The Winding River Project

[mrbisonm]

Fred, check out this page to become a subscriber:

http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=45;sa=subscriptions

Joe

Thanks for the linkie Joe, appreciated.

Glad you dropped by Battlecat

[mrbisonm]

««9:48 Pm, the phone rings in the Gabber House and John himself answers, wondering who in the world could call so late. " John?" nervously spoken by the nightly intruder, " Man, we 've got a serious problem." The Young Slye fellow yelled into the phone, " I just got home from the sawmill and another four guys left their jobs today, we're burning them out one by one and I can't find anyone anymore who wants to drive an hour and a half, work 12 hrs and then drive another 90 minutes home, that's just too much for them," John got his wrinkles on the forehead back, which means serious thinking again. " Listen Terry" John replies, "We're in this together. I have been leaving you all alone handling the whole sawmill in the last month, sorry 'bout this, but I was too darn busy with the highway contract. I have an idea though to get this solved, meet me tomorrow morning at Lucy's Truckstop in Access Junction.....eh...." thinking again" let's say around 8:30 AM, is that ok? " TS agreed to the time, " But what have you in mind now again, John?"..." Well Terry, this will work out, I am pretty sure. I'll talk to you tomorrow, now get some sleep and don't think about this anymore. See ya."
John hooked up the phone and looked at his wife shaking his head, " The kid has a labour problem, I'll fix that tomorrow." smilingly he went off to the bedroom.»»

One month has gotten into this new year's spring already and warmer weather is just about to enter the season. The sawmill was finished about a month ago and has gotten into a rush fulltime already, not leaving one day off for Terry Slye, who runs the whole thing almost by himself now. 108 men are working there now and some are leaving everyday because of the overtime they have to do. The logs are waiting on the side of the roads all over the place in the Winding River Region and they have to be gathered and cut into constructionwood as soon as possible before they start rotten in these humid forests during the warmer and wet season.



The first thing in the morning John called up Mike Allheimer , his project manager for highway 15, his father Henry and the foreman Andy Dubold, the responsable of all the loggers and told them to join him with TS at Lucy's truck stop for a good breakfast.
Andy, the logger's boss is now way up ahead of the highway with his men and John hasn't talked to him for more than two weeks, Grandpa Henry works on the plans and surveying the highway and him also, John hasn't seen for awhile. But he sees Mike almost everyday, giving him the report of the highway project of the day. He wants to have everyone around when he pronounces his "new project".

They met at Lucy's Truck stop, well known for the best breakfast and dinner now to everyone who came through the Access Junction area. Lucy had a small gazstation built a few months ago, with her profits from the restaurant, another excellent investment in Access Junction.

Entering the restaurant, John was welcomed with open arms by Lucy herself, a single strong woman in her fourties that could turn a fullsized man upside down in a second if he ain't nice enough. She was pointing to all the others that were already nipping that hot black coffee.



««" Hey guys, how come you're so early?" John said with a smile, approaching the table and looking at his watch, telling him he was 20 minutes late,"Usually you're always late".
That got an answer from Grandpa Henry Gabber,
" Hell boy, you sounded so dam serious this morning , how could we not be on time ? What's up? And how come You're soo dam late again?." ,starring at his son with wide open eyes and waiting eagerly for an explanation of this meeting.
" Oh c'mon Pa, you know that I just wanted to see you all together again, it's been awhile, didn't you miss me?" John couldn't resist to be a little sarcastic.
Mike started laughing, knowing too well that his friend and boss has something else in mind.
"Slye here told me last night that he has a serious problem with finding workers for the sawmill." John started talking while his cup of coffee was brought to him, "There's simply not enough men available to work 12 hrs and drive 3 hrs a day to get here."
"Pay them more", Henry loudly added with a smile.
" No Pa, it's not that, we already pay them quite a bit, I have another idea, but I need your help guys because the whole project is getting a bite out of this. Up on the highway construction site, they say the loggers are too slow, then the loggers say that they don't have enough room to pile the logs and the truckers complain, they'll never finish and Slye is more than overload. So you see, this is a common problem to all of us."»»

