Post-Mining Expedition Work

I've descended into the depths of my branch mine twice, now. The first time was simply to work the mine itself down by the bedrock layer, and although I found a fair bit of ores I also encountered a decent amount of lava. Instead, I decided to explore more of the underground ravine I had found while building the slanting shaft of the mine itself, and once again collected a nice collection of ores and such.

Fifty Electronic Circuits Away from Solar Goodness

The second time I entered the mines and to explore was because I had used all but six ingots of refined iron (which is made by smelting normal iron ingots a second time). I did this because I felt that my macerator was the slowest of my machines and decided I wanted to upgrade to a Rotary Macerator. It works much faster but has to "wind up" in order to take advantage of all that speed.

Delicious New Machinery~

And while I was upgrading my macerator I decided to upgrade my electric furnaces to Induction Furnaces! Though watching so much of the energy in my MFE drain away while using just one of them made me think I should only have upgraded the one. The world is full of material, though, and I can always make a new electric furnace, keeping the second induction furnace as a replacement in case the first one breaks. Or in case I cause another cable detonation due to too high of voltage.

"That'ssssss a Nice Rubber Farm you Have There..."

Electronic circuits require refined iron, redstone dust and insulated copper cables. I have a good amount of the first two items on the list, but I only have as many cables as I can make with rubber collected from my rubber tree farm. I hadn't had a problem where I needed more rubber than I could get with occasional visits until now, and I decided to try and remove and replant any trees who just weren't producing. Plus, I could extract rubber from the logs of the deadbeat trees!

It was nearing sunset as I began chopping down the rubberless trees after having punched most of their leaves away in the hopes of finding extra saplings. At this time a Creeper - from who the hell knows where - decided to punish me for not paying enough attention to the area around me while outside. As you can see, the farm went from three producing trees and three that weren't down to three producing and.. one sapling.

Now, Ain't That Somthin'?

On the way back to the house, I decided to stop and take a quick shot of the village from the desert side. Of the buildings you can see, the only one I haven't personally had a hand in moving was the cobblestone church in the back corner. You might be able to see a bit of one of the last two other untouched houses somewhere behind the butcher shop's deck, too. It was a lot of work, but I like the results so far.

It's Tree-Huntin' Time.

With a few pieces of iron and some redstone dust, I made a compass. And given my surplus of rubies, sapphires and emeralds - who make tools and swords as useful as diamonds but about half as durable - I made myself a second axe. I'll make another tree tap or two, and tomorrow I pick a direction and go looking for rubber trees.

I'm thinking east: the mountains are to the north, tundra to the west and what seems to be ocean to the south.