Chapter 134 Managing the mountain and logging, another perspective, barbecue...
The area around the low hill was relatively safe, and we spent the night safely without encountering any dangerous wild animals.
Because Lai had to cook, she and Iru had to work the early shift last night.
In summer, it gets light early, so there's no need for a fire for warmth; the campfire goes out early.
The morning dew was heavy, and the dry branches in the woods were unusable. Fortunately, we had prepared enough firewood last night to last us this morning.
Lai washes the pot, boils water, and cooks.
Yilu went for a walk in the woods and came back with a dozen or so bird eggs. After washing them, he threw them directly into the pot and ate them for breakfast.
Everyone went to bed early last night, so they woke up early too. While Lai was preparing breakfast, everyone gradually got up.
After getting ready, they didn't rest. Some cut grass to feed the mules, some checked the tools, and some tidied up their belongings.
Bird eggs, oatmeal porridge, steamed buns, and side dishes—that's breakfast for today.
After a quick breakfast, I started my day's work.
It's still early.
Two crescent moons hung faintly in the sky as the sun gradually rose higher, bringing light and warmth to the continent. The temperature at this time of day was not very high, making it feel quite comfortable.
After climbing the mountain, the dew on the weeds soaked everyone's trouser legs, and there were still burrs and hemp grass snagging on our clothes, making it very difficult to walk.
But these are all minor matters, and nobody cares.
The first problem that Ray and his team needed to solve was choosing a house location.
Building it at the foot of the mountain makes it easy to get water, but the soil on the plain below isn't very good. A lone house standing there is too conspicuous. If anything happens, the house will be the first to suffer damage.
Rye and Hagrid had discussed the house location beforehand. While they didn't pay much attention to feng shui here, they would still adhere to basic building principles like "facing south." After much deliberation, they finally decided to build the house on the mountain.
Brian circled the mountain several times, and after much deliberation, finally selected a flat area about a quarter of the way down from the foot of the mountain.
What they need to do now is clear enough space to build the foundation and select trees of suitable size to cut and fell as the main building materials in the future.
Trees are easy to find; they're almost everywhere.
However, finding the right material and size requires careful selection.
In addition to clearing out the areas on the left and right mountains for building houses, it is also necessary to clear out areas for planting fruit trees.
Lai and his team decided to postpone selecting suitable timber and prioritize laying the foundation. Before laying the foundation, the most important task was to clear away any vegetation from the ground.
The vegetation on this hillside is quite lush, with many trees, but most of them are relatively short varieties.
These low-growing trees can only grow to a maximum of six or seven meters. Their wood is very dense and suitable for making furniture and similar items, but they are somewhat difficult to cut down.
Everyone worked in pairs, first using an axe to cut a notch in the tree, and then each person took one side of a large iron saw and began sawing the tree.
Ray guessed it would be like this: there were many trees that needed to be cleared, but they still hadn't bought enough tools.
He only bought two large saws, two medium saws, and three or four small saws.
They had to take turns, with the person who got tired of using the large saw taking over for the next person.
The new saw works great.
These trees are generally between fifteen and thirty or forty years old, and they are not very thick. In addition, everyone worked very hard.
A tree as thick as a person's waist can be cleared in just over an hour.
As trees fell one by one, people or goblins dragged them aside and used small saws to separate the trunks and crowns from the smaller parts.
Lai did a preliminary calculation and realized that to clear the land for building a house, they would need to cut down at least twenty or thirty relatively thick trees, both large and small. Not to mention the low shrubs and various stubborn weeds that they would also need to clear.
They worked from dawn till noon, until the sun evaporated all the dew on the grass blades. They felled a total of four thicker trees and three or four smaller ones.
This efficiency is quite high.
Sweat soaked everyone's clothes, but there were many mosquitoes, snakes and ants around, so Lai forbade everyone to take off their clothes and work shirtless.
The sun was getting increasingly scorching, so Ray called a halt to everyone's work and sent them back to their tents at the foot of the mountain to escape the sun and get some rest.
The most important thing in logging is arm strength. To be honest, after a morning of logging, Ray felt like his arms didn't belong to him anymore.
The vibrations from the hacksaw and axe made his palms itch, and the area between his thumb and forefinger was rubbed red. Luckily, he had a handkerchief with him, which he used to pad the handles to reduce the friction.
He secretly decided that next time he came, he would definitely arrange for the gloves to be provided beforehand. This job was not something that could be done in a day or two; it required a lot of physical effort and time.
Brian was the most hardworking person; he spent the entire morning sitting next to the big saw, sawing those tough, thick trees.
The goblins worked very hard. Iru had told them beforehand that they should work hard so that they would have another chance to work and earn money next time.
Even if Iru hadn't given them prior instructions, they wouldn't have slacked off; Lai understood that the goblins were helping them. Besides, such an opportunity was rare; very few places were willing to hire them, provide them with food and money.
Lamb was strong and took on most of the work of moving the trees.
Lai didn't plan to transport the timber down the mountain for processing before bringing it back up.
He selected a flat location that wouldn't interfere with the work ahead. He then hauled all the felled trees there and processed them on-site for later use.
The afternoon passed quickly, and everyone took a nap.
In the afternoon, everyone got up and started working again. After spending the morning together, they gradually became familiar with each other. The work atmosphere became more relaxed in the afternoon, and they started chatting casually.
The conversation revolved around life, how to store food, and what had recently happened in the dead forest.