Then John got right into the subject explaining every detail how he sees the solution for this. The meeting lasted about 2 hours and then everyone returned to their jobs. John and Slye just walked over to the sawmill to have a detailed look at what's happening there.



«« Holy mackerel, you weren't kidding when you said that the yard is full." John astoundingly said." We need a good 50 more men to run this place properly. I'm pretty sure my plan works." assuring Slye with a sideway smile. »»

Here are some detailed pictures of the Slye and Gabber sawmill in Access Junction.









Downtown, if we yet can say so, of Access Center has become busy in the last few months. Lucy, the owner of the Truckstop, saw an excellent idea to make some more bucks in this place while opening a gazstation on the corner of the access road and highway 15. Everyone else said why they haven't thought of this. The old steakhouse is still there too, being open only for suppertimes nowadays and some new stores just openend last week beside it, a convenience store and a working clothes boutique, both being busy already.



Further east on the access road, residential developments have started and even some nice homes were built by folks that believe in the future of Access Center.



Then up the highway a few yards, Mr Wrightman open his tool and machinery repair shop, something that'll surely works with the sawmill just on the other sides and so many machinery being used that need regular maintenance and repairs on the highway and logging jobs. John Gabber calls this the *industrial park*, whenever he talks abou it...lol....far from that though. Raymond Willerson from Fitch Bay opened a small paintproducing plant, specializing in roadpaints. like the white and yellow lines. He was offered to do so by the Gabber Company, knowing that roadpaints will be needed for the next 60 miles of Highway and so many new roads and streets that are being build now.



So this is what Access Junction has become, the first and small but fast growing Intersection of Highway 15 and the Bluebay Access Road. We will come back to this place every once of their months and show some details of this growing community. Keep that picture and compare it to the future ones coming, changes will be remarkable and interesting for quite some time to come. Could this be the beginning of the Mega City of the future
Things to come to Access Jct are some changes concerning the power and a new aquaduct, then some folks are talking about a meeting hall or something, where the community can gather once in awhile and some new residences for future workers so badly needed all over the area.



We have been to Valmore South once before, remember when they dug up the dinosaur bones? Well, they have almost reached the end of this county by now, building the highway. The construction was interupted by the federal government after the finds of the petrified bones and a study showed that these bones could not be transferred anywhere else without crumbling into pieces and get lost forever. So they decided to superficially solidify the whole skelleton right there and build a protecting roof over it soon. Of course Highway 15 was shifted to the west for a few yards, which wasn't too much of a problem for the Gabbers who are the builders. The highway just continues in this direction until a few hundred yards before the small Valmore river where it will get back into its original path in Valmore North.



After two weeks of closure, the highway construction finally gets back into movement. Again here, they have the problem to store the cut logs for the highway's path. Some folks from Access Junction even come and pick up illegally their yearly supply of heating wood without any offcials saying a word. *Too much wood is like not enough* Grandpa Henry once said. There isn't enough sawmills, workers and construction needs around he says.
There's a lot more need of construction wood up north in Frampton though, which is a fast growing City, but shipping is too far and slow and doesn't pay a fair rentability. All is done by trucks and most of the finished planks go to the south, to Bluebay, which also has some growing to do, but they started to fill up their inventories too.



Since a month a guard was hired by the government and a 24 hr survey of the archeological finds are now official until a fence and a roof is build. Biologists and Archeologists are working on this find around the clock trying to figure out to what species this could relate. Beside some pieces being broke up, the skelleton seems to be complete and since yesterday, two University professors have made a discovery that there's a possibility that this animal was hunted and killed with primitive tools, which is completely insane to some and impossible to others. Humanoids were not yet developped at this era. They only appeared a hundred of thousand years after. Hm.....?



