Despite the fact that Kallick had as yet failed to find anyone to oversee the plantation he was determined to get the first crop planted out. The Dorin family that had been there since the start had been tending the tiny seeds that had been sewn out in flat boxes known as flats inside the barn.
The flats had been filled with good humus and fine local potting soil watered and then watched on an candlemark basis for signs of locals bugs and pests. it had taken nearly two cycles before the tell tale plant sprouts had begun to show and at that point Kallick had to make a decision.
He had enough sprouting seeds for the full forty acres but the land was still not ready and that was the point when he had to get hold of some labour. Kallick bought a barrel of beer from a local hostelry mounted it on a flat bed cart and accompanied by the Dorin family drove into Taralon and set up shop in the
central plaza
Speechifying was not something the young Dorin did very often , he left that side of things up to his step father but “needs must when Jalat drives” as they say.
He stood up on the flat bed cart and began
“Folks lend me your ears the Black River Tobacco Company is hiring. We need day labour and we will pay for 100 workers x 24 cycles at 20 crowns per cycle free meals thrown in and a barrel of beer at the end of the brightening . So folks anyone interested if so come and join me for a beer and put your name down on the roster.
Free beer is often a good way to gain attention and in Taralon it works as well as any other place It was not an immediate success these things never are but a constant recitation of his speech over a long brightening proved that it was possible to get a gang of men and women together for some extra cash money and the promise of good grub and a drink at the end of the day.
Kallick was not sure that he could oversee this crowd of locals, true he had some instruction in the Knights of Aslangard on leadership but driving this motley crew to work was different from leading disciplined troops to battle.
Ist Brightening of summer ~ Cryxatum era XIV
The day dawned bright and clear and Kallick waited at the gates of the Kallimeyra Estate with a certain nervousness , his speechifying and bribery of the local populace was not a sure fire way of gaining workers some might just be there for the beer and had made empty promises for a jug of ale. However much to his delight throngs of people began arriving loaded down with tools and most of them carrying packed lunches tied up in handkerchiefs hung on their implements.
Kallick had thought about the ground clearing exercise carefully and now knew that in order to get the best from the soil it needed certain nutrients .thus he had divided the forty acres up into long strips and lain dead brush wood and old dry leaves on the ground gathered from their own trees. His plan was simple they would light this brushwood and plough the resultant potash into the ground along with a somewhat pungent mix of animal dung and straw that they had been building into a huge heap over the past year.
The fact that the residents cesspits had also joined this heady mixture was not something that Kallick was prepared to admit too yet!
The budget for tools had allowed for ploughs and mules and they would be set to work immediately that the ash had cooled and the compost spread.
Dividing his work force up into two teams armed with buckets of water from the stream Kallick set the first torch to the designated strip and watched as it caught fire the army of workers stood by with brushes of twigs and buckets of water to ensure that the fire did not spread uncontrollably.
The brightening was dominated by palls of smoke and roaring fires but eventually as the suns began to set the estate was little more than a smouldering expanse of torched earth ideal for ploughing and full of the precious nutrients that the fledgling tobacco plants craved.
The following brightening was a time for the plough teams and the muck spreaders and the ploughs marched the length of the estate turning over the earth. Behind the ploughs women bent in the hot sun pulling up weed roots and stones as the ploughs uncovered them behind the weeders groups of spreaders made use of the heady compost further enriching the earth. Finally the whole mixture was watered with men and women in a bucket chain following the plough.
OOC ~ I accept that there are bunnies in this post but GM Steve can of course put a spanner in the works if he should so desire. ~ More to follow!