Female complications, day 16
Different times.
In addition to the usual workouts at the gym, running in the woods and various combat training, which now involves the telescopic baton, I have realised that I really need to train with my Boomstick dagger. The bodyguards have already trained me in using my Boomstick for close combat, and there are three wooden replicas of my Boomstick they had made for that purpose, but they don't know that the Boomstick has a hidden dagger. Surprise is an advantage, but it is obviously more advantageous if I actually trained to use it. So I modify one of the wooden replicas by sawing the handle off in the right place, mounting a dagger blade imitating part on the handle and drilling a hole for that. Copy to locking mechanism is a bit more work, but now works. So I call Alith and Gunhild to my workshop to show them the truth. Both have sworn their life in service to me, and they need to teach me how to use it for close combat. Both are delighted, but Alith is a bit shocked that the cane is not just a hidden firearm, but has also had a hidden dagger since the beginning, but the firearm part is a secret that Gunhild still doesn't know. I also show them the torch which is another unexpected secret, but more 'useful' och 'sejd'. The tear gas will remain a secret, even from Alith.
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The sun has come up and it as beautiful but cold winter weather morning, with the sun glistening in the frost and ice. So I ask my sambos if they want to take a walk, and Iselin, Ciara and Jane are happy to do so, and of course Caecilia, and Alith, Bodil and Gunhild following behind. The cold wind stings the cheeks a bit, but the wind is fairly light. We've had more than a week of cold weather now, and if it's this cold out here in the archipelago along the coast, it must be much worse inland. I assume that the jet stream has bulged down, bringing cold air from the north, and then stayed so and is acting like a wall against warmer winds from south and west. I wonder how basically one written page of information of something like the jet streams will impact future meteorology.
Jane both love and hate her new table clock. She loves that I actually took the time to make a special clock, just for her, with a choice of 12 or 24 hour time, but she hate having to choose 24 hour time for the hour hand to move clockwise. Now she has realised that the minute hand show correct time every 15 minutes, but goes up to 2 minutes faster or slower in between. Jane has of course realised that this is also 'by evil design', and Iselin has told her that this is partly due to the way Jane woke me up. Iselin is so proud of how the clock is 'correct' but also 'wrong', and how much extra work it took. Precisely and calculated wrong. Jane is a bit extra annoyed that I also made Ciara's cat clock less creepy than the original, and this version looks like the cat is playfully wagging its tail, planing mischief. Ciara is so incredibly happy with her cat clock, and others like it so much that there will probably be a similar one in a more public place.
Everyone knows that Olafr will be moving to the island and will be my master blacksmith, which is popular. Olafr is a nice fellow, and both Alith and Gunhild hope there will be more hunting. Given the way Gunhild held that shotgun and stalked the last time, I suspect plenty of elk, deer and other game will be hunted next autumn. It's probably true that the bodyguards live a life of wonder and dreams.
It's hard to know how many elk we can shoot, but I reckon something like 3 km² per elk should be okay, so maybe two adults and two calves on the Orusingen properties. It's basically just we who will be hunting elk on Orusingen anyway, and we can also hunt on my estate down south. I really have to visit my estate Forsheim, but it is two or three days sailing there one way, so around a week to be there one day. I miss modern cars and roads. A one way trip in Midgård would have been like 2 hours. Even on the rutty dirt roads here, a modern car could do it in 6 hours or so, and quite comfortably.
I'll talk to Asta about Borgarsandr, because if they so wish, the crew can get a couple of extra days in Borgarsandr. They have been paid. I'm so glad Kari and Iselin keep track of and manage things like salaries, and that they consider it their job, especially now that Iselin has become my wife. Right now we don't have anything planned, and a longer stay gives Olafr more time to leave his old life there. Also, Asta will have a new list of things to buy, but I think Kari will join the shopping trip, because I suspect has a lot she wants to buy, and won't let anyone else do it for her, and it's likely that more people will want to come along. Jane is definitely in a shopping mood, and have been talking of things to buy or order. I also expect Ida to come along as their general servant, because she loves travelling with the ship and 'see the world'.
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When I tell Olafr that I'm going to reveal the secret of steel to him, he's completely overjoyed, and he loves the deal we're going to offer Ketill. He would have jumped at it! His son will earn a good reputation and become rich. Olafr also understands why I will sell steel lumps for swords and other things, as it isn't only for the silver or the reputation it will bring, but also to create a market for it, and get blacksmiths interested in pure steel so they can learn how to make steel items. In the future, that will allow me or the Academy to sell other steel goods when the market for exquisite and expensive swords eventually becomes a bit saturated, after maybe 5 or 10 years. The price will drop and more items can be made in steel, or just make it available for a larger weapons market. There will certainly be more steel swords in the future. But not from me or us.
By then, I will hopefully have built up a production centre for smelting steel on a larger scale, although I'm not sure how much good that will do without increasing iron ore production. I really should try to mine iron ore in several places, and besides Kiruna and Malmberget outside Gällivare, the hiking GPS has a terrain map with mining symbols. I've heard of some mines as just Swedish history or culture. I've visited some. In addition to iron ore, Gällivare also have a large copper deposit just a few kilometers away, but an open pit mine on the scale that is probably needed, will be terribly unprofitable with manual labour and this level of technology. Kiruna will be bad enough with all the needed supporting logistics for food, fuel and transportation, and Malmberget iron ore mine will be an even harder project. I don't know the surrounding nature well enough in my head, but I hope there are lakes and navigable rivers that can help in some direction. Hopefully, it will be possible to create a good transportation route to the Norwegian coast. If Kiruna iron deposit exist, so should the huge long lake Torneträsk, and that lake should be 2/3 of the distance to Kiruna from the nearest coast. I should be able to find my way to Kiruna's ore deposit without the GPS map, but Malmberget will be difficult even with maps. It's one thing when distinctive terrain helps and I've been through there a few times in Midgård, but another thing here in pure untouched wilderness. Especially if I have to send someone to do that exploration for me, which is very likely. I'll have to make maps and directions and teach them how to use it. Not easy. I really don't want to do that exploration myself. Just the boat journey along the coast to get up there! Crap. I'll probably have to transport a large disassembled boat like a knarr up to that huge lake. There are probably no suitable trees in the highland, just short twisted mountain birch, and if we have to build that boat along the coast and carry it up there, we might as well build it here and transport it up there to save time. The summer is short.
