Chương 22: Morning Day 7

Day 7, Ebril 16 (Wednesday) I awoke on my seventh day on Talamh, still feeling great. I wondered how long I'd continue to feel that way. It hadn't been clear to me whether I was feeling great because I had just leveled up, or if I would keep feeling great now that I was level 20. I had wanted to get it clarified, but I hadn't asked in the moment and it seemed too late now. The almanac hadn't been clear on it either. I was determined that tomorrow at the latest we would get that ditch dug.

The almanac said we could expect rain in the next couple of weeks, but I didn't want to rely on rain as the sole water source. Rain would do the job. Even today, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington, there was a lot of dry land farming going on for winter wheat. With all the other modern techniques, they still got a decent yield, but they definitely didn't get the same yields that you could get with irrigation. We still hadn't planted all the potatoes either!

I still had two and a half acre's worth sitting in my potato bins. Considering they had been cut up nine days before, they were holding up remarkably well. Emily claimed they wouldn't rot for a while still. There was magic involved that helped crops stay viable longer as long as they stayed on the farm. We would still need to go back and get the trees for my cabin, too. It was still too cold for me to sleep outside by myself.

At level 20, my toughness would make it a viable choice, but it still wouldn't be pleasant. I could keep myself warm with blankets, but there was a layer of dew every morning that said I would be wet if I didn't have a cover of some kind over me. I was enjoying life. But every day was always busy, and it felt like my list of things to do got longer, not shorter. I just needed to take a breath and remember, you just had to take things one day at a time.

I decided that aside from my boots, I would dress myself in clothes I'd received from my welcome package. Emily and Colin had said nothing about my denim jeans, but I wasn't sure they were normal out here. While I wasn't an expert on denim history, I was reasonably certain that it originated on Earth in the mid-to late 1800s. I hadn't seen cotton as a crop I could grow in the guild shop, and it sounded like gnomes controlled northern Africa, where it originated.

I would need to add that to my growing list of things to look at in the almanac sometime. I really should have started a list for myself. It seemed like I thought about things to add to my almanac research several times a day, then often forgot about them when I finally got to bed. I didn't dawdle as I made my way to the homestead. I made it there by 7: 30. Emily and Colin were finishing up their morning chores.

Once Emily saw me, she asked if I would finish looking after the animals for her so she could make breakfast. That was a request I was more than happy to fulfill. Colin had already hauled all the water needed to fill up the water troughs, but no one had given the pigs any mash yet. We were running dangerously low on the mix of old corn and dirty grain that was used for pig feed. We'd received several days' worth when the pigs were brought to the farm. The goats had eaten more than half of the grass in their pen.

They'd need to be let out to graze in the next couple of days. Emily said she would probably begin letting the goats and pigs out the next day. If everything went well, we would only have to put them away at night. I checked on the ducks and geese after the mammals. I found two duck eggs and a single goose egg. Emily had already checked on the chickens. I took the three eggs I found to the closed door of the cabin and knocked. Emily said, "Coming!" and opened the door after a few seconds.

She smiled and thanked me for the eggs and then shut the door again. I chuckled. I had gotten the barest glimpse inside. As I turned to walk away, I made a fist and waved it in front of myself and quietly said, "One day!" in a dramatic tone. I spied Colin looking at me with a small, conspiratorial grin on his face. I wasn't entirely sure he was grinning at my being denied entrance to the cabin, but I strongly suspected that he and Emily were getting a kick out of making sure I never saw the inside of their cabin.

I just shook my head. I walked towards Colin and said, "Alright, boyo, follow me. Let's go look at the crops." He didn't answer me, but he fell into step. As we walked towards the grain field first, I asked him when the Newtons would be here.

"They should get here around 9 or 10. They should be finishing up their chores around now, then they'll head here on their wagon. It'll take a good couple of hours at least to make it on these roads, if you wanna call them that." He laughed at his own words there.

"Sounds good," I said.

"Did you see what Spot and Buck brought us this morning? I can't believe I'm actually calling that poor rabbit Buck," he said, shaking his head. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"No?" I replied, with a mix of worry and curiosity in my voice.

"They caught a fox trying to kill one of the ducks last night! They tore it apart! There was blood everywhere, but when Ma and I woke up this morning Buck had its head in her mouth. As soon as I opened the door she dropped its head at my feet, then I swear she looked up at me with a smile!" Colin shook his head, but he had a big grin on his face.

"Wow," I said.

"They won't ever go after us right?" Colin full-on laughed at me.

"No, of course not John. They're bred so they won't ever attack people, or domesticated animals. They shouldn't be smart enough to level, but they seem smarter than what I've heard about for not having a title."

"We had one on our own homestead, but it couldn't do anything like these can. It got into a fight with a badger or something and got killed." He said.

"Wait, animals can level!?" I was shocked by this revelation.

"We think so?" was his hesitant response.