According to Iru and his group, they also knew about what happened in the withered forest. From their fragmented conversations, Lai discovered that they had even found out earlier than the villagers.
On the night the withered forest died, some of the goblins, being a nocturnal race, were still awake—although they had tried to change their lifestyle, some goblins were still finding it difficult to adapt.
They secretly hunted in the nearby mountains under the cover of night. This part of the goblins was omitted, only vaguely mentioned that some goblins were not asleep and discovered something unusual.
Let's return to that night.
While the goblin was capturing a long-toothed beast, he heard a very strange sound in the distance, so he ran to the top of the mountain to look out.
Compared to humans, goblins have a stronger ability to sense magic; they sensed a very strong magical element in a forest at the foot of the mountain.
The magical fluctuations were unusually strong, accompanied by rustling sounds in the forest and occasional mournful cries of animals. Something terrible seemed to have happened in the forest; a gigantic creature seemed to be writhing incessantly throughout the entire woods.
The poaching goblins trembled with fear, too afraid to make any further moves. They found a patch of soft ground, dug a hole, and buried themselves. This relatively enclosed environment offered them a brief sense of security.
The commotion in the woods continued until late into the night.
When the first bird song roused the sleeping village, all movement in the woods ceased.
The goblin boldly looked into the forest, where he saw silver light filling the entire area.
The silver light veins converged like streams, forming thicker light veins, and finally all flowed into a huge sphere.
This process did not last long; soon all the light disappeared.
The goblins stayed on the mountain until dawn before their legs gave way and they returned to their little cabin...
Then, during the day, the villagers in the small mountain village were in an uproar.
The goblins dared not reveal their poaching activities. They secretly observed the movements in the forest until the archmage from the White Tower solved all the problems with a single fire.
With a powerful magician approaching, the goblins dared not make any other moves. They were too busy hiding to notice any mishaps, fearing that if they were accidentally spotted by an adult, they would be burned to ashes.
After the poaching goblins returned, they didn't dare tell any other goblins what they had seen that night. Only after everything had settled down did they reluctantly tell Iru what had happened.
"I don't know what happened in the woods."
As Iru chatted idly, Lamb sighed with emotion.
Ray wasn't worried at all when people brought it up again, and would occasionally chime in with a few words.
All the evidence at the scene was burned to ashes, and the egg seemed to be dead, showing no reaction whatsoever.
In the near future, as time goes by, those strange, fantastical, thrilling, or terrifying things that happen in the forest will gradually be forgotten by people.
The sound of sawing wood gradually replaced everyone's idle chatter as they buried themselves in their work.
Lai wanted to catch some prey nearby, so he took one of the goblins who was a skilled hunter and left more than an hour early.
There are few opportunities to see people here. Only villagers from nearby Yinping Village occasionally come to hunt. The animals don't really hide when they see people.
Ray easily caught a long-toothed beast and a red wildbird. The goblin also had a good haul, catching a small red wildbird with his bare hands. Dinner for tonight and breakfast for tomorrow are both taken care of.
The two cleaned the long-toothed beast and the two red wild birds by the river before heading back, worried that the strong smell of blood would attract carnivorous beasts if they took them back to clean.
When they returned, Brian and his team had also temporarily finished their work for the day and were setting up temporary wooden beds.
He couldn't get the wooden planks out, but he had other methods.
Everyone was hungry by this time, and they were still doing strenuous physical labor. Lai didn't dare delay and immediately started a fire to cook.
After marinating a whole long-toothed beast, it was skewered on a long, thick wooden stick and roasted over a fire. Two red rockbirds were simply processed; one was stewed with potatoes tonight, and the other was saved to be cooked whole into bird soup tomorrow morning. After taking the red rockbird out, noodles and various vegetables were added to make a noodle soup.
Roasting the long-toothed beast takes a long time, but fortunately, Lai was prepared in advance. The red wild bird stewing in the iron pot cooked quickly, and the roasted sweet potatoes in the fire were almost done as well.
I was really hungry; the aroma of the stewed meat made my mouth water uncontrollably.
With rumbling stomachs, the stew was finally ready. Lai served everyone a large bowl of stew and a roasted sweet potato, and they ate around the campfire.
Soon, the outer layer of the long-toothed beast was cooked.
Lai used a knife to slice the cooked meat off the top, then spread a layer of sauce on it and continued grilling.
"Brother, the meat you grilled is so delicious!"
Lamb ate with gusto. The goblins rarely got to enjoy such flavorful roasted meat, seasoned with plenty of spices to remove any gamey taste, and they couldn't bear to stop eating. They thought to themselves that this trip was worthwhile; they got silver coins and delicious food, making their hard-won opportunity all worthwhile.
Eight people, two people per leg, divided up the best leg meat, and there wasn't a single piece of meat left. Even the tough meat on the bones was cleaned off.
After finishing their meal, the remaining trash was thrown into the campfire to burn. The group worked for a while longer by the firelight, then the two who stayed on night watch went to their tents to sleep.
Sleeping on this makeshift wooden bed is definitely much more comfortable than sleeping directly on the floor.
I slept soundly through the night and a brand new day has begun.
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 17:58:57 on April 7, 2024 and 14:52:40 on April 9, 2024!
Thank you to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: Fengyu (20 bottles); Ruyou (15 bottles); Yangyang (10 bottles); Xinyu, Luohe, Yuanxu, and Zhiye Wuyai (1 bottle each);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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