Shay stomped his feet that had gone slightly numb from the cold, blew on his hands, and rubbed them hard. After warming them up a bit, he climbed up the lookout tower and gazed down at the settlement he had managed for nearly a year.
After a year's hard work and construction, the settlement now had a promising outlook.
The perimeter was a circle of walls made from logs as thick as a person hugging them, standing over three meters tall. These walls not only defended against various wild beasts of the Northern Territory but also provided some resistance to wind and snow.
At least, the newly built houses in the settlement were mostly constructed against these walls. Besides saving building materials for one side of the house, an important reason was that these walls could effectively fend off wind and snow.
Of course, if the snowstorm was truly severe, everyone would move into the underground shelter that had been completed, which was where they really spent the winter.
