Roadwarden's Turn Report — Early Summer, Year 1
Infrastructure and Settlement Works Una and Tovin completed the upland road retaining wall to its full design height. The structure now stands as permanent dry-coursed masonry, fitted with functional weep holes and backfilled with a gravel French drain to relieve water pressure and prevent slope slippage above the road. With heavy stone transport completed, Vann kept our draft oxen pastured on lush upland grass during the peak midday heat, preserving the herd's strength and preventing heat exhaustion. Across Stonecross's terraced hillsides, community labor weeded and mulched the crops against early summer drought, utilizing the longer daylight while carefully pacing provisions during the seasonal pre-harvest lean gap.
The Roadside Waystation and Upland Trade Stonecross's renovated roadside shelter formally opened as a staffed waystation along the upland road. Operating under voluntary barter dues, the post now offers passing merchants, exchange witnesses, and carters dependable accommodations: clean water, firewood, secure sleeping bunks, and dry staging storage. In conjunction with shelter operations, displays of carved whetstones and querns were set out, allowing traveling exchange parties to inspect the quality of Stonecross stonework and evaluate local craft for future orders.
Regional Deliveries and Measure House Accounting Accounts received from Measure House confirm that the assembly's restitution pact is being fulfilled as scheduled. Pia of Hearthmere arrived with a formal delivery of thirty standardized ceramic storage jars fitted with secure lids. Convenor Belen, Junior Keeper Sella, and Keeper Oren inspected the capacity stamps and verified the tallies, certifying that this consignment fully extinguished Hearthmere’s winter emergency grain debt while establishing Barleybank's priority harvest credit. Concurrently, Hearthmere and Reedhaven have established coordinated river transport, combining fitted wicker sleeves with padded reed barges to ship ceramic vessels safely with negligible breakage.
Current Conditions and Immediate Pressures The retaining wall is complete, the road is open, and our draft oxen remain rested and healthy. However, convective early summer heat brings occasional thunderstorms that could test drainage, alongside the ongoing lean gap before harvest. With river-borne commerce moving storage jars and grain credits among the lowland communities, Stonecross must weigh whether to expand stonecutter output of trade items like querns and whetstones, coordinate specific barter terms for incoming goods at the waystation, or reserve labor for summer terrace agriculture.