The replacement FB turned out to be a great hairy flying gecko- beware his deadly spittle! He knocked over a floodgate on his way to the surface, where he was torn apart.
This year, when the human caravan came they brought a diplomat- their Law-Giver, Oce Uquurashro, leader and part time tanner of The Short Empire. After the usual niceties, my baroness bought all their metal, booze, and cloth as usual and in return let them take our unneeded source of used goblin loincloths.
Speaking of the goblins, they sent another flurry of ambushes this year. My military currently consists of 4 2-dwarf squads- I deployed them 2 and 2 and utterly destroyed the goblins. As a result, all but 2 dwarves have a title- my militia commander and one of my Swordsdwarf captains are tied for the lead with 16 notable kills apiece- my commander gets the edge due to the two Beak Dogs he has to his name, as opposed to the other's Beak Dog and Harpy (they both have a smattering of buzzards in there as well.) Meng Mineplaited, the swordsdwarf who saved the life of my mechanic and her many children, has six kills including a forgotton beast and is now known as Meng Mineplaited the Spattered Consideration of Cells. The last standout dwarf is Stodir Hollowinked the Infamous Fire, who quite apart from being one of my most skilled military members is also a Legendary Blacksmith, having made an artifact anvil the previous year.
All in all, three dwarves hospitalized themselves after the fighting for various cuts and bruises- the most serious was a novice swordsdwarf who had some nerves in her left hand cut. All of them made a full recovery and have returned to duty good as new. Now if I can just get my Miner's skill up to snuff, I can finally start chipping away at the bluemetal.
EDIT: I nearly forgot- My carpenter went fey, grabbed a whole mess of things and made... The West Authority, a Blood Thorn Bin. Oh well, at least it's 46k dorfbucks.