Out There; a Vanilla Minecraft Adventure

[Shilka]

Prologue

For 5 years I had been preparing for this one way trip, getting myself skilled in the basics of building, mining, farming, tool making, and familiarizing myself with whatever creatures I could encounter in the great unknown. The plan was simple, set off by boat, travel into the great unknown for as long as my rations would last, then step ashore a random spot and start all over, all on my own. My life had become tedious, predictable, dull. All of this was going to change, or I'd simply die trying.

Then came the day I felt ready. There were no goodbyes, I'd just disappear, so I snuck into my boat at darkness with a few weeks of rations and I set off...
Civilization was left behind quickly and easily, and for weeks I travelled rivers, lakes, even a small sea untill my rations started to get so low I decided to look for a place to step ashore.

Day 1

It was still early morning when I noticed the chest on the beach, flanked by two torches. Spotting it was like a devine sign, this had to be the place where my life would start over. I looked around; next to the small beach was reasonably dense jungle, on rolling hills. Across the water opposite of the beach were steep cliffs, low and high.
I steered my boat to the beach, stepped on the shore, turned around, and firmy pushed my boat back towards the center of the stream, watching it for a while as it floated away on the currents.

I turned around and walked towards the chest, which looked in surprisingly good condition, yet the sand around it seemed undisturbed, like the chest had always been there. I smiled when I looked inside. It indeed seemed like a devine sign, as there were the perfect contents inside for the infant stages of my adventures; a couple of wooden axes, some wood, planks and sticks, some bread and 6 apples. I had been so right to step ashore here!

I had expectedto be looking for food at day one, and probably running from creatures at the following night, but the contents in the chest offered me a head start. If I'd hurry I could have a shelter ready at dusk!
I quickly gathered the contents of the chest, took a deep breath as I looked across the water at the cliffs in the distance. If all would work out, I'd explore those cliffs sometime in the future, and I could already could picture myself scalling the steep walls with self made gear. But that was for the future...

I turned around and turned my attention to the jungle lining the beach. I quickly went for some smaller trees, chopping them up with the wooden axe, slowely, but steadily. As soon as i figured I had enough wood I started splitting it into planks, and quickly started on constructing a small shelter. It was simple but sturdy, and just large enouhg for the chest I had dragged in, a crude workbench I slapped together, and me sitting in a corner. As a final touch I made a crude but strong door, and the sun was already setting as I fixed it into place. I made it just in time!

I must admit the euforic feeling of the day quickly abandoned me at night. I could constantly hear zombies moaning in the distance, and hearing them in reality instead of reading about them in books was certainly a huge difference. I spent most of the night alternating between keeping a watchful eye on my door and dozing off for short bits. Doubt and fear plagued my mind, and only sunset managed to clear it from those.

Day 2

When I left the safety of my shelter, I was ready for anything dangerous, my axe clutched firmly in my hand. But the beach was deserted, whatever had been moaning in the night had either left or died. The refreshing beauty of early dawn gave me hope again, and the plan for today was simple.

I definately needed more wood, I wanted to make more tools, so I was planning on chopping wood all day, and scavenge for food while at it.
And so I did, one tree fell after another, and I came across a bunch of cocoa pods which I harvested. I also found some wild wheat, and managed to collect some seeds from it. The rhytmic chopping of my axe almost brought me in a trance, and I would have been chopping wood all day, were it not I almost fainted from hunger halfway the afternoon.
Preparing for this trip a couple of hours a day was one thing, but my body clearly wasn't used to this kind of prolonged labour. I really had to eat, so I decided at hauling the wood to my hut, where I ate both breads.

With some renewed energy, and some time in the day left I decided to make a wooden ho, and prepare some soil at the riverbank for the wheat seeds I had found. Except for the seeds and cocoa, I had found no food at all in the jungle, so I better start growing something fast while I still have some apples left!

