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Two miles of road wasn't so bad one could say.
With an increase of constant labor coming in and the days of winter waning day by day, our construction efforts were improving drastically every week if not each month.
The learned men , masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, architects, surveyors, and engineers Caro promised had arrived in the numbers. Those that were unskilled and jobless also came across the narrow seas as extra hands for the labor force we needed. Eastern men and women living and working in the harsh northern trenches, their accents foreign, and their hands and efforts were no less capable than the locals and it showed.
Our aim was to lay no less than three miles of road each moon. And we were nearing there with the influx of new hands, and by the first true days of spring it would be reached without a doubt.
The mills along the weeping river were coming along well, very well actually. Two more had gone up in the pass two months and another two more were being erected. We had planned to extend them right out to the tributary of the weeping river and build at least 15 more inland within the next 2 years. Grain would no longer rot for lack of grinding, nor would villages be forced to travel days to have their harvest processed and for this he was now satisfied at that thought.
Among them these works as well rose the foundations and skeletons of our first bloomeries, vast processing halls where iron, copper, and tin ore would be smelted and prepared for shaping into proper alloys. These undertakings were far more demanding than roadwork, as it had our best specialists working on it's careful design and construction, estimates had put it for completion within the next several moons for both buildings along the river, and plans were already laid out for the increase of similar structures amongst streams east of the Dreadfort . But in the meantime we would expand our mining operations and stockpile the necessary ore's needed.
New tools and refined mining methods had transformed beyond anything previously recorded in the North's history. I had overseen the design of vertical shafts and lifting mechanisms capable of hauling large deposits of ore to the surface, reducing the burden of raw labor. Miners now focused on expansion inwards and downwards rather than exhausting themselves to bring rocks to the surface. And what we could use was refined; the surplus was stockpiled or sold wherever opportunity allowed.
Still, steel remained our greatest need…steel for ploughs, for axes, for chisels and hammers, for every tool required to build and sustain what we had begun.
Spring would bring flooding to the lowlands, as it always had, and yet the smallfolk would be expected to till and replant before the new season started regardless. Winter ploughing would help to conserve moisture and prepare soil for spring crops. And this time, however, they would do so with abundance in mind rather than survival alone.
I had laid down and procured thousands of seeds and seedlings for crops suited to the cold, damp soil rather than the narrow reliance on wheat and barley alone. Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, cabbage, chard, arugula, collards, Brussels sprouts, lettuce of hardy varieties, mâche, and mustard greens would take root where grain often failed.
Root vegetables were expanded on aggressively. Carrots already grew in the North, though not to the extent they should have. Turnips, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas, and beets would now be planted in rotation, improving soil structure while providing reliable sustenance through winter storage.
Leeks, onions, and garlic would be grown in numbers once thought impossible. Broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi…hardy and nutrient-rich would return to northern fields in force.
Herb gardens had begun to establish wherever soil allowed: parsley, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, and thyme. The traditional northern diet had been bleak—salt, onion, carrot, garlic, and honey and this was for those fortunate enough. The regular masses fed on a grain-based diet of bread, porridge, and pottage (stew), He despised it all for it reminded him too much of hospital food from another life. Well … hospital food didn't really have salt if none at all but one could already imagine his meaning.
And as such he wouldn't want that to be the case here , he would never want men to live and die without every knowing the taste of a flavorful meal. House Bolton would not preside over a land of famine nor of a bleak society.
Agricultural tools were loaned under ten-year lease contracts, or until a farmer had produced enough surplus to repay both equipment and instruction. New farming practices were taught diligently: field fertilization using manure and compost, four-field crop rotation, enclosure where land allowed, and selective breeding of both crops and livestock.
And as such grain cultivation was approached with equal care. Winter rye, already common in the North, was capable of far greater yields than previously realized. Poor soil management and crude field selection had crippled its potential, as they had with wheat and barley. Flood-prone land was abandoned for raised fields and slopes where drainage could be controlled.
Under the new system, rye would occupy twenty percent of cultivated land, wheat forty percent, and barley another twenty. The remainder would be dedicated to vegetables, legumes, potatoes, and experimental cold-resistant fruit crops.
Apple orchards already existed in certain regions, though sparsely and poorly managed by their owners if ever. These would be expanded and grafted properly, their yields improved over time. Pears would follow. Hardier citrus, oranges and grapefruits along with pomegranates would be attempted in sheltered valleys and walled gardens. Vineyards, though slow to mature, were planned for future generations.
These would of course take time especially the apples but surely his investment would bare fruit , pun intended. There was no shortcuts to lasting power he knew this and he would toil in its dirt until everything he wanted was accomplished.
The great works had already long begun, many people were awarded lands and instructed in the use of their tools, yet progress took its time even with rushed efforts and though there were still many more to teach, many more fields to reclaim the signs were as present as day. A great change was happening
And when it was all said and done the name bolton would rewrite history and create a legacy not of terror and brutality anymore.
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