Agrarian Peasant Quest
- Thread starter Artificial Girl
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
@Artificial Girl How much strain does the plow handle take in comparison to the shovel handle, roughly?
Much more. Shovels are used to lever dirt up and out, requiring a human's strength . Plows are used to drag a chunk of metal and wood through the soil, requiring an animal to make headway.
1-7: To market, to market
- Location
- Somewhere in the stacks
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Unfortunately, you lose a couple hours trying to fix the damn plow handle. After you spend about a quarter of an hour cursing up a storm and wondering just how many favors you can ask for this season. After you've calmed down, you apply yourself to making sure the problem is fixed, even if it's only a temporary measure.
Eventually, you shave down the handle from a shovel and use a combination of simple glue and a wrap of leather to use it to splint the cracked handle in place. At first, you take things slow, worried that even with your repairs, it might get worse but once it seems that everything is working the way it should without any ominous creaks or cracks, you return to your normal pace. You resolve to get a new plow when you can, for now though the repaired one will do.
You come up a little short on plowing time today, but hope to make it up as quickly as possible. Over the next two weeks, you work at a fever pitch, days blurring together as you plow the field and harrow it to prepare for planting. Your borrowed animals are a great help and you manage to finish on schedule, even with the delay from the first day. It's exhausting, but honest work and you collapse into sleep each night with a weary sense of accomplishment. Then comes the planting itself. Your field pea grow in 'bushes' rather than as vines and you spend long, back-aching days bending and planting seed across the field. You make up a crude scarecrow once the field is planted and assign Hugue to make sure it stays clear of birds. You also take time each day to make sure there are no weeds coming up that might crowd out your seedlings. More work that leaves your back aching as you fall into bed each night.
As the weeks go on, the weather has started to improve, as well. As you come towards the second half of the month, you are having warmer days, enough that when you leave the house at first light you wear your cloak and have discarded it by the middle of the day when the temperature is at its warmest. Soon enough, it will be full spring and you can see the signs of it all around you, with buds on the trees and sprouting, growing green things all around. It is a relief to see green again after a winter of dreary grey and white.
At least, Lady be kind, the planting is done and your jury-rigged plow has survived. It's a relief. Even with that work done, though, there's always more to be done around the farm. Some of the younger neighbor kids have taken over the task of scaring birds away from the newly planted fields by now, leaving you with Hugue to help with other tasks. As the end of the month closes in, news comes to you of a spring market day down the road in Culemmere next month. You don't have anything to sell, but it would mean a chance to pick up some supplies for the rest of the year, including the possibility of having one of the carpenters there make a new frame for your plow. You might also be able to find some spring chicks at a good price or find some other livestock for sale...
After giving it some thought, you decide that it'll be worth the day to take the trip to Culemmere since you might be able to make it worth the day. There's a lull now, with everything planted and all.
Hugue complains about being left behind to mind things, but you firmly tell him that he's needed at home and count up your available money. Altogether, you have about 1 livre, 2 sous of saved cash on hand, though spending all of it at one go is probably a poor idea.
20 sous make up 1 livre. Sous are themselves divided into 12 deniers. Therefore, 1 livre would be made up of 480 deniers. In years in which you have a good harvest, you might have 2.5 livre as income. In bad years, much less. On average, you make between 1 livre, 16 sous and 2 livre, 5 sous a year. A milk cow, for instance, would cost you 6 sous, a shovel or spade with iron blade would cost 3d, an axe 5d. An ox, 12s. For sheep, you would pay 1s 3d a head, while goats are slightly less expensives at 1s each. Swine can be had at 2d each, and chickens for 1d a pair. There are other things you could buy, too, of course. You're pretty sure you could find just about anything at the market day.
Finally, the day comes and you set out early, earlier than normal with the light just peerking over the horizon as you start your way down the road, pushing a hand-cart along. The trip into town takes you a few hours and your arrive by mid-morning with a powerful thirst.
Culemmere is probably the biggest place you've been, except for maybe the castle town a few times. Especially on market day. It's a cramped collection of houses and other buildings along the main river that runs through these parts, with a fine stone bridge (there used to be a ferry here until Lord Walter and the local merchants put up the money for the bridge about ten years ago). There's also a proper stone church to the Lady, much bigger and grander than the smaller wood, waddle and daub structure in your own village. There has been talk at home of raising money to make a proper stone one, but no one has had the spare money to donate as of late. Maybe you can petition Lord Walter for a contribution.
