Isle of Semmerly as of year 65
Oliver Daniels and Kynee have been working on the island over the past ten years, creating larger areas for grazing animals, gardens and a cactus farm. They have worked out a few alternative farming methods and began to terraform (add extra dirt to the edges of) other islands in the area. They have three sons and a daughter who have been helping with the gardening and expanding the island.
Kail Daniels born in year 52, daughter Dina, born in 55, son Sebastian, born in 56, and son Gray born in year 58.
Kelp farming, by taking a boat out, getting out, and busting up kelp. Then, get back into the boat and drive about gathering it up as it floats to the surface.
And using a compost bin to make bone meal to farm flowers for use to dye wool and create banners.
Things that can go in the compost bin? Sugarcane, sweet berries, cactus, pumpkins, pumpkin seeds, flowers, saplings, kelp, wheat seeds, wheat, potatoes, carrots and watermelons.
Things that do not go in the composter? Sticks, zombie rotten flesh, wool, dirt, leather and (we hear) bamboo. Bamboo is another one of those things that have only been described in North City books to us - we have never seen it in the world and no one from Rivertown has yet, either.
Bone meal will make grass and flowers grow on any spot that then can be harvested, and the area applied with bonemeal again to randomly create more. You can get sometimes three or four flowers out of this of random types. If you apply bonemeal to a flower in a field, lilac, peony, rosebush, sunflower etc... it will provide one exact copy of that flower. It is a bit expensive but if you are using the bonemeal to provide dyes, it is cheaper than travelling the world looking for more lilacs etc.
Also, dyeing a sheep green and mating that back with a white sheep creates a baby sheep with Lime colored wool. Lime dye is extremely hard to come by! However, mating a lapis dyed sheep back to a white sheep does not create a light-blue colored sheep, you need an orchid from the swamp to do that.
Mating a lime colored sheep to a green cactus-dyed sheep is about equal to give you either a lime sheep or a green sheep.
Oliver's green wool breeding program wasn't such a silly idea, huh?
some developments Isle of Semmerly - Years 65-80
Now there are several islands nearby that are close enough to the surface that they can be terraformed. When Oliver's son Kail took a boat over to this nearby island (as yet unnamed), he found a flower island to the North, and yet another island beyond that. none of theses were the 'Land that Does Not End' that Zade Perkins described from his journey. That must lie even further North. But it is plenty of room for future generations to each have their own place to grow and expand.
Kail Daniels has taken after his grandfather Peter in exploring the world. Younger brother Sebastian Daniels has taken after his great-grandfather in practicing with different types of sandstone, cut sandstone, chiseled sandstone. Growing up on a desert island helps with that.
Dina has continued to work with the wool and dye business, using the bone meal to provide different colors for the weaving loom (from grandmother Pomra DeAryl and great-aunt Mandra Otrio). She is the one who has been experimenting with the colors of the sheep. She is going to st art working on orange and pink sheep colors, as well, and testing to see what colors they might produce. Son Gray Daniels is expanding the cactus and other crops on the island and looking to begin farming Spruce trees from the far North.
Original story "McElvaney Enterprises" c Oct 2020 by Marie Lamb
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