Here at the very end of highway 15 we see that logging scenery again that we have seen in the Grasslake county, cutting, pulling out the logs, bulldozing and filling the terrain and preparing everything for the highway-building department. The road on the upper left leads to a waterpoint on the banks of the Lower Valmore lake. The terrain is very gravely and sandy around this area and the President of MGS, Gary Gabber, also John's brother, is about to have a big gravelpit dug out right here, to produce the important fine sands and gravels for the basic groundcover and also the sands for the cementproducing that they need to build the two big bridges over the large Winding River further up north. Impossible to bring in the cememt from Bluebay, it will be hard dried once arrived. This area contains enough of the raw materials needed to finish the highway through the whole region.



And at last a regional picture again to show you the minor changes and the advancement of highway 15.



Hope you liked this update again, and I will be back in a few days with some more.
John got some news from the government concerning his new project for the needed logging and sawmill workers. Also Billy is sent to a private school many hundreds of miles away, which he does not agree with at all. And a new important member of the regional working force will be introduced. Hm,....there are rumours that some bandits rode in the area lately.......and a fieldmarker mysteriously disappeared further up in the woods.......

Have a nice rest of the week and an even better beginning of a weekend, where I will be back with more of the Winding River Project story.

Thanks for commenting.

Fred

Btw, the sawmill BAT is a modular set of 10 different lots. I will re-do the textures to make them a little more worn, because for this story they needed to be like newly built, and then I will have it tweaked for upload later this spring.

[Battlecat]

Superb update!  Nice to hear you've got the time to get another update together!  The finished lumber yard looks excellent, you've put some good, careful thought into the details there.

[JoeST]

I agree with Battlecat, that was fantastic

Cant wait to see what the new project is and (me being pedantic) its a tad late for spring now, nearly June

Joe

[NASCAR_Guy]

great o finally see a full update, cant wait to here more about my guy's down the river

[mightygoose]

that sawmill/ lumberyard is truly ace. great to hear of the continuing story....

[KoV Liberty]

I really liked the update! But how did that dinosaur be killed?

[mrbisonm]

I really liked the update! But how did that dinosaur be killed?

I don't know, it seems like it was killed with a primitive weapon of some kind, or at least that what the biologists and archeologists said.....hm?
mightygoose, I hope to be able to upload the sawmill  soon, glad you like it.
NASCAR_Guy, well, here is an update of your character, seems like he's up to something important.
Battlecat, JoeST, thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

Back to another update:


There's nothing more pleasing to a fullgrown familyman at the end of a hard earned week than taking a beer in the presence of good friends on a friday late afternoon. That must be surely what John Gabber is thinking every friday eversince the new Terracebar has opened on the former Steakhouse lot in Access Junction. Built by Albert Olsen, this building replaces the Steakhouse which lately burnt down.
At around 6Pm Gabber and his friends gather like every friday since a month to drink one or two beers before heading home. Today John, Mike, Slye and Andy have met and take part in a discussion about the Access Jct news, now that it has its first trafficlight after so many accidents at the main-intersection.

««"This is nuts," John started smilingly,"only less than a year ago all we had right here was a big party in the field, when we finished the access road, and today it is a small village with a trafficlight and of 500 people residing here all year long."
Mike added,"Yeah, you're right John, it's amazing if you think of it now that it has a trafficlight....it changed a lot". Everyone else was nodding and mumbling their comment about the light.
"By the way guys", John continued, "my secretary called me last night about the idea I had to fill the joblist for the sawmill and the loggers" Slye opened wide his eyes to hear the results with impatience,
"the government gave us the OK to go ahead with the new housing project."
Slye jumped in and asked impatiently, "So, how many lots did we finally get?"
John couldn't resist and let a few seconds pass before answering, "Guess what......we got a l l  w e  n e e d.*
A big Woohoo filled the outside terrace at the Olsen Pub and Slye had one of those smiles could tell everything about satisfaction.»»

