Emi wakes when Tilly knocks on the queen's door, greeting her when she enters, "Good morning Tilly."

"Ah, you are awake." She walks to the bedside table, lights the candle then sits on the edge of the bed. "If you wish to do your toilet I'll wake her?" Emi rolls out of bed, starting her morning toilet as Tilly gentle strokes Rufina's face,"Time to wake up your majesty." which causes her to moan. Lightly pinching her ear lobe, "Wake up, you lazy princess."

"Ok, Ok, I'm awake. I think I prefer have my toe yanked." Stretching her arms over her head, she takes a deep breath. Reaching down she takes Tilly hand giving it a squeeze, "Thank you, Tilly."

"You're welcome, Rufina. Now let go so I can go make breakfast." Standing, she squeezes the hand holding hers, then taking her candle she departs.

As Rufina, rolls off the bed, Emi asks, "What do you wish to wear today, love?"

"Shorts and waist length tunic this morning, Emi. I will be showing Kalvin the unarmed combat style this morning so won't need to wear the armor." I finish my wash up and she starts handing me clothes. Once I am dressed I pull her into a hug. "Are you going to come watch as I throw Kalvin around?"

Rising an eyebrow, "You think he is going to go down that easily again?" I nod.

"I have a few tricks. He will hit the ground at least three times this morning."

"I doubt that."

"Oh, you want to bet on that?"

"What are we wagering?"

"How about who washes and who dries the dishes this morning."

"Ok, it's a bet, Winner chooses. He must hit the ground at least three times for you to win. Now let go of my butt so I can dress." I give her bottom one more squeeze then let her dress.

She puts her robe on, then taking the candle we leave, going to her room. She quickly dresses then we head to the courtyard.

Kalvin is waiting. For the first time I see him in something other than his armor beside his swimsuit. He is wearing a baggy pair of dark gray breeches and a loose shirt. After greeting him I move us to the patio in the garden, as there are too many objects in the courtyard. Emi is sitting on the bench watching as I start showing him the proper way to fall. When I think he can fall without breaking any bones I have him attack me. He hits the patio twice without getting a hold on me. The third time he succeeds in getting a grip on my arm but is promptly put to the ground, face down, arm behind his back. After helping him up, I flash three fingers raised to Emi.

For the next 70 minutes I show him moves, hip throws, punches, sweeps and blocks. To try what he has learned he attacks me, trying to get his hands on me, but can't. He gets to the point he doesn't hit the ground immediately when he attacks staying on his feet for nearly 10 seconds. When Tobias and the rest come out to watch, he decides that is enough for the day. As we are both barefoot this morning we just assume vertical centering to wait for the others. When they are ready I greet them, "Good morning."

"Good morning your majesty." I still think I like when they do that.

"Thirty rotations to the right, begin." Thirty five minutes later, "Assume vertical centering."

After a minute of relaxing in vertical centering Kalvin asks, "You combine this with the martial arts, don't you?"

"Very good. Yes, I do. Think back to the first day of training. The second time you attack me I moved, thus." I did a form. "Every time I just avoided being touched by you. Then when you attack with the sword, I swept your legs, causing you to fall, then followed up with a punch to your throat. The Tia' Chi helps to center you so you can keep your balance, can help setup the moves."

We chat about training as we go to wash up. Emi has the water ready in the room, my clothes laid out. I strip down, get scrubbed, rinsed and dried then she kisses me before dressing me. Once dressed we return down stairs, sitting at the table with the rest. Tilly and Abbey appear with the trays of food which are placed in front of me. After they sit I lift the cover, revealing a pair of spinach quiche. We tell each other what we plan to do this morning. Aden is checking the progress of the threshing and cleaning of the grain. Helen is going to be weaving this morning. I ask her if she has her letter written for the apprentice program yet, it's due tomorrow evening. She ask if she should take one or two at this time? I suggest one right now. Kalvin is going to be with the captain selecting men for the militia. Tobias, Emi, Sophia, Eliza and I are going to be working on the stove and making bricks.

I ask Aden if he would arrange to have the contents of the house brought to the palace, specifically the workbench in the cellar. He asks where I want it. The space above the back parlor. I also ask him to check on the wheelbarrows and to order two more, one for Hans and a spare.

Once everyone is finished eating, the dishes are piled on the trays and Emi and I take them to the kitchen. As I won our bet I choose to wash, Emi to rinse and dry. Sophia and Eliza join us in the kitchen, telling us that Tobias is mixing the mud for the bricks. I have them start doing the same in here while Emi and I finish the dishes. " Emi, would you and Eliza make the bricks, you know how. Sophia and I will finish the stove."

"All right. How many do you need?"

"Ninety of each length." Ninety should be enough.

Once the dishes are done, Emi and Eliza get a hug before they leave. Sophia and I, start laying brick on the stove but don't get to far, we need to fill the space inside with sand. We fetch a couple of baskets worth, dumping them on the stove. After laying the next layer down, we move them to the side then start laying mud. This layer is sixty percent bricks, with very little open area. From the rocket stove flue to the chimney it's a twisty passage that will guide the hot gases past the openings where the pots will sit. The next layer is the walls dividing the passage and supporting the top layer. The top layer is solid with four holes open to the passage. The largest hole is over the rocket flue, where the water cauldron will sit. To finish it there is a thin layer of high clay content mud over the top.

