I think an outpost out there would be good for us, both in terms or exploring the area and setting up a far point where we can survey what's around. It should be very tall so we can see far and I think that high hill to the northeast in the horizon would be a good spot for it. We can make it about 6 meters tall without losing much structural integrity or balance so hopefully it'll withstand minor earthquakes should they happen. I'll start by making my way to the hill and leaving signs behind to mark the way.

Oof, that was a bit of a trek! I figured we might be out here for a bit while we're setting the outpost up, so I made sure to bring enough resources to hold us over until we're finished. I also figured it might be nice to have some reading to keep us entertained, so I checked out three books from the library: Screws and You: A Fascinating Guide to Modern Fastening, a somewhat boring technical listing of different types of screws with intricate descriptions and suggestions for usage; The Amorous Armor, a lengthy romantic novel about a woman falling in love with a valiant knight only to find out that the knight was in fact a spirit possessing a knight's armor; and Grgory Mayfild and th Alphabt Hist, a mystery novel following a detective who tries to recover the letter E after it's stolen from the alphabet.

*heavily breathing* Why is this so far away. There is no need for this... post... to be so... out... there... Oh............ Now it makes sense. Here, some wood and metal and tools and cinnamon air fresheners.

I don't know much about building outposts.... I just put some wood wherever, I hope its ok!

I read some parts of Screws and You that were particularly topical to our current project and used my newfound screw expertise to put some screws in some of this here wood. Hopefully these fancy fastening techniques will make this outpost sturdy enough to last a lifetime!

Good news everyone! While I was banging some wood together I accidentally made fire! Let me tell ya, this is some weird bright stuff, but I think it may be useful! I bet you could see a fire for miles! In fact, if there were a big fire on top of our outpost, you could probably easily see it from the mouth of the tunnel!

This got me thinkin: what if we used this cool new stuff for long-range communication? Different kinds/patterns of fire could mean different things! I went ahead and made a list of signals that we could potentially send to home from our outpost. I'm open to feedback!

  I've done another supply run and also put down this sign I've made somewhere along the road. 

I spent the day fashioning some comfy mats to rest on. Imagine the sleepovers we could have in this bad boy! Staying up past 10 PM, pretending to be police officers and playing stakeout, playing charades, sharing secrets, it'll be great!

Thinking about Katie's new long range communication system idea, I figured it might be a nice to set up a large metal plate on the roof to contain the fires, and also some large lenses so we can focus that light right onto the base. We could set up a corresponding signaling tower near there too! Alas, I've no clue where we would be able to find such items.

I've set up some window planters to grow some greens in them. The outpost gets a lot of good sun. I've also set up a corner for the chickens and will spend the rest of the day setting up some rudimentary plumbing in case we ever need to pump up or down some water (like when, say, we've accidentally lit the outpost on fire trying to text someone back home).

I put some finishing touches on the wood around the outpost. Literally. I got a few splinters when I was rolling around on the floor, so I decided to start sanding down the wood to make it nice and smooth. I covered it in various strange goos I found slorping around to try to give it a nice-looking finish, and I must say, I'm pretty proud of how it looks. I think we've got everything we need!