Ajax spoke up, “If we send them back, they will just attack them out away from our protection.” To his credit, he didn’t make it a plea for help or an accusation that there wouldn’t be.
Dag nodded, “I know.” He looked over at the rather large gathering of people, “They know it too. So, I want all of you to think about that. If you want to camp up here close to the walls, I will see to it that you aren’t attacked, but if at the end of the day, no place is found for you, the chiefs will see it as defiance and they will not forget that you stayed. So, last chance to just call it even and go back with your chiefs. Any who stay that don’t find a home with us...” Dag shrugged so that they could fill in the rest.
There was a murmur on both sides, and a small handful of women moved over to the chief’s side of the dispute. Dag saw that they all had children, and couldn’t take the chance that they wouldn’t be wanted. He almost regretted his decision to put it to them like that, but he only wanted those who were really wanting to be a part of his clan. If they thought that they could just run home if things got rough, they were no good to him.
Dag nodded, “There you have it. My people inside, and hopefuls find a place to bed down within thirty paces of the wall.” He looked over at the chiefs, “Leave. I have a mess to sort out, and I won’t have all of you here making it worse.” To his surprise, they all looked as if they had eaten bad fish, but they all turned and walked away without another word.
◆◆◆
Testing
Dag really didn’t need this headache. This would push his clan up to nearly three hundred people, assuming that he took all of those wanting to join. He knew that for every Bren or Hendden in the crowd, he would have at least one who was likely to be more trouble than he was worth. He was brooding about it, and knew he was being moodier than he should be over the situation. So when Lavern had one of her mood swings and called him out on it, after indulging him for two hours, he snapped at her, and then felt bad when she went to tears.
Had he not been in such a foul mood, or had she not been pregnant, they would have probably handled it better. She would have explained her suggestion before nagging at him, or he would have not taken the nagging personally and asked her what she suggested. Neither of those happened, and they had a blowup. One of the few in their time together.
It wasn’t until after the fight, and the makeup sex, that she finally said what was on her mind. He was still coming down from some really good sex, and was relaxed enough to hear it, without all the added stress. “I don’t understand why you just don’t put them to work. You can see who they are by how they handle it. If they complain or try to duck out on the work, you can send them away. If they work hard and look like they are going to fit in, then give them a shot at it.”
Dag took a long exhale, “That isn’t a bad idea. Some will still slip through, and it is harder to deal with them once they are part of the clan than it is to get rid of them first, but that should get rid of most of the problem children up front. Like panning for gold... pick out the shiny bits and toss the rest.”
Lavern kissed his cheek, “What is gold?”
Dag laughed, “That must be why I love you... you don’t know about gold or diamonds.” She still looked at him confused, and so he kissed her. “Where I came from, gold is a very special shiny sort of rock. Men would give it to women as a sign that they could provide for them. Some women were very demanding in how much they wanted, and so it became a joke between men. Until the joke wasn’t funny anymore and men started to kill each other over places to get the gold.” He shook his head in the dark, “I’m way oversimplifying it, but at the root, I think that might have been the start of it all.”
Lavern asked him in a whisper, “Will you be mad if I said that I would like some gold, if only to see what all the fuss was about?”
Dag sighed, “No, I’m not mad. I’ve thought about trying to hunt for some, as it does have its uses, but I don’t know that I want to dump that on our world just yet. I promise, if I decide to get some, and can find any, I will make you something out of it.” He pulled her in close for a kiss. “Sleep now. We have a busy day when the sun comes up.”
Industry
Working Test
Dag put them all through their paces over the next few weeks. Clearing trees and gathering usable timber became the name of the game. Large trees that he wouldn’t have even tried to take down before now were on the chopping block. He wished that he had brought along a saw, but he didn’t have one. So, without the proper tools, he threw bodies at the problem. To his surprise, it worked, at least well enough to eventually get the job done.
While the men were felling trees and using levers, ropes, and pulleys to manhandle them to the river, the ladies were gathering up brush and burning them down to make charcoal. The charcoal became much less of a necessity now that the tar pits had been discovered, but there were some things which really just did better with charcoal, and since he had the workforce now, he put them to it.
Dag knew that it would likely take them weeks to ferry all of this down river to where it would be used, and maybe just as long to move it from the river to the castle or village. Even so, it made a fantastic filter for those who really wanted to be with them, and those who were just seeking an easier life. Even those who just wanted an easier life were productive until they broke and scurried back to the clan chiefs to beg to be let back into the fold. Dag found Lavern’s idea to be one of the best things he had stumbled across since being in this crazy world.
Dag was happiest that Bren and Hendden led by example. They were out coordinating the work, but weren’t scared to get their hands dirty right along with the new recruits. Dag had let them in on the secret. He knew that they would spread the word, but it was better that it came from them, rather than come as an edict from on high. Also, having himself and his own people working right beside the new people was a big benefit. Made the new folks feel more like part of the clan, and not just slave labor.
The food supplies that had been brought for trading were locked up for feeding the extra new people. It meant that they would get a little less in the form of trade goods, but trying to trade with people who didn’t understand the concept had never really brought in all that much. Feeding the people working, on the other hand, was bringing in results. By the time they were ready to leave the Gathering, Dag had enough lumber to build two solid wooden river docks. One here at the gathering that was started as soon as the flood waters went down enough, and one down at the mouth of the canal.
