Part 27: I will never figure haystacks out.

This morning I found a creeper lurking on the roof (dang creepers... you think there'd be a spray you could craft or something.  some sort of pixellated roundup.  squareup.)... I'd have to retrieve Boxter in a daring in-and-out-raid.

I managed, though expecting every moment for the creeper to drop on our heads heffalump-style.

There was a bit of open country with a couple of standoffish horses.

But the open country didn't last long.

No.  Absolutely not.

Marginally better, but still not ideal.

I decided to go up and over the mountain.

The view was terrific, but due to Boxter's largeness and opacity, I couldn't exactly see where I was stepping, and several times grew very close to falling off the mountain.

The big trees are pretty, though. From a distance.

 At one point we were scrambling up a one-block-wide slope with sheer drops on either side.  Fortunately, Boxter appears to be able to balance on a tiny one-block ledge with some sort of levitation horse magic.

We nearly fell off this cliff when it suddenly opened up below us, and then nearly fell off again when I went back to take the screenshot.

yiiiiiiii...

The mountains were quite jagged, but free of trees, and with a little dodging of cliffs and chasms, the rest of the day's journey passed in a breeze and a clatter of hooves.

I'd build a national park here.

 Finally, it seemed we'd run up against another northern shore.  Finding a way around would have to wait for morning - I began constructing a tall tunnel-cave, like I had the previous nights.  Just so long as I start early enough on the construction, and find a cliff steep enough and solid enough to dig in, and as long as my glass supply and haystack supply holds out - ok, I guess under a lot of conditions - these shelters seem to be going better lately than most of my other resoundingly inept attempts.

Some kind of natural monument.

So I dug the deep tunnel, rode Boxter inside, and readied my haystack.  I would try the whole haystack-from-horseback trick.

I gave him the haystack.

Annnnd... haystack.

Then I ran to the mouth of the tunnel and looked back at Boxter.  He stared placidly back at me.

Looks promising...

 All right, it wor -

Nope.

Boxter started bounding happily toward me through a sea of spinning cobblestone blocks.  I slapped down two blocks of glass in his path, but he was coming fast.  I leapt up on one of the glass blocks, and a shoving match ensued.  I'm lucky that in Minecraft, a horse can't outshove me (actually, a horse can't outshove a morning dove either... and many's the morning that I've run from the house only to be stopped in my tracks upon collision with a rabbit).

So, as I shouldered Boxter back into the cave (rrrrgh.... mmmmmgh... get back you blockhead....), I somehow managed to place two more blocks.

Ha.

 From there, it was a simple matter of hopping inside and finishing up the cave.

Sunset, with mourning dove.  A very loud mourning dove, by the way.

 A cave which I was now sharing with a very-active Boxter.  It had been a while since he'd been free to roam at night.

Lookit!

And lookit over here!

What's that you're saying about me being in the way of your pickaxe?

HI.

 Eventually, he seemed to take a fancy to my crafting table, and spent most of the night perched on top of it.  Or hovering just off the edge in an impressive display of horse magic.

 Maybe he was meditating.

 And the moon set over a vast and uncrossable northern sea.