"No one knows for sure, but as some animals get older they seem to gain abilities, and those that do also live longer. Herd leader goats will live years longer than normal goats. Even ones with abilities never get even close to human level smart, so we can't ask them." This revelation had me shook. I'd have to keep an eye on those rabbits. Could I eat semi-intelligent animals? I'd have to think this over. We arrived at the field, so I decided to add that to my growing list of things I'd think about later.

We looked out at the field. I could see that the soil still looked soft. The grain wouldn't have any trouble breaking through the ground. That was good. I had been worried that with the moisture content in the ground, the soil would harden as it dried out. If it did, I'd need to bring out the cultivator to break up the soil. Even if it only took an hour or two, that was still fuel I didn't want to burn.

"John, it just looks so strange having these little rows. You're sure it's going to work?" Colin was looking out at the field with obvious skepticism.

"Oh ye of little faith," I said.

"In a day or two the grain'll start to sprout. It'll be a solid field of green in a week or two." He just nodded, and then we started moving towards the potato field. I knelt down and dug up potatoes in a few spots to check to make sure they weren't rotting or anything. Once I affirmed they looked good, I put the potato chunk back in its hole and covered it back up. While we were walking around, Colin asked me how long it would take until we saw the plants sprout.

He also asked me what the plant would look like, he'd never seen a potato plant in real life before. I said, "It will probably take up to a month for the plants to begin to sprout. Then there will be a central green stalk with triangular leaves on it." I was an expert on potato plants, so I was more than happy to explain them to the boy.

"They're actually in the same family as tomatoes. The plants will look similar. Potato plants won't get anywhere near as tall or as large as a tomato. They'll flower with white flowers just like a tomato too." He was both shocked and impressed by that knowledge. I told him it was possible to graft a tomato plant onto a potato plant. He was absolutely convinced I was just messing with him. I laughed and told him we'd do it in the garden to prove it worked.

We walked back to the cabin when we heard Emily yell that breakfast was ready. He asked me two more times on the short walk back to the cabin if I was messing with him. When we got to the log we'd begun eating on, Emily asked how the fields looked. As I was beginning to speak, Colin broke in.

"Ma, John says we can graft a tomato plant onto a potato plant this summer. He says we will have tomatoes on the top, and potatoes on the bottom. Is he messing with me?" I started laughing so hard I had to put my plate on the log to make sure I didn't spill any of the eggs and bacon. Colin took that as evidence I was messing with him and gave me a look of hurt that said, I thought we were becoming good friends! Emily pursed her lips and looked at me with a questioning expression.

"Son, I have no idea. I told you I have only ever eaten potatoes once. I have certainly never seen one grown." Once I stopped laughing, I could finally respond.

"I'm not messing with you two! I swear! Potatoes and tomatoes are from the same family. They're both nightshades. Have you heard of the nightshade plant?" They both nodded, so I continued on.

"Yeah, they're from the same family as nightshade. Early potatoes were poisonous. They had to be processed to take the toxins out. Even now, eating raw potatoes isn't a great idea. Always cook them before you eat them. They won't hurt you in small quantities, but enough would at least make you throw up or have diarrhea."

"I have been told you can graft a tomato and potato plant in a garden, and they'll graft on and grow just fine. We can try it this summer. Speaking of that, where do you want to plant the potatoes?" I asked Emily.

"We have two and a half acres to plant. I can cut some ground up." Emily looked around.

"Do we need to plant them all? Can we feed some to the pigs?" I shook my head.

"Absolutely not. Unless we cook them. Raw, they'll make the pigs as sick as they'll make us. We plant them, or we have to cook them all before giving them to the animals." She frowned.

"I do not know then. We can plant some in the garden, there is a small amount of room in the garden plot, but not much." I hadn't expected this hiccup.

"Well," I said.

"Maybe I'll plant them on the other side of the river. Is there anything that says I can't do it?" Emily and Colin looked at each other for a moment. Then, in a hesitant voice, Emily said, "No?" She thought for a moment longer, brows furrowed and lips pursed. She was holding her plate in her left hand and her fork in her right, so she couldn't fold her hands in front of her apron like she normally would to finish her thinking stance. Instead, she tapped her fork against her pursed lips.

"You definitely cannot grow crops on plots you do not own. You can grow a garden on the designated homestead area. Obviously." She waved her fork towards the large garden she had in place even before I showed up.

"But, there should be no such rules outside of the territory. There will be nothing to stop wild animals from getting into them though. So I cannot say it would be successful." With that, she shrugged.

"I'll think about it then," I said. I wished it were possible to just plant on some other ground since it was unclaimed. The almanac had said that no crops would grow in areas that weren't designated as farming plots. Unassigned plots didn't have any pre-assigned fields so crops wouldn't grow there. That was one of those weird System rules. Not the strangest rule, I supposed. We finished eating, and then the three of us checked out minor things on the homestead for the next two hours.

When we finally heard the wagon in the distance, I felt some butterflies in my stomach. This would be an important meeting. The Newtons were our closest neighbors, and it was important that I made a good first impression.