Chapter Forty Three

Seventh day, Eighth Moon, 251 AC (+144 days)

I shook off the snow that had accumulated on me from my trek from my house, as I entered the office with my lone household guard accompanying me.

The office was a large auditorium-style building that served as the headquarters for the building operations. My office, along with Koryn's, Donovar's, and some of the work supervisors lay separated at the back of the building, while the rest was an open space, with a platform and podium tucked into one of the corners.

The open area served as a meeting room for assignments as tasks were complete or for general announcements. The offices gave us some thinking space and storage area for records, which was helpful for making sure payments were on time, supplies were being delivered, and measuring progress on different tasks. It was a burgeoning bureaucracy, albeit a poor one. Parchment was used, but sparingly because of its costs, otherwise we used birch or slate and chalk.

Work had slowed over the winter, but far from entirely ceased, as mining was halted, and trees were cleared instead. I was mainly having the efforts focused on clearing area for a more direct road from the castle to Redbridge. It would cut the land between the two rivers in half, and cut down travel time, as well as stopping people from walking through my damn farm!

Trees were also being cleared for more farmland, and while we couldn't pull stumps from the frozen ground, we could get it ready so that once the ground thaws, we can rip the stumps out quickly and start planting crops. The work was progressing quicker than I had thought, especially once people started to make cross-country skis like mine. It made travel a lot faster over longer distances, though snowshoes were superior for uneven ground and short distances.

Only Trent, the logging supervisor was in right now, so I made my way over to him. He was a good man, who was among the first group settlers from Winterfell, and had a good head on his shoulders and well-respected by his fellows. My guard waited in the main room, while I entered Trent's office.

"Hello, Trent. How are you this morning?"

He stood and gave me a bow while answering, "Good, milord. And you?"

"Good. What is the status today?"

"Well, milord, the path for the road is about three quarters done, and the rest is staked out well enough I suppose, barring any storms."

"Excellent. And the fallen trees?"

"Branches are all cleared off, but transport is slow going. There's quite the backlog, no pun intended milord, since the snow is so deep after the last storm. Horses can't get in there, so I was thinking we ought t' just stack 'em where they are now, 'n leave it till better weather."

"That'll be fine, Trent. And the farmland clearing?"

"Not much change since last week; too much snow stopped a lot o' progress."

I shrugged. It wasn't unexpected after all, but it was better to ask anyway since I hadn't been in for about a week. Now that it was winter, I had a little more time on my hands, so I was working on a few different projects.

With my new-found bureaucracy, paper was going to become vital, and I needed to figure it out. I was close, oh so close, I think I just needed to get the timing right, as the process seemed to work. I was also working trying to create a Fresno Scraper, or at least what I remembered of one. My new lands had shit roads, not unlike the rest of Westeros, and I needed to change that. Roads were the lifeblood of a country, and the dirt paths I currently had were unacceptable. It had been over four decades since I last thought about such a machine, but with the general idea in mind, I was stumbling my way to success.

The Fresno Scraper wouldn't help me with gravel though. I needed a way to create gravel efficiently, since breaking it by hammer and pickaxe would be brutal and time-consuming work. I had no memories of how to break stone; I could only assume a machine crushed it somehow. I was toying with a few different designs powered by a waterwheel, but it was very much up in the air at the moment. The river stones found further south along the shoreline were too big to be used in a macadamized road or concrete, at least for the most part.

I had also hired some of the neighboring farmers to build some more seed drills, threshing and reaping machines so that we would have something to use come spring, with the obvious focus on seed drills. It was a good thing the seasons were so long in Westeros; we didn't have to plant on a strict timetable since there would be multiple harvests in a summer anyways.

I focused back on Trent and asked, "Everything okay with payments to the workers?"

"Aye, milord. Everything is on time, just like you like."

"Excellent," I said with praise. "I just came in today to get out of the house and get some quiet, so I will be holed up in my office if you need me."

With that, I left his office and entered my own. It was nothing fancy; it contained a solid table and chair, with a large slate board on one wall, shelving containing some records on another, and a painting from my children on the last. The room had candles liberally placed around it, with a lantern on the desk. It was a shame I had no electrical lighting but needs must.

I unrolled the map I had on my shelf, onto the table, and looked over it. This one was a more detailed version of my immediate surroundings, which was made by the Master Builder before he left. It showed detailed geography of the area, which would help me in planning my new city. Some things were easy, in that it was essential to have dirty industries and other polluters downstream of people's homes.

Others were more difficult; how would I design the city? A traditional American suburb wouldn't be overly well received, I think, and wouldn't really serve any function. A higher density type arrangement would be better, but how high density? I could let it grow organically I suppose, but there were certain things that needed to be done. I wanted the main roads, at least leading up to the castles to be paved, whether by concrete or stone, with sewers to help with flooding and hopefully widespread plumbing at some point.

Obviously, skyscrapers were unavailable, from a materials and population standpoint, so something like a European city? Apartment style homes, with a few floors? Maybe a shop on the bottom floor? Would people even be interested in that? I really wanted to get everything right the first time, without waste, but it looked increasingly unlikely that would happen. Perhaps if I drew up a hybrid, and made the first floor more open space, so that people could decide?

