Catibus Caretaker
The crop caretaker is a farmer that is charged with growing the medicine for the medicine men. They grow Catibus for the for the medicinal properties. This medicine can be used to treat and cure all sorts of ailment, from fever to sleep aid. It is also used in tinctures and compresses for wounds. The rest is used for textiles. The plant bi-product is used for clothing, ropes, and threads. It is tough and strong. The fabric is cooling and wicking. It is easy to clean and will not shrink.
The ropes are made strong and durable. They are used for ropes for boats and carts. The material can be crafted into sails for boats.
The crop caretaker plants the crop, and Ticeran pretty much does the rest. Between The Connection, and learning the right amount of water to provide, along with any other nutrients that might be needed. The caretaker learns from a young age how to tend to the color and size of the plants what nutrients may be needed. They are up at the first light and goes through the crops, making sure there is no sign of critter eating the plants. This is not typical, but can happen.
Taking care of the crops is an honor and taken very seriously. The first thing that the caretaker checks is his soil to make sure that there is adequate nutrients that will help with the best yield. This is very important to train a new caretaker and will assure success in their crops. If the soil is not up to standards, then the caretaker must know what to add to the soil to get it ready for planting.
The caretaker plants at the beginning of the planting season. This allows for best sunlight use and most sunlight hours for high yields. The seeds are placed in the seeder which is pulled by a paxen. This is an all day process that generally spans 2 days. Depending on the region depends on the size of the crop. There has to be enough medicine to be available for all the tribe. The rest of the plant that is used for textiles is always plentiful, so there is never a concern of shortage.
Most of the job is monitoring and irrigating the crops. There are some fertilizers that can be used. This is made out of the droppings of the paxen, since they have a rich diet of catibus and graze on the crops after harvest. The other kind is made up of compost.
When harvest time arrives, the caretaker is busy making sure to get all the plants before the start to want to seed. The caretaker looks for the thickness in the "buds" to guage when it is time to start harvesting. The harvesting goes fast with the paxen pulling the swather. Then another paxen pulls a collector to pick up the clipped plants. They then load all the clippings into a big cart that then gets brought to the processing hut to cut all the useable medicine from the stalks and the stalks then start getting treated and broke down to be turned into the ropes, material, and crafts.
The caretaker has the rest of the crop handlers help in this last stage since it takes many hands an entire months worth of work to do. The "buds" are cut away and then sent to another table where the non-medicinal leaves are trimmed and collected to be weaved together
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