Creating something new, day 2

Exploring the first island, Little Ackerek.

Hillevi stays on the boat to guard our things, and apart from my group Master Builder Pedr and his right hand man, and a man who apparently is the tax collector from the King will be the team who inspects the Island. One or two locals will probably join us as guides. The taxman is here to inform the locals about their changed life situation, and that the land where they live no longer belongs to the kingdom, but to me and that I rule, and this winter they have to negotiate with me about new lease agreements for the comming year or years. I just assume that the Taxman also comes along to report everything to the King.

We're rowed in and there are quite a lot of people waiting for us when we get to the beach, and the beach on the other side of the strait have spectators too. It's the locals. The ones who lease the farms or work here. Talk about an unwanted experience for them to find out the leased land they lived and farmed on for years now belongs to a new owner, and they at the same time isn't living in the Kingdom anymore, and is now part of my Furstdom. In any case, they don't have to pay taxes to the kingdom, all though they will probably pay some tax to me in the future.

After introductions theres a bit of official followed by small talk and the head of the family leasing the farm here and his son, accompany us on our day as we explore Little Ackerek, or as they also call it 'the western island'. As I thought, the waterline is higher than my maps show, but I can easily correct them as we walk along. Actually less water rise than I guessed there would be, maybe a meter or something. Could have been 10-20m and then there would have been problems, especially with arable land for crops, so I'm very happy that there should be lots of opportunities on Big Ackerek. Maybe there isn't a difference in land uplift here, just a difference in the polar ice caps?

The sometimes steep and rocky terrain is a bit hard to walk in but the pace is deliberately quite slow so we can really look and take it all in. Its a nice day and we do enjoy walking in the deciduous forests and meadows. So much is oak. Primarily pine on rocks and cliffs, spruce in the northern parts, but primarily oak everywhere else. There are however elements of various other trees, some spruce where the pine is found, and birch, maple, rowan, aspen, hazel, juniper etc on the deciduous forest parts. But mostly its large oaks, with grass or evergreen shrub on the ground. European blueberries, aka bilberries, and lingonberries, but also blackberries, raspberries and others. I think we will appreciate that in the coming years. We all taste the berries, and as expected it is simply far too much blueberry and lingonberry for the islanders to be able to pick it all during the harvest season. Pretty much a fifth of all land in modern Sweden is covered in shurbs like these, and seem to be the same here. Iselin points out herbs and flowers and she's very enthusiastic about how rich and varied the plant life here is, and seem to be overjoyed that all of this is my land and that we will live here. Kari is more dignified, and so is Ciara, but they too like this nature. And it is very nice and pretty, and would be worth a lot in modern Sweden, considering that is prime real estate in the archipelago north of Gothenburg.

There are three small lakes on Little Ackerek, and only one can really be called a lake as the others feel like ponds. The lake is about 200x100m with a small stream down into the valley, where it turns to southwest and ends in the long but shallow bay. In the past someone have clearly dug and cut into the ground so that the flow will be down to the valley and to the arable land there, instead of south between the hills where there is a bit of a dam thing built. Its mainly a low and wide earth bank slightly overgrown with bushes and trees. Not a resent job, and will probably last as there isnt much water pressure and its only a bit more than a meter high. But its a good fresh watersupply for the cultivated land and the farm, and I will keep it as such. Will have to make sure to keep this lake water as clean as possible, and avoid things that might contaminate the water from its surrounding area, and thus the fields and people using it, so I must consider everything I build here, sewage, and where animals graze.

But its quite a large lake, and much more than man deep in the middle, they just havn't measured, so I should be able to put a small hydropower plant here or atleast a waterwheel or two for a forge, mill, stamper, saw and so on, as its probably a 10-15m drop over a short distance, and seems to be around 20m down to sea level.

