Date: August 21, 300 After Landing, Summer, Long Winter
Location: Sea Dragon Point
Finally, after what seems like an eternity the snow has stopped. At least for now.
I spent most of the last few days clearing snow from construction sites and mending fences or homes warped under the weight of tons of ice. There is a simple joy in helping these people, and I don't know if it was something common to before I arrived, but the people are all pitching in and doing the same with their neighbors (with only a few exceptions from stubborn people who prefer to go it alone). The coal we started to mine has been extremely useful in heating the homes, but something tells me I can still do better. I have a vague memory of something called a Franklin Stove, supposed to be great for heating and cooking, but I can't remember anything about it except for how it looked on the outside. Guess I will have to start tinkering around with that.
Another thing I need to start building (add to the growing list) is a better furnace for melting and shaping iron/steel. The local blacksmith does pretty well with what he has, but…well I guess I should write all my thoughts out here.
I want to turn Sea Dragon Point into the North's first industrial powerhouse. There are vast untapped resources here, and those that aren't and I need can be shipped here. The locals know about untapped iron deposits and other minerals in the region, but between the low population and lack of interest they have remained undisturbed. With a blast furnace we can turn that raw iron into useful material. While warring though Europe I saw several examples of those built in medieval times, even spoke with a few people who knew how to run them and what materials were fed into them. It won't be an easy, or safe, process but once we know how it will increase production.
But production of what?
All these days locked up in the house got me bored. I pulled out my old uniform, the one I wore when I washed ashore in this strange land. It still had all the stuff I used to carry with me. The chewing gum was ruined by the sea water, but the bullets were sound. That got me thinking about the gunpowder inside. Sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter. Simple, abundant ingredients that can be purchased or made fairly easily. The problem is the ratio. If there is going to be a several years long winter keeping me indoors, I can't think of a better experiment to occupy my mind.
Ha. It is getting hard to keep my mind occupied. I've written down all the relevant educational material I could remember long ago. I'm about halfway through transcribing the works of Shakespeare, while also recreating the music of Beethoven, Bing Crosby and whatever else pops in my head. I have a room full of papers, covered from top to bottom in all the math, science and philosophy thought to me in school. With so much idle time it's like my mind is overflowing with energy and wants to just spit out everything it can.
You know I managed to find some copper and get the blacksmith to make a thin wire out of it. Took a magnet to it, produced a current, and now the world has a fire-starter. That was what the people I demonstrated it to thought. All they took away from the sight. A magic fire-maker. What good is producing electricity without a way to use it? What good is all this knowledge without some way to meaningfully share it. Should I share it?! I just don't know.
Anyway, Dacey is calling me. Funny, she seems to be the one thing that keeps my mind from speeding away.