I've been melting random trade goods and bolts down for steel, so it is still a precious resource.
And he made a steel battleaxe, worth 158400, with pictures of acacia in steel on it. One of the two founders, who I use to jumpstart my military, has been given it.
Steel Battle Axes, in the right hands, can turn a force of goblins into tiny pieces of bloody body parts all over the map.
Things in my Fortress have slowed down. I did some winter clean up after making a magma trash chute, replacing the old atomic smasher and making that area into a training room for my militia to fight armed captives. Also, I wounded my cougar by accident when expanding the grand hall upwards. A stone fell on it. D'oh. So I placed the big cat in a pasture outside (well, inside the dome and outside the underground chambers anyway).
As I wait for the first children to become adults (the oldest is 8 so I believe I have 4 years to go - yuck) I have been watching and enjoying the Fortress like one enjoys watching an ant farm. Outside of some job management on my part, and selecting where to dig and probe for ore, and nitpicking where statues should go, I just watch them live their daily soap opera lives.
Seems a Bone Carver, a Surface Class individual, is falling in love with a Miner, a Stone Class individual. No doubt for the Miner's position and wealth within our Mountainhome. Haulers are just the names I give to children once they are no longer babies - not sure how she got a uncle who is younger than her but I don't question this things. I think it does happen in real life sometimes.
PS oh, and the last caravan of Dwarfs brought me what I most wanted - LOTS of wood. ^_^