Dag hoped that the addition of the two docks would make moving goods along the river a whole lot easier. Especially as each dock with have a crane to pull goods from the boat and up onto the land. They were mostly simple block and tackle systems, but the big change would be the addition of a ratcheting gear on the windlass to allow the loads to be moved with far less wasted effort.
More than all of this, though, they weeded out about twenty percent of those who had originally wanted to come with them. It wasn’t that Dag couldn’t use every able-bodied willing worker, but he didn’t need dead weight, and this proved that the ones who came with were, whatever their other issues may be, not dead weight.
◆◆◆
Food Production Expansion
This was the first year that Dag had expected a real and substantial grain crop. However, those dreams flew right out the window with the addition of all the extra people. With all the extra mouths to feed, he ended up using all of his previous year’s harvest, as well as anything they traded for, as seed to plant. It likely meant taking a big step back in his selective breeding efforts, but figuring that quantity has a quality all of its own, he set crews to work digging irrigation trenches off of the main canal, and got busy planting every cereal of grain he could lay his hands on.
Without a plow, Dag had to improvise to get fields of the size he needed planted. He would add enough water to turn a section to mud, then run his cattle or sheep over it to churn up the ground. Then he followed behind, sewing seed. He wasn’t going to be producing anything like the yields of industrial agriculture, but with a little organic fertilizer from the animals, and the rich layer of mud brought down by the river flooding, he had every hope that the crop would at least be a modest success.
So that no one got too wore out with farming, Dag organized plenty of hunts as well. Most of these were simple efforts to bring in food to last them the next few weeks, but occasionally, he would use the corrals to push in livestock that increased their breeding lines. It wasn’t a perfect solution, as finding fodder for them all was still an issue. What it did allow was the occasional fresh meat alternative to salted and smoked meats.
Unfortunately, Dag had next to no time to be out working with them in a hands on fashion. After Lavern delivered their twin girls, he found himself practically living in the sea. Between lobster traps and spearing large fish that could really make a difference with the number of people they had now, he was a busy, busy man.
With all the extra women who came along, Lavern and Oona had organized an impressive butcher and preservation system. An animal could be brought in to one end of the setup, pass through a dozen hands, and be ready for smoking on the other end in a matter of minutes. All of this accomplished with only stone knives. Dag was suitably impressed. If he ever managed to find copper and tin, he promised himself that they would get real bronze knives and not have to deal with the stone knives again.
This ended up taking up far more of the year than Dag had counted on. Still, by the time the grain was ready to be harvested, they had added housing for everyone that would be staying in the village. Those who would be moved out to outposts didn’t have more than tents yet, but all found they really appreciated a soak in the baths after a long day of work, even if all they had to sleep in was a tent.
◆◆◆
Outposts
It was already past high summer when the first settlers moved up to the limestone outpost. Trips had been sent that way to gather enough lime for mortar to build the additional housing in the village, but Dag didn’t move permanent residents up until the clan’s main settlement had been well established. Then, he took up not just those who would quarry the needed limestone, but also a large work crew to help build housing for them.
In addition, he started them quarrying large blocks to build a causeway out into the ocean itself. The idea was to get out past the spot where the waves broke and made shipping difficult. Trying to move large amounts of stone by travois, or even ox carts would be problematic at best. Likewise, canals were completely impractical in the loose beach sand on the coast. So, the plan was to load boats out past the roughest waves, and use them to haul the materials down to the village where they could be processed into usable concrete. The village’s access to water wheels making it the ideal place for crushing the slaked stone into powder.
Dag knew that this would mean digging another canal and building another water wheel, but as he didn’t have a boat big enough to haul more than a couple of hundred pounds of gravel yet, and he would need a large supply of tar to make those boats, he figured he would have time. In his mind, if he had both outposts turning out an ongoing supply in three years, he would consider it a victory.
To make that goal more than a pipe dream, he needed to have access to the tar as well. The positioning of the tar pits was far less ideal than the limestone quarry. As the tar pits were nearly twenty miles from the river bank, and three days further upriver of the Gathering location. A twenty mile long canal in a floodplain was not going to happen. This left only ox cart or travois.
Fortunately, as Dag had suspected, there were more useful items than just the tar at the location. The greatest of these was below a six foot thick skin of tar, pools of liquid crude oil were easily accessed. Getting it back to the village was just a matter of hauling the clay pots filled with the stuff all the way back to the river, where it could be floated downstream the rest of the way.
Of course, that presupposed a large supply of clay pots, which would have to be made. Though many would have needed to be made anyway, as the one thing completely lacking in the region of the tar pits was a source of fresh water. That meant hauling in water on the same ox carts that would be hauling out oil and tar. It meant that this outpost, as vital as it was, would be a fairly miserable place to live, unlike the limestone quarry, and the work would be dirty and even possibly dangerous. Not that quarrying large stone blocks could be considered ‘safe’, especially with the tools at their disposal.
Dag found the situation frustrating. In a society with access to money, he could simply offer those who chose to work in the harsher environment more pay to compensate for the difficulty of the job. They were not in such a society though, and there were few enough consumer goods to motivate them to stay at a hardship post even if they had money. So, he was forced to set up rotating crews.