John Gabber demanded a residential project for Access Junction a little over a month ago, ever when workers started leaving the sawmill, logging site and highway construction site because of too many hours to do. People didn't want to travel for 3 hours each day while working 10 to 12 hours.
The idea that John had was to invite people to stay in the area, right here in Access Junction, build their homes and take care of their families while being close to work, but unfortunetly land was not yet available and the little land that was unzoned to build on was too expensive to buy.
Now the government decided in cooperation with the Gabber MGS to hand out one lot each for a very worker at a very low cost with a no interest loan and guarantee a job for the next 5 years.
If that doesn't bring in workers, then nothing will, John thought.

««" I heard that people around here are making all kind of demands now, "John continued, "things like needing a small school, because the kids have to travel 90 minutes also to get back into town, and then they said a busconnection with the town would be appreciated too."
Loughingly added by Andy with his bad accent, " A gess thay wand aye mayor too and whay nod a shirch whaile asken.Ha Ha."
"I know that Mr Wrightman and Lucy have mentioned that when Slye fully operates his sawmill, they're not getting enough energy to run their implements," Mike had to say.
" Yay, that's right Mike," TS said, "when I'm fully running the mill, others surely don't get enough. Our power producing diesel engine is not supplying enough, we need more, and that is gonna cost us a lot, I think."
" I just might know the right fellow for this problem," John added while lifting his right eyebrow, "If I mention to him this place and how it is growing, he just might throw in a few millions. He's always wating for opportunities like this to come to him. Give me a week and I'll talk to him," nodding positively his head.
" Ha, you must be talking about Tony Racsan, right?" Mike smiled at John.
"nah....not Tony," John replied, "more like Junior Racsan, forgot his first name, he's slowly overtaking his old man's matters and also looking at new opportunities. just like that." They all looked at each other and continued to discuss all kinds of subjects. Before John left the table he said, " Oh...and don't forget the game tomorrow afternoon, it's the Loggers against the Highway-workers»»

So the conversation went on for almost 2 hours, when slowly they all disappeared one by one only to go home and spend the weekend with the family.



The next day John left his home very early promissing to Billy that they will take the whole day of sunday to go on a fishing picnic at that skullhead creek, maybe with the whole family. Billy didn't like the idea with the family but because now that he knows that he has no choice but to go to a private summerschool to pick up what he missed during the fall and winter, he might as well join, because this might be the only day they'll have for fishing this summer.
Usually John doesn't work on saturdays, but today he had to go see what's going on with his weekend cottage, then see how Andy, the Logger's Chief, is doing in the Grasslake county with all that wood still on the side of the roads.
His logcottage is coming along quite well and he seems to like it. They have started the landscaping also, making sure that everything is flat enough for the lawn and beach.
John loves the way this loghome will look, Michael Arven has done an excellent job in designing it. Maybe he should hire him for his projects once the highway is finished and he reached maturity, being only 17 years old at the moment.





On the way to Access Junction, he came across the open gate of the Racsan Property and then he thought that it might be an excellent idea to go look for Tony or his son Guy here and talk about the power they need in Access Junction. Also this will satisfy his curiosity once and for all to find out and see what they have been doing on their land in the last year, which has been bothering John a lot lately, seing all the traffic coming and going.
It seems like they built a house for a guardian or something at the entrance gate, but no one yet seems to live there, no curtains and no furnitures.



At the first intersection John turned to the left on the more used part of the road and finally came to a big constructionsite near the Grasslake, the same lake that he has his cottage build. There he found the right guy he was looking for, Tony's son, Guy. He was there with Michael Arven, the young architect, but what was he doing there John wondered.



