Another Winter has come and gone much the same way as the last one. Not as much snow as last year, but it's been decided to get an early head start to better our chances to finally get home, we are going to cross the river while it's still frozen. Normally I wouldn't have such feelings of reservation, but Carissa is expecting, and I'd hate to see her become injured in the travel. This became even more apparent as we set out to cross the icy river. Several of the ants have been unable to obtain any degree of traction in footing as they attempt traversing. I was deeply concern that we might have to remain separated from the group, or delay their crossing to the other side until it was too late, but one of the group members came up with the idea of tying torn pieces of leaves to our feet, which gave us the needed traction to travel the ice safely. We have managed to work away a few of the rocks that were placed in the entrances of our colony so Carissa can safely give birth, when the time comes. As far as a name goes, we've decided on Violet if it's a girl, and Mac, if it's a boy. Mainly we just hope the delivery will be safe and will cause no harm to either Carissa or the baby. But it doesn't hurt to plan ahead. It's been a few months, and we're about half way to the residential tunnels. Carissa had a little boy. Rather a unique deep purple shade. He's full of life, and one of the first in our group to be born, well I was going to say in the wild. But if you look at it, technically, he was born here at Riverside. He sure can put out quite a yell when he's hungry, tired, cross, or just feels the need to stretch his lungs. I know it can be a bit of a nuisance to some of the other colony members, but they understand. Perhaps it gives some of the workers a little extra motivation to clear out the tunnels to get to our homes. I'm working extra hard just to have our family back where we were before. It appears that for the most part, our work has been in vain. When we finally arrived at the main corridor to the residential tunnels, a humongous bolder has been placed there. I suspect it took the entire group of fire ants to place it there. No matter how much we've tried, we cannot make more than the slightest movement out of the rock. It also been discussed with a group of members who was among the main council in engineering, that any attempts to create new tunnels would cause an immanent collapse of a good portion of our colony. So it would seem that we have no choice but to look for a new place to live. Well, I should say that it was a home that served us well. We all worked hard to sustain it, but with so many things in life, they do not last forever. It will be a bit of a loss, but at least we are to a certain degree used to the separation from this place. I suspect the hardest part was in having to accept the defeat, when he had our hearts so much in place of restoring it as it were before. But as I've stated before, I really wouldn't have been, not for a great deal if time into the future anyway. In the short time before our departure, we've gathered up a greater amount of provisions, and are prepared to leave. Now that we are on the other side of the river, we have a full new territory to search for new colonies, that we might be able to join with in the attempt to have a more secure life. So all is far from lost. We have each other, and will stay together no matter what the situation will befall us. We've managed this far, and now that we have banded together, we plan on sticking this out come what may. No luck in finding a home, just yet, but we have met a group of wayward ants whom have ventured from the north. They too are like us, harvester ants, whom are also a peace loving group. We attempted to inquire of their home, and if we could return to live there, but they only said that they cannot go back. As much disappointment as this has produced for the rest of our group, there is little we can do to help them in that department. We have welcomed them into journeying with us, to which they have accepted and appreciated deeply. One, Durian Oaken was a council member of his last colony, his wife's name is Camomile, and they have four sons and a one year old daughter. Once the new comers were folded into our group, Durian has been asked, and graciously accepted the responsibility as our assistant to our leader, Blade Husker. Blade would have been more than content to have Durian take the lead, but it was felt that since Durian Oaken was from a different colony, it would be best for him to adjust to the way our colony did things. Which from what I've seen, is not much different that how we are now. Their colony was a bit stricter than ours, which might help to shape the concepts of our group, if it needs be that we are unable to find a friendly colony for a while. It's been two months, and three colonies later, and still no luck in finding a new home. Some of the same problems we had faced last year, were presented to us again. The first colony had insufficient space for our group. The are in the planning stages for a dramatic addition, but it's still on leaf, and will take several more months if not a couple of years to begin work. Then a year or two until it is done. Needless to say we can't exactly stick around that long, but if we don't find a home by then, we have an open invitation to return. The second colony was a group of really large black ants. They simply had no interest or desire to have us in their midst. Weak, inefficient, ugly, need I go