I've had plenty of time to think and looking at trees as I climb up and down, and it is not because I need to breath and rest okay? So, I use the tape measure and mark a wooden stick as ruler and note how long pieces I need. I will save 20 or 30 cm of this tape measure so I have something accurate, and just 6-9% won't make much of a difference on the future knife blade. I take both axes and head down to the bigger trees. There is a flatter area a bit down slope and out of view from the trail and with a tiny creek with fairly large water puddles close by, and I plan to maybe far in the future make a small garden. So I need to clear the bigger trees so there is more sun. The overall shape of the ridge in height is basically slope-steep-slope with gullies, so there's quite a few spots of just sloping ground up high on the ridge, and I should actually explore the ridge better. I've been contemplating about making a few terraces up there, and there are those berries I remember seeing. It will be very hard work making terraces as I probably have to bring mud, stone and soil up, and should do a small dam for water too. Very hard work. But the produce and tending it should be safe from most animals, and if correctly designed to still have some shade and camouflage, the terraces shouldn't be visible from anywhere but the air or one of those basically unclimbable high rock spires. Limiting danger in everyday life seems like a sensible option here.
I can't use too big trees as I have to carry the log up on my shoulder, but I guesstimate that the longer pieces will be 35-45kg, which is doable. It is bloody nerve wrecking to chop a tree down as I try to look through the jungle around me. I would really really want someone watching my back. But there is none, and it seems unlikely that I will find someone unless those Alien bastards dumped more humans here. I kind of hope they did as it's far more logical they wouldn't just have done the trip for me. Why should I be special? Maybe they have dumped thousands here? I would also be sensible due to a lot of humans will get eaten. But the Aliens are bastards so of course no one is right here, as that would be helpful and a morale boost. It would at least mean I might have a chance to talk to a person, but with my luck we won't have a common language. Inventing a sign language will be hard. And there is the trust issue too. And I still haven't learned to focus on my task. I have to be careful to avoid injury. Getting an axe in my leg or falling and breaking a bone will be incredibly bad. When I start building I will be up on the ladder, and I have to make a safety cord, and maybe make it an A style ladder. It would be stupid to fall down. Especially if that means falling from the cliff.
As the tree falls it of course get stuck in other branches. Lovely. But I manage to free it and can start to remove branches and measure the length I need for the first one. Most of these trees are fairly straight and tall, but since I want at least 14-15cm diameter, I will have to chop down six to eight trees. The thinner parts will have their own use for bracing, walls or furniture. It's damn hard work carrying the log up, especially since I need to be careful and on guard while carrying a big log, and some turns and sections require that I stand the log vertical and maneuver it around. Some parts feels very Schwarzenegger 'Commando', and I did cut the log with a stone axe. Sadly there is no babes around to impress with my manliness. As usual. This life sucks.
"Couldn't you damn Alien bastards at least have left a pretty and easy to impress woman close by?"
I might as well have asked to be brought back to Earth and given riches, and it's not like they dumped me with a care package of tools or even water bottles. Bastards. Well, at least they let me have my clothes and tools. Being naked and without shoes would've been worse.
"Is this some super advanced Alien cultures version of 'Naked and afraid'?! Don't you Aliens bastards understand the concept of volunteering?! There would be humans that would volunteer, but I sure isn't one of them. You assholes!"
They deserve every bird I can give them. It doesn't really matter in the now, so I just go down and chop down another tree. I'm going to be so sore. I decide to use left over log pieces to block that passage between two cliffs. Should help to keep any bigger dino's from getting past if they actually reach this far. It won't do much against a human.
It was a while ago since I had a girlfriend, and I'm not young. I'm not the most social person, but mainly my group of friends lack women that isn't taken, married or is 'I can't stand her'. I'm also not desperate enough to allow my friends or sister to set me up with women. Well, honestly I might do that, but not to quickly form a family or with a woman having two small children. Sure, a couple of the women looked good, but looks isn't that important. Personality, humour, interests and beliefs are. And I really have no interest in taking care of small children even if they were mine. I guess that will never be an issue now.
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As I drag the parts from the third tree up and parts for the new ladder, I am exhausted, and I decide to eat and rest. I'm sweating like crazy, and as I gulp down water it's clear that I need to start getting salt in me and stay hydrated. Luckily my plans for seashell evaporation have paid of, and I now have a glorious little pile with salt. It doesn't look much, but just licking my finger clean feel so good. Sun evaporation over a square meter of sea water should keep me well enough stocked with salt and I have refilled the seashells. Any rain will fuck it up, but not much I can do about it. I might as well try to use spare heat in the chimney when I use the kiln to make salt production go quicker. Salt will be vital.
