After some effort, I used charcoal and rolled-up leaves to burn a hole in a dry stick.
I adjusted the position of the stone axe against the hole, and then continued to refine it with charcoal.
I poured some melted resin into the hole until the triangle on the back of the stone axe fit perfectly, and then I put the stone axe on.
After I finished assembling it, before the resin solidified, I wrapped the hemp rope around the wooden stick and the stone axe several times, and then filled the places where the hemp rope and the wooden stick connected to the stone axe with resin.
This way, they are all connected as one unit, making them more secure during use, and there's no need to worry about the stone axe falling off.
After finishing this somewhat ugly stone axe, I decided to go into the forest and test its effectiveness.
I chose a poplar tree, about the thickness of a small bowl, as my target and chopped it down with all my might. The enormous recoil made my hand go numb; stone tools were indeed not as useful as iron tools.
I slowed down; these stone axes aren't as sharp as iron ones. I chopped hard, but it only went in a little bit. I figured I might as well take it slow; this guy can't be rushed.
I've never felt so bad about cutting down this tree. It wasn't so much that I chopped it down, but rather that I smashed it bit by bit.
Even so, it still took me nearly half an hour to knock down this poplar tree, which was only as thick as a small bowl.
Just from one tree, I already felt my hands go numb from the shock, and they were starting to feel unresponsive. The remaining workload is so huge; it will take forever to finish.
We can't keep going like this. The shed isn't even finished yet, and I'm already exhausted. We need to think of a better solution.
I tossed the stone axe aside and sat on the ground, panting heavily. My mind raced, trying to recall every usable mechanical structure.
However, after recalling the entire structure, I discovered...
Still no solution!
I'm lacking so much right now that it's simply not enough to support me in using any kind of mechanical structure to cut down trees.
But we have to solve this problem right now; my shed needs some timber.
After much thought, I finally decided to focus on fire as the solution. The physical exertion involved would be far more devastating than blowing on a fire.
Therefore, I decided to use a burning method, a method used by Cambodian residents, to cut down some timber.
Before doing this, I first got a section of bamboo about the thickness of a thumb, and used a stick to break open each of the bamboo nodes, leaving only the last node.
Then, a small hole is punched out of the bamboo joint with a hard thorn, making it into a fire tube stick used in rural areas to blow on a fire.
Then I took one of my torches. Lighting fires from tree to tree was too much trouble; it was easier to just use a section of a torch.
After doing all that, I gathered some more firewood. I didn't need much firewood to cut down the trees, so this step didn't take me much time.
I placed the lit torch next to a poplar tree that was also about the size of a bowl. Then I used a stone axe to split the bark of the tree, and then made a V-shaped notch in it.
The gap wasn't big enough yet, so I brought the torch closer to the tree. Then I started blowing air into the torch flame with the fire poker in my hand.
As a gust of wind blew out of the bamboo tube, the flames on the torch hissed and transformed into a thin, high-temperature jet that shot towards the cut opening.
The high temperature caused the tree to emit white smoke, which at this stage was simply water vapor evaporating from the tree. After burning for a while longer, the white smoke began to turn into bluish smoke.
The gap in the tree also began to burn. The red embers, aided by the high-temperature jet and the wind, quickly became even brighter.
The gap started to widen at a visible rate. While blowing air on it, I used a bamboo tube to poke away the carbonized and blackened parts, which helped to expand the gap more quickly.
In about ten minutes, I burned a hole the size of a fist into the tree.
Then I broke off some dry branches and put them inside. At this point, the fire temporarily extinguished it, but the embers in the tree hole were enough to burn the tree down.
As dry branches were added, the temperature inside the tree hollow rose again. The flames became brighter in the wind, and as I blew forward, the flames scraped away at the wood chips like a knife.
Five minutes later, the tree was completely blasted open by the flames, leaving a fist-sized hole through the trunk.
I added another handful of dry branches, and this time, with ventilation from both ends, the fire would reach an even higher temperature. The further along it goes, the greater the advantage of the fire.
I started blowing air towards the left side, where there was less wood, and the high-temperature jet moved to the left as well, continuously cutting the wood on the left.
This time it took about ten minutes, and the wood on the left side was completely burned away. At this point, only one side of the tree was left to support it, and I had to get out of there quickly.
I went to the right side of the tree that hadn't been burned through and started chopping at it with my stone axe for a while. When I thought I'd done enough, I kicked the tree with all my might.
The tree made a cracking sound, and then I kicked out to the left again. This time I saw the tree begin to lean to the left.
I quickly moved far away from that tree, and that's when its weight came into play. Under the weight of its canopy, the tree snapped in two.
Two now!
The poplar trees have long trunks, and my shed doesn't need to be very large, so I don't need to cut down too many trees. I only need to cut down four more of these trees to make my shed.
Having found a method, I no longer cared about blowing on the trees for nearly half an hour. I started working on the next few trees.
This work was very strenuous. I started in the morning and continued until the sun was past its zenith, which I estimated was past one o'clock in the afternoon.
The intense physical labor at that moment made me feel hungry, and with the midday temperature so high, there was a risk of heatstroke if I continued doing this.
So I plan to go back to the camp to get something to eat, rest for a while, and then come back to continue working when the sun isn't so strong in the afternoon.
After eating something, I climbed back up the tree to rest in my treebed. Even during the day, I don't dare to be careless; it's safer to stay in the tree.
Those monkeys are nearby, and they can alert me immediately if there is any danger.
Perhaps because I was too tired, I quickly fell asleep in the cool shade of the trees and in the gentle breeze after eating.
I had a dream. In my dream, I returned to my sister's side, and we were still living in that cozy old house in our hometown.
Just as I was smiling, the scene suddenly shifted to a towering mountain. I was walking through a dense forest, looking very flustered, when suddenly a white tiger pounced from my left and pinned me to the ground.
I was so startled that I sat up abruptly, wiping the sweat from my forehead before realizing that the sun had already begun to set.
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