When we run out of mud while working on the second layer, we take the baskets out to get more sand as we have enough clay. While out there we chat with Emi, Eliza and Tobias. They are over half way done already, have all the shorter bricks and several forms of long finished. Once back in the kitchen, we mix a batch of mud and continue construction. I am laying the chimney bricks when Emi and Eliza appear, all the bricks are made. I ask the time. It's about a half hour to dinner time, says Emi. I suggest she and Eliza fetch the pitchers, while Sophia and I finish up. After placing the last brick in the chimney then smoothing its mortar the stove is completed. The surface has been coated in a layer of high clay mud, which will need to be check on as it dries so any cracks can be smoothed out. Smiling at the finished stove I give Sophia a hug, "Thanks for the help, Sophia."

"It looks good, Rufina. Lets go wash up so we aren't late for dinner." Doing a quick rinse off in the last bucket of water getting most of the mud off. We will need to clean up the floor after dinner, taking the tarps and extra materials out. We go up stairs to my rooms to do a proper job of cleaning up.

Emi and Eliza had things ready and waiting. As soon as we walked in they stripped us down and started scrubbing. After doing my back Emi sat me on the chest and did my hair, apparently I had mud in my hair from rubbing my face with muddy hands. We were soon cleaned up and dressed. Once we were down stairs Emi, Eliza and I set the table so when Tilly and Abbey brought the trays down from upstairs we were ready.

Dinner went as it usually does, we let each other know what we had been doing, telling of the progress of the different projects. Aden informs us the threshing is proceeding well. We have 300+ sacks of large wheat berries in storage as seed for next year. The cleaner is working as expected. Aden asks if the cleaned grain should be placed in sacks. I tell him it should, if the ships arrive with sacks we can trade theirs for ours or they can pay the half copper each. If the ships were set up to do bulk shipping that would be a different story.

"Bulk shipping? What is that?" he wants to know.

"On Earth, when shipping large quantities of grain or other items, it could be shipped loose in the vessel. The hold of the ship was a large space, clean and dry. The port was setup to load and unload the ships, with storage near the docks. To load, the grain was poured in to the hold, then the hold was sealed. When the ship reach its destination the grain was pumped out and put in storage until transportation could be arranged to take it further. Our whole harvest would only be a tiny part of the load for one of those ships. Even land transport used bulk shipments. Carts that could hold 100 tons each were hauled thousands of miles, usually to the coast to be put on ships to be hauled to other countries."

"They poured the sacks in to the ship?"

"No, the grain was never in sacks. The grain is loose from the farm to the end user. In sacks, every time it changes transport someone would have to handle the sack, do that ten times it become uneconomical to ship. That is one reason to build the pier so the ship can get next to it. Loading directly to the ship from the pier removes twice the sacks need to be handled, on to and off of the ships boat."

Saying that sets me to thinking, I need to see if I can reduce the amount the grain is handled. Shocks to thresher to bucket to sack to cleaner to bucket to sack to barn to warehouse to boat to ship. By changing the thresher and cleaner I could remove the bucket step from each. I am thinking on how to combine the thresher and cleaner when I am poked in the side by Aden.

"What put you in that rabbit hole, your majesty?" he asks.

"Was think how to reduce the amount the grain is handled. The threshers and cleaners could be modified so the grain goes directly to sacks. I was starting to imagine how the two machines could be combined so the grain would go from the thresher to the cleaner, reducing the number of times handled by four." I have to think about this more.

I notice most of the others are finished. I concentrate on my food. As I finish, the others clear the table, taking the dishes to the kitchen. I speak to Sophia in my head, 'Will you help me clean the mess in the kitchen?' 'Yes, dear one.' 'Thank you.' When I finish I take my dishes to the kitchen, putting them in the tub so Helen can wash them. I stare at the mess for a few minutes deciding where to start.

I start putting unused sand in a basket. Sophia joins me, filling another basket. Once they are full we haul them out to the work yard by the gate, where they are dumped on the sand pile. We fill the baskets several times with sand then clay. When that is done the tarps with the unused mud are brought out. Then we sweep the floor. We were about to start mopping it but Tilly said she would do that, as she was particular about that. I gave her a hug before being hustled out the door with a swat to the bottom. I went to check the bricks Emi and Eliza made this morning, which looked good. I dumped the mud off the tarps then swept them off before folding them up.

I go to my rooms, cleaned up a bit then go in search of Emi. "Are you all most done, love?"

"All most. Why?"

"Would you like to go swimming? I need to talk to Scott about meals for the apprentices. Then I need to talk to Hans about the salt ponds. After that I would like to move the cabana to the next inlet west then swim. I'll find Kalvin so he can prepare the horses while you finish here. I'll need the basket and our swimsuits. I give her a nice long kiss then leave to find Kalvin. I find him with the captain looking over a few men, recruits for the militia I assume. I tell him the agenda for the afternoon, telling him to bring his swimsuit.