vintage storying since 2021 !

It is the 5th of Thrimridge, Year 1, on the Isle of Valais and much progress has been made. (Also, I have installed the Shire Reckoning mod. Thimridge is May.)

Firstly, a bit more decor has been done in the house. I got some good work done in the beginning of winter, but then I struck iron and my priorities changed.

My goals for the first half of the year were:

Build a smithy with room for a helve hammer to process the bulk of the iron so that I can make whatever I need to progress to steel (almost done !)

Build out another field and neaten up the first field so that I have room to grow every seed I've got (done !)

Get as much compost as possible. More on this later. (I have like 9 barrels of rot right now ! Which is so much less than it sounds like !)

I put the smithy up on the hill. It's basalt, polished basalt, and red shingles. Not yet done--just have to finish up the tower, and of course it's also waiting for the windmill installation. I'm out of linen for sails, so this will have to wait until the first harvest, which hopefully is only a few months away.

Here's the inside:

Pretty bare right now. I had to move the anvil and forges upstairs for the helve hammer, but I'm planning to make another anvil and a few more forges for downstairs, since the helve hammer is only good for cleaning up iron blooms and making metal plates. Plus, it is unfortunately extremely cramped in the helve hammer area.

As you can see. It's got the hammer, anvil, 2 forges and 2 bellows, and I'm standing on a crate of black coal. One key feature is the brake, which is actually sunk into the wall on the left. You can turn the system off from this floor with a little wrangling, but more importantly the brake is exposed to the first floor and can be toggled from down there, so the helve hammer noise won't drive me crazy when I'm not using it. So... it's very cramped, but it's got everything I need. Including a ladder to climb the tower and see the view of the isle !

Which brings me to goal #2: I've got the two fields, padded out with flowers since I didn't have quite enough seeds. I've also got 5 ceramic hives (from the golden combs mod) and more wax than I know what to do with, which is a great problem to have. I built a small seed shed (just above the furthest field--you can hardly see it) which also has my tree cutting tools in it, and the big field of pine trees that I've been cutting down as they grow. I also need to get rid of the ones by my house, but I keep forgetting to.

Here's my Seraph on top of the (still incomplete) smithy tower. I made everything but the shirt before I ran out of cloth. I also have a hat and coat, but they are not needed in the late spring. They're currently on a mannequin in my bedroom. I hope to eventually make a summer and winter outfit, but windmill sails and boat sails take precedence over fashion, unfortunately.

I really don't want to use my raft to go anywhere far away at this point so I've only left my island to travel one island over, a trip of about 2 minutes, to get to a desolate sandstone gravel island with lots of good ore and rocks deep down. I've spent a lot of time mining over there. But I refuse to go to the mainland (a 10 minute trip on the raft) until I can use my sailboat. I feel like I wasted way too much time on that miserable raft last year.

As for goal #3, I have not yet found any soil other than low fertility soil. I do have lots of bonemeal and saltpeter, so I've heavily amended it, but I came to the conclusion in the winter that the only real solution to this is making terra preta, which requires heaps of compost--basically one barrel of rot will make 1 block of terra preta, if I remember correctly. So in my spare time I've been killing everything that moves and rotting the meat for good soil.

Not pictured: gen 2 chickens and gen 1 sheep and goats. I also have a poor reading on halite near the isle. I spent several real life hours on a wild goose chase looking for salt because I want to make cheese (for the first time ever), but the halite has proved elusive thus far.

It's not done yet, but I'm in the detailing phase and having a blast. I used wattle and daub for the walls and slate for the roof.

It's good for chiseling. Here is my front and back doors. By the way, every single piece of wood here had to be brought in from other islands, all of which are 1000+ blocks away (a 10 minute journey minimum).

There was only one tree on my island when I spawned in, and I used that to make a raft. I've done virtually all my cooking from grass, which is the only fuel source that occurs naturally on this island. I have yet to grow any other trees... hopefully the saplings will grow up this spring. Really, every material pictured besides reed baskets and granite cobble and flowers had to be imported, so it's been slow going.

I spent forever getting the lead for these windows but it was so worth it. This house has a lot of windows because the view is very beautiful.

As you can see, I've started in on some chiseled furniture. I haven't finished any rooms yet and there's a lot to do, but I'm happy with it so far.

I somehow spent 45 minutes chiseling this fireplace. And yes, that is meteoric iron to stand in for ashes under the pot. I found it on my island !

The (unfinished) kitchen. Those daffodils do some heavy lifting.

The fallow winter fields. And a half finished sailboat (!!!) in the distance. I cannot wait to never use a raft again. I haven't done anything with sailboats in Vintage Story yet and I'm very excited to see how it turns out.

Not pictured: An ugly cellar, a pit of Valais goats and Mouflon sheep I've been breeding, the chicken pit, my attic with a million chests full of most of my stuff, and a struggling berry patch. I also am halfway to a great handmade outfit, but I ran out of cloth so it's not done yet.

At one terrible point before I could make chests I had a half finished granite cobble hut with dozens of piles of everything you can think of--resin, stones, sticks, bones, saltpeter, charcoal, reeds, tools, unfired tiles... it was such a nightmare. It's good we can pile stuff on the ground but it spirals out of control so fast. Glad to have the place looking nicer.

Haven't had much time to play VS recently but I did finally finish (mostly) my mill ! I'll have to wait until spring to get better pictures--it's too dark even at noon to get any detailed shots. It's made of peridotite cobble and walls and polished peridotite blocks--first time I've ever made the polished stuff ! I'm lucky that my spawn is on chalk. I want to make the entryway room have a pitched roof, just forgot I hadn't already done that until I was looking at these pictures lol. Currently it's just a box.

Here's the inside, which is currently undecorated:

It's got an entryway that will be for storage and then a big central spiral staircase to bring you up as high as possible, to save on axels. The actual windmill part is still about 15 blocks higher than the quern, which used up all of my fat and resin. The spiral staircase was very difficult to build in a way that wouldn't have me falling off it every time I went up or down, but a half stack of trapdoors did the trick and now it's not possible to fall off it, and easy to get up and down. I'm very proud of it. Unfortunately it's not easy to get a good picture of.