D.A.B. day 4
This sucks
After I made sure it just the birds usual oh so lovely wake up screech, I thank the bird and go back to my 'bed'. My body is so damn sore and ache, and I feel a slight sunburn and it is raining. I just want to not be here and do anything. I want this nightmare to be over. At least the bird is early, so I use that excuse to wait for the sun to pass the same feature so I get better data. Yep, that is very important. My clothes feel so muggy and bad. I need to wash my shirt, so I just hang it out into the rain and crawl back into my shelter.
"Damn Alien Bastards."
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The sun has passed the mark, the rain have eased off, and I just have to suck it up and get started. If I survive to finish my hut, I can start to relax. I'll still need to think about food and water, but at least water should be easier once the roof is in place. Time to make a few clay and at least one slate runs. Yay. I need to figure out how to mount the slate before I do more. I should probably start on part of the front wall, and I might do half. A windbreak would be nice.
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I call it quits as I've made four clay runs and three slate runs. I'm starting to notice chafing, and that will only get worse. Probably sweat, salt crystals and not being able to really wash myself. It's been hours and I used the rain to wash of the worst, but the rain have stopped so I can let my clothes dry as I prepare my fish. I actually caught one, and it's bigger than expected. Which feels stupid to say, as everything feels bigger here and bigger things need bigger food. It might have something to do with a slightly lower gravity, and the oxygen concentration might be higher too. Helps to make me feel stronger.
If I can catch a fish every other day I might be able to live on that alone. Which will suck, but better than to starve and those birds will eventually stop nesting and be gone. I need to try and make a fishing net so I'm not relying on one food source, and I need to find something that will give me carbohydrates and I need vitamins. I remember seeing some kind of berries while exploring the ridge, but I was distracted and I just didn't think about bringing some. I'm going to have to go explore the jungle, the ridge sides and the higher inland mountains.
My land trap skills so far have only fed a big ass dinosaur predator, but there is something fucking up my trap on that animal trail. Guess I should try another type of snare or trap. I've changed the height this time, and I wonder about a net springing up, and it will have to be high to avoid the last animals fate.
"I bet a big fucking flying dino will eat it instead."
There are a few flying around using the thermals and rising wind from the coast. Those long beak and claws look vicious, and I've seen them carrying big fucking fish in them. My mood is low, but it can always be worse, and likely will be. So I continue on my kiln and forge-kitchen as my meal cook. To save work and material and not because I'm lazy, there will be a large hidden gap towards the rock behind the forge, and done right it can act as a secret hiding place for stuff. If I find people, they will probably try to steal my stuff. People are assholes, and so far my experience is that that applies to aliens too.
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"Damn alien bastards."
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Today's work goes slowly and I just don't have any energy or motivation, but I just keep working as I try to be aware of my surroundings. I figured out that I don't really need to be using the ladder that much to build, as I can jam a log higher up to rest the roof beams on, and raise two support beams to bracing that log from beneath. So the roof beams will rest on the front wall and the log, and towards the back rock. They are heavy logs, and I worry about loosing control and it falling and breaking something important. I've moved all my pottery to a safe spot but the kiln and forge-kitchen is where it is, so I lean thick branches as protection. Being tired and aching isn't helping.
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I get all three roof beams up and stable enough, and I start to add bracing between it all. Especially more upper bracing between the beams just below the cliff to make the slats have something to attach too. Fastening all the horizontal slats for the roof will be an issue as I need to do it after getting all the beams in place first. I will have to do that while standing on the ladder, which probably means making a longer A style ladder with a wide stance to reach the highest points. The plan is to make shallow cuts in the beams and slats to make them lock together, and then use dowels or cord to tie it down. I haven't got a better plan, although I will try with locking wedges too. My plan for attaching the slates are similar. Make a hole or two and tie the slate down at the top or hang them from a dowel depending on where they are. Which is why I've gone for longer slate pieces so they can overlap down over the next lower slate, and especially the two-three lowest layers over the front wall will probably be tided down over two slats to really force it down so wind, animal or people find it harder to just lift the front end up, and I will add extra slats there.
It feels ironic to prepare against people breaking in, when I actually hope there is other people here.
I'm going to use a bow drill and dry clay as grinding material to make all those holes, and it works, but it will take days. Still, it's not like I have much else to spend time on. And I need to make sure that water coming from the cliffs above actually drips out and continue on the roof instead of following the cliff wall down inside the hut. So I need to use stone on the rock to make a drop ledge for a lot of the wall, and I will try to divert most cliff water away from the rain collection due to paranoia, although it doesn't seem to be that much water from the back cliff, and the side cliff shouldn't catch that much rain. I really need to climb up and look at the top of the cliff above my hut. There will be a gap in a cliff crevice at the top of the corner, with a good view out towards the sea. I should be able to climb up from there. And I need to block that hole with a small wall or something. Maybe add a door to make a roof exit. Having another way out in case of an emergency seems sensible.
My sharpened flathead screwdriver has been so valuable to make all the mortise and tenon joints, and I've gotten quite good at it. The simple wooden hammer helps to work the screwdriver through the wood. It must sound like a woodpecker up here, and I wonder who far the sound carries, and anyone watching might be able to see my framework getting built. So I've attach more strings with leaves as camouflage. It all looks kind of shitty; like a pretty leaf roof have collapsed. The thing that keeps me working is that eventually it will be done, and then I shouldn't have to worry about being wet and can sleep better too. I keep waking up from noises during the nights. I decide to finish those two flint tip spears as my fire hardened spears suck even worse than my axes and knife.
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As just lie on the branches and leaves I call my bed and stare at the leaves above me.
"Damn Alien Bastards."
I might as well shorten that to DAB to save time considering how much I use it, but it feels better to say every word. They deserve it.