Forgot to leave room to put in floodgates in my 2z deep moat, so I've doubled my order. Slaughtersboulders is subsisting on a steady diet of mussel and whatever I can brew from random plants. For the first time, I have a booming steel industry despite my lack of magma access. I've invested some time in learning how to layer armor for the most effective coverage, and while I was at it I added midnight blue cloaks and hoods to the uniform. My soldiers will be DASHING.
The moat itself is nearly done- mostly I'm waiting for my mechanics and masons to get the floodgates ready so I have a shutoff valve, and I'm also going to use the moatwater to feed the well for my hospital (which will be fully functional, another first.) I'm doing something of an experiment with my fortress- normally I build a spiral ramp shaft straight to the magma, build an emergency mini-fort and expand from there. This time I'm devoting more space to a central open space enclosed by walls, with the plans of having a magma core to the fortress. In theory, if a FB spreads horrible disease everywhere I can shutdown the fortress and magma-purge effected areas by floor, and hopefully by room if I do it right. My biggest challenge thus far is using my limited space in the most effective way possible, since I only have 3 unobstructed non-soil layers to work with, with another 2 that have big chunks taken up by cavern before I hit the bottom of the cavern, where further expansion is limited by water. My original plan was to go every other on used floor space, leaving the extra spaces for magma plumbing, but I don't have the space to sustain it. I'm partly handling the coziness by spreading out more than usual, and I think I'll have to throw up an apartment complex aboveground rather than devote more than a layer to housing.
I nearly forgot about the dwarven caravan, and so only had a few bronze axes to trade them. I traded for blue pig tail fiber cloth, and the Proficient Clothier who likes pig tail fiber cloth and mittens made me enough money to buy out the rest of their cloth, a horse, sand, and some booze. I've placed orders for various metals, sand, and more cloth. Hopefully before the spring I'll have a functional moat, operational hospital, and have a start to getting all my industry off of the surface and safely in the bosom of the earth where it belongs.
I'm sure nobody cares about this, but writing it down helps me plan and think.