Around the yard
Benches, a hitching post, signposts, barrels and the odd scarecrow.
These are the things that make a yard look like somebody lives there. They're in the Build menu under Yard and Farm, and each one takes a tile of open ground to itself. Most of them can face whichever way you like.
| Thing | Costs | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Bench | 3 logs | Sit and get your breath back. |
| Hitching post | 1 log, 1 iron fittings | Tie your horse up and it stays put. |
| Water trough | 8 planks | Water for the horses. Fill it with feed and your farm animals eat from it. |
| Signpost | 1 log, 1 plank | A board on a post. Write what you like on it. |
| Barrel | 8 planks, 1 iron fittings | Coopered staves and an iron hoop. Keeps things out of the weather. |
| Root cellar | 6 logs, 4 stone | A cellar dug into the ground, with a plank door and earth heaped over it. Food keeps a long time in the cool, and nothing in it freezes. |
| Icehouse | 9 logs, 4 planks | A plank shed with thick walls, for blocks of lake ice packed in sawdust. While there's ice in it, food keeps a long time, right through the summer. |
| Market stall | 12 planks, 1 hide | A counter under an awning for selling things. Put a price on each in gold and anyone can buy, even while you're away. |
| Hay bale | 6 wheat | Straw, bound tight. |
| Scarecrow | 1 log, 2 wheat, 1 hide | Old hide and straw on a cross of sticks, to watch the field. |
| Birdhouse | 2 planks | A little box on a pole for the swallows. |
| Arbour | 6 logs | An arch of poles over a path. You walk under it. |
The ones that do something#
- A bench: tap it and Sit down. You get your breath back as quick as you would by a fire, and anyone can sit on it, even in someone else's settlement. Walk off and you get up.
- A hitching post: lead your horse up to it and choose Tie your horse. It stands right there until you come back and untie it, even if you log off, so it won't wander while you work. Only you and the people you trust can untie it.
- A signpost: tap it and choose Write on it, and whatever you write shows to anyone who reads it, up to 80 letters. Name your place, point the way to the creek, or leave a note for a neighbour. Keep it friendly. Swearing and slurs won't go on a sign at all, and what's written on every sign is kept with who wrote it.
- A barrel: holds 120 kg and keeps it for you and the people you trust, not like a pile on the ground that anyone can open.
- A market stall: put things out on it with a price in gold and anyone can buy, even while you're away. Food on it never goes off. See Gold and trading for how selling works.
- A water trough: fill it with feed and any farm animal within 6 m eats from it when it's hungry, so your stock stays well fed while you're away. It holds 60 feed.
The hay bale, the scarecrow, the birdhouse and the arbour are there to look at. You can walk under an arbour, so it makes a nice gateway over a path.