Chapter 260 After the Darkness

Mixed between the large hailstones were raindrops, bringing some life back to the entire meadow after it had been dry.

But when it tried hard to grow upwards, it was smashed back into the soil by large hailstones.

The two hid in the house and did not dare to go out. They only dared to go out in the morning to feed the livestock and to meet their own physiological needs.

You have to hold a wooden board when you go out, otherwise such large hailstones falling from the sky will knock you unconscious if you are not careful, and those who are unlucky will probably die directly.

The two had previously speculated that this year's high temperatures would last abnormally long, and estimated that the temperature would be even lower in winter.

The sudden change in weather and temperature now confirmed their speculations.

It seems that not only the previous houses need to be reinforced, but also the small brick house they live in now needs some measures.

Last winter, when the fireplace was fully lit, the temperature in the room could barely be maintained above zero, and the closer you were to the fireplace, the higher the temperature.

In the last few days, when the snowstorm was extremely cold, the only warm place in the house was near the fireplace.

If blizzards and extreme cold become the norm this winter, it’s likely that we won’t be able to warm up our houses.

The two planned to upgrade the heating system of the brick house.

Originally, Mu Xi's idea was to build a kang, but Zhao Yeqing felt that it was useless to just keep the bed warm, and it would be better if the whole room was warm.

She wants to build an underfloor heating system in the brick house.

Zhao Yeqing's idea was well-founded. She pointed to the foundation on the original blueprint for building the brick house and said:

"In order to prevent moisture, the foundation was raised before, and the floor of the house does not touch the ground. We can lay the floor heating in the middle of the raised position."

She took a new drawing, bit off the pen cap with her mouth, and drew the structure of the floor heating with two strokes.

"Look, this floor heating is just a hot spot, which transmits heat to the entire basement of the house through pipes. We use bamboo to make pipes, and then burn fire in the hot spot to provide heat."

She had thought of all the details and had also marked the materials and construction. Mu Xi took the drawing and immediately understood what it meant.

First make a hole in a place, put the stove inside, and then connect the stove with a pipe, let the smoke pass through the pipe, and bring heat to heat the entire underground.

The pipes connecting the stove part cannot be made of bamboo, and it is marked to use metal connections.

Zhao Yeqing explained: "This is for fire prevention and combustion prevention. All you need is a small section of iron sheet. You can just get some iron barrels in the tourist area, or pry open the exhaust pipe of someone's car. This equipment can also be used in the breeding basement."

As long as the pipes are laid under the soil, the heat brought by the smoke will warm the soil under your feet.

The bottom part of them is hollow, and according to Zhao Yeqing, even pipes are not needed.

"It should work. All you need to do is connect a pipe from the stove to the basement of the house, and then set up two smoke vents on the other side."

But this is just her theory. It may not be that easy to implement. However, this method saves the step of knocking open the floor. It only requires digging two holes in the foundation for smoke to come in and out.

As a pure southerner, my knowledge of heating is based on what I have seen and heard in movies and TV shows, my own understanding, and the knowledge points in the physics textbooks that I have almost completely returned to the teacher.

Only practice can bring true knowledge.

But now all the thoughts are just thoughts. As long as the hail outside doesn't stop, the two of them can't do anything.

The raw materials for red bricks have been almost used up, and almost all the red bricks have been fired. The two estimated that there is still a little left, and they have to dig some more after the hail stops.

Zhao Yeqing took the insoles and started sewing in the room again.

Now she understood why the old ladies in the village liked to sew insoles and knit sweaters.

When there is not much to do, this is indeed a great way to kill time.

The two of them have already brought in the solar panels outside. In this weather, the sun is completely blocked.

Only the power stored in the battery can be used.

The refrigerator and grow lights were consuming electricity, and the two of them didn't even dare to turn on the fan.

Fortunately, the temperature has dropped now. I don’t turn on the fan, but just open the window a little, and a slightly cool breeze blows in.

People who have experienced a summer with temperatures as high as 50 degrees have adapted well to temperatures over 30 degrees, and may even feel a little cold.

The hail stopped after a day and a night, but the dark clouds in the sky still did not disperse.

As if not wanting to waste the thick dark clouds, heavy rain began to fall right after the hail.

The power supply at home is running low.

The two of them unplugged the power cord of the refrigerator. Now, apart from some vegetables, there was nothing else in it that needed to be kept fresh.

The remaining electricity is used first to supply the basement's exhaust system.

The electricity used for grow lights cannot be saved either. The sun is blocked by dark clouds, so even without the overheated sunlight, we can only rely on grow lights to supplement the light.

However, the sudden changes in temperature still caused problems for the fruits and vegetables in the basement.

After three days of rain, Zhao Yeqing discovered that white powder had appeared on the strawberry, cucumber and watermelon plants in the basement.

This is a bacterial disease and is contagious.

Watermelon and cucumber may be contagious; both plants are in the Cucurbitaceae family, and powdery mildew can be contagious to each other.

Strawberries are not like that. They belong to the Rosaceae family, the same family as roses and other plants. Powdery mildew from different families is not contagious, but strawberries are very delicate and are easily susceptible to powdery mildew when encountering sudden changes in temperature.

Zhao Yeqing asked Mu Xi to get the plastic film from the tool room, and first use water to wash off the white powder on the leaves of the plants that were infected with white powder. Then, when the leaves were slightly dry, cover them with the plastic film.

Among the things her eldest nephew left her was a pesticide for treating white powder, but the basement was not ventilated, and the best way to deal with the disease was physical prevention.

The bacteria that cause powdery mildew will be killed at high temperatures above 30 degrees. The current room temperature in the basement cannot reach that temperature, so we can only cover it with plastic film to raise the temperature.

The germs can be killed by just steaming them, and this treatment method is very green and healthy.

I hope the weather won’t be so unpredictable again, otherwise these diseases will reappear.

Zhao Yeqing was rocking in a rocking chair, holding a bowl of tomatoes mixed with sugar.

While I was eating and watching videos, a strong wind started to blow outside the window.

The wind made the glass windows sway back and forth in the wooden window frames, and the "tapping" sound made people feel uneasy.

I thought that the wind was going to cause some trouble, but I didn't expect that the weather would turn out to be nice.