The town smells of woodsmoke and humanity, but the houses are all very neat and white-washed in lime (which reminds you that you should probably do that to your own walls soon) and shingled. Some even have proper roof tiles. It's really a happening place.
The market is going, though, and there are spring chickens, goats, and even some cattle for sale along with all sorts of tools, cloth, seed, and well, just about anything else you can imagine. There's a bustling crowd, too, the population swelling as people from villages all around come into town to buy, sell, and gab about the news and rumors from around the locality. There are townsmen in colorful clothes, merchants offering trinkets, toys, and pretty things from all over and it's really just a touch overwhelming coming from your dozy village. Still, you're here to see what you can get to help the farm this year. Time to go shopping.
Eventually, you shave down the handle from a shovel and use a combination of simple glue and a wrap of leather to use it to splint the cracked handle in place. At first, you take things slow, worried that even with your repairs, it might get worse but once it seems that everything is working the way it should without any ominous creaks or cracks, you return to your normal pace. You resolve to get a new plow when you can, for now though the repaired one will do.
You come up a little short on plowing time today, but hope to make it up as quickly as possible. Over the next two weeks, you work at a fever pitch, days blurring together as you plow the field and harrow it to prepare for planting. Your borrowed animals are a great help and you manage to finish on schedule, even with the delay from the first day. It's exhausting, but honest work and you collapse into sleep each night with a weary sense of accomplishment. Then comes the planting itself. Your field pea grow in 'bushes' rather than as vines and you spend long, back-aching days bending and planting seed across the field. You make up a crude scarecrow once the field is planted and assign Hugue to make sure it stays clear of birds. You also take time each day to make sure there are no weeds coming up that might crowd out your seedlings. More work that leaves your back aching as you fall into bed each night.
As the weeks go on, the weather has started to improve, as well. As you come towards the second half of the month, you are having warmer days, enough that when you leave the house at first light you wear your cloak and have discarded it by the middle of the day when the temperature is at its warmest. Soon enough, it will be full spring and you can see the signs of it all around you, with buds on the trees and sprouting, growing green things all around. It is a relief to see green again after a winter of dreary grey and white.
At least, Lady be kind, the planting is done and your jury-rigged plow has survived. It's a relief. Even with that work done, though, there's always more to be done around the farm. Some of the younger neighbor kids have taken over the task of scaring birds away from the newly planted fields by now, leaving you with Hugue to help with other tasks. As the end of the month closes in, news comes to you of a spring market day down the road in Culemmere next month. You don't have anything to sell, but it would mean a chance to pick up some supplies for the rest of the year, including the possibility of having one of the carpenters there make a new frame for your plow. You might also be able to find some spring chicks at a good price or find some other livestock for sale...
After giving it some thought, you decide that it'll be worth the day to take the trip to Culemmere since you might be able to make it worth the day. There's a lull now, with everything planted and all.
Hugue complains about being left behind to mind things, but you firmly tell him that he's needed at home and count up your available money. Altogether, you have about 1 livre, 2 sous of saved cash on hand, though spending all of it at one go is probably a poor idea.
20 sous make up 1 livre. Sous are themselves divided into 12 deniers. Therefore, 1 livre would be made up of 480 deniers. In years in which you have a good harvest, you might have 2.5 livre as income. In bad years, much less. On average, you make between 1 livre, 16 sous and 2 livre, 5 sous a year. A milk cow, for instance, would cost you 6 sous, a shovel or spade with iron blade would cost 3d, an axe 5d. An ox, 12s. For sheep, you would pay 1s 3d a head, while goats are slightly less expensives at 1s each. Swine can be had at 2d each, and chickens for 1d a pair. There are other things you could buy, too, of course. You're pretty sure you could find just about anything at the market day.
Finally, the day comes and you set out early, earlier than normal with the light just peerking over the horizon as you start your way down the road, pushing a hand-cart along. The trip into town takes you a few hours and your arrive by mid-morning with a powerful thirst.
Culemmere is probably the biggest place you've been, except for maybe the castle town a few times. Especially on market day. It's a cramped collection of houses and other buildings along the main river that runs through these parts, with a fine stone bridge (there used to be a ferry here until Lord Walter and the local merchants put up the money for the bridge about ten years ago). There's also a proper stone church to the Lady, much bigger and grander than the smaller wood, waddle and daub structure in your own village. There has been talk at home of raising money to make a proper stone one, but no one has had the spare money to donate as of late. Maybe you can petition Lord Walter for a contribution.