When the darness fell I decided not to get distracted by any eerie sounds again. I concentraded on converting all wood into planks and sticks, and made a full toolset for the following day; a sword, and a whole bunch of shovels, axes and pick axes. When I finished them I sat down in the corner of my hut, and fell asleep content.

 

[Shilka]

Day 3

I woke up early and cheerful, and as I stepped out of my hut I got the scare of my life... No further then a few feet away a zombie walked at me from around the back of my hut. As I struggled to reach for my sword, the zombie stepped into the first sunrays of dawn and started to burn. I backed up and watched it die as it still went for me despite the flames engulfing it. When it finally collapsed I saved some rotten flesh from it as a trophy, and a reminder to never again step out of my shelter unprepared...
However I had no time to linger on my mistake, I had a job to do today. My wooden tools were wearing down quickly, so I needed some cobblestone, to replace my tools with something better. I started working on clearing some of the jungle overgrowth from the nearby hill, and then started to dig and chop away at the hillside to make a vertical surface, so I would have a suitable starting point for a mine shaft.
I was still digging when I noticed a pig walking along the beach. It was the first edible thing I had seen walking around on four legs, so I made quick work of converting it to fresh meat.

Now I had a second reason for getting cobblestone, I needed to make a furnace too. When I finished the vertical wall the soil seemed so unstable that I decided to use most of my planks to make a retaining wall. Last thing I wanted to happen was to get buried alive while stepping into my mine. It was a hard day of work, and I managed to finish the retaining wall just before it turned dark.

I was so tired when I entered my hut, that all I did was make 2 more shovels to replace my worn out ones, before I fell asleep with my head on the workbench.

day 4

I woke up to a hissing sound, which was unmistakenly coming from my roof. This time I was ready for it, as I darted out of my house with sword drawn. Behind me a huge spider jumped off my roof, ready to bite me. But I was ready, and my sword di what I had carved it for. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw the spider dropped two pieces of string at it's dying moments!

What a reward for my fight!, I knew exactly what I would do with the string. But first things first. I worked half the morning on creating an entrance room for my mine, and gained a bunch of cobble in the process. I worked quick and tirelessly to make a furnace from the cobblestone, and immediately after finishing it I set it to work to get some charcoal from a bunch of wood. After all, no mining without torches... Light was already fading when I had finished making the torches, so I quickly lit up the entrance room of the mine, closed it off, and on my way back to my hut I managed to collect some wheat from the seeds I had planted earlier.

Back in the safety of my shelter I first spent some time making chocolate chip cookies from the wheat I had collected and some cocoa. Then I remembered the string I had, and calmly spent time on making a fishing rod. This string was so important. I was at the shore, and during the day you could see many fish swimming in the clear water. Thanks to that spider I had now secured a steady way of getting food on the table. Not that I had a table.

 

[Shilka]

Day 5

I woke up envigorated this morning. I have food, shelter, a mine ready to start, I have slayed my first monstrosity, and most of all, I'm still alive.
Today I won't be chopping or hacking away at something. Today I'll do some exploring.

I started headin East, along the shore. It wasn't long untill I came across this small lake, not far from the shore. This is when the the beauty of the jungle strikes you, when there's room to see it. When you're in the middle of the jungle, not so much heh.

A few hours later I find myself gazing at the cliffs across the water. For a moment I'm tempted to swim across, but no, I'm not prepared, and I need to check out my direct surroundings first.

Continuing along the coast the shoreline bends sharply to the north. Could it be I'm on an island? Who knows. I do know however I won't find out today. It's getting close to noon, so it's time to turn around and retrace my steps. just as I turn around I notice the swamp in the distance. It doesn't look like an inviting place, and I can already picture the swarms of insects that must inhabit it at these temperatures. It's good to know though. I've read swamps are a good source of mushrooms, and I guess I might grow tired of chocolate chip cookies as a diet some day. Which reminds me... I have an alternative food source waiting to be tapped...

