Actually I think I'll keep it here: Anyone know the appearances of the new manse constructs? Copse, mining, etc.? I'd like to see before I spend my dingy's.

Copse: A copse of trees lines a brook that meanders here.
Gem Mine: Crystals glitter buried amongst the living rock.
Field: A plowed field sports a small orchard and vegetable patch.

Ooo! Thank you!

do t hey do anything besides add flavor?

They produce comms with upkeep.

Are any of the comms raw, or are they ready to use riftable comms?

Barn ! A cow barn stands to one side, its sides painted bright red.

Leading cows out to make milk - You lead the cows out to the pasture and allow them to graze a while before herding them into the barn.

Upkeeping them for leather! - You spend some time in the barn feeding the cows and brushing down their hides.

Squee, Pesukaru, you're awesome.

Ready to rift. (Gems come out as gems, not cut gemstones, of course.)

There's something mildly hilarious-creepy with this scene:

Cows: Awww, our master is brushing our hide. She must be taking care of us because we're her special farmbuddies.

Owner: There, there, lustrous hide. I bet I'll fetch a pretty penny once I skin them alive. Or dead. Doesn't really matter. Hehehehehehehehe~

Upkeep messages:
Wood: You survey the copse and select a mature tree, then carefully fell it, cut away the limbs, and buck the timber into rounds, which you set aside to dry in the sunlight.
Fish: After taking a few moments to clear silt and debris to keep the brook healthy, you position nets to catch some of the brook trout, ensuring the smaller ones can slip through.
Gems: You engage in the dusty work of cutting stones from the mine in which geodes are likely to hide.
Grain: Working the soil with your plough and hoe, you make wide furrows to fill in with seed.
Vegetables: Walking amongst the rows in the garden patch, you pull up weeds, break up clots of dirt, and plant seedlings.
Fruit: You take some time to tend the fruit trees in the orchard, driving off parasites and pruning dead growth.
Rope: You take some time pulling fibres from the hemp plants in the field and teasing them out, then letting them dry.

Harvest messages:
Wood: With wedge and sledge you work up a sweat splitting and sawing the rounds of wood, producing 22 planks of fine timber.
Fish: You wade into the brook and check the traps, fetching out 2 plump brook trout which you quickly scale and fillet.
Gems: Sifting through the chunks of rock, you cut away 13 warm geodes.
Grain: Taking up a scythe, you cut down the tall rows and thresh them into 18 bundles of grain.
Vegetables: Walking up the rows of the garden patch, you gather 3 of the ripest vegetables.
Fruit: You enter the orchard and pick 2 of the ripe fruit there.
Rope: Taking up the hemp fibres that have dried in the sun, you twist them into 4 lengths of rope.

I really like the upkeep messages.

Hey now. I'm not going to murder them wily nily, now.

I'll do the upkeep message for meat in a second.

You tend to the cows in the barn, making sure they're well fed and well exercised.

I haven't harvested them yet. Unsure if I can, I'm not the manse owner right now.

edit - nope, can't seem to harvest, even with room perms.

Does anyone have the silk one?

UPKEEP
You feed mulberry leaves to the silk moth caterpillars after they hatch from eggs.

HARVEST
You draw silk from the cocoons and spin into filaments you can weave into 13 spools of silk.

Gak! Gak gak! Just harvested the leather.

You gather some of the hide left from the last slaughter and tan it, producing 19 sheets of leather.

Nooooo, my poor little cows. I mean yes, I need your hides to make leather to make vellum to make talking dragons, but...oh you poor cows. I'll just pat you on your noses anyway, even if I am slaughtering you later.

Maybe we should have fruit trees produce fruit leather...

Hilarious mental image of Shulamit slaughtering cows.

Shulamit - Hello there little cow! How are you today. Ah, you look healthy, yes!

Cow - Moo.

Shulamit - Yes, yes, mooing is good! I would like to introduce you to my other friend, the large sharp knife, and skinning knife. They like each other. Unfortunatly, they don't like you.

Cow - Moo?

Shulamit - Yes sadly, it's decided by a vote. To the slaughter!

Thwack thwack thwack.

Shulamit - Yes skinning knife, we did a good job today. To the next cow!

Cows - Mooooooo!

This is how I image it, anyway.

That's kind of how real farmers have to look at it.

Cows have a good life. They get to stand around and do nothing but eat. They get to be really cute. And then they get to be both tasty and useful. You can't beat that!