««" Mr Gabber," Guy said to John when he got out of his pickup, " just about you I wanted to see, Sir. How are you?"
Reaching for a handshake, John gladly accepted and started talking, "Well, this is my lucky day, because I was looking for you and it seems like this is a mutual situation, right? But let me start first Guy, if I may call you so."
John started talking about the electricity problem they have in the village and then about all the futur projects they have overthere and how it is growing like crazy. And finally talks about the possibility to make a buck or two with this situation. As John somehow knew, it was an interesting subject to start with the son of one of the richest men in the region. Guy was all ears listening out John.
" I've heard enough," Guy all of sudden stopped John, " You got me interested and I also know that I can trust you sir. So, let us meet in my Offcice in downtown Bluebay and see what we can come up with. I am sure that Dad and I can do something about his situation."
Then after a two second breath, he said, " Now hear me out sir, why I wanted to meet you. We have been cutting a lot of timber during the winter to clear some land further up the road and we need a buyer. We know that you and Mr Slye just opened up the sawmill in Access and I was wondering if you're interested in a good offer."
Oh my!, John thought, as if they didn't have enough wood for the moment. What can he do now.
With a small smile he looked at Guy and said, "Of course, we didn't build that mill for nothing, but right now we're booked out for a month or so. The wood is a little cheap now, because there's too much at the moment, how much do you expect?"
Guy without hesitation nor too much thinking said," We don't expect a lot, we've seen all the logs on the side of the access road for miles and miles and can just imagine that the logs aren't at the best price. Dad just wants to get rid of it, not to spoil, you know, he hates throwing things away for nothing. Let's have a ride and I'll show you all the logs we have at the moment."»»

So here they took Guy's pickup and drove up the road in every direction. left and right and back. There were roads over roads and it was kinda confusing to John, why they had cut out pices here and there and made so many roads in all directions. John couldn't help asking Guy Racsan the reason for the irregular cutting, but without turning his head he only said that they had some projects for next year on their property and they both left this subject ending right there.



They agreed on a date and hour to meet in the city's office for the energy matter in Access Junction, and John, after telling Guy that he was glad to have met him personnally, continued the road to Access Junction to be ontime for the monthly soccergame between the Loggers and the Highwayfolks. He plays for the Highway team and wouldn't miss this confrontation for anything. Mike also was on his side, but Slye, Andy and surprisingly his brother Gary were on the Logger's team.



This happens every month here on John's little property, an eight lot property bought in the beginning of the winding river project. John wants to keep this place as it is, so the people can fun with it every summer long.
The game lasted an hour and a half and the final score was a lowsy 2 to 1 for the loggers, who didn't have to come in working early on monday morning. Right after the game they all went to the Olsen Pub, just over the highway for some refreshing drinks and the victory of the loggers.
There Mike mentioned to John that one of his architects for the highway wants to retire this year and that just before building the three bridges. But he also said that a fellow he heard about in Frampton and just came out of college has some major potentials for the job. John agreed and asked Mike to hire him and find what he is capable of. Like he always says, everyone has potentials for something, you just need to find out what it is. The party lasted deep into the night.

Just a closer look of the little changes of what John calls the "Downtown" of Access. Slowly growing into a village......



««The next very early morning my father had everyone woken in the house that was present. The fishing picnic was waiting for us. We have prepared everything last night and I couldn't wait to get into the plane and off to that little creek where my trophy trout was caught last summer. Maybe I will break my own record this year. I was hoping.
Was I ever glad when I heard that Grandpa wasn't coming this year. This time we were six, Dad and Mom, my sisters Vera and Melody-Ann and my brother Billy, and of course me, Charlie. My oldest brother Junior couldn't come because he was working today, now that he works in Dad's Company with Uncle Gary, but this was just one of those lucks I had.
Once we were off with the plane I felt good about this trip. I was also glad that I was up front beside Dad instead of like everyone else squished together in the back. We had a 1 hour flight making a big turn over the valley and close to our fishing grounds Dad started shouting, " Hey guys, look down to the left side in the middle of the river, it seems like whales."
Whales? I thought.....what does he mean by whales? This is a river and not the sea. Whales? Where?
Then Father continued, "The seawater must be coming in this far with the high tides I guess, strange though that they come this far inland, we must be at least 5 miles in." Then father pointed to a big one which seemed to be stranded on a little sandy dune right in the middle of the river.
"There's a dead one I think" he said with a low voice."Maybe it's a whale cemetary."»»



Five minutes after we landed right there where we were last year. I couldn't wait to dip my line into that little creek and asked Dad if I could leave the unloading to the girls since I almost did all the uploading. Dad twinked his eye and said to be careful not to get lost or drown. Ha, drown he says, that creek is about 2 feet deep at the most.»»

