ZE: Safe Haven, Part 4 Sneak Peek

For the past few days, I have been coding the new report in Part 4 that Rachel gives about the progress of the group and junkyard. It's a lot to write, and below are some excerpts as a sneak peak.

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Once the dock at the lake is completed:

The dock stretches a good fifteen feet out into Sapphire Lake, built low and wide with weathered planks that creak underfoot but hold steady. It's simple and provides a place to tie boats, fish, wash up, or sit with your feet in the water when things feel a little too heavy. The view from the end is stunning, especially at dusk.

Fred took care of the anchoring, digging into the shoreline to set the support posts and making sure the whole thing wouldn’t drift off the first time someone stepped too hard.

Gina oversaw the layout and reinforced the platform with crossbeams. She kept the build moving at a clipped pace and refused to cut corners, even when we were running low on nails.

Woody calculated the waterline depth and adjusted the slope of the dock to avoid seasonal flooding. He also carved small notches into the railing to measure water levels day by day.

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Once the goat pen is completed:

The goat pen went up alongside the garage, close enough to watch but far enough not to smell from the main path. It’s boxed in with reinforced fencing, scrap wood, and a gate that actually latches. There’s a lean-to shelter made from corrugated metal and tarps, and a feeding trough cobbled together from an old gutter. The goats seem content enough, and more importantly, they haven’t escaped. Yet.

Billie drove most of the fence posts herself and reinforced the gate with scavenged bike chain. She claimed it was “chaos-proof,” then dared the goats to test it.

Gina designed the pen layout for both durability and ease of cleaning. She also welded a hinge bracket out of a broken car jack and said, “If it holds up a hatchback, it’ll hold a goat.”

Woody built the feeding trough and added a drainage slope to the pen floor. He explained it was based on old European hillside livestock practices and then tested it himself by dumping half a bucket of water across it.