I don't need to entirely replace the old boards I just need to cover them up with another one. The pillar in the middle I need to completely remove and what's left of the roof I need to remove and replace which is the most important part. The floor I could replace but I think I could go a while without replacing it if I am going to move into this house.
The outside isn't too bad there are a few places, especially by the windows and the roof that need new boards to cover them up but other than that that's it.
I put my bucket down and the pouch of meat inside the house that I cleared of snow. And they went outside with my axe in hand to chop down a tree. I started swinging my ax into the tree as the crude Stone blade smacked against the bark more and more. They made it more difficult for the accident to come out. They got to a point where I had to put my foot on the tree and wiggle the crude axe head out. But eventually, it got to a point where it was cracking and I pushed with my strength to make the tree fall away from the house and ran back. Just in case for whatever reason the tree came my way I did not want to be crushed that's why I ran back.
Now to probably the most difficult part. In Eloise's Journal, I read something about lumbering and how if you make chops in the tree then he put a wedge in after smacking the wedge eventually the lock will split now it's easier to use the axe when it comes to this stuff but because I do not have the best ax in the world using these wedges will be a serious help.
But I can't just put a wedge into the tree like this so I started hacking Away by about half a foot up from where the roots connect to the central log of the tree. The plan was to chop in such a way where it's piece of wood that I would drop out would be a triangle or something very similar to it.
After I was done with that the piece I did get from the tree did not look like a triangle whatsoever yeah it splinters all over it because of my crappy ax but it worked. I grabbed a rock with one sharp side and a smoother side The Rock need to be shaped like a triangle for this to work. I Place The Rock in the Triangle chunk I chopped out of the tree. Then I went to find a bigger Rock because I was not hitting that with my brittle crude ax or my foot.
I found this decently sized Rock and it was incredibly heavy to carry but that's what I need for this project. It took a while of lifting The Rock and dragging the rocket to get back to where the tree was. When I got there I lifted The Rock with all my managed to rest it on the tree although my back did crack and it hurt like hell. Not as bad as the wolf bite. As I remember this I looked down at where I was bitten. It seems like the the wound isn't fully healed but some Scar Tissue is being formed.
Now that the heavy Rock was on the tree I lifted it carefully so the center of the rock was over the sharp Rock pointing towards the inside of the tree and dropping it on said sharp Rock. The sharp Rock did go deeper into the tree not by much though and now it's time to repeat this process over and over until this works. And to make useable Lumber for houses and such I need to do this lengthwise as I look at the tree laying on the ground this tree is about I don't know 30 ft long the house at most is 15 ft tall I'm going to need to cut it in half again that means I need to split it in half lengthwise again. This is not going to be a day project.
After separating the tree and two bits the sun was already about to go down it was about 2 hours until Nightfall. While I was working on the tree I went through some bits of meat I brought with me and the majority of the water. I gathered my things and walked over to the frozen lake, stomped on the ice until it broke, and then scooped up a bucket full of water. Then I started walking back.
On my way back from the house it started to get gradually and gradually darker until eventually the sun went down and it was completely pitch black then the snow started to fall I started to pick up the pace well that was running with one hand I grabbed the spear off my back and adjusted the bucket in my hand so I wouldn't spill out the water wall running. When I was running I had visions. I swear I was seeing things from my peripheral vision, this monster with a deer skull. I started scratching on the nearby trees and growling after hearing footsteps behind me and then to the side of me in front of me I didn't care I just needed to get back home.
After running for some time in the pitch black I could feel the difference in snow. These are my footprints from this morning. I started following them knowing I would eventually get back to the cave. By this time my eyes have adjusted to the dark just a little bit so I can see about 15 m in front of me. I could still hear the scratching footsteps and the growling around me. I could still see in my peripheral vision this deer skull claws a tall corpse-like body.
Suddenly I saw something in front of me just outside of what I could see properly. It's about 17 m. This tall lanky creature with a deer skull one arm on a tree wrench that's 10 meters up the other arm on the ground pressing into the snow. Stop dead in my tracks, and set down the bucket of water that is my other hand of the spear. If this is how I'm going to die I'm going to die fighting. Well come at me I said out loud however the creature did not respond and did not move an inch.
Suddenly I saw something move in the corner of my eye I looked in its direction I swear I could see another deer skull in the forest and then again to the left a deer skull, to the right, behind me, in front of me, these monsters just outside of my vision am I going crazy I have to be I started pointing the spear I'm looking. It was like I was spinning around in circles wherever I looked and the wendigo looked back at me. I stabbed the point of the ear into the pull-out of the matchbox and little match and struck it against the side of the box. It gave a subtle glow but that was enough to just see beyond what I could originally see. It was but my imagination, my paranoia getting the better of me.