The return trip is much faster now I'm not distracted by the sights, though the spotting of an ocelot gets me sidetracked for half an hour. When I approach my hut I realize what a tiny shed I now call home. The coming week I'll need to start working on something bigger and more permanent, and I have the time and tools to do it.

But first, while there's still daylight, I try out my fishing rod. And not without success. The fish are eager to bite, and I reel in one after another juicy fish. Unfortunately I got cought up in fishing so much, there's no daylight left to cook them in the furnace. It will have to wait for tomorrow.

In the evening I start checking my supplies, and make my first stone tool. I eat an apple and make and eat some more cookies. No need to ration myself now the food situation has improved so much. Next to that, I need my energy, as for a long time to come I will be shoveling, chopping and mining to create a permanent place to stay

As my mind becomes a garble of thoughts about designs, defences, recources and planning, I fall asleep on the still warm sand floor of my hut...

 

[Shilka]

A New Dwelling

OK. My little hut definately wasn't cutting it anymore. Each night I've spent sleeping while sitting upright against the wall, and I'm starting to feel the consequences. It's time to build a more permanent residence, and I've picked the spot.

There's some clearing to do though, so I've spent a day leveling the end of this tongue of land where my hut is on. It looks like it's just big enough for what I have in mind...

With that done, it's time to collect some , no, a bunch of materials. I've started my mine by creating a very lengthy stairwell. It's going down step wise, so I can create side shafts at each step.

It has taken me weeks, but I've finally finished making all side shafts. The result is an abundance of cobblestone, a good deal of coal, some iron ore, cobalt, and I even found a few diamonds!

Once again I've had a strike of luck! While mining one of the side shafts it turned out my stairwell just cleared this huge underground gorge... One of these days I'll explore it, once I have managed to make some decent armor and weaponry. For now I've closed it off to keep the sulfur fumes out of my mine. It's a good thing I haven't made my stairwell steeper, or I would have ended up in the middle of that gorge, rendering my mine as good as useless.

With cobblestone now abudantly available, it was time to get a good deal of wood. I've decided on clearing a wide path through the jungle, heading straight North, and collect wood as I go along.

I've hit the end of my trail, and I must say sooner then I expected. My suspicion that I might be on an island is growing by the day. Not that it would be a bad thing, I know that theres more land to the South of my home, and a swamp to the East. If I'm on an island it's more then large enough to sustain me, and I've come across more pigs, and a few cows when I was clearing my path. The only thing I haven't seen are sheep, which is a shame, as I could really use some wool to make some bedding...

To confirm my suspicions, I've made a new path branching off my existing one, heading East. And again it wasn't too long untill I hit the coast. I am indeed on an island.
On my way home a curious ocelot followed me home. I had some left over fish which I fed it, and it seems I have got myself a new pet. I'm not sure if I like it or not though, as it moans a lot, and has a tendency to go sit on my chests which is cumbersome to say the least. For some reason I've seen a lot less monsters around my hut lately, but I doubt if the little cat has something to do with it. Perhaps I'm just lucky.

 

[Shilka]

A New Dwelling (continued)

Anyway, with enough material to build my new home, I started working. It has taken me several weeks, and a few return trips to the jungle as I ran out of wood, but the end result... I'm so pleased with myself!

My new house is done, but I haven't started on the interior yet. I want to use oak for my furniture, but there's hardly any oak to be found, and the ones I find are small because the jungle trees overgrow them. So I think my next project might be to plant the oak sapplings I have collected over the past few months. I might have to clear a piece of jungle for it first though. But first, I think I've earned a few days rest. I want do some fishing anyway, seems like a purposeful way to spend some leisure time...

 

[Shilka]

Settling in

I've cleared a patch of jungle and planted a bunch of oak saplings. They will take some time to grow, but it will give me the oak planks I need for making the interior of my house.