The town smells of woodsmoke and humanity, but the houses are all very neat and white-washed in lime (which reminds you that you should probably do that to your own walls soon) and shingled. Some even have proper roof tiles. It's really a happening place.
The market is going, though, and there are spring chickens, goats, and even some cattle for sale along with all sorts of tools, cloth, seed, and well, just about anything else you can imagine. There's a bustling crowd, too, the population swelling as people from villages all around come into town to buy, sell, and gab about the news and rumors from around the locality. There are townsmen in colorful clothes, merchants offering trinkets, toys, and pretty things from all over and it's really just a touch overwhelming coming from your dozy village. Still, you're here to see what you can get to help the farm this year. Time to go shopping.
Time to go shopping! Or do other things, if you want. You ARE on a budget and if you have questions about the cost of specific things that I haven't noted here, please speak up. In the mean time, make me up a plan that includes a shopping list and any other things you'd like to do or see while you're in town.
- Location
- Pilipinas
Buying a couple of chickens and a rooster sounds plausible. @Artificial Girl is cock-fighting illegal where we live?
Edit: bear-baiting, dog races, and other gruesome yet popular animal fights of the times?
Edit: bear-baiting, dog races, and other gruesome yet popular animal fights of the times?
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- Pronouns
- Their/Them
Are really that good in math? After it likely that we never had read anything...
- Location
- Somewhere in the stacks
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It is not illegal. There are very few laws or rules about animal cruelty, though being unnecessarily hard on your animals wears them out faster, which isn't good.
Yes. Even if you don't know how to read and write, being able to add and subtract and do basic arithmetic in order to know the worth of your goods is important. This isn't algebra or anything like that.
Chickens are kept in a coop attached to the side of the house and you have a fenced in area around the house where you keep a garden. You currently have a pair of chickens, though they are a bit long in the tooth as the saying goes. Usually the chickens hang out there and eat the tasty bugs that might nom on your vegetable garden.
You usually pay something like 2-5% of your income in taxes in the form of wheat/flour/other crops or by performing labor on your lord's land several days a year during harvest time. It is not onerously high, but when you are a subsistence farmer every bit counts.
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
A replacement for the plow seems important, or at least a replacement for the handles.
Some more chickens too. Maybe another few goats? Have a decent mix of dairy and wool goats, and we might get enough extra from them to sell some cloth and cheese eventually.
Some good cloth for maman as well. Maybe even a square of cotton or silk, enough to make a nice hair ribbon or decoration from, assuming we can afford such a luxury.
Maybe some hops seeds, if they have them? It would be nice to grow a little bit of it, enough to flavor our beer or to sell to the local brewer if the villagers don't all make their own.
Also salt, of course. Expensive, but we'll need it for pickling and curing later, and maybe if we're careful we can even spare a little just to flavor our porridge.
A cow would be wonderful, but also probably beyond our means if we want to get anything else and still have some spare cash. We'd need to find another villager or two to chip in in exchange for shares of the milk, or of the butter and cheese we make from it if they would prefer not to bother with the raw product.
A dog would be nice, if we can find one good for herding goats and scaring pests from the fields. Not sure we can or that we could afford one, but worth keeping our eye open.
@Artificial Girl, what do the local poaching laws say about animals raiding our crops? Or do deer not generally show up around our village? We do probably want the materials to set some rabbit snares in the vegetable garden, and maybe even a sling or a bow suitable for shooting birds if we regularly have to fend off tasty ones along with the inevitable crows.
Other things would be any tools we might be in particular need of, and perhaps a toy for our little brother.
Before anything, though, we should find out more about the war, because there's not much point to buying things that we'll just lose when an army comes through to steal everything they can move and burn everything they can't.
Some more chickens too. Maybe another few goats? Have a decent mix of dairy and wool goats, and we might get enough extra from them to sell some cloth and cheese eventually.
Some good cloth for maman as well. Maybe even a square of cotton or silk, enough to make a nice hair ribbon or decoration from, assuming we can afford such a luxury.
Maybe some hops seeds, if they have them? It would be nice to grow a little bit of it, enough to flavor our beer or to sell to the local brewer if the villagers don't all make their own.