I picked up the bucket I set beside me and started making my way back to the cave. Once I arrived I took a big sip of water from the bucket, then walked a little bit away from the cave to relieve myself. After that, I went to the cave and fell asleep using the wolf pelt cloak as a blanket, surprisingly warm I finally adjusted to the cold.
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The next morning I woke up and tried to open up my makeshift door and there was too much snow piled up in front of it, so later I went back and used both of my feet and pushed through the snow. Sadly I broke the "door" of the cave entrance. I spent some time using a Flat Rock to shovel away the snow in front of the cave. This means I need to chop down a tree again for firewood. After chopping down a tree I went back into the cave to grab the bucket of water sadly it froze but regardless I put some snow into it with a sturdy stick dangling above the campfire. Spinning the stick against another one I managed to create a small fire with the aid of birch bark and twigs then sticks then logs I was able to make a big campfire.
When the snow and ice started to melt I did my morning routine: going to the washroom, checking traps, training with the crappy spear, and planning out the rest of my day. Today the plan is to use the quill and the book with endless pages (Eloise's Journal) to create a blueprint of what the house is going to look like after I repair it. After that, I was going to start splitting wood again and probably chop down a few trees so I don't have to do it tomorrow. It was going to take some time but time is all I have really.
This time when I was walking I counted every step I took. The plan was every step I took was roughly one second just by dividing every step I took by 60 twice as I can figure it the hours/minutes it took me to get here. I took 10,255 steps to get here divided by 60 twice you get 2.84 which means it takes 2 hours and 44 minutes to get to the lake house.
When I arrived I cleared out the house of snow then I took a few minutes to look at the house at least what's left of it. I don't want the pillar to be in the center of the house like it used to be. Maybe I could put some support beams across the ceiling or use thinner wood on the ceiling or hey even. No— hay would never, neither would thin wood. It snows all the time here and it's very Wendy. Both thin wooden hay would not make a great roof. Maybe if I make a bargeboard at both ends of the house it can be strong enough it will hold up the boards on the roof. Stronger boards would be better as a roof but just to make sure they won't blow away I'll make thicker twine and tie it to the actual house.
After sketching a little bit more in the book I carefully folded the piece of paper twice folding it once to the left and once to the right then ripped it slowly the folds made it easier to rip straight. As I ripped the paper out and looked back to the book it seemed like the page regenerated. The page of my hand was still there. If this book can be a source of infinite paper I won't need to worry about starting any fires. Although I knew already that the book seemed pretty much endless every time I flipped to the back of the book, more pages would appear. The book was weird that way.
Back to the project. I grabbed my pocket knife and started carving away at some of the charred boards on the inside of the house. After scraping away a bit, I found that the house was made of one outer wall and one thinner inner wall. It would be a pain to remove the inner wall and replace the boards, then fix up the outside a bit since almost all the walls were completely charred. I didn't want to pry the boards with my pocket knife for fear it would snap, so I switched to my crude axe. I decided to hack away at half of the board and then use brute strength to pull it up from the wall.
My idea worked, although it was tiring. I went to get a drink from the bucket of water I had boiled this morning, but I had forgotten it. I sighed, wondering how I would get water, but then I remembered the lake not too far from the house. Luckily, I had the pouch of wolf meat in my back pocket. I opened it and realized I had gone through the wolf meat faster than I expected. It was a shame I caught nothing in the traps I had laid out. Maybe I should lay a few out here. It doesn't take very much—just one simple pine cone would be enough to get a squirrel's attention.
No, I need to focus on the project. I just need to focus on repairing the house. I proceeded to destroy the inner wall a little bit about halfway through this. I took a break. I went to the lake with my axe and broke the ice using my hands to scoop water and drink. The water was cold. I don't know how I didn't get frostbite yet, maybe it was some sort of immunity to cold. No that can't be it, maybe I'm just lucky. After I was done in a 20-minute break I went to the forest a bit from the house and chopped on another 3 trees roughly 15 m in height. After doing this I cleared off the tree I was splitting. By this time the sun was 3 hours or so from setting.
I gathered a few things I had before I left. I spent 15 minutes making a stick cage propping it up with a stick and leaving a pine cone there just to test my hypothesis to see if there are more animals over here.
I know it takes roughly 2 hours and 40 or so minutes to get here if I'm walking but just in case I spent the first little bit of my journey back to the cave running after I ran for 30 minutes I stopped and continued back walking. While walking back I was considering bringing a clay Bowl to the burnt-down house. This is when I spotted something horrifying.