While the saplings grow I have plenty to do though. I want to do everything to make my home base a safe haven. The surroundings are unforgiving and the nights are particularly dangerous. As the past has proven a tiny moment of ignorance can be life threatening. I need my home to be my castle... So I've decided on making a defensive wall. I'll need a bunch of materials though, especially dirt. SInce I want to expand my home stretch anyway for some buildings I have in mind, I decided on digging away at the hillside;

With that out of the way I have started on the wall. I sank of a bunch of gravel into the water to make the basement of the wall.

After that it's just hard work; first I constructed some stone arches,

Then I used planks of junglewood to close the gaps. I've got to use the materials at hand, and the junglewood is plentyful available.

To finish things off I made an overhang to prevent especially spiders from climbing over the wall.

On the inside of the wall large patches of water are still present.

Since I don't have enough material to completely fill in all the water, I'll just cover things up with a layer of soil, then top it off with cobble paving

Then end result is definately something I'm pleased with. There's much more wall to build, but I'm definately pleased with the looks and sturdiness of what I created.

 

[Shilka]

Settling in (continued)

Meanwhile the oak saplings have almost all grown out to trees. I've cut 'm all down so I can finally start on the interior of my house.
After a lot of sawing I finished my kitchen.

When looking out of my tower last evening I spotted some sheep across the water at the cliffs. I made some sheers and swam across to get some wool. Together with the oak that means I finally have a decent bed! I'm looking forward to my first night in a decent bedroom...

I've also finished my living room. I managed to get some buckets of lava from a cave that I came across while mining, and filled the fireplace with it. I now have a house that's comfortably warm in the evenings

With my house now finished I can concentrate on the tasks ahead, there's plenty more to do! First of all I smoothed out the steep walls near my home, I don't want any critters to be able to jump onto my walls after all...

Then more building, I made a new entrance building to my mine, and created a small workshop in it where I can make and repair tools, and make a chest full of reserve tools. These stone tools wear down quickly, and I want to save my precious metals for more important things, like perhaps making an armor somewhere in the future...
I also made a large warehouse where I can store all the materials I find and create. I have many more plans, so I really nead a place where I can sort out everything.
In a spare corner I made a small potato garden. I found a single potato on a critter in my mine, and if I'm lucky I can grow some more, enough to start farming with. After all a man can't live on bread and chocolate chip cookies alone...

I decided on making some industrial furnaces outside, they can get pretty hot, and the last thing I want is for my warehouse to burn down, so I gave them their own seperate spot.

After a lot of wood work the interior of my warehouse is now finished. Plenty of room for the materials I collected so far, and if the chests fill up theres room to bolt another chest on the wall above the existing ones. This should be very helpful for a long time to come.

There's still much more to do, I want to make a sugar cane farm and a wheat farm as well, as my old one had to be moved because of the wall I built. After that, who knows, perhaps start breeding cows, pigs, sheep? Plenty more to do to ensure I survive a prolongued stay here, but I must say, so far, so good...

 

[Shilka]

Farms, Paths and some Exploring

I've been working a lot on my home, well, homebase by now I guess. I've created a sugarcane farm, both for the sugar and to make paper in the future, and I also managed to grow some cocoa on a treestump.

Next to that I finished a small wheat farm on the other side of my storage building. Though the farms are small they are more then enough to become self sufficient, and in the safe environment of my walled homebase.

Meanwhile my mineshafts are deepening into halls. I know much more efficient ways of mining, but I don't only need the coal and ore, I need masses of cobblestone too. I've discovered I enjoy building my little empire very much. It's hard work, but very satisfying.

Actually, I've been spent so much time on my home base, that I discovered that the paths I cleared in the jungle are starting to get overgrown again, and the bare soil I cleared is not much more then fertile ground for new plants to grow on. Something needs to be done about that...

There, that's better. I still need to clear the vines now and again, but at least there won't be trees sprouting on my paths anymore...

With the basics of my homebase done, and the paths cleared and paved, I decided on some cave exploring. Since I've found enough iron ore by now, I've decided on making a shiny new iron armor!

Well protected, and with 2 swords and a bow on me I enter the cave I discovered when I cleared my junglepaths.

