"Most of what I do will have consequences. Huge consequences. In my 'quest' to make things 'better' it is important to define what is 'better'. Everything will have some bad side, but I will try to avoid ruining the environment, avoid the big pitfalls with air, ground and water pollution, deforestation and such. You know about my salt project in the south and how salt can be made from evaporating seawater? Well they don't seem to know that here although that have been done since ancient times. Salt in our worlds history have been the most important trade of all except food, and here 1kg of salt is damn expensive. Like 2 ounces of silver expensive. Empires where made by salt and many of the first important trade routes and roads was because of salt transportation. There is a very wealthy town south of Reiekrône called Brinberg that pretty much is the main supplier of salt for a huge area. Imagine the ridiculous wealth that place creates. The owners earning silver just from their rights, and all those middle men and transporters who all earn cash from it. That have to be thousands, maybe tens of thousands counting their families.

As you know I plan on extracting salt from the sea next summer, but the water needs to be heated with the sun or fire. They basically only have wood here, because you know how British summers can be, although here this summer was nice. Sure, I could do it in southern Spain or Portugal, but that means transportation and middlemen which is pretty much the case now, although is should be cheaper. I will have no control there. Using wood in a fire works well, but it wouldn't even take a generation to deforest these islands if we used wood and scaled the production up, and you need to produce salt on the west coast simply because of the need for saltwater, and the Baltic has much much lower salt concentration. It should be done on the west coast of Norway where the salinity is at least 50% more. Just think about all the freshwater rivers flowing out to the Baltic and along the coast. Anyway, using wood would deforest the coast fast, lead to erosion and no wind protection, and it costs time and manpower just to transport the wood to the water, or using waterways and upstream logging. Fucking up the environment for the coming generations is something I want to avoid. You might not know this nature compared to modern Sweden, but I do, and it's obvious that there are far more 'old forest' here, but more of the higher areas seem to be moor and heather, which isn't the case in modern day Sweden. Heathland is rare in modern Sweden. Every European Midgård nation have changed a lot over the past thousand years. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you cut down forest more than it regrow, and you don't plant trees and protect them from being eaten, the landscape will change. Dig ditches to drain a marshland and it stays drained and the nature will change. Late 1800s there were hardly any forest left on the west coast of Sweden, and they had wind and erosion problems, plus no wood for heating and cooking. Seeing those few early photographs that exist of it just feels weird. Today there is far more forest and looks nice, because people moved to cities in search of jobs, land was left to grow and they learned and planted trees. Building better heating and more efficient stoves are important in my future plans, both for fuel economy, time and removing smoke from people's homes to increase health and lifespan.

So for salt production I'm trying shallow pools to use if the weather is nice, but I will also try and use a more technological and a less efficient approach, but also an environmentally friendly and less manpower intensive method than chopping down wood and burning it. My overall plan is to use 'useless space' on protected southern coastal cliffs to use those few weeks with good sunlight that basically every spring-summer have, and I am actually planning two small solar reflectors with tracking mirrors by using a clockwork mechanism and cams, just set it up and leave it for a few hours, before you empty it for the next step. I've already ordered mirror segments. I'm well aware that those reflectors are quite silly, but if it works well enough that most of the concentration can be made using the sun and wind, it might produce lower cost salt with low manpower and environmental impact, in terrain not really optimal for normal sun evaporation, or really anything else.

After I know if it works well enough I will make additional salt plants along the coast. Hopefully in the future salt will be cheaper so that the nation as a whole will prosper from it, for efficient food storage, health and taste, without destroying the environment. Greed and short term thinking is a problem I really can't stop, unless I can get the laws made to protect it. I think about involving the Kingdom so the nation and local landowner gets the profit for using my method, if they agree to ban large scale production by wood, although the law will allow small scale home production. Using connections and profit to create laws like that feels like a definition of corruption and evil, but done right it will make salt cheaper for everyone up here and hopefully protect them from short term thinking. I still feel like a bastard and some form of Dictator declaring what's best for the proletarians.

Local salt production will be insanely important for faraway colonies, along with somewhat local iron production. You can't really have a working colony without those two since long distance trade across oceans has issues. Bog iron can't be gathered everywhere.