While John jumped over the creek to show the Rockskull head to his wife and daughters, Charlie and Billy went fishing up the creek.
John explained to his wife what he had in mind with this area that he wants so badly to buy, but which is not yet available for public purchase and asked everyone to be quiet about this rockskull for now.
So the beautiful early summerday went by so nicely and for some even quickly. Everyone had a good time and Charlie caught 4 big trouts and not one is a trophy, but all were bigger than his brother's catch, which was good to Charlie.



Just before the sun disappeared under the horizon, the Gabber family was back on the plane to their home in Bluebay, watching the sun drop in the far west before they reached the bay. Tomorrow it will be Charlie's 10th birthday and then one week after he will be leaving for the summerschool in Frampton for most of the summer. Father John had a good talk with Charlie that night and he promissed that it wasn't the last time they went fishing this summer. He also said thet the Cottage in Grasslake should be finished in a month and to inaugerate it he needs the presence of Charlie for one full week. Everything's arranged he said.



....and one last look at the Bluebay region, so we won't forgot where the Gabbers live today.


I hope you all like this update again. Like always I am looking for some more characters.
Right now I have:

terry Slye or TS, the sawmill fellow............. by threestooges
Guy Racsan, Tony's son........................... by NASCAR_Guy
Michael Arven, the new architect................. by mightygoose
Alex Puto, yet to come........................... by Driftmaster07

I have room for 10 more. Anyone interested?

See you soon and hey, thanks for leaving a comment. Have a nice weekend.


Fred

[CaptCity]

The last couple updates have been really wonderful. 

I always love your wide-area shots of the wilderness, and it's fun to watch the changes as Access Junction grows. Also, curious about those dirt roads going in all directions in Grasslake...

I look forward to watching the new log cabin being built. My brother built his own many years ago, and every time I visit, I get so jealous!

Looking forward to the great things to come...
CaptCity

[kimcar]

Mmm! Miss some update , but stil like your work. Very nice your sawmill.

[mightygoose]

wow big change of pacing seeing bluebay, fantastic work, as always looks very realistic in the overview shot....

[KoV Liberty]

Nice update! The whale is really puzzling... Whales normally don't go 5 miles up a river. Very interesting...

[mrbisonm]

Thanks for the comments, I will be back with another short update within the next 48 hrs.

Nice update! The whale is really puzzling... Whales normally don't go 5 miles up a river. Very interesting...

Maybe these are Freshwater whales? You never know what's up in the Winding River Wilderness..........crashed warplanes, dinosaur bones, rockskulls, freshwater whales, ruins of the unknown......ehem?.....ruins of what? Who said that?.........Is there more? Are they all connected? How?........

Fred

[TheTeaCat]

Wonderful updates done recently

And why do I always leave this story with questions unanswered?

Oh yes I know, its to make me come back for more

I heard someone mention some ruins worth exploring or is that just another wild goose chase?



TTC

[mrbisonm]

Ruins or rumours?

[KoV Liberty]

Never heard of freshwater whales. Whales are mammals so... Maybe. But plankton, what wales eat, are saltwater only. Now you mentioned ruins... The ruins of the skull people? This is getting very, very, very interesting.

Alex

EDIT: I was going to post this before you but you beat me to it.

[Swesim]

Ha! This is getting even more complex for every update, it seems like the Winding river region is full of mysteries.
Now Vikings or something similar seem to have left a footprint in the region, ancient whalehunters in the river maybe?
It will also be interesting to see what the Racsans are going to come up with...

[kwakelaar]

Great work on the all the lots and bats accompanying your updates, a truly enjoyable MD.

[Schulmanator]

Great stuff! I have enjoyed myself thoroughly catching up on your MD. I love the variety of custom things you have... just terrific! 

[danielcote]

Nice job the towns growing pretty fast and even I want to go to that pub. What is the 2nd floor of the pub used for?