However, it turned out the cave isn't that long, it branches once, with one branch leading back up to the beach in the west again. The other branch ends up in a deep underground rift, which isn't very extensive. I fought a few zombies and a skeleton, who were no match for my newly crafted sword. With nowhere else to go, I just quickly stripped the area from all coal and ore I could easily reach. When I left the cave I covered the entrance at my path up with dirt so no mobs will exit and bother me when I'm on the path.

Arriving at my home I once again climb my tower, and find myself staring at my little enclosed self created empire. I think back of the time I arrived here, and lived in the little wooden hut for a while. I've come so far, and learned a lot, yet there's still much more to do, and an almost endless world to explore.

 

[JohnnyK]

Great stuff!

 

[ElektroVodka]

This is amazing! lol you just translated minecraft the way i thought of it at first when i started playing

Did you know D.O.A. is quite active with that?

Thanks for putting this smile on my face today

 

[little P]

I really enjoyed reading this Geeza, really reminded me of my first few days in Minecraft! I thought about keeping some kind of diary for this purpose but didn't bother, it was great reading yours! Nice homebase dude B-)

 

[Shilka]

Thanks guys, I recall my first minecraft days vividly, I basicly dug a hole in the side of a mountain, had one torch made and blocked myself in. I remember cutting a 1 block hole at night, seeing zombies and I went AAAAH and blocked the hole back up till noon the next day. Lol.

This will be an ongoing journal, so I'll be updating this as I play along. (I started posting this a week or two ago on another site, hence the plurality of posts at the start here.)
I'm roleplaying this to stay true to the vanilla MC style, though my building style shows my previous experience I guess.

Main reason for me to go vanilla is that my 8 year old pc just can handle vanilla MC, any mods or custom textures usually slow my fps to a crawl or make me run out of memory every 5 minutes, hence I won't be able to join DOA's server for example. It's good enough for me though
A bit of roleplay + the fun of keeping the journal goes a long way.

 

[Shilka]

The Finishing Touches and a surprising discovery

I've started on the last stage of my home base. First I constructed the final outlines of the wall, it seems I'll have plenty room left for what I have planned.

I have plenty of edible plants, so as soon as I finished the wall, I started preparing for making a cow pen. They are easy enough to breed, and I saw plenty of them at the end of my northbound junglepath.

There, my cow pen is finished. It turned out to become a zombie pen at first, so I added more light in the pen itself to keep the darkness away....

Luring the cows was easy enough, they have a taste for wheat, and breeding them shouldn't be to hard either...

In the remaining area of my home base I've constructed a little harbor, well, more like a set of jetties. I've made a small boat, nothing like the one that took me here, but good enough to do some exploring with.

As for exploring, the first task at hand is to try out my little boat and see if I can indeed circle my what I suspect to be an island, so I've set off in the early morning.

After circling the North point, I noticed something unusual in the swamp area to the North-East. I hadn't noticed from the shore earlier, but there seems to be a man made structure. As I sailed closer I could see it was indeed what looked like to be a man made house. I thought I was in the middle of nowhere, but there seems to be some intelligent life here for sure. I don't know if I should be happy or afraid. The house is to high for me to reach, but it seems abandoned as far as I can see. Perhaps the owner of the chest I found lives here?

Continuing on I can't shake the feeling that I'm not alone here. Suddenly I'm very happy to have finished my wall. I'll have to work on the doors for one, zombies and skeletons won't open them, but if there are other people here they might. I don't want to be surprised in my sleep or something like that.
Meanwhile it seems that the coastline is indeed curving again...

And, yes, I've circled back to my home, I'm indeed on an island, and now I know I might not be alone in the area, I'm very happy to be on one...
I've taken some paper with me that I made earlier, and I quickly draw up a map of my findings...