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As far as I know, a lot of the land up there is wilderness, even inside the kingdom's borders, and more so outside, and there is that law about settling somewhere for two years for the land to automatically become your property, but it would be beneficial if I could get Asbjörn and the Kingdom on my side. It will literally be lawless land unless I get it included under a Jarls domain. Or I create a new Jarls domain in the inland. Just the fact that a mine and logistic network develops the wilderness and create work for people, should be appreciated. I'll probably have to make a journey way up there to the 'Narvik' region this summer, and try to work something out with local Storman and the Jarl. According to Kari, Jarl whats-his-name up there is friendly to Asbjörn, and there are quite a lot of settlements along the coast, fjords, islands and the whole Lofoten archipelago. Then there is the 'reindeer people'. I need to get them on my side and be happy, as that Kiruna mine will be on 'their land'. Considering how they probably live, and how the mine and logistic support will work, it shouldn't be huge issues, and probably be an appreciated trading post or two. But that boat journey will be bad enough and I sure as hell don't want to travel all the way inland to where Kiruna is, with all the mosquitoes that are very likely in the summer.
Shit! The mosquitoes! Definitely worth saving the Midgård mosquito repellent I brought along for that!
Just thinking about those mosquito clouds sends a shiver down my spine!
Future issue! Crucible steel first. We're going to order many more and bigger crucibles in Borgarsandr, because I have so many machines etc I need or want steel for. I really should start with cast iron too. I need to make a proper furnace this summer.
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Iselin like her crown and the social position it represent, but she is also a bit uncomfortable with that social position and the power associated with it. She is also a bit too lively in normal life and don't want to drop her crown, and braiding her hair into it to force the crown to stay in place takes time to do and undo, so since the wedding feast, Iselin's crown is usually on a pillow on a shelf, and I've been helping her plan how we're going to convert the flashing circuit with its battery into a necklace. It will basically be like my Pocketburner, but in gold with some gemstone in front and she can screw the front and jewel in to light it, and it will hang from a gold chain. They will bring drawings with measurements etc to Borgarsandr, and she will have to find some jewel that fits, but it will probably be another emerald as the LED is green, and she knows better than to choose something that dims the light too much. All that gold will make the necklace heavy, but there's nothing to be done about that, and Iselin doesn't mind. Making screw threads in soft gold will be an issue, and we have to do that ourselves on the lathe, and it might feck up the 'finished' piece.
Also going to Borgarsandr will be a pile of drawings for Digraldi on more parts for lighthouses with holders for Fresnel and glass lenses, and spyglass cases and such.
The glassmaker will probably be overjoyed at the amount of work, or really frustrated. Lenses for spyglasses and telescopes. A size reduced glass cannon shot for Alith with a curved stop and a finger hole in the bottom. Many glass tubes, and especially long glass tubes for barometers. Lens segments for the lighthouses, as we need to try to make both smaller lenses and larger segmented Fresnel lenses. The sea is flat and preferably a lighthouse light will be focused in a thin disc along the sea surface, and if the lighthouse light rotates, that light can also be focussed in a narrow horisontal beam. The more the light can be focussed to where it is needed, the brighter the light is perceived to be. A reflector redirects light by blocking it and bouncing it in a certain direction, while a glass lens angles it. This is an important difference if the lighthouse need light all around as a glass lens can do that, while a reflector can't, unless it is rotating. However, large glass lenses are heavy and difficult to manufacture as one large piece, and therefore expensive to produce. A Fresnel lens is a large lens divided into small parts that follow the surface shape, but with a smaller thickness. Lighter. Less expensive. And can be divided up into many easier to do segments. Their lighthouse light will be quite bad and the brightness will be low, so those lenses will help a lot.
So we've made drawings of glass segments that are stacked and packed around the oil lamp, and measured and sanded to make clay templates that get the right shape for a segment of a lens. It's damn hard to know if it's the right shape, especially as I have no real control over the materials refraction angle, but I don't expect perfection and it will be improved in the future. The segmented design 'only' needs three different segments - the centre and two towards an edge - because the segments above and below are symmetrical and we'll just make twice as many of those. Eight complete sets can be combined to give all around light, or with a bit of different shapes, focused into eight beams. A segmented design also makes it easier to have some segments made of coloured glass or with glass filters behind, and combined with clear uncoloured glass, the lighthouse can thus have different colour signatures too, although the width of the fields needs to be adjusted for each situation. It will be interesting to see how good the glassmaker is at moulding Fresnel lenses, but given that the glassmaker managed to make prisms, it should be possible. Probably with a lot of grinding-polishing. It will also be interesting to see how good the lighthouses will be overall, and how visible the light will be.
There will be many improvements over time on all parts of a lighthouse and probably take several years like most other things. That is okay, as long as the Elves start seeing the use and value of lighthouses.
Potter Ruskva will get an order of 50 pottery vessels of an improved design for lead-acid battery cells in standard format, compact format and special format for transport and tilting batteries. Plus a special high voltage cell. Plus 100 larger crucibles with my logo-bomärke, and some other little special things like extra dildos and parts for an insemination syringe. I don't think she will be complaining about having more work.
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