XX Day of XX Month

When I woke up, I had quite the shock, all of our preserves were ravished in some way! I immediately woke up the rest of my family to break them the bad news. Needless, to say they were quite dismayed with the current situation. Fritz,in particular was enraged that his spoils from hunting were spoiled( heh). My dear Wife along with little Franz started to take stock on what was still useable, so we wouldn't waste time collecting excess supplies. I complemented her capital idea, after all we must keep our wits about us on this ravaged isle.

After awhile stock was fully taken, revealing that we were in desperate need of more crops and perhaps more bird. I was saddened because the crops we needed were currently out of their season to be grown. However, at the very least we would be able collect more meat for our preserves, protein is a very important for growing boys.

I then caught Fritz out of the corner of my eye, starting to pack reserves for a hunting expedition. While the idea was good, I wished he had told someone before making preparations. This was, however, an opportunity for a lesson that would surely help him later in life. So, I seized that opportunity and carefully tapped Fritz on the shoulder to get his attention. I then carefully told him ' A journey must be announced before preparations made, for if there is no journey then there should be no preparations' Fritz and the rest of the boys lapped up the knowledge like thirsty dogs and seemed to have taken it to heart.

However, because I had planned an expedition for hunting I helped the eager Fritz finish his preparations. We made sure to leave space in the saddle bags so that if we found an exotic plant we be able to carry it with the rest of the cargo. I then inspected our pack and removed some superfluous items that would unnecessarily burden our hard-working ass.

Fritz then wondered, 'Surely, Father our ass would be able to carry the extra weight. We would not want to be caught in an unsavory situation with no way out'

I pondered a good way to reply to my son's statement and finally replied ' Ah, but Fritz it would not be prudent to burden the ass so. It would surely slow the beast and where would we put the spoils?'

Fritz quickly supplied a response' Our spoils could be carried on our back just like we did with Master Knips and our ass is quite mighty, the extra weight will not bother it'

I then replied ' What a clever idea my son, to carry our spoils on our back! However, I must say that even the mighty have limits, so have moderance when packing our provisions.'

Fritz seemed to be at an acceptance with me and my words, so I went to fetch one of our asses. My wife anticipated my want and to spare me the trouble, brought me an ass herself.

I smiled at her foresightedness and complimented her by saying' Dear Wife, your virtue has saved me time which can be better put in the expedition and its planning!'

My wife to smiled and said back ' Ah, thank you, but my concern is whether or not there is a plan for the expedition….'

I then realized my fault and set out to correct it with the rest of my compatriots but first I gave a reply to my dear wife ' No not yet, but we as a family shall have a meeting on this matter.'

I gathered up the family for a planning session. We all took seat at the table installed in Falconhurst and prepared to speak our minds.

Surprisingly, Jack was the first to speak ' I say we cull some of our current livestock and use that to restore our reserves.'

Ernest had taken offense to that idea and quickly rebuked Jack' Then what, during the cold season we would have no livestock to fall back on!'

Jack grew irate and hotly replied' We may not survive to see the cold season!'

Before affairs would become unsalvageable, I stepped in and attempted to placid the quarreling brothers' Both statements have merit, but it would be asinine to carry out actions without thinking of consequences that come with them.'

Both boys stood down and began to look slightly more tranquil. The rest of us pondered a solution to the dire problem at hand.

After some time, Fritz suggested that we first go back to Tentholm and try our hand at fishing and then travel to the more forested parts of the island to hunt some wild beasts and return early on to avoid death by the same beasts. We all agreed to this plan with my wife adding the stipulation that we should not hunt any beast that we know little of ,such as the strange 'beast of the bill' nor any animal that is bigger than ourselves by a large margin. I thought my wife's stipulations were wise so I urged the boys to follow them whenever we hunt.

I then realized that it was much too late to begin the expedition and return before dark, so I sent the boys off to have some recreational time. I then called them back when it began to become dark and sent everyone off to rest so that we were at our best for the expedition that would begin tomorrow morn….

Father