Also salt, of course. Expensive, but we'll need it for pickling and curing later, and maybe if we're careful we can even spare a little just to flavor our porridge.
A cow would be wonderful, but also probably beyond our means if we want to get anything else and still have some spare cash. We'd need to find another villager or two to chip in in exchange for shares of the milk, or of the butter and cheese we make from it if they would prefer not to bother with the raw product.
A dog would be nice, if we can find one good for herding goats and scaring pests from the fields. Not sure we can or that we could afford one, but worth keeping our eye open.
@Artificial Girl, what do the local poaching laws say about animals raiding our crops? Or do deer not generally show up around our village? We do probably want the materials to set some rabbit snares in the vegetable garden, and maybe even a sling or a bow suitable for shooting birds if we regularly have to fend off tasty ones along with the inevitable crows.
Other things would be any tools we might be in particular need of, and perhaps a toy for our little brother.
Before anything, though, we should find out more about the war, because there's not much point to buying things that we'll just lose when an army comes through to steal everything they can move and burn everything they can't.
- Location
- Somewhere in the stacks
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Local law says you can kill animals that break into your fields but otherwise deer and other large game are strictly for Lord Walter. You already have a couple slings at home--you and Hugue are both decent shots with it when it comes to getting rid of birds. And you have materials for snares and such at home, so they don't require purchase.
- Location
- Somewhere in the stacks
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Depends on the seed, but generally it's a lot of what you have access to already. Varieties of wheat, rye, broad beans, field peas, etc. You'll probably pay 8-10d to get enough for planting.
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plotvitalnpc
Once more walking the path of the catgirl.
Do people grow buckwheat at all in this region?
France is one of the top five modern day producers, after all.
- Pronouns
- Their/Them
Do you think we should close relationship with Village Leader/Elder/'Mayor' ? Or would be see as obviously for what it is
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- Pronouns
- Their/Them
Peasant village typically have the weathiest member of village to be leader that act like a pesudo-representative to the lord.
How can you not understand that?
- Location
- Somewhere in the stacks
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Buckwheat is not grown at this time in this region.
plotvitalnpc
Once more walking the path of the catgirl.
Aww, what a shame.
Then again, that does seem accurate to actual brittany, where mainstream production picked up steam in the 1700s - even if some pollen dated back to the 1300s.
Shame being a trendsetter would be completely ridiculous.
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- Location
- Sweden
I meant that I had some trouble figuring out where you were going with your post.
Did you mean that we should try to get close to the richest guy in the village and try to marry him? or who is gonna see that as obviously for what?
I wasn't trying to be mean I really had some trouble trying to understand what you wrote.
@Artificial Girl how much is getting a new frame for the plough from the carpenters gonna cost us?
as for lifestock we could maybe buy a swine to butcher for the winter depending on how much we spend on other stuff.
Did you mean that we should try to get close to the richest guy in the village and try to marry him? or who is gonna see that as obviously for what?
I wasn't trying to be mean I really had some trouble trying to understand what you wrote.
@Artificial Girl how much is getting a new frame for the plough from the carpenters gonna cost us?
as for lifestock we could maybe buy a swine to butcher for the winter depending on how much we spend on other stuff.
- Pronouns
- Their/Them
I'm not saying to Marry him, he probably already has a wife.
Thing is you can't bee see as too ambitious or too cozy existing power structures because this is Christian Europe where pride(thus ambition) seen as sin...
I'm saying that we should not look obviously like a social climber...
(*There a reason is why morality play had hardcore Ambition is Evil type of messaging)
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The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
Thinking about what to buy coupled with the coming war, it strikes me just how likely it is that we either die horribly when our village is sacked, starve to death over the winter in the wake of the soldiers stealing our animals, grain, and everything else we own, or survive into spring and find that our only options for scraping together the coin to try to rebuild our farm are ugly ones.
Put it this way: we may as well swing by the local church and pray as hard as possible that the war stays far enough away that its only effect on us is slightly higher taxes and the miller or his son being called to arms. That's pretty much it in terms of our ability to avoid being broken by the decisions of the lords.
Put it this way: we may as well swing by the local church and pray as hard as possible that the war stays far enough away that its only effect on us is slightly higher taxes and the miller or his son being called to arms. That's pretty much it in terms of our ability to avoid being broken by the decisions of the lords.