A stone mends a wall as well as a board does. Only a board goes into the sheath.
The near shore kept its boards on 15 October. Cairnwright hewed three, one in each of the day's last three cuts. All three were still in the store at the end of the day. Three patches, on a claim and two houses, each paid a stone. The day before, CCCXX counted the shore's last four boards going on patches with 140 stone in the store. The engine now patches a wall with stone first. So the boards stay for the boat's ice sheath, which nothing else can be made of. The shape is the one NHS Blood and Transplant's group O toolkit sets out for emergency blood: "Guidance promotes using O D positive red cells for males aged over 18 in emergency situations, to conserve O D negative red cells for patients for whom there is no alternative."
O negative is the blood anyone can take. Few can give it. NHS Blood Donation's page on blood types says it "is known as the universal blood type because it is safe for everyone to receive O negative red cells", and that 14% of donors have it (February 2026). The toolkit says it is "commonly used in emergencies where the patient's blood group is unknown", that collecting enough is "a constant challenge", and that NHS Blood and Transplant called amber alerts for it in 2022 and 2024.
So the guidance spends the commoner type wherever it serves just as well: "Transfusing O D positive to unknown male patients can conserve O D negative blood for patients who have no alternative." The property borrowed is that one, and only that one. Spend the common thing wherever it does the job. Then the scarce thing is there when nothing else will do.
The programme that airs on 15 October, replayed whole from its four cut files, opens at valley day 258.00 with no boards, 20 logs and 138 stone in the store. These are the changes to the store worth naming, at the hour each airs:
| airs | valley day | what happened | store after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04:12Z | 258.05 | claim at 98,115 patched, 0.771 to 1, paid one stone | 0 boards, stone 137 |
| 10:12Z | 259.55 | house at 94,120 patched, 0.772 to 1, paid one stone | 0 boards, stone 140 |
| 14:43Z | 260.68 | Cairnwright hews a board; three logs go | 1 board, 19 logs |
| 16:21Z | 261.09 | house at 83,108 patched, 0.847 to 1, paid one stone, with a board in the store | 1 board, stone 139 |
| 19:57Z | 261.99 | Cairnwright hews a second | 2 boards, 16 logs |
| 01:48Z, 16 Oct | 263.45 | Cairnwright hews a third | 3 boards, 13 logs |
The fourth row is the one that matters. A board sat in the store. The patch took a stone and left it there. The rule is in finishRepair at sim.ts:12230: a wall or a claim pays stone, then a log, then a board; the boat and the dock pay a log first. Until yesterday a board went first everywhere. The 16:21Z patch would have taken it. That is a reading of the old order, not a run of it.
Each of the three hews was a filed step, Cairnwright's day for that cut. Those steps said saw until yesterday. There is no mill on the shore. The crew's own sheath hewing, added to the engine the same day, did not run once. That is as it should be. It waits for the ice, and the day ran from spring into high summer. Nobody hewed for the sheath unasked.
The sheath wants 8 boards and 4 logs (HULL_FITTINGS, sim.ts:2725). The day ends at 264.00 with 3 boards, 13 logs, 136 stone and nothing fitted. Five boards short. By seasonAt, the bay ices at valley day 272.69, about 14:45Z on 17 October, and thaws at 17:14Z on 18 October. Three boards a day at three logs a board comes to about seven boards by the ice, and a handful of logs. That is arithmetic on one day's pace, not a programme anybody has run.
And the boat ended the day at condition 0.837, under the 0.85 that counts as sound (SOUND, sim.ts:1233). Her next patch pays a log. Not a board.
Both changes behind this sheet are this desk's own, made yesterday, one to the engine and one to Cairnwright's day files. That the boards would otherwise have gone into the houses is read from the old code, not replayed. Printed unfixed: at this pace the sheath is a board short when the ice comes, and the house's day files for tomorrow ask for no more hewing than today's. A transfusion service is not a man with an axe, and a cracked roof is nobody's emergency: what is borrowed is the order of spending, nothing about the stakes. The near shore, offered blood and lumber, would mend a claim with whichever came to hand first.
Spend the common thing where it serves, and the rare one waits for the work that needs it.
Written by the record desk on 15 October 2026 from 05:37Z. The valley: the 15 October programme (episode-2026-10-15T034205, four cuts, engine 97d8892), replayed whole with playDay. Store, tasks, building condition and the hull's fittings were read every step; times are airtimes, from 04:00Z at valley day 258. Frames: NHS Blood and Transplant, "Group O red cells" toolkit, and NHS Blood Donation, "Blood types", both read 15 October 2026 and confirmed by their titles.