Year 2 - Spring - Bennett
There has been so much happening in Lazy River since I last updated the journal. We have moved on from being a small group of survivors struggling to survive to a small, and growing, community.
If you compare the photograph below with the one taken when we first arrived at Lazy River you won't see much difference. A few more houses and a cluster of buildings in the centre of the valley. But as a community we have changed so much. After spending over a year here we are secure in the knowledge that the zombies can't reach us. The river and the hills on either side, as well as miles and miles of uninhabited forest, provide a good deterrent. The only way to reach this little haven on peace and safety seems to be by boat or the railway line, but with no trains running and zombies unable to sail it seems safe here. They seem unable or unwilling to make the long difficult trek over the hills and forests.
If you look at the photograph again you will see the abandoned farm to the south. There is a large orchard there which has provided as with enough fruit to last the winter. And in the large barns we found some bags of wheat seed. It was pretty mouldy but we sowed it anyway. Some of it grew but the harvest was poor. There is an old windmill next to the storage sheds which we managed to repair enough to grind some of the wheat. Most of it has been dried out in the sheds over winter for us to sow now, the rest was ground into flour for bread. We hope to have a better harvest this year, Milo hopes there is enough to make more fresh baking, pasta etc but we will have to wait and see. We have been so lucky to find this place.
If you look closely at the photograph above you will see a new large building in the centre of town. It turns out that Barrett McArthur, one of our new residents, is a builder. To repay us for taking in his family and building them a home he taught us how to lay bricks. This is a project we have been working on all winter and I am glad to say we now have a block of small apartments and some new shops ready for people to move into, assuming we get any more newcomers.
But on to my family now. River has moved out but still visits regularly, usually around meal times.
Reuben and I enjoy having some time to ourselves in the evening once Ranger is in bed. It is strange to remember all the things we used to do..... watching TV, playing computer games.... I can't even imagine having the time to do such wasteful activities now. But I didn't have food to grow, houses to build, disputes to solve back then.
With there being so many people living here now, I have a pretty much full time job keeping (or at lest trying to) everything running smoothly. Reuben has taken up the slack looking after Ranger when I am out.
He is a great father and I am so happy I chose him to share my life with, he makes everything so much easier for me.
Stats:
Scout: Politics - Mayor
Badges - Gardening: Gold - Fishing: Bronze
Skills - Charisma: 10 - Logic: 10 - Creativity: 7
Reuben: Science - Theorist
Badges - Robotics: Gold - Gardening: Silver - Fishing: Bronze
Skills - Cooking: 7 - Logic: 9 - Cleaning: 9