on? They did warn us not to venture farther north, for there was a location of ant lions living there, and farther investigation, it became true. I've never seen an ant lion before, but have heard enough stories or should I say horrors about them to not want to be a million inches near one. Now the third colony, well what can I say? They had an issue with our leader, Durian. He would not talk about it, but they told us if we would be rid of him, and what way I will not go into detail on, they would accept us unconditionally. Actually, they would consider us as heroes, and our leader would be made the new leader of their colony, and would have the choice of any single female ant in their home. I'm not privy to what the situation was, but let's say that the additional ants from Far North Colony (Durian's home) were struck with horror as they realized who lived at this colony. Under normal circumstances, we would have had a difficult time deciding who to believe, but everyone feels that Durian and his family are trustworthy enough that we are not going to be joining the other colony. A couple of ants have voiced a degree of concern over this decision, that it would be better to look at the needs of the many, versus the needs of the few, but most will not endanger the life of one ant. I'm glad to see that despite the difficult times we've been through, we haven't lost our values. It's now been six years since we've been separated from our home, and left the fire ant colony. No, we still haven't been accepted into another colony, most having the same problems that we saw the first two years of our wandering. The colony who was expecting an expansion project was delayed by an accident that caused most of the constructed tunnels made to collapse rendering them unliveable. It will be a great number of years until they could accommodate us. But as we have been directed by another group of nomad ants, whom had no desire to join with us, knew of a colony much to the south. It will take three or four more years to reach. It might seem life foolishness to follow their advice, but a map that they have given to us has been explicitly correct. Including this immense land of blackness. A place that has no growth, no water, only a pile of hard black rocks adhering to each other . It is much too hot and distant to travel. The nomads told us that it stretches far beyond their old home, which was destroyed by this land of blackness. Most of their colony were not able to escape, but they did witness the nearly immeasurably large yellow beasts that placed the black rocks onto the ground. The only thing we've seen of this ‘land of blackness' is the occasional gust of wind, followed by different colored beasts that rush past us at an unimaginable speed. One of our group climbed up a tree, and remarked a peculiar yellow dashed line running down the middle of it. Also in the great distance, some rather strange square and rectangular shapes, but was not able to describe them. Fall is nearing, and as we've managed to find shelter in a large round object with a nutty smell coming out of it, we're preparing for Winter. In a pile are some small nuts that will provide nourishment for our needs. The biggest concern, at the moment is water. There has been less rain than usual, so water is more of a precious commodity. Which leads to the current situation. Five year old Mac had a bit of a scuffle with six year old Laurel Oaken. Laurel, as I've mentioned before, her father was one of the councilors of their old colony. Not that she would remember any of that, but her older brothers seem to reminder her of that fact quite often. So she's managed to gain a certain degree of self importance. Little Laurel has also been having trouble as of late dealing with her older brothers, so when she was not able to retaliate to them, decided to have a little fun with Mac. Laurel found some rather foul smelling muddy water, and placed it into the leaf several inches above the ground. When Mac can trotting along, she shook the branch causing the drop of water to fall and douse Mac in the process. While no one was hurt, I can't help but feel at least a little sympathy for Mac in ‘being bested by a girl', as he stated later. So he found some nearby water, and drenched her with it. Problem was, the water Mac found was drinking water, and many of the colonist are upset with him in using it in such a way. I guess a number of them have forgotten what it's like to be a kid. I have no qualms with Durian, but feel that his involvement with disciplining my son wasn't really necessary. He did, being the leader, and wanting the put the fear of the almighty into them, gave a pretty good tongue lashing in front of the rest of the group . Mac has promised not to do anything with the water again, but when he arrived home, and Carissa and I spoke to him about it, he was quite full of ire about the whole thing. But we are not too concerned with his state of mind. He will get over, it as kids do. At least none of the other kids will be trying anything with the drinking water any time soon. Now that Winter is about to set in I'm thankful that nothing came of all of this. Being in such closed quarters, it's quite apparent that peace and harmony should reign with all of us. It can be quite a strain having to live in such conditions when you can't get along with the ones you live with. But after everything we've been through, I'd say we shouldn't have any serious incidents.

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