# High Barley — Turn 004 (Early winter, Year 1) Plan

### 1. The Ford Exchange with Ternhaven (Jun & Del)
Our first trade proved that High Barley and Ternhaven can mutually enrich each other's winter survival. We will maintain the monthly exchange while adapting strictly to early winter weather and stream conditions:
- **Water Gauge & Weather Window:** Jun will monitor the stream water-level markers and ice formation daily. The exchange will take place only during an established low-water window when the crossing is safe. If freezing runoff, heavy rain, or slush gorges make the stepping stones hazardous, Jun will raise a pre-agreed red woven pennant at the cairn lean-to, signaling to coastal lookouts that High Barley will wait three days for conditions to settle before attempting barter.
- **Ford Shelter Hospitality:** Jun and the ford watch will maintain a small, sheltered fire inside the dry-stone lean-to on our bank, providing hot herbal brew and shelter during negotiations without compromising our defensive posture. Visitors remain at the stream post; no coastal parties will ascend the ridge trail to the village.
- **Barter Goods Allocation:**
  - *We offer:* Warm, densely fulled woolen goods produced during late autumn (heavy socks, fingerless mittens, and thick hooded cloaks treated with lanolin—items indispensable to coastal fishermen battling freezing sea-spray and gales), dried upland medicinal stores (willow bark for pain/fevers, dried elderberry, coltsfoot, and mint for winter coughs), and a measured, moderate allotment of consumption barley.
  - *We seek:* Smoked and dried sea-fish (critical fat and protein to stretch our bean and grain stores), additional clean coarse sea-salt (for food preservation and goat health), and any spare seal/fish oil or tallow suitable for lamps and leather maintenance.
- **Regional Intelligence:** During the parley, I will confer with Del and Seli regarding winter conditions along the sound, whether sea ice forms in their inlet, and whether Ternhaven knows of any other settlements, wanderers, or trails passing around or through the northwest heights.

### 2. Food Rationing, Storehouse Audit & Seed Inviolability (Leth & Beren)
With winter frosts hardening the ground, we transition from gathering to methodical conservation:
- **Comprehensive Store Audit:** Leth, Beren, and I will conduct a formal mid-season tally of every foodstuff in the storehouses: sacks of barley, beans, dried roots, smoked coastal fish, and salt. 
- **Ration Budgeting:** Establish a conservative daily distribution schedule designed to feed all 153 souls comfortably through to the summer greening, incorporating an intentional 25% safety reserve against late frosts or crop-planting delays.
- **Seed Custody:** Beren’s prime seed stocks in the dry upper loft remain physically sealed and locked. Under village law, no seed grain may be ground, boiled, or traded under any circumstance.
- **Moisture & Pest Sweeps:** Twice weekly, Leth will inspect storehouse dunnage and turn lower sacks. If cold air creates surface condensation on sacks, they will be aired on the loft hurdles. Baited rodent traps will be serviced continuously.

### 3. Winter Hearth Life, Care Rota, and Indoor Industry (Cal)
As short days and freezing temperatures drive life indoors, village cohesion, health, and morale are paramount:
- **Communal Hearths & Fuel Efficiency:** Cal will consolidate living clusters into our five largest, best-insulated longhouses. Neighboring families will share common hearths for warmth and evening meals, preserving our covered eaves-stacked peat and dry timber piles.
- **Ventilation & Hearth Safety:** Dwellings will maintain slight, baffled smoke-hole ventilation to exhaust smoke while trapping ambient heat. Hearth floors will be cleared of stray straw to prevent accidental sparks. Work crews will keep snow drifts cleared from doorways and roof valleys.
- **Spring Water & Hygiene:** Jun will ensure the uphill spring remains clear of ice and drifting snow. High Barley will practice strict winter water hygiene: all household water will be collected fresh from the bubbling springhead and brought to a rolling boil over the communal fires for teas, stews, and drinking, mitigating seasonal waterborne sickness.
- **Cal’s Winter Rota & The Covered Bowl:** Indoor tasks will be shared equitably: wool processing, spinning yarn, loom weaving, tool-hafting, and wooden spoon carving. Caregivers tending infants, the infirm, or elders will be given warm priority near the central hearths. At every evening meal, the solemn tradition of the covered bowl will be observed first, honoring those whose labor safeguards the weak and knitting our 153 villagers in shared survival.

### 4. Goat Herd Wintering & Snow Transport (Osa)
Our modest goat flock is a critical upland asset that requires rigorous winter husbandry:
- **Pen Husbandry:** Osa will keep the goats sheltered within the dry-stone pens, banked with dried heather and brush hurdles against biting winds. Pen floors will be regularly layered with dry barley straw to keep hooves dry and prevent rot.
- **Rationed Fodder & Salt:** Goats will be fed measured rations of dried alder browse, coarse straw, and dried meadow hay. Osa will supply sea-salt licks from the Ternhaven exchange, which ensures the herd drinks enough water and maintains health through confinement. Water troughs will be cleared of surface ice twice daily.
- **Gestation Check:** Osa will separate and provide extra grain chaff to any does carrying young ahead of late-winter kidding.
- **Winter Hauling Runners:** Osa and the herd team will refit our goat hauling frames and hand-barrows with smooth timber sled runners (travois and sledges), enabling easy transport of firewood, peat, and water buckets over snowpack without bogging down.

### 5. Watchfulness & Perimeter Security (Jun & Osa)
The shelf is protected by terrain, but winter requires watchful eyes:
- **Passive Northwest Watch:** Osa and herd hands, while tending the upper pens and gathering fuel runners, will observe the northwest ridge trail. We will look for signs of travelers, hunters, pack tracks in the snow, or smoke over the pass. In accordance with winter safety, no village parties will venture up into the unmapped frozen pass.
- **Cold-Weather Refuge Protocol:** Should any desperate travelers or wanderers emerge from the northwest ridge seeking shelter from blizzards, lookouts will hail them, keep them covered from the upper yard, and notify me. We will offer them shelter in an isolated outbuilding with a fire and hot broth while assessing their nature, ensuring village security is never breached.
- **Eastern Approach:** Jun’s watch at the stream ford will keep visual control over the alder path. Any unauthorized approach outside scheduled trade parleys will be challenged calmly from behind our stone breastwork at the ford.

### 6. Personal Leadership & Oversight
Throughout the cold month, I will:
- Oversee the Ford Exchange parley alongside Jun, fostering mutual respect with Del and ensuring fair barter for warm wool and fish;
- Work directly with Leth and Beren on the winter food audit, personally calculating our reserve margins so the village sees that our rations are just and secure;
- Move nightly among the five communal hearths, sharing meals, confirming Cal’s rota is operating smoothly, and listening to the concerns of households to keep spirits high through the darkening days.