[(E)]

3141*

Assumptions
- If things continue End with nukes

Notes
-3141 is a well off community that benefits from local trade and has a vested interest in the well being of its neighbours.
- The local rock naturally fragments into easily stacked slabs.
- Warm and moist means a high to very high parasite burden, animal yields down.

Description
The old railway bridge has seen better days but it still looks sound. The heavy steel doors in the old tunnel mouth are newer though. The guard recognises you and nods with her usual lack of conversation. The pneumatic machine gun remains pointed in a non threatening direction. The still cool air of tunnel 3141 is a pleasant change from the persistent humid wind that has plagued you for the last week.

Tunnel 3141 benefits considerably from its location, high above a narrow navigable inlet the railway bridge serves as an unloading dock for the traders and travellers who want to get onto the old railway line which is the easiest trail in the area. The steel doors almost completely control inland east-west traffic, a fact the town does not exploit, too much.

Systems

The Tunnel
The old train tunnel is not as heavily utilized for food production as it could be. In the past it has been expanded beyond it's original dimensions showing that when the bombs where falling the residents of the tunnel farmed inside more. Many of the corridors have shelves for mushroom propagation and bales of substrate material are stacked here and there. The artificially lit garden is a remnant of what it used to be due to the difficulty in making high power light bulbs and the unreliable nature of the local hydroelectric power plant. The remaining supply of Pre-End plant spectrum LED panels are carefully stored in case they should ever be needed. Animal pens are located at either end of the tunnel with space for goats, sheep and horses. A small amount of feed is on hand to feed the animals while they shelter from storms. Nearer the eastern end of the tunnel a small area is dimly illuminated by a few light wells. This is where the other livestock are kept, guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, meal worms, snails and fish. The community is currently without pigs as the result of an unknown ailment that struck last summer. Overall the tunnel produces mushrooms, uses animals to store and convert food and provides shelter for the grazing and browsing livestock. The potential exists for food production to improve but producing food under glass and outside is more efficient.

The Flats
Near the eastern end of the tunnel there is a flood plain that is used for open air crops. Pre-planting and after every storm the area is swept for stray radioactive particles**. While storms and poor weather destroy about a quarter of the crops that are planted on the flats the fertile soil more than makes up for the wasted effort. Leafy green and root vegetables are also grown due to the short time to maturity.

Western Forest
The community has a number of goats and sheep that are grazed in the forested areas to the west of the tunnel, the majority of the animals are goats with just a handful of sheep. Lactating nannies and ewes are shedded off and kept on the pastures to the east of the tunnel so they can be milked. The goats kept for dairy production are descendants of the highly productive “Saanen” breed. About 600-800 litres of milk are produced per animal but due to the specialisation intrinsic to the breed fibre and meat production is low. Most of the shortfall is made up by the sheep flock. Mortality is high among younger animals. Pasture management will likely focus on maintaining an increased grazing height to avoid settled radioactive contamination and L2 parasites. The latter is an enduring and common misconception regarding some parasite's life-cycles.

The Bank
A successful haul several years ago netted the community all the armoured glass out of an old Eastern Union Bank this glass has proved to be resilient enough to withstand the worst storms the area has to offer. This glass is the core of 3141's greenhouse. About a tenth of the greenhouses space is devoted to maintaining seed stock for other plantings. Maintaining crops in isolation has a benefit for the residents of 3141 it allows two different strains of specific plants to be kept. These strains are crossed to produce hybrid seed for other plantings. This hybridisation produces a benefit of 10-30% in the resulting crops, otherwise known as hybrid vigour. The remaining space is divided evenly between utility plantings, high yield crops and gardens that are devoted to providing a variety of produce to improve the health of the community's diet.

Produces
- Cereal, Millet, Fonio and Maize
- Salt
- Legumes, Peas, Several varieties of beans and Lucerne
- Dairy, Sheep and goat milk, cheese and a small amount of milk powder.
- A range of vegetables and plant products including some medicines.

Preserved food
- Salt meat
- Corn meal and millet flour(?)
- Dried beans
- Cheese
- Milk powder

Features
- The tunnel has been made reasonably spacious since the End with individual alcoves and homes carved into the walls. Ample storage and work space exists, many of the residents barter services such as accommodation and meals to travellers.
- Hydroelectric power, while unreliable (heavy rain brings too much debris down the river) sufficient power is generated to charge most smaller devices and support some power intensive machinery.

Local trade
- 3141 Produces Salt, Cheese and usually a modest food surplus which it trades to its neighbours.
- 3141 Imports Coal(?), textiles, fish(?), glass, chemical and tools

Skills present
- Farming
- Animal handling
- Gardening
- Botany
- Pharmacy
- Engineering

Cattle
With the higher temperatures and increased worm burden cattle of "Bos taurus indicus" decent will handle the conditions better, these animals are generally considered poor producers of meat and milk in relation to the the more traditional western "Bos Taurus" breeds.

*I've been watching person of interest

** As in small fragments of highly radioactive metal etc., not the actual subatomic particles.

Apologies for the lack of formatting, no landline due to wind, all had to go through phone's browser.