Chapter 155 Barrel Hoop
I remember when I was in elementary school, during the break, I would run to the grocery store with my deskmate to buy spicy noodles.
After eating it, I don’t want to eat a regular meal. The consequence of eating spicy noodles and not eating on time is that my stomach starts to feel uncomfortable at a young age.
When grandma found out, her eyes turned red. She knew at that moment that she had done something wrong and shouldn't have done that.
Grandpa didn't say anything, he just went to the mountain to find some Pueraria root, ground it into powder, and asked her to drink it every day.
Maybe it was because I had good physical fitness when I was a child and recovered quickly, and my stomach problem was not serious, so I didn’t take any medicine. I drank this every other day. After drinking it for a month, I never had any stomach problems again.
The best drink would be one with some honey and osmanthus in it, but there was no honey and no osmanthus trees were seen before winter.
Mu Xi sprinkled some granulated sugar into the bowl while it was still hot, stirred it thoroughly and then handed it to her.
It tastes like lotus root powder, but the aroma is different, with a little more medicinal and cool flavor.
After drinking a bowl of thick and warm food, the chilliness that had just been felt outside disappeared instantly.
Mu Xi said, "I have processed most of the wood for the bathtub in the past two days. I still need to go cut bamboo. We don't have any metal rings at home to hoop the tub, so we should use the remaining wires as sparingly as possible."
Grandpa Mu was a cooper, and Mu Xi learned it from him when he was a child. It was a skilled job, but when he grew up, he could hardly see coopers in the city.
When Grandpa Mu was a child, he would say during a chat that when they were young, coopers were top craftsmen, and every family would ask a cooper to make a dowry for them when they got married.
"I learned it when I was a kid, but I didn't learn it well. I haven't done it many times since then, so my skills have long been rusty. I don't know if I can succeed this time."
Mu Xi said with a smile, "But we are lucky. The original owner made everything out of wood, and there is some tung oil at home. Although it is a little less, it should be enough to just apply one coat of tung oil."
Wooden furniture, no matter how big or small, can be used longer after being coated with tung oil.
Tung oil is heat-resistant, acid-resistant, rust-proof and corrosion-resistant, and it is a natural ingredient, so it is very suitable for use in bathtubs.
Zhao Yeqing was thinking about the things at home. After cutting bamboo, he could not only weave bamboo hoops for barrels, but also two bamboo baskets and other utensils such as winnowing baskets.
"Then cut some more bamboos and bring them back."
It’s definitely not going to work today. It would be dark by the time we go in and out of the mountain again.
When Zhao Yeqing got up the next day, Mu Xi had already carried the bamboo back.
There was no way. She really couldn't get up early in winter. When the weather got cold, she didn't want to get up, and her eyelids were so heavy that she couldn't even lift them.
You don't even have to go to work, but you still force yourself to get up early. That's just being pretentious.
Mu Xi's biological clock was on time, and he had no mobile phone to kill time at this time. He became awake as soon as he opened his eyes, and he couldn't lie in bed anymore, so he might as well get up and work.
Her boyfriend likes to work, and she can't stop him from doing that.
She was happy to see it happen, and stayed in bed with a clear conscience until Mu Xi turned the bamboo into bamboo strips, and then she got out of bed.
Originally her weaving skills were average, but over the past year or so, she had made a few bamboo baskets, which was a significant improvement compared to before.
Ever since Mu Xi came back, he has taken over many things, and the calluses on his fingers have become thinner and thinner.
Mu Xi was very satisfied with this. Seeing that she was about to weave a bamboo basket, he was afraid that her hands would be pricked by bamboo thorns, so he went to get gloves for her to put on.
Make a bucket to take a bath in. The bucket must not be small. It can only be assembled in the yard and cannot be brought into the house.
Zhao Yeqing found the charcoal basin that belonged to the original owner, put the charcoal from yesterday in it and burned it red, then placed it under the eaves of the tool shed. She sat next to it and began to weave bamboo baskets.
"It didn't take long to get my hands frozen outside today. If you feel cold, come over here and warm yourself up. Don't let your hands freeze so much that you can't hold the knife."
When the weather is cold, your hands can easily get frozen, and if you can't control the knife, you can easily cut your hands.
To make a wooden bathtub, holes need to be drilled and nails hammered into the middle of each piece of wood.
This nail is not an ordinary iron nail, but a bamboo nail made from bamboo - a small bamboo stick about four or five centimeters long with round ends.
Making bamboo nails is a delicate job, and if you are not careful you will cut your hands, so Zhao Yeqing took an extra stool and placed it next to the brazier.
"Do it by the fire, or you'll cut your hands."
The bamboo nails were not finished yet, but Zhao Yeqing had already finished most of the bamboo baskets. She became more and more experienced as she worked, and now the bamboo baskets she wove were barely good enough to be sold.
The bamboo baskets made by the original owner were relatively large, used to hold large items or large quantities of things. The ones she wove were small and placed in the bedroom to hold balls of wool and the like.
After weaving, I carefully removed the burrs on the surface and re-polished the places that were not smooth. After making sure that it would not cut my hands, I put it down with satisfaction and continued to make the next one.
Mu Xi worked for a whole day and only finished the bottom of the wooden barrel. Zhao Yeqing worked for a whole day and got three bamboo baskets and a winnowing basket.
After knitting for so long, her hands felt hot and sore even with gloves on.
Fortunately, when I woke up the next day, there were no blisters between my fingers.
For breakfast, she had the leftovers from the night before and cooked some noodles in the vegetable soup, into which she added the last few Chinese mustard greens.
The vegetables at home have been eaten up again.
The second batch of pea tips have grown out, but neither the size nor the growth rate are as good as the first batch.
Mu Xi looked at her dejected look with amusement and rubbed her head. "I will make you a planting pot with wood after I finish making the bathtub. Eat some radish, cabbage and dried vegetables for now."
It’s not that dried vegetables are bad, they just don’t have the freshness of fresh vegetables.
The same goes for the meat at home. We can eat fresh chicken and rabbit occasionally, but most of the time we eat smoked meat.
Zhao Yeqing felt that he was indeed a little greedy. When material conditions are sufficient for survival, people will no longer be satisfied with just survival, but also want to enjoy life.
She wanted to eat something different.
"Mu Xi Mu Xi, I haven't eaten fresh fish for a long time."
Mu Xi was piecing together the barrel, putting together the wooden boards connected with bamboo nails.
"Then go ahead."
He closed the board with great effort, and the large amount of white air he exhaled gathered in front of him and instantly turned into white frost, hanging on his stubble.
Zhao Yeqing couldn't help laughing and helped him clean up. "Why don't you shave? This white beard doesn't make you look like a brother, but an old grandfather."
Mu Xi was speechless: "I forgot about it because I was busy. I'll go there soon."
After a while, he did go, and before shaving, he did not forget to rub her neck with his stubble, as if to take revenge on her for saying he was an old grandfather and that she was ticklish, and when he rubbed her, she became so angry that she wanted to hit him, so he quickly ran away.
What a weird taste this guy has.
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