But it is pretty much the same with a lot of other things I plan to make, like farm machinery. There is a real limit in the amount of manpower and time it takes to plough a field, harvest the grains and such. A person can only do a certain amount, so having more crop fields needs more manpower. Farming is conservative, and you keep on doing what works because otherwise you starve. Farm machinery to increase yield and save time will change that, but someone has to prove it and it must be a big change. If the same amount of people can farm three times more land, it will change everything. It will allow towns to grow, and free a lot of people to work in industry.

Among other things I plan to make are a water wheel stamper for cloth after weaving, and of course sawmills and windmills. I will make windmills and such and let people use them, where the payment is say 5 percent of the best part of the finished product. All they save is time and work milling it, but that might be worth it for them, especially if they already produce more by using machinery, and doing it by hand would take too much time. If they produce much, they simply have to use a windmill too. A windmill costs to make and take care of, but over time will be worth it. Many small things to lighten the burden and make life on the farm more effective and productive, will produce a big change for the better. Better food. More food. Less waste. Longer storage. Less chance of starving after a bad year. Apparently the Southeastern part of the nation had a lot of rains that spoiled harvests, but many won't have silver to buy from here or the south. There will probably be people starving or dying there this winter."

It's not a pleasant thought, but maybe in the future I can persuade rulers and Jarls that it is a good idea to cooperate within the Kingdom over the long term, and build food stores. Shit happens.

"Everything I make have consequences. Some might really change the world, and not just for the better, but I think they still need to be done. No real point in waiting a few hundred years or so, and if it makes Scandinavia with the laws and culture here prosper, become powerful and influential, it is a nice bonus."

"If you really build and improve all you seem to want to do Robert, and get a percentage on each, which you invest to buy land, make colonies and make other things... you will be so ridiculously rich and powerful it is terrifying. The Auction proved how much some stuff is worth. And just salt... You might own a big part the north, and not by conquest. Hell, with colonies included; give it a hundred years or so and your descendants might rule an Empire spanning a significant part of the world simply by power, tech level, influence and money. 'Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves' my arse."

"Yes, I or they might. At least some places will have no native population, or they're so lowtech and scattered it won't matter, but they won't be completely pushed aside to bad land. I will try to give everyone same rights, right to education, self rule and religious freedom, and make a loose Union bound together by common laws, customs, trade, culture and language more than a Empire, and I plan to eventually introduce 'one person, one vote' for everyone, not based on how large the landownership is. It is quite close now, but if I become the biggest richest landowner, and I limit myself to one vote? It might help set a precedence. Native people that choose to join will get the same rights and vote. Integrate and assimilate over a few generations more than plant a flag and start killing. Sure it will probably lead to some cultures and lifestyles gets destroyed, but others will adapt. I will protect monuments from other cultures and try to document their history and culture. It is history, and if their religion say a hill is sacred - respect it.

Funny thing; ask a human 'What's the oldest standing building in the world?' and most would probably say 'The Pyramids'. It's not - they're just big, impressive and have had lots of PR and a culture that didn't change much over thousands of years. Cleopatra lived in the Roman era and lived closer to the moon landings and computor age than when the great pyramids were built. Neolithic is older. About two thousand years older. There's plenty in northern France up to Scotland and Shetland Islands, and Stonehenge is pretty much the pyramid era. There were of course structures built before, but they didn't survived the ravages of time and it becomes a question of what is a building and so on. There are older Megaliths like the one in Turkey. There is a huge stone structure in northern France that is about 6900 years old. Beside Skara Brae there's a couple of stone houses on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland that have been standing there for about 5700 years. Yes. They don't look much but they're almost six thousand years old. You build something like that because of religion or to survive, and if you only have stone; you build it in stone. And well done stone lasts.

I don't really believe the indigenous cultures have rights above all, and not just because they might not have been the first. First indigenous of Greenland wasn't the Inuit. Several tried during thousands of years before, but they just couldn't make it, or considered it worth it. That include the Vikings. Naming it Greenland was a PR campaign by the Vikings, and they basically stay there until Inuit arrived from Canada and the Black Plague hit Norway. There is a lot of stuff like that going around the world, but it so way back that there isn't much to go by. And lets face it; quite a few native cultures have taken the land from others or gone to war for other purpose than defense. If their culture thinks 'might makes right', well, they really shouldn't complain when others push them gently away or try to assimilate them. If they claim to have a divine right because their imaginary friends said so, so can some one else. If they're peaceful and just live their way I would let them be and try trading with them, although there will be border disputes because people are assholes, greedy or feel threatened. If they're hunter gatherers that roam and live of the land, some might call it living in harmony, but I think of it as an evolutionary dead end or niche culture just sustaining itself until something comes along, or the climate change.

