# Council at the Salt Shed: Orders for Early Autumn, Year 1 The hearth fire reflects off the wet clay floor. I look at Nessa and Orin, and at the split log between the two women. "Put the log down on the stack," I say. "Nobody burns a splinter until we have walked the perimeter and seen what the frost will demand of us." I turn first to Nessa, then to Orin, so every family gathered in the shed can hear. "Orin, Nessa: neither of you asked for more than your people need to do their work. But if we boil every dry billet into salt and let the autumn catch rot on the shore, we will sit through winter with full salt bins and empty bellies. Salt keeps a belly full only if there is meat to season. Therefore, the fish come first for the dry smokehouse wood. "Yet Nessa’s hearths will not be brushed aside. We already have spare salt cakes in Daro’s store. This month, we will not leave the pans idle out of neglect, but out of necessity: Fen has spotted a damp line under the western pan bank. If that bank gives way during a heavy boiling, the brine pools we rely on are ruined for months. We do not burn dry billets over a compromised foundation." I lay my own stone by Orin's marker for the smoking fuel, and then set a second stone between them. "Here is how Saltmere spends this month." --- ### 1. The Pans and the Bank (Fen & Nessa) * **Low-Water Inspection:** Fen will inspect the western pan bank at the next spring tide's lowest water. I will accompany Fen to examine the damp seepage. We need to know whether the water is weeping through a burrow, settling silt, or structural slumping. * **Bank Reinforcement:** Before any full boil is authorized, Fen and a crew drawn from the pan tenders will reinforce the western bank using dense clay dug from the hollow rise and packed sod. No heavy boiling runs while the ground is suspect. * **Cold-Brine Work & Salt Curing:** While boiling is suspended or kept to gentle, small-batch test fires, Nessa’s crew will manage the brine concentration in the solar shallows on clear drying days. More importantly, Nessa and Daro will bring out a measured portion of our existing salt cakes to dry-salt a fraction of Orin's catch in barrels and woven baskets, reducing the total amount of wood needed for smoking. ### 2. Fishing, Smoking, and Drying (Orin & Sava) * **Securing the Catch:** Orin’s skiffs will fish the western shallows whenever settled weather permits, keeping strictly within sight of the home shore. * **Combined Preservation:** The catch will be divided three ways to maximize preservation without exhausting wood: 1. *Smoking:* The primary portion of fat fish goes to the smokehouse, utilizing the allocated dry billets. Wood must be burned slow and smothered with damp green willow chips to maximize smoke density and stretch billet life. 2. *Salting:* Firmer fish will be gutted, split, and dry-salted using stored salt cakes. 3. *Rack-Drying:* Sava will expand his raised drying racks on the low rise west of the village, where coastal breezes are strongest. Sava will construct a simple removable thatch canopy over the rack frame to test whether fish can air-dry cleanly while shielded from intermittent autumn drizzle. * **Net Maintenance:** Damaged nets are to be brought indoors for evening mending by households resting from outdoor labor. ### 3. Food Stores and Shelter (Daro) * **Harvesting Garden Roots:** Before the heavier mid-autumn rains waterlog the low rise, all root vegetables (turnips, parsnips, and greens) must be lifted, cleaned of surface mud, air-dried on dry days, and brought under cover into Daro’s dry store. * **Storehouse Inventory:** Daro will maintain a strict tally of the dry fish, barley, peas, lifted roots, and remaining salt cakes. Rations are set to standard baseline portions—no feast, but no starvation rationing while work output is high. * **Roof Patching:** Before the first mid-autumn storm, two working teams will cut reed and thatch from the southern marshes to patch the two damaged roofs. No elder or child sleeps under a leaking roof this winter. ### 4. Fuel and the Clay Hollow * **Coppicing:** A dedicated cutting party will work the willow coppice beyond the gardens. We will fell fresh willow and alder billets, limbing and splitting them immediately. * **Drying & Stacking:** Fresh wood will not burn clean this month, but it will save us in midwinter and next spring. We will dig shallow runoff trenches around the sheltered clay hollow to divert standing water. The hollow will be leveled with gravel from the shingle path, and an open-sided, thatched timber shelter will be raised over it. All newly cut willow and salvaged windfall will be stacked there off the ground on split stringers to season. ### 5. Scouting the Northern Reach (Evi) * **Reconnaissance to the Marker Beach:** On the next span of fair weather, Evi will lead a two-person scout northward along the shingle path to the empty marker beach. * **Strict Rules of Engagement:** - This is an observational patrol only. No crossing the creek; no signaling; no approaching unknown dwellings. - Evi will examine the tideline for additional worked timber, flotsam, or boat tracks, and observe the smoke across the creek from the cover of the dunes or tree line. She will estimate the distance, number of hearths, and whether any boats or watchtowers are visible. - The patrol must return before nightfall or tide turn. If strangers are sighted, Evi is ordered to observe their gear, numbers, and demeanor from concealment and pull back immediately without making contact. --- I look across the hearth at Nessa, Fen, and Orin. "We have good hands, sound skiffs, and salt under our feet. We will go into winter with patched thatch over our heads, dry wood seasoning in the pit, and fish in both salt and smoke. Take up your tools; let us get to work."