Chapter 40 The Snow Stopped, Homemade Refrigerator
After three comfortable days, I discovered a problem.
If the heavy snow continues, it should have blocked my chimney by now.
But now the heated brick bed is easy to burn, and the stove is still easy to burn.
Does this mean the snow has stopped outside?
But I can't see outside, and it doesn't seem right that no light is coming in from inside.
So I'm going to dig a hole up to see if it's still snowing outside, let in some sunlight, and get some fresh air.
I thought about how to dig the hole and finally decided to dig it at the window in the middle of the east room.
First, bring over four large buckets, then cover the puppy tightly and put on thick clothes for yourself.
Next, open the window and use a shovel to start digging a hole upwards from the top of the window.
I plan to dig a hole about the diameter of a shovel while turning around. If I dig it too big, it might collapse.
When I first started digging, I could feel that the snow was very compacted, but since it fell in pieces, it was still relatively soft and easy to dig.
The snow provides good support, preventing it from collapsing.
Shovelfuls of snow were shoveled directly into buckets, and when a bucket was full, it was taken to the back kitchen to be replaced with a new one.
After digging five buckets of snow, the shovel finally reached the very top.
A sliver of light shone down from above, a few snowflakes fell, and then more light shone through.
Looking out of the cave, it seemed that the snow had indeed stopped.
However, once the small hole was opened, icy cold air rushed in.
This air conditioning is really powerful; it's so cold inside that people are shivering.
However, it was really nice to have some light shining into the room. Before, it was pitch black, and I even had a bit of a reversed day and night cycle.
Once you can see whether it's day or night outside, your daily routine will naturally become more regular.
I used a shovel to pat the area around the snow cave to make it more secure and prevent it from collapsing.
Then quickly close the window, and after 20 minutes, the temperature inside the room rose again.
The snow dug into the house won't be wasted; once it melts in the bucket, the wastewater will be reused.
Since the toilet's water pipes are underground, they didn't freeze, so using this water to flush the toilet isn't a waste.
Ever since a hole was dug in the window, I often like to stand by the window and look out.
Check the weather outside to see if it's sunny or cloudy, and whether it's snowing.
It didn't snow for the next three or four days, so it seems the weather has cleared up completely.
However, the outdoor temperature did not warm up and remained stable at -70 degrees Celsius.
I'm starting to feel dissatisfied with such a small hole.
From the top of the window to the very top of the snow layer, it's at most one meter high. Even if you dig a large hole, it shouldn't collapse.
So they used a shovel to enlarge it further, making it a large hole with an opening one meter in diameter.
After the opening was changed to a one-meter diameter hole, the indoor lighting improved significantly.
We no longer need to turn on the lights during the day, and it's also much more convenient to observe the weather.
Then, I even had a sudden inspiration to dig a small hole out of the window.
With the window open, there's a ventilation and light hole above, and a snow hole in front where you can put things.
Put on gloves, wear thick clothes, and start digging a hole.
After digging, they built a thick partition in the middle of the snow hole, just like building a snowman.
It looks just like the freezer compartment of a refrigerator, divided into upper and lower sections.
Indeed, the joys of life are discovered by oneself. I feel like I'm playing house like a child right now.
From now on, the window will be my refrigerator door; opening the window will open up to my natural freezer compartment.
The creation of a natural freezer compartment makes me reluctant to leave it empty.
After thinking it over, I decided to make some ice cream and frozen strawberry dessert, and put frozen yellow peach dessert inside.
In this way, once the chilled after-dinner dessert is made, you can simply open the window and grab it whenever you want.
Dissolve white sugar in warm water, then chop some orange and apple pieces and pour them into the sugar water.
Then use a kitchen knife to cut some usable containers, such as 10 and a half soda cans.
Pour in a mixture of rock sugar water and fruit pieces, then place half a barbecue skewer on top.
Then place it safely in the natural freezer outside the window to freeze.
Freezing strawberries and freezing yellow peaches is even easier to make: simply pour canned strawberries into a plastic freezer container and freeze them outdoors.
The yellow peaches in the canned yellow peaches need to be cut into smaller pieces and then frozen outside as well.
In this -70 degree weather, it would probably freeze solid in an hour.
I couldn't keep the window open to check, as it would make the temperature inside very low, so I waited for three hours.
Three hours later, I quickly opened the window and brought in a handmade popsicle.
The popsicle was indeed frozen solid, so solid that it couldn't even be pulled out of the container.
I put it next to the stove and heated it for about 5 minutes before pulling the popsicle out of the container.
The popsicle is cylindrical with half a bamboo skewer inserted in the middle.
The top of the popsicle is studded with orange pulp and apple pieces, while the bottom half is entirely milky white, much like an old-fashioned popsicle.
It looks good, but you'll have to taste it to know how it tastes.
I sat down on the sofa with the popsicle and started eating it; it was icy cold and sweet.
The fruit pulp on top tastes similar to the fruit pulp in regular ice cream.
The ice portion was not as good as regular ice cream; it had no aroma and just tasted like sweet ice cubes.
But that's understandable, since there's no added fragrance.
With the indoor temperature in the twenties, a small popsicle is just right.
I haven't eaten anything cold since my rebirth, this is the first time. Sure enough, things taste delicious if you don't eat them for a long time.
After finishing the popsicle, I went to the back room to get some frozen pears.
They also placed the frozen pears in the snow hole in front of the window of the east room.
It's not that I wanted it to be easy to carry; I just wanted my little refrigerator to look more appealing.
That concludes our outdoor snow-clearing activity. I don't plan to clear the snow from the yard; instead, I'll leave the house buried in snow.
There are two reasons.
One reason is that the house is well hidden by being buried in the snow, so it won't be discovered by others.
Now that the heavy snow has stopped, it's highly likely that people lacking food will go out to find supplies.
Although the snow on the mountain is so thick that the chances of finding this place are slim, if someone does come looking for it, the chances of the house being discovered while buried in the snow are also very small.
Moreover, I had already set up a snow tunnel in advance, so the snow accumulation would not affect my daily life.
Secondly, the thick snow can keep you warm.
The outdoor temperature is currently -70 degrees Celsius, and there are occasional howling winds.
The snow completely covers the house, which actually acts as a natural insulation layer, reducing the loss of heat from the house.
The principle is the same as that of the people in the North and South Poles building igloos.
I'll wait until the weather warms up and the snow melts, or until one day the snow becomes unbearable for me, then I'll slowly clear the snow.
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