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Nature isn't kind to creatures that don't evolve, and they get pushed aside by those that do fit the environment better, adapt to it or use all its resources better, like the Inuit to Greenland. I would still try to leave them be, trade with them and learn, and I expect that the younger generations will start to leave the old ways behind. Humans and Elves are pretty much the same, and we're not common animals; we make tools and adapt to our environment, and even hunter-gatherers makes tools. Which is technological evolution. Humans became the dominant species because we figured out we could throw rocks at other animals, or hit them with a branch or a pointed stick. Then fire. Mother nature doesn't care that you're way behind in the tech tree. Some might say me being here introducing everything for Nordic culture to expand is unfair or against the natural order; but I'm here because of nature. Or the Nordic Gods. Or technology. So I guess that gives me all the rights? Your point was? It's all pretty much a philosophical debate and there are counterpoints to pretty much everything. So my view is: Don't be an asshole. Be friendly and respect differences. Don't enslave. Don't kill unless it is in self-defense. Trade and come to agreements. Don't fuck up the environment for the coming generations.

To be honest, pure slavery is a bad idea on more than principle. Indentured workers having enough freedom and prospect to improve their life and for their children will usually get better work done, and might even be cheaper. It is still a form of slavery, and there is slavery under a finer term in our modern world, which is why I have avoided travelling to some countries. Classical form of apprenticeship is pretty much the same; 5-7 years of long hard work without pay to learn a trade. Which is what they have here. Across the sea to the south you have to pay to stop being an apprentice and join a guild, and there are more fees, including to raise in rank.

To get back to this and other creations; there is no copyright or patent laws here. Things will be copied in or outside the Kingdom unless it is kept secret, which is really only a matter of time, so I won't be that rich, even though riches make riches, and might makes right. But I will make enemies, and wealth attracts trouble, and here you can't put silver in the bank, and hoarding it is just stupid for several reason - so I will invest it. I can't even really trust allies, because paying even a small part of the profit will annoy greedy people, so I will have to be ready to reply with measured force. If I really fuck up I might just get a revolt on my hands from the workers, partners or nations and be overthrown or killed. Isn't that nice?

It's kind of ironic that I try to make their world 'better' for everyone, but greedy stupid Elves have tried to kill me. Twice."

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Sometimes it feels like I'm just constantly re-prioritizing projects, but I also motive it by actually completing some of them so I can drop it, which is why I've focused on finish building three scopes for the rifles. The reticle itself is mostly finding the right focus point and then drilling and tapping a small straight hole with M4, followed by a small screw into which I drilled a hole and soldered a thin short brass wire grinded very pointed. Then screw it in until the tip is in the center of the sight and take it out as I have to carefully bend the wire a tiny bit to get the tip in sharp focus and reasonably in the middle when looking at something far away through the scope. The tiny distance between the tip and angle where the conical tip ends in the post can be used for ranging, but I add a bit of solder further down the side and cut a flat top surface make a very visible mark with a knife blade. The distances are tiny, but will be quite large in magnification. These scopes have fixed magnification, so I just have to figure out which ranges and match up with certain heights on either of the ranging marks. I make a thick lined scale on a paper and lean it against the middle window in the meeting room at the other end of the house, and then I just look what height that range gives. This is over 28.5 meters, and after a bit of calculation over 100m and further trimming down the solder a bit, the tip to the conical parts end is 38cm, and down to the big flat mark it's 81cm. This will never be exact and in practical use ambient light and terrain means measuring will never be perfect, so I can use 40 cm and 80 cm and mark it on the scope after blackening the sight post and making final assembly where the sight post will be soldered to limit recoil issues. At least this scope gives 40/80cm at 100m, which means those marks are 80/160cm at 200m, and 120/240cm at 300m and so on. It's good enough to estimate range with if I know the height of the target.

