Chapter 49 Busyness in the Endless Winter

Not long after the Spring Festival, I realized that the Chinese cabbages at home might not keep well, so I decided to make them into sauerkraut.

I've seen my grandma and mom make sauerkraut before, so I'm sure mine won't be too bad.

Since the cabbage had been sitting for a long time and had dried out a bit, I didn't need to dry it further to dehydrate it.

Simply peel off the dry outer skin and neatly arrange the cabbages inside in the water vat.

Layer the cabbage, then sprinkle a layer of salt, and so on, filling two water vats with cabbage.

Then they moved a huge rock from the back room. This rock was in the back room when I first arrived.

It looked neat and clean and was quite heavy, so I didn't move it, thinking I might need it later.

Clean the big rock inside and out, then place it on top of the cabbage.

Just wait a while, and the cabbage will sink deeper and deeper, eventually turning into sauerkraut, which is then ready to eat.

A few days later, a new batch of vegetables and fruits will be planted in the pot.

There's no need to replant the scallions in the original pot; they'll just grow thicker. You can simply pick the scallion leaves and eat them. New leaves will grow back after a few days.

Based on the experience and lessons learned from the previous vegetable planting, the quantity of various vegetables planted was adjusted.

The fermentation bed in the chicken coop was dirty, so I dug out a part of it and put it directly into a basin as fertilizer.

Then replace the chicks' bedding with a new fermentation bed, so that the chicks' nest will still be odorless.

Recently, after laying an egg, the hen just lays on it, and I can tell she wants to hatch chicks.

But it's not the right time yet. Indoor space is limited right now, and there simply isn't enough room for a brood of chicks to survive.

Crowding into one chicken coop will only make all the chickens uncomfortable.

So I hardened my heart and picked out all the eggs, not leaving any for them to hatch into chicks.

The eggs kept piling up, and I couldn't eat them all by myself, so the dog needed two every day.

Only then could I control the situation so that a large number of eggs did not accumulate at home, and I maintained a storage of two boxes.

One day, I suddenly wanted to eat some crispy fried mushrooms, and then I remembered that I had left many unused mushroom spawn bags in the small west room.

So I took out two packets of mushroom spawn and sprayed them with water every day as instructed.

Before long, the mushroom bag was covered with a dense array of mushrooms.

One bag contains small shiitake mushrooms, and the other bag contains oyster mushrooms.

At first I was very happy, but after eating one batch, I started to have trouble.

These things grow so fast, crowding together layer upon layer.

Before one crop is even finished, another crop will grow.

In the end, having no other choice, they picked them and dried them on the heated brick bed.

After the apocalypse ends, I really want to open a farm, raise chickens, grow mushrooms, and grow vegetables.

I feel like I have a talent for this.

Later, when I had no worries about food and clothing, I discovered new hobbies.

It's just continuing to tinker with those small pieces of wood that were brought back from the lumberyard.

It wasn't the pile of firewood, but rather the high-quality timber with beautiful grain patterns that was brought back later.

I laid two large burlap sacks on the kitchen floor, and then used a chainsaw to cut textured wooden sticks about the thickness of a bowl into a one-centimeter-thick shape.

Then, using a chainsaw, sandpaper, and a file, I shaped them into the forms I liked.

Heat the wire and drill a small hole next to the wood.

Then string all the pieces of wood of various shapes and colors together with rope and hang them on any wall in the room.

Later, my room was filled with all sorts of strange wooden decorations.

It's neither particularly beautiful nor ugly; it has a unique, primal flavor.

Then I used a sander to sand a round wooden ball.

This is for dogs to chew on; I've noticed they often chew on my furniture.

I guess it's because my teeth are itchy during the teething period.

With that in mind, I not only made wooden toys for them, but also prepared to make some teething sticks.

Find the last of the beef bones stored at the butcher shop and simmer them in a pot.

Once the meat is tender, place it near the stove in the chicken coop to roast.

As for why it wasn't roasted by the stove in the east room, it's because the two dogs ate all the meat before the bones were dry.

Place it near the stove to bake for three or four days, turning it over occasionally.

The beef bones were thoroughly dried, and the meat on them stuck firmly to the bones.

Then give each of them a piece of the dry, meaty bone.

From then on, you could often see two puppies lying by the stove, holding a big bone with their little paws and nibbling on it.

Sometimes you can even see them sleeping while hugging bones.

Xiao Di is a very clever little dog. It often takes advantage of Xiao Gua's inattention to nibble on Xiao Gua's bones.

Actually, there was no meat left on the bones, but as long as it could lick the little melon's bones, it felt like it had hit the jackpot.

Every time Xiaogua discovers something, he gets furious and extremely angry.

At this moment, Xiao Di looked wronged and innocent, then hid behind the vegetable basin and started gnawing on his bone.

What a clever yet mischievous little dog!

I replace one bone for them every 10 days or so and provide them with teething toys on time.

This became the greatest joy for the two puppies who had never seen the world before.

Sometimes I feel like I owe them something.

Unlike other puppies before the apocalypse, they wouldn't be able to go out and play, eat lots of delicious food, or play with lots of toys.

But more often than not, I think they are very lucky.

While other dogs became food in the extreme cold of the apocalypse, these two were able to hide in a warm room and survive peacefully. Wasn't that a great stroke of luck?

I am very happy, except that I have to light the kang (heated brick bed), the stove, feed the chickens and dogs, and take care of the garbage every day.

Yes, especially in waste disposal.

My activity area, apart from the house, is limited to the snow-covered passageways at the front and back doors.

I have nowhere to throw away my household waste, so I try my best to reduce the amount of waste I generate.

I use all the kitchen waste, like fruit peels and leftover food, to feed the chickens and dogs.

Plastic waste is burned.

As for the garbage that is difficult to dispose of, such as batteries, wires, and iron wires, I put them all into burlap sacks, and since the amount was not large, I piled them up in the back room.

Once the apocalyptic cold ends, I'll throw all this garbage out.

So every time I have to sort the tedious garbage, it gives me a real headache.

Since it no longer snows or gets windy, the power comes back on occasionally, and I take the opportunity to charge the battery.

My phone would occasionally flash a signal, and I would use that time to quickly search for news from all over the world.

Let's see if there's any indication of when this extreme cold apocalypse will end.

However, very little information is available, and those public social media platforms are inaccessible; it's unclear whether this is due to a lack of maintenance by technical staff or a network problem.

In the WeChat group for homeowners, only a handful of people are talking, and they are all asking for help.

Since I haven't received any useful information, I've stopped being anxious.

As long as you live your life well and wait patiently, I believe there will always be a day when things take a turn for the better.