I started hacking at the trees with my Nepalese kukri; the heavy, recurved blade was perfect for chopping down these small trees.

Trees as thick as an arm can be completely cut down with just two or three forceful strokes.

I remember when I first started cutting down trees, I only had a clumsy stone axe, and it would take me at least twenty or thirty minutes to break a single tree.

Now they can use sharp recurve machetes, and the experience behind it is truly heartbreaking.

There wasn't much time to cut down the tree flowers, and the forest I found was only two or three hundred meters away from my kiln, so transporting them wouldn't be too much of a hassle.

These trees are more suitable for construction than the trees in my hometown. Generally, these trees are about eight to ten meters tall.

But I think this is because it's a primeval forest, the eucalyptus trees here are at least fifteen meters tall, and some are even over twenty meters tall.

Because the trunk is too long, turning it during transportation is a bit troublesome.

Left with no other choice, I had to cut the woods into sections according to the dimensions I had already designed in my mind, and then tie them together with vines and carry them out of the woods.

Because I was building a simple shed, as long as it could provide shelter from the wind and rain, that would be fine. I wasn't too particular about the structure; using scaffolding was the most suitable and convenient method for this size of timber.

The required timber includes three 5-meter crossbeams, nine 2.2-meter uprights, and four 5-meter and four 4-meter timbers for reinforcing the four edges.

So I only cut down nine trees, like those that are 15 meters tall, before stopping.

After moving all these materials to the vicinity of the kiln, the first thing I need to do is to drill holes in the ground. These holes are to better stabilize the support pillars of the shed.

The tool for drilling the hole was a wooden stake that I had carved out of a hardwood yesterday. I also have a hammer in my tools.

You can drive the wooden stake in while shaking it to widen the hole.

The advantage of driving and shaking at the same time is that once the pile is driven to a certain depth, it can be easily pulled out.

Because of the light rain yesterday, the piling work was not difficult at the moment, and I quickly drilled nine appropriately positioned pile holes in the ground where the stove was located.

I plan to build a canopy with an A-frame structure, so I need to shorten the six supporting pillars to create a sloping surface on both sides of the canopy, allowing rainwater to drain away quickly.

Before burying these pillars, I lit a fire. To preserve the pillars buried in the ground for longer, the wood beneath them must first be carbonized with fire, so that they won't rot for over twenty years.

Before cement utility poles were installed in our village, the ones that came into the village to install utility poles were all made of wood.

The installer of the utility poles told us that this type of carbonized wood is more stable and less prone to decay.

When I went to school, I learned that this was because carbon is a relatively stable chemical substance in nature; it does not react with air, water, or salt chemicals.

Unless exposed to fire, carbon is arguably as stable as gold in nature.

After the sharpened stake was burned, a large portion of it was carbonized and blackened.

I inserted these carbonized pillars into the corresponding holes according to the previous design, and then filled the holes with small gravel and soil.

The next time it rains, the water will flow into the hole, and the soil inside will sink, pulling the mixed gravel down to further secure the pillars inside.

I was very particular about choosing these posts; they were all from the section closest to the tree crown. This section of wood is at the very top, and the diameter of the wood is much smaller, making it much easier to bury the posts.

Another point is that their tops naturally have forked branches, which not only make it easier to support the three five-meter-long crossbeams, but also make them more sturdy.

After adding the three five-meter-long crossbeams, they were tied together with rattan like scaffolding, and the basic framework was completed.

Next, I'll build the waterproof layer on top of the shed. I plan to use thatch and banana leaves to cover these waterproof layers.

To speed up the process, I also brought Top into the construction team.

I served as the chairman, finance director, designer, lumberjack, and laborer. Top, as always, was responsible for handing me materials and tools.

I was busy with many tasks, while Top was either handing me things or munching on a roasted taro.

It made Top seem more like a supervisor, while I was just a laborer doing the hard work.

When laying the thatch and banana leaves, I came up with a quick and easy method that saved me a lot of time.

The specific method involves using eucalyptus branches that were brought here. Eucalyptus branches are not as thick as those of other trees; instead, they are long and thin.

These branches are thicker than willow branches but thinner than those of other trees. Most are about the thickness of a thumb and a little over a meter long.

I secured both ends of the branch with vines, and then split it in half with a machete.

These branches are quite flexible. After separating the split branches, you can insert the thatch and banana leaves into the separated branches in two layers.

Tie some thin vines evenly around the middle part; this will make the clamped thatch and banana leaf branches more secure.

A row of thatched roofs, each over a meter long, is like a giant tile with a square meter area. With these basic units, my building speed can be increased by at least several times.

Since the shed is only about two meters high, and I am 1.8 meters tall, I only need to move a stone a few tens of centimeters high as a stepping stone to reach the roof from inside.

I used a scaffolding method to vertically tie small rectangular grids from thin eucalyptus branches onto the three horizontal beams above, which served as the load-bearing framework for the roof of the shed.

Top handed me a pressed thatch sheet, and I laid this tile-like thatch sheet from bottom to top along the edge of the eaves to the highest point of the roof ridge.

The unfinished work on the roof ridge was done by covering a five-meter stretch of the roof ridge horizontally with several layers of thick banana leaves.

During this process, the ends were still tied with vines, and the connection of the banana leaves was still done by laying half on the original banana leaves and the other half on the crossbeam, thus covering the highest crossbeam in turn.

Looking at the completed rain shelter, I breathed a long sigh of relief. Now I don't have to worry about the rain anymore.

I checked the amount of firewood and it seemed a bit short. However, firewood isn't a major problem here; there are plenty of large, fallen, dead trees in the nearby jungle.

I can just use a machete to process them and bring them out; I can't burn all this firewood in a short time.