If the heights they have given me for animals are correct, using height at the withers it will match with a deer's 70cm at 170 or 85m, an Elk cow's 160cm at 400 or 200m, and an Elk bull's 190cm at about 475 or 240m. If it is double or half the height, the distance can also be estimated reasonably well and quickly, unfortunately the size of those animals can wary a lot. The average Nordic male Elf is about 160-165cm tall, so the ranges for an Elk cow apply, and half the range if head to waist. This ranging will not be exactly, but the main purpose is to compensate for bullet drop, so it's more important to get longer distances right, at least if the goal is a good hit in the vital organs, and beside ranging those marks can be used to help show how high the aim needs to be, without using the sights height adjustment for range. This will be inaccurate, but far better than just guessing, and each sight-rifle combo will have its own table and cheat sheet for range estimate.

To increase overall precision and grouping, I have to make as consistent powder as possible, so a larger powder batch is better and as homogeneous as I can and tumbled, with the same bullet weight and powder weight. I need to do something about fouling too, since even a little is bad, and accumulation will fuck up the following shots more and more. I guess I have to try to soften the fouling with some kind of lard or wax. If its going in the bullets base it cannot be runny and foul up the powder charge. I can see all this will be annoying involving a lot of shooting and data collection, in different weathers. Cold weather will obviously be different from hot summer, and I'll probably have to make mixes to find something good.

It might be damn annoying and frustrating, especially as I have to test different powder weights and bullet weights, but it will also be quite interesting and I just have to make a ballistics table for each rifle and sight, and it will be interesting how the weapons perform. We will also test the difference in bullet trajectory with a stronger charge. It is only a matter of time before I try different types of bullets, and not just in shape or weight but also other materials than pure lead, maybe a lead-tin alloy or lead-copper to check penetration and ballistics. The steel barrel should be fine as long as I limit it to low fractions of non-lead or use lead gripping the rifling. I'm also keen on trying a sabot bullet just because I'm curious, and since the musket or its descendants will be used for combat sooner or later, I'll try combinations like a large round bullet with three smaller bullets loosely behind, or three stacked cone bullets. Being rich is definitely advantageous; plenty of freedom and money to do things, and eventually I will have spare time I need to fill with something. All data collected and a copy of the individual cheat sheets will of course be saved in the mansion library and on my tablet for future reference, but also so I don't have to repeat the work if a cheat sheet is lost.

I continue working to finishing the scopes optical part, and then I move on to the frames and mounting. Lots of filing. The scope mounting is four parts; main mounting frame; locking clamp around the rifles mount; scope to mounting attachment with lateral adjustment; and finally the part giving height adjustment. For a compromise between durability and size, I use the M6 screws and with a large 10 faceted head with a spring blade against the head, the screw have 10 steps per turn so 0.1mm per step. Along with the scopes mounts 200mm length, the sight adjustment is therefore 5cm per step at 100m and 20cm per step at 400m. It should be adequate considering the rifle and powders limited precision and usable range. I mark scales on the side and on the knob. After zeroing the cheat sheet will be used to give a setting for that range, and I might engrave those ranges beside the scale. The bullet will be deadly far away, but honestly I will be quite surprised if I eventually can hit a door consistently at 400m, and long range shooting is only on the range against shooting target as there frankly is no point trying to hunt at those distances. Clean kills are very unlikely, and wounding animals is just stupid, mean and wasteful.

Since I'm working on the hunting rifles, I take the opportunity to do a little work on the triggers as well, partly the shape of the trigger, but above all I polish sears and surfaces so that they slide smoother and get a slightly crisper trigger feeling. Ciara comes in to show her work making a cheek pad. She was pleased that I wondered if she wanted to sew cheek pad for the rifles, and on her own initiative she have embroidered a pretty pattern on the parts where the cheek doesn't rest. I shouldn't be surprised, but she is damn good and it is very neatly done. Since I've also asked her to sew some simpler hunting bags, I guess they will be decorated too. Each weapon will have its on dedicated bag, although except the bullet and powder weight there shouldn't be much difference. Honestly, the guards want to help making something for the firearms too, so Alith, Hillevi and Gunhild have offered to help make good shaped leather covers that can be slipped over the flint lock during rain. I plan to make ready-made paper cartridges with powder and bullet so faster reloads will be an option if necessary, but each hunting bag will include such tools as brass tools to measure out the correct amount of powder, and to take the correct amount of finer shot. Shooting on the range and trying different things is very different than hunting, which is very different than combat.

At some point I will also try to make that silencer, but I have more work left on the lathe before that. The lathe is getting better and better, but I want to upgrade it with an automatic feed, so I can make proper threads, make threaded rods and such.