Chores

Chores

Healing Rooms The healing rooms need to be cleaned and sterilized every day. All should be cleaned down with soap and sterile (distilled) water, then wiped down with sterile (distilled) paga. Medical Kits/Chests Medical kits and chests need to be checked regularly to make sure they are fully stocked. Supplies can be quickly used up when treating after a raid or contest. Cleaning Containers All containers can be first cleaned with antiseptic soap and hot water. Depending on the container, boiling water, green herbal solution, or sterile paga may be used to sanitize the inside of the container. Seal tightly to keep it sterile until the container is used. Making Gut Thread Cut animal gut or sinew into very thin strips. Allow to dry, then carefully peel bits of dried sinew into threads. Roll and store. Making Bandages Find rags in good shape (do not use the silk ones), wash them, then rip them into long strips. Boil them so that they are sterile and allow them to dry inside the healing rooms or other warm, clean area. Roll them up and store them in the healing rooms or healing storage areas. Cleaning Used Cloths Though this can be done as a laundering chore, because the cloths have been used in medical treatment, caution must be taken. After laundering the cloths, they must be boiled to make sure that no particle that may cause infection or illness is present. Once sufficiently boiled, they can be allowed to dry. When dry, they are folded and stored in the healing rooms, healing storage or added to medical kits. Cloths used on infectious conditions are best burned. Distilling Water and Paga This is done using the distilling equipment kept in the healing rooms in the fortress. It is a collection of tubes and beakers with a heating section that is candle heated. The water or paga is poured into a reservoir beaker at one end. The heat from the heating section draws it into the tubing into another reservoir. The drops of heated water or paga collect and drip into tubing leading to another reservoir beaker where it can be poured into sterile bottles and stored. The solids and residues from the paga and water are disposed of and the entire assembly carefully cleaned with antiseptic soap and water. See distilling example. Soap Antiseptic soap is made using the soap recipe. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Distilling Water Walks while thinking of what I may wish to make in the way of medicinal preparations. Visions of tinctures and salves float in My mind while I move to the healing rooms in the fortress. Enters and takes stock of what there is. Notes that the supply of distilled paga and water are becoming low. Brings out the distilling equipment from storage and sets it up on a table. Leaves for the time needed to bring a bucket of water and a bucket of paga. Returns to the healing rooms and sets the buckets where they will be in easy reach. Lights the wide, three-wicked candle to begin the heat building. Dips out water and fills the source beaker. Allowing time for it to work, chooses two basins and cloth for straining. Ties the cloth to one basin with leather straps, making sure it is very taut. Lifts the paga bucket onto the table I am working at. Dips paga and pours it onto the stretched cloth, giving the liquid time to seep through the weave. Turns to check on the distiller working. Sees that the distiller is drawing the water correctly and returns to straining the paga. Dips another bowl of paga and pours it slowly onto the cloth allowing time for the thinner part of the paga to drip through. Scrapes off the lumpy solid part of the paga and puts it into another basin. Checks the water again and fills the pitcher, then pours more water into the source beaker. Steps back to the other table to pour more paga onto the cloth. Lifts the basin to test how heavy it is and how full. Scrapes off the lumpy solid and removes the cloth. Sets the basin aside and ties the cloth to an empty basin. When all the water from the bucket is passed through the distiller and purified, it is stored in sterilized ceramic or glass bottles or jugs and stored behind older containers of sterile water. Changes the filter beakers, blocking the pathway until each is replaced. When all points have clean filter beakers, the source beaker is filled with strained paga. Fills the time by chopping and grinding whole herbs and storing them in that form. Rises to pour more strained paga into the source beaker and returns to cutting and grinding of herbs, resins, and berries. When all paga has passed through the distiller, it is poured into sterilized ceramic or glass bottles or jugs and added to the current stock, older batches in front to be used first. Pours the paga solid into the empty paga bucket. Carefully cleans and sterilizes the basins and other items used in straining the paga. Puts each away in its place. Carefully dismantles the distiller, cleans and sterilizes each sectional piece and stores it in its place. Cleans and sterilizes the tables, leaving the floor for the slaves to do the next day. All being stored away, carries the bucket to the kitchen and leaving it there. The solids are still usable, maybe in cookies or cake or to make paga even lumpier. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Making Soap Grease soap molds and set aside. Put on protective apron, gloves, and eye gear (kept by soap mold area). Place 2 1/2 pounds of bosk tallow (fat) in a large, lye* resistant pot and heat fat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 120F to 125F. Place16 ounces of water, preferably distilled and at room temperature, in the pourable spout, lye resistant pitcher. Very carefully measure in 5 1/2 ounces of lye and slowly blend it into the water. Stir occasionally, but slowly, with a wooden spoon until all lye is fully dissolved. When the lye-water mixture is within the same temperature range of the tallow (between 120F to 125F), begin pouring the lye-water mixture into the melted tallow in a thin steady stream, stirring occasionally. Keep stirring constantly and slowly, but not over zealously. Air bubbles can be trapped in the mixture, unless floating soap is desired. After about 10-15 minutes, the mixture should start tracing, which means that it has gone from clear to opaque, that it has thickened. Pick up the spoon in the pot; the liquid soap should drizzle off of it and leave a trace on the surface. If after 45 minutes to an hour, the soap mixture still has not started tracing, then the measurements should be rechecked. At this point, the soap mixture is ready to be poured or ladled into the molds. Do so, seal the mold with wrapping (or with the cover to the mold), put some blankets or towels on it and place it in a draft-free place. Let it sit for 2 days. After 2 days, remove the mold's lid and wrap and assess the soap. With gloves, gently touch the surface of the soap (lye is highly caustic, so do not touch the soap with hands). If the soap is still very soft, let it sit overnight and the next day unwrapped. If the soap is firm to the touch, yet still leaves an imprint, take the soap out of the mold, cut into pieces, if desired, trim off any excess, and place it on a drying rack, or clean butcher block. If individual soap molds were used, then wait another 3 weeks for the soap to have completed its aging process. If large mold was used and it is planned to slice it up into small bars, then start checking the soap after about 1 week or so ( the medical wagon uses both). Once the soap is sliced, place the individual bars onto a drying rack, or butcher block, and let the soap air dry for another 2 1/2 weeks until the surface of the soap is very hard to the touch. Scrape off whatever ash might be on the bar's surface with a sharp knife (slaves must get permission to use a knife. or use a cutting shell), and the soap is ready to use. *Lye: A strongly alkaline solution. For Fayeen Keep purposes, it is the solution of potassium carbonate (potash) prepared by leaching wood ashes with water. Lye should be used with caution, as it is caustic and poisonous.