But then I don't want my house right next door, and especially not if the forge must be here to have a power hammer, and the hammering on iron from the forge will be annoying. Water will be needed for several crafts, and will have to take that water from the same lake since large bodies of water or streams are few. Maybe use the same waterwheel for two crafts and just not load it from both sides at the same time, or make an intermediate pond for additional water wheels further down, as 2-3m is enough to get a lot of power with less flow. But I want to keep my mansion away from the craftmen village, and don't want to build it on the rocks and cliffs across the valley in the west either, because all that noise will still be heard on the other side, so it doesn't matter that the view should be really nice from there. The valley's just a couple of hundred meters wide, and is likely to have much more arable land than there already is.

The hill south of the lake could be a nice location for the Academy's large school building, and building on rocks and cliffs doesn't waste arable land and it will have a nice view both south over the sea, west over the valley and north towards the lake.

There is a small banana shaped pond in the middle of the island and a short distance north of the lake, where there should be a field according to my map. Maybe 100x60m, and its really shallow and according to the islanders you can easily walk from side to side in the driest summers as it shrinks a lot, so maybe a maximum of 2 meters deep in normal cases.It has a small outlet down the shallow ravine in the southeast between what my map says is Flöjelberget and Järnberget. Those peaks doesn't really have a name as far as the locals know, more than the 'big top' for Iron mountain. The locals havn't found any iron here, and it seems to be the wrong rock type. The small stream have about 25m to slowly drop down to sealevel, but it is so slowly sloping and small volume of water that I doubt its good for anything except possibly hydropower with pipeline down to a Pelton water wheel. Maybe if I dam and raise its level and volume, and then at the same time use the raise to get the drop I need, but it can't practically be raise by much unless we make a dam in the other side too, since the water will start to flow down there. There probably isn't sufficient level and inflow to make waterwheels practical. It can only be a compliment to wind power, and in limited use, so might not bother with it unless as a prototype or teaching tool.

The last pond is just very overgrown and on the ridge to the west of the valley, maybe 90x35m or so, and it is possible to cross it even in a normal summer if you are tall. Not worth the work as it isn't deep but it can be picturesque in the future if its cleared up and made into more of a mansion garden, and replace the normal birch trees with hanging birches planted on parts around the edge. It would be fun to build the mansion here for the all around view and then have a small rowing boat I can paddle around in with Iselin, Ciara or Kari sitting at the other end with a silly little umbrella as sun protection. The cliff side down to the valley is pretty much vertical along the west side of the valley.

The location for the mansion is really about finding a fairly southern location with a nice view, and where the courtyard will be to the north, where there is a good freshwater supply without livestock fields above, and a suitably large area and slope for basements and the mansions size. Stables and such doesn't have to be right next to the mansion, and I prefer if it isn't for smell and noise, even if its less practical. I would gladly had the mansion at the top of a mountain, but then watersupply becomes problematic and it will be windy, and a little shelter from the west side and the ocean on the other side of the outlaying islands isn't wrong. I also prefer to avoid shallow water around, if the mansion is on the coast.

Will have to clear some forest and build a road across the island, as there is only walking paths here now.

Late in the evening we've found several suitable places, partly for my mansion and Academy, but also for the first houses, craftsmen, forge etc. Feels like one of the guessed places on Little Ackerek, the large cliff south of Iron mountain according to my map, is probably the most suitable for my mansion. There is nothing there and south of it is a larger bay with meadows and deciduous forest where no one lives, although there is a few semi-cultivated fields. The craft village could be built about 700m west, around or below the lake to gather the village in one spot and take advantage of the possibility of hydropower and waterwheels, and every house need a fresh water source close by. It would mean that I have access to the Academy and craftsmen without taking a short boat trip across the strait to the other island.

We have quite a lot to think about during the evening, and we have plenty of discussions so everyone can give their thoughts, and they can begin to understand what things need, like a waterwheel that none of them have seen, although some have heard of it. Guess that when slave's are used for every hard work, there havn't been much influx of work reducing inventions. That the general level of education is low doesn't help. I really should introduce windmills, waterwheels and horse driven farmingtools and try to spread it. Pedr seem to take it as a point of pride to build everything I talk about, as well as he can, and he really want details and sketches so he can build it right.