General planning was somewhat decided, in that I wanted housing to follow the new road, which would act as one of the city's main arteries, to Redbridge to start. Industry would be along the southern river, west of Sunset's Rest so that it would be downstream, and let any dangerous runoff be isolated. Eventually, I hoped that housing would expand northwards to the farms, and then continue towards Sunset's Rest, and continuing eastwards towards the lake.

Last winter, Koryn, Zane, and I planted some maple trees to the east towards the lake, and I was of a mind to expand that further. Maple syrup and sugar would be a valuable commodity, and the trees took a long time to mature enough to get sap from, so long-term planning was necessary. I was also making sure that trees were being left alongside rivers.

Another long-term goal I was contemplating, was attempting to re-route the southern river that bordered my castle so that it did not rejoin the other rivers near Redbridge and would instead flow directly out to the ocean. It would make Redbridge less flood-prone, and make sure any waste or pollution isn't taken to the city. I had no idea where, to begin with, such a project, so I suspected it would be offloaded to the Master Builder once the castle was done if he was amenable.

Sewage and water were another set of issues. King's Landing just pumped raw sewage into the sea which made the whole area stink and was a health hazard. But I didn't know how to go about creating a system for an entire city. A city-sized septic tank was out of the question, but would a large wetlands type thing work, similar to what I had built for my farm? It was working well for my family, and the water that went back into the river at the end of the treatment process smelled and looked clean enough. I had no interest in drinking such water, but I felt less bad about the people downstream.

How big would a wetland required by a city be?

Master Builder Jon wouldn't know, but he might be able to help me figure it out. Another thing that needed to be set aside for now.

Plans, plans, and more plans.

My goal was to create a large city, one that would rival White Harbor. I wanted to create a belt across the North that would foster trade, one that stretched from Sunset's Rest-Torrhen's Square-Winterfell- White Harbor. Sunset's Rest wasn't in the most optimal place for such a thing, but it wasn't a poor location either. Other cities might eventually beat mine if other Lord's tried, but if I could make mine large enough, and attract enough industry, I could force the trade routes to stay.

With that in mind, I began to draft my first Five Year Economic Plan. It was hard to plan for variable season lengths, especially since it impacted what we were able to do so heavily, but I could make estimates and try to keep the plan flexible. Based on the past summer, the winter should be another eight months, followed by a six-month spring, a two-year summer, six-month fall, and another two-year winter. So, a plan to the end of next winter would incorporate my entire five-year plan.

xxxx

Year 1 (Winter/Spring): Clear forested land to make room for improved roads and farmland. Store logs for future use. Build machines for future farming, with the aim to make the region once again food self-sufficient. Design future machines and plans. If temperature allows, begin removing stumps. Expansion of spinning wheels for wool.

Year 2 (Spring/Summer): Begin farming operations. Expand animal herds. Resume mining operations and castle construction. Koryn's teaching program – ties into farming expansion. Obtain tradespeople for Redbridge. Apply new techniques for certain trades (waterwheels). Continue to build machines for farming. Expand alcohol business and create demand. Expand maple tree farming. Determine if garum can be a reliable industry. Export fish? Use captured longship as transport for trade.

Year 3 (Summer): Enlarge brick and cement industry – export? Scented lye soap. Increase winter rose oil production. Continue to increase food production - begin to sell inland? Buy raw wool and sell spun wool – value added. Buy materials needed for pigments for paint. Begin tour of new lands.

Year 4 (Summer/Fall/Winter): Begin to sell paint. Continue previous projects. New projects may arise from tour. Ensure materials are stocked so that some work through winter may continue.

Year 5 (Winter): Clear more trees as needed.

xxxx

I grimaced as I looked at the end of the list. It was a bit sparse but good enough for my first long-term plan. A lot rested on me being able to create and find markets for goods, and I was hampered by the North's low market activity. I would have to route any goods up to Deepwood, what doesn't sell there can be moved on to Winterfell, and then White Harbor, and then onwards.

That meant a lot of wagons for merchants since we had only the one ship capable of carrying sizeable amounts of cargo. I made a note to hand off the leaf spring design to my friends, Jon and Carn, who were good with wood and could use the money. Hopefully, the influx of money would improve the general atmosphere.

Some of the villagers weren't overly happy with me, as they saw Koryn and I being elevated with jealousy. Luckily, none were truly angry that we were elevated, but the fact that they weren't stung. Theon was the agitator of the group, as he was unhappy since he had led a group into battle but was not recognized for it. Most were just grumbling -nothing serious- but Theon had never liked me, and his opinion hadn't changed after the raid. Just another to watch out for.

By the time I had finished writing up my plan and some other miscellaneous work, it was getting late in the day, so I decided to call it quits and head home. Trent had left an hour ago, so I signaled to my guard and began to bundle up.

It had begun to snow once again, so our passage home was cold and silent, as we travelled beneath the falling snow.