didn't think they even had rice to plant. Perhaps there was a way to pipe water down. Plumbing, a novelty for the rich back in Ahnatep, involved a series of metal or stone tubes to carry water around. Maybe Kelski had a smith that could make... what, a couple miles worth of pipes? Djinn grimaced at the rough calculations of what he would need for plumbing the fields, not to mention the logistics. If he had plumbing, they would need to retrieve it each time they harvested and tilled the earth.

In the end they went with a system of furrows. Djinn used the slight sloping of the land to his advantage and went from simply tilling the earth to using the plow to dig long, if shallow, furrows into the ground at set intervals. They weren't always... straight. But for a first time farmer, they were serviceable. He would have to set up some sort of system to divert the river still, but that was a lower priority at the moment. It took them most of the day just to till the 5 acres and get it ready for irrigation. As Djinn plowed the fields, mercy came up behind him scattering the seeds for each of the subdivisions on the crop rows. She carefully kept the seeds out of irrigation ditches, but she certainly wasn't going to spend three days pushing the seeds a half inch into the ground on at a time. They had both agreed that this was the proper way to go about sowing seeds from what they both had seen of farms.

That said, they had prepared sticks for some of the crops that needed the support. Tomatoes and the grape cuttings they had would both need something to grow on. When they got big enough the grapes would grow on rows of trellises and would not need to be replanted next year. Hence they were set on one side of the farm away from the other crops. Over the course of the next couple years they would take cuttings from these grapes and expand their operation. But for now the space was hardly even an half acre.

The rest of space was tightly packed with an assortment of crops. One side of the field was set aside for various grains. Barley and amaranth were the only plots that lacked true irrigation ditches, as the grains were hardier then some of the other crops they were working with. Corn was set into proper rows, as were carrots, potatoes, beans and cabbage. They had areas set aside for smaller scale crops, like strawberries, pumpkin and rhubarb. Not to mention the other delicious fruits and vegetables. Djinn supposed in time they could import some fruit and nut trees and begin an orchard on the far side of the proposed manor.
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[The Empyreal Demesne]Strike the Earth!

Postby Wa'Djinnabi on August 5th, 2019, 11:51 am

Dawson gave Djinn a skeptical look. "Are you sure, son? I see you've got those irrigation ditches done... without asking me." His moved to cross over his chest, "But what you are proposing for that stream over there, I don't really get the point. If we don't get rain, that stream for sure ain't gonna keep all these crops watered, let along the complexity needed to get the water from over there AND this... water gate contraption you keep talking about." He shook his head and looked over and the slightly wobbly rows of irrigation going through the croplands. "Well, what's done is done. Let's leave off on this water gate thing for now. This ain't no garden, I know you both have worked in gardens before but farming is a bit different. Rains will be on it's way soon and we'll have our crops growing faster then a starving hog through a patch of turnips.

Wa'djinn was sheepish at the chastisement. Mercy and certainly seen him working through the irrigation channels but not being an experienced farmer she had raised no objections. And indeed, the idea of irrigation channels were not that bad of an idea to any of the three, Dawson merely pointed out that it wasn't exactly necessary for their set up. Maybe in the future they would expand upon the channels, though Dawson made it clear in no uncertain terms that he would have to go find the source of their small stream and see if it was mountain icepack fed or spring fed. After all, irrigation was supposed to be a help against inclemental weather. And if that weather turned to drought, the mountain fed stream water was going to dry up.

"Cheer up son, I should have been paying attention. I got to caught up with wrangling the fencing into place. I shoulda stopped you from putting all that work into the fields." He shrugged and let his arms drop. "Alright, lets go set up the beehives for our beekeeper friends. Should be a simple as moving crates around." Wa'djinnabi and Mercy followed the farmer to go grab the beehives. "So... I've never heard of people keeping... bee's before." Djinn started, "It is a strange thing to do." The tall eypharian had little trouble moving around the large hives, but was disturbed by the faint hum the hives emitted that rain through his arms. The wooded hives were sealed up for their convenience, and the beekeepers would let them out to range not just in the fields but into the forest beyond where they would pollinate the flowers until the crops were in bloom. "Aye son, these little buggers are a farmer's best friend. Improve yields a great deal. Think they call it pollination and that is what give you your fruits. Of course we got them wild bees and other bugs that come by and pollinate the crops, but every bit helps and you get some honey in the bargain."

They settled the last of the bee hives into place for Tessa and perhaps the others to tend to. With that the day was nearly over. There were a few more things they had to handle before they could go for supper. One of which was putting their tools away. The horse had long been set to grazing on a long lead attached to a post and was peacefully cropping grass. So Wa'djinnabi and Dawson worked together to put the plow away with Mercy Trailing behind with baskets and shovels under her arms.

Tomorrow they would start on the animal enclosures and paddocks, as well as a well. But for now, the three had done a great deal of work in setting up nearly 5 acres worth of cropland and they were all exhausted.

Word count: 2502

(Note: Before this post,Dawson had not been made, please forgive any minor errors in wording or grammar in the previous posts.)
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Wa'Djinnabi
Finding forgiveness among the weeds
 
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[The Empyreal Demesne]Strike the Earth!

Postby Calla Davin on August 27th, 2019, 8:23 pm


Special Delivery!


Wa'Djinnabi :
Skills XP
Animal Husbandry 1
Farming 2
Planning 2


Lores
  • Location: Meraki Pavilion
  • Mercy: Marked by Bala
  • Farming: Half an Acre to One Acre Feeds One Person for One Year
  • Farming: Potatoes and Carrots can Grow in Winter
  • Farming: Tomatoes Prevent Scurvy
  • Farming: Working A Horse-Drawn Plow
  • Farming: Digging Irrigation Furrows
  • Gardening: Sand and Clay Make Good Gardening Soil
  • Bees Pollinate Crops


Additional Comments: Good job! Nice, quick read. Please message me if you have any questions about your grade, and don't forget to edit your post in the grade request thread.

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