The animals we purchased from the merchants don’t seem to be happy living in the cages they came in, they seem to much prefer running around outside where we keep our refuse, so we built a pen for them there with a nice little lake in the middle for the ducks to swim in.
The mayor has started to demand decent accommodations, and since no dwarf worth his salt could be happy living in a room carved from sand, we started excavating new living quarters deeper in the earth, where the rock walls can be smoothed and engraved with detailed pictographs. 
the new living space is coming along nicely, and perhaps when it is done we can start moving our other operations to a deeper, more dwarfly setting. Being near the surface was convenient at first, giving us access to fish and wood, but we dream of a home cut from stone.
We continue to mass produce splints, which our envoy from the mountainhome promises will fetch a good price next autumn. Our larder is full of meat, fish, and mushrooms, and our barrels overflow with dwarven wine.
things are looking better and better each day… except for those damn kea that keep getting into our fortress. It turns out they can fly, so we may want to close off that skylight and secure the entrance to the animal pen on the surface.
A new year begins with a fresh outlook and a quick audit of the resident nobility that have shepherded the fort thus far. Here are some of the traits of the best among us. These are the elite few with the vision, dedication, perspicacity, and stubbornness to do what must be done for all dwarfkind!
Led Enamalath – Manager
has a quite poor focus, finds nature somewhat disturbing, doesn’t see cooperation as valuable and doesn’t particularly respect commerce, tries to keep things orderly, sometimes acts with little determination and confidence, quick to anger, doesn’t try to get things done perfectly, talks to inanimate objects when there is a lull in the conversation
As Ottarzuglar – Militia Captain
does not enjoy participating in physical confrontations, does not really value skills related to fighting
Deduk Obokbavast – Bookkeeper
doesn’t respect commerce, doesn’t feel strongly about the law
Ezum Zafalletmos – Mayor
thinks she’s fairly important in the grand scheme of things, incurious and doesn’t seek out knowledge or information, does not go out of her way to help others, tends to be passive in discussions, sees life as unfair and doesn’t mind
Or they could just be whoever we had standing around with free time on their hands when the positions needed to be filled.
In addition to Highly Effective Nobility, the fort has inherited more than 400 wooden splints, almost 100 of which are Masterworks. Confidence in our military is, perhaps, not as high as it could be. With this in mind, I’m setting out to create a hospital. The hospital will require a freshwater well and a new source of water, since we’ve settled by the sea. Excavations are already underway.
Migrants have arrived and it’s time for more beds! The group is primarily fisherdwarves, which is no surprise given our coastal location. There are also animal trainers and, best of all, one siege engineer and one beekeeper! I have no idea what to do with them but I’ll do my best to put their talents to good use.
Work finally begins on the new, larger dining hall. It’s deep in stone where it belongs and it’s going to be properly smoothed and engraved with tales of our local heroes. It will also have a massive kitchen just across the hall.
The old, far inferior dining hall
New excavations are well underway
A farmer has been taken by a fey mood and claimed a Craftsdwarf’s workshop. Literally, her only skill is farming.
Several days later, Vucar Duthalkonos created The Yellow Pillar, a giant weasel bone grate. It is encrusted with square brilliant cut clear zircons and square brilliant cut yellow zircons. On the item is an image of an oak in giant weasel bone. For some reason, this thing is worth 56400 dwarfbucks. It is the most valuable thing we own and Vucar now stands as our sole Bone Carver. Good for her and glory to the fort!
Migrants have arrived! There are eight of them, including a talented Weaver that’s 142 years young. He probably makes a mean bolt of cloth, but has no other skills. Clearly, we’re attracting the cream of the crop.
Kea are harassing our workers. I’ve dispatched the military to shoot them out of the sky. They’ve been training for two and a half years now, so really this is more like an above-ground training exercise.
The military have been attempting to kill four Kea for two weeks now. In addition to shiny objects going missing we’ve just discovered a dwarven child slain. This atrocity will not go unanswered. We’ll have blood for blood! …eventually
The Kea seem to have fled. There are no bodies, so I’m not sure how to feel about this turn of events. On the one hand, we’ve let a sworn enemy get away with murdering one of our own. On the other hand, thank god those flying monsters have gone to bother some other fledgeling fort. It’s time to increase the size of our guard.