As I return to my house I ponder what things to do next.... change the doors for something better for sure, and perhaps make a watch tower at the east end of my jungle path, to keep an eye on the area around that mysterious structure? Perhaps I should go explore more to find more signs of inhabitants?
Whatever I'll do, I'm happy to have my homebase finished, now if I only knew who built that house in the swamp...

 

[Wapwap]

Amazing stuff Shilka, good fun reading this!

I always like the way you design stuff and put a lot of detail in it. Looking great as always!

 

[Shilka]

Safety measures and some exploring.

After discovering the small building in the swamp I decided on securing my base better. First of all I replaced all outside wooden doors with metal ones. They are button operated, and I managed to construct a wooden button that doesn't stand out from the wall. Whoever doesn't know it's there certainly won't find the button at first glance.

After that I went to the East end of my jungle road, at the end of my island nearest to the swamp. There I started the construction of a watch tower.

With the watch tower finished I decided to posting there several nights a week, to check for lights, movement, anything coming from the swamp. I continued to do it for several weeks, but nothing. I'm starting to think that whatever lived at or built that building in the swamp is either gone or dead. I'll keep checking one or two nights a week though, can never be sure...

Feeling a bit safer now I decided on doing some exploring at the cliffs across the water. I used the boat to get across and started walking. I have to tell you the sights here are beautifull. Pretty close to my home is a mountain that looks like almost cut in half. Rain and wind did their work for centuries on it, resulting in this huge half dome, which I appropriately called 'Hollow Mountain'.

Continuing South for a long way I scaled a large hill and discovered theres a large body of water to the South of the cliffs. However to the South East I saw forests as far as the eye could reach. This landmass surely dwarved my little island in comparison, I could probably explore here for months on end by the way things looked.

Next to that I've come across plenty of cave entrances. It's clear to me that theres much to discover here. Next to that I've seen plenty of sheep here, and I'm thinking of starting a sheep farm on this side of the water. That will have to wait for a bit though.

I've definately decided to keep my gaze turned towards the cliffs in the South for a long while, as well as start a sheep farm there.
However, crossing the water by boat each time, or swimming there will be cumbersome. With the amount of time I plan on spending in the South I've decided on a more permanent way to go across the water. I'll be needing heaps of cobble and gravel for it though, for the water is very deep at places, so I started expanding my mine again.

I'm now working at the mine levels that are next to the underground gorge, and I decided to expand each level untill I hit the gorge. I started closing off the walls with glass to keep anything coming from the gorge from entering my mine.

Level after level I create this way, and luckily I've come across several well sized pockets of gravel while I dig.

Soon I'll be having enough material to create my river crossing, and a new chapter of my stay here can begin...

 

[Shilka]

A Safe Way South


My plans were set. It should provide quite a challenge, but with the help of a large quantity of gravel I should be able to pull this off. Just to make sure I would have enough gravel I decided on adding one more level to my mine first. Unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot of gravel on this level, but I just had to hope I had enough for the upcoming project.

Confident I had enough materials I started working at the South-East corner of my base. First I sank off large quantities of gravel at regular intervals in the water. I can tell you this wasn't easy, and at a few occasions I almost drowned. However, I was confident all this work would pay off for a long time to come, and after days of work I had a firm fundament for the new project.

With some precarious balancing acts I managed to raise the columns up in just 2 days of work.

Then, adding the top layer was easy. Now I had a very sturdy and safe passage to the South.

Safe from the water that is, but not safe from the creatures spawning from the dark. The bridge was hooked up directly to the top of my wall, so I had to make a construction to assure that nothing could walk up the bridge unhindered, and decided on making a gate building that would withstand the attacks of even the greatest hordes of mobs. I started with a very solid basement.

And about a week later the entrance building was ready. Once again my base was secure.