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As the food is grilled I start to form my first log. The plan is to wedge it up between the rocky cliff sides at the front of my area. Then push four vertical posts underneath. One at each end and two in the somewhat middle as door posts. I need to make a shallow hole in the ground to really lock the vertical door posts in place and maybe one of the rock wall ends too, and the parts will use mortise and tenon joints. Three shorter horizontal pieces will separate the vertical standing logs just above the stone ground. The ground is not even so I have to be creative and adapt. Then I will attach three longer logs as roof beams up against the back cliffs and mortise and tenon joint them in place, followed by a couple of vertical support beams locking them up there, then adding bracing beams to lock it all in between the cliff sides and to triangle it all up. The end result should be very a sturdy frame that can take plenty of force especially in pushing but also pulling.
The roof need to be steep since the cliffs around my space are shaped as they are, but a steep roof also means that rain will easier run of the roof, and it will be harder to stay on the roof for any animal. The roof also needs to lean just right so that water isn't pushed out towards the sides and cliffs and thus flow into the hut. I don't know if it will work, but the flat slate stones have giving me the idea to try to make a slate roof instead of using leaf or wood. It would be very hard to grip or stand on the roof with that steep angle, and the high speed gliding off it should mean anyone trying would end up going over the cliff edge into the rocks and trees below. Attaching the slate is an issue, but if I can attach it well, the slate is just laying there over by the rocky knoll, and it should be far less work and time than making clay tiles. But it probably needs about 500kg of slate. That I have to carry up here. Which is probably 20 trips. That's a lot of work, time and ache.
The easiest way into the hut will be around the log frame through the front walls or roof, but I have limited options. A leaf roof will never be good enough, and even with plenty of horizontal slats it just won't feel safe. The front walls are a bit of an issue, but instead of waddle and daub I can split logs with wedges and just make the wall solid wood. I would like to have a solid front wall, but I'll have to leave the top of the wall open as windows since the interior will be dark, and the shape of the rock sides mean the front wall will probably be about 2.2 meters high, so the wall will probably be just 1.5m, but the windows will be divided into a few windows and with fairly solid bar like thick branches to stop anything from easily getting in. I will try to melt sand and filtered ash into glassy plates, as those glass plates don't have to be clear - just transparent. But it's another future project, just like my plans for a future loft which will be far more logs. Especially the roof needs to be camouflaged, but I can add a few leaves on the slate and try to used the slightly different coloured slate to break up a large surface and blend into the ridge. Light reflection can be an issue, so I just might make a loose camouflage net looking thing a bit above. Rain pooling under the front wall shouldn't be an issue, but I plan to add a rain gutter to collect rainwater from the roof and lead it in to large clay jars. When one is full, it overflows to another slightly below, that overflow to another and so on. 1 mm of rain should give about 20 liters.
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The day have turned to evening, and my camp is in the shade. I feel quite good about this and proud. The front framework is done and looking real solid. Tackling it sure don't make it budge. It was a bitch to slide the vertical post in from the sides, but that way the posts will be locked in place by the front walls. The tenon could have been larger but I didn't want to create a weak spot. I hardly have the proper tools, but it works. I even added a cut out and ledge in the doorposts for my future outward opening door to rest against. Hell, I even made a small three leg stool since it is the only kind of chair that won't wobble on this uneven ground.
Neither my arm or lip have shown any reaction from well grilled crab meat, so as I sit on my stool I eat my glorious evening meal of salted crab as I plan tomorrows work. I've already marked time, and reseted the time. The more days I get data on the better it will be. Now that I know what to look for, and when the sky is clear, those planetary rings are faintly visible during the day and pretty, but also a reminder that I'm not on Earth. I wonder why they aren't brighter. Isn't Saturn's rings ice? Are these rings rock instead of ice? Then again, there are more planets with rings than just Saturn, but not as visible.
Oh well, unless shit happens, I will add roof beams tomorrow and try to finish my kiln and forge-kitchen. Which means more trips for clay, and three to six logs, but I have a new ladder. The roof at the back of my hut will be about 5.5-6 meters above the floor, so a future upgrade is an upper loft for storage and maybe sleeping, which will need very solid support even if I don't add a heavy stone roof. This hut will take a lot of time to complete, but I can already visualize it and start to plan my layout. Work area with the forge-kitchen and kiln on the side towards the sea. The kitchen and wet area in the front on the sea side with water storage and drainage, as that is the way the roof will slightly lean. Then a seating area on the other side of the door with a table and a bench with back support, and I might eventually make a slightly elevated table area to make the ground there flat, and so I can sit and watch the view while I work or eat. Then as good a bed as possible, and a square bed frame with a net from cord with a lot of leaves as mattress seems to be the best I can make. I'm seriously lacking clothes or fur, but it's a future problem. I might have to locate something and make a big trap. I just hope that something is fairly close and a grazer without horns or too much muscles. And finally build some kind of shower and simple toilet outside. I plan to separate pee from poop, and add a lid and ventilation. Outdoor toilets don't have to smell bad if designed and used correctly, and is often used in remote cabins and such, and some of them are semi indoors.
Still, all of that will be a lot of work.