While running back and forth for materials for the bridge I had noticed my cows had done a fair amount of breeding, so the time had come to reap what I had sown. The meat was a welcoming change of my diet, but it was the leather that I really wanted.
I have found a bunch of diamonds in my mine by now, but it would be a waste to make tools out of them and use them unenchanted. For weeks I have been busy making paper from the sugar reed, then binding the paper in leather, writing the wholy texts in them, gathering the books in bookcases... I have 5 bookcases ready now, so there is much more to be done. But one day I will have an enchantment table, surrounded with holy scriptures, and my tools and weapons wil be of such power that only plain stupidity could take my life.

With all my leather depleted I turned my gaze South again, and started cunstructing a sturdy access road to my gate building. Moving over uneven terrain was cumbersome, and with a sturdy road to smooth and speed up my movement I would be able to explore further and further. In a matter of a few days the road had crossed the cliffs, and I reached the water South to the cliffs. From there I could see seemingly endless oak forests to the East.

But even better, while making the road I saw the cliffs were littered with wandering sheep, so my next project was clear to me already. There was more building to do before exploring the oak forests...

 

[Engnr]

I'm enjoying reading this adventure. Thank you.

 

[Shilka]

Preparations and First Rail

The valley under hollow mountain seemed suitable for the sheepfarm I had in mind. It was reasonably flat, and there were many sheep around ready to be lured into a breeding pen. I had a bunch of preparations in mind to tackle first though...

First of all there was a cave running just under the surface of the soil, so I dug away its ceiling.

After that I smoothed out the area, and used the soil I dug away to fill in the shallow part of the cave.

Then there were some preparations to be done of a completely different order. I needed to haul quite an amount of building materials towards hollow mountain, and after finishing the sheep breeding area I would have to haul wool back to my storage for a long time to come. And I wasn't planning on doing all that by foot ...
First I cleared away the jungle at a spot closest to my storage building.

Next I dug away the area and started construction of a sturdy platform.

And the end result is my first station. Rail would enable me to both haul building materials to hollow mountain, and haul back wool in the future.

My previous experience with building a bridge was paying off, and work was progressing fast.

It took me only a week of work before the rail reached my sheep breeding area.

Then it was time to reap the rewards of my hard work, after a few minutes of filling up the cargo cart I was comfortably underway to my next building project.

 

[Shilka]

Sheep Breeding and Exploring a Cave

With the railroad ready it was time to start working on my sheep breeding farm. Since we were out in the open, and I wanted the sheep to be in open pens I first started working on another wall, surrounding the sheep pen area.

Though not very high, the wall should provide enough protection for the sheep, and building it turned out to be swift and easy thanks to my preparations of the terrain.

With the walls done it was time to start on the pens. I sunk them half into the ground, so there should be no easy escape for the sheep.

With the pens ready I constructed a wheat farm on the other side of the breeding area, so I wouldn't have to haul wheat from my home base to feed the sheep.

What followed was a very tedious process of luring sheep from the surrounding area to the pens. Luring the different colored sheep into the seperate pens by color seemed sheer impossible. In the end I opted for luring as many sheep in each pen as possible, then killing off the ones of the wrong color. That way I ended up with one pen with brown sheep, one with black sheep, and all others with white sheep (as the majority of the sheep I lured were white).
Then I colored some flocks with the dyes I had available; red and yellow from flowers, and blue from lapis lazuli I had mined. With at least 2 sheep of each color in the pens, the breeding could begin. After all the hard work I climbed hollow mountain and looked down on the results of my labor...

With my latest project completed I decided on exploring the caves right next to my sheep pens.

These caves turned to be much more extensive then the ones I previously visited, and only by leaving a trail of torches was I able to find my way.

Luckily, mobs were few, and far between, and my iron armor served me well.

After stripping each branch of its riches, and closing the ones I had explored off with cobble, I reached the lowest levels, where large halls filled with waterfalls and lava flows hindered my progression untill I decided I had enough from this cave system.

I managed to almost fill a minecart with all my proceedings from my cave exploration. As I travelled home by rail I decided on a day's rest with perhaps some relaxed fishing, and opted for some above ground exploration next...

 

[JohnnyK]

So where are the updates? Getting lazy?