"That's because the ground here is full of thorns and rocks, so it's hard to walk. The takin is so heavy, it's hard to carry it up either."
Lu Honghai pointed down and said that the road below was very difficult to walk on.
"These are all minor problems. Let's quickly clean up here, collect enough firewood, and then go kill the cow. We can cut it up before the carcass gets cold." Lin Heng said to the two of them.
Lin Yue nodded and said, "Okay, let's just chop down some trees nearby. My uncle and I will do this, and Lin Heng, you go pick up some dry firewood to start a fire."
"Can."
Lin Heng agreed and went out. It was not difficult to pick up firewood on a snowy day. There were many dry branches hanging in the air in the forest, which were the best firewood.
He had already brought with him tinder for starting the fire, which was a bundle of small wooden strips cut from dried pine wood, plus a few pieces of pine resin.
He first picked up some dry firewood and prepared some wet firewood that fell on the ground. After everything was ready, he used stones to build a simple fire stove in the cave and quickly lit the fire.
It is not difficult to make a fire if you prepare in advance. After a while, a blazing fire will be burning. At this time, no matter what kind of firewood you add, it will all burn.
"It really has the effect of a chimney, the smoke is all going up." Lin Heng said with a smile while roasting the fire.
The flames illuminated the cave, and there was nothing inside except a few rocks.
Lin Yue came over, warmed himself by the fire and said, "This place is comfortable to live in. We can transform it into a permanent place when we have time."
"Sure." Lu Hong said while roasting fire on the beach.
It's so cold today that my husband's hands and feet are numb. He can't work without warming himself up.
After roasting for two minutes, Lin Heng went out to get some leaves. If he could find dry moss, he would find some dry moss. If not, he would pile some wet leaves next to the fire and roast them. He definitely couldn't sleep on the ground at night.
After he finished these, he went to help with the gate. It took them half an hour to finish it, mainly relying on branches and leaves. They first piled up a shelter from the wind, and they would slowly work on the rest tomorrow.
"Let's go down and deal with the takin." Lin Heng took two burning logs and said to the two of them.
The three men nodded and walked downstairs with knives. The three dogs had come back when they were building the shelter, and now they followed them downstairs again.
As dogs raised by humans, these guys are very sensible and would never dare to eat the prey they catch without permission.
"The body is a little cold." Lu Honghai said after touching it.
"It should still be hot inside. The cowhide is very thick." Lin Heng said as he cleared the snow on the ground.
After clearing a place for making a fire, he took the dried twigs that his eldest brother was holding, put two burning logs on them, and soon a big fire started.
The three of them quickly added some wood to make the fire burn brighter, and then began to deal with the two takins. It takes a long time to kill takins, and it may not be done without a fire. Now it is dark and snowing, and the temperature is much lower than during the day.
Lin Heng turned the antelope over so that its four legs were facing the sky, and then had his eldest brother catch it. He and his uncle skinned the antelope together.
It is not difficult to cut the thin skin. One person can pull it while the other person keeps cutting it with the tip of the knife. Just be careful not to cut the skin.
It took the three of them half an hour to finally peel off a whole antelope hide. Lin Heng looked at the light golden fur and said with a smile: "Spread this on the ground, it won't be too cold to sleep tonight."
Lin Yue smiled and said, "Two is a little too few. Three will be enough."
"You are too greedy. If there were three heads, we might all be injured today." Lu Honghai said as he added fuel to the fire.
The three of them laughed, and then began to gut the beast. Before gutting it, Li He first removed the head of the antelope. His dagger was sharp enough, so it was not difficult to remove the head. He just needed to cut the meat and then chop the bones with a hatchet.
They cut open the belly and took out the internal organs one by one and laid them on the snow. Then they chopped along the spine with a hatchet, cut off the four thighs, and simply divided the steak.
The main purpose of splitting is to facilitate transportation, and the detailed cutting can be done when we return.
Lu Honghai handed over three sticks as thick as his little finger and said, "I have prepared the barbecue sticks. Let's grill a piece of beef first. We are starving."
"It's time to get something to eat first." Lin Heng cut a piece of beef tendon, cut it into small pieces, put it into a bag, sprinkled with salt and simple barbecue seasonings, and then skewered three large beef skewers with one piece of lean meat and one piece of fat.
The meat skewers were given to the uncle to roast, and Lin Heng skewered the beef liver and roasted it over the fire. After the two of them warmed it up, he went to get the other end and continued processing it.
After skinning the second cow, the barbecue was ready. Lin Heng took it and ate it. He found it so delicious that it seemed to swallow his tongue.
"It seems that I am too hungry. It smells so good." Lin Heng smiled and shook his head.
Lin Yue nodded: "Of course, it's already past ten o'clock and we are still busy. This time it's really tiring."
"Eat quickly, I have more roasted ones here." Lu Honghai said.
While the three of them were eating the meat, they also shared the huge cow liver with the three dogs. Cow liver tastes very hard and is very different from pork liver, so they just fed it directly to the dogs. They had made great contributions today and deserved rewards.
After eating a large skewer of meat, the three of them finally felt energetic again. When people are hungry, they really don’t want to do anything, but they feel energetic instantly after eating.
It then took the three of them nearly an hour to carve up the second cow.
"It's not good if the prey is too big. I'm really exhausted today." After finishing, Lin Heng sat down and said.
I have been busy since six in the morning. The two elands have been cut up, but the internal organs have not been processed, and the excrement in the stomachs and intestines has not been cleaned up.
Lin Yue shook his head: "Hurry up and put it away. Let's take a break. I really can't bear it anymore. My feet must have frostbite."
"My foot seems to be sprained and it hurts a lot. I'll go back to the cave and rub it after I'm done." Lu Honghai also said.
When the excitement of killing the prey wore off, the three of them became a little annoyed with dealing with the prey. Now they were just looking forward to going back and showing off. Such a big prey could definitely be something they could brag about for the rest of their lives.
As the three of them were talking, each of them carried a cow leg to the front of the cave, where they cut down a tree and used kudzu vines to fix it horizontally between two trees. In this way, a simple meat hanging rack was made.
Then the three of them carried the antelope beef over and hung it up. When it was finally the tripe's turn, Lin Heng took a look and said, "Forget it. It's already past 12 o'clock. It doesn't matter if we waste a little time."
As he said this, he cut open the cow's stomach and poured out the contents. He also simply combed the cow's intestines, which made it much lighter.
It was already 12:30 in the evening when they finished the preliminary processing of the stomachs and intestines of the two Niu Lings. After that, the three of them quickly returned to the shelter with the dogs.
Seal the entrance, light a fire, and then roast the cowhide hair a little. When it’s time to sleep, two people choose the cowhide as a bed, and one person chooses dry leaves and moss.
It is absolutely not possible to sleep directly on the ground. You will catch a cold even in a cave.
After preparing a preliminary sleeping place, the three of them sat down by the fire, drank some water, and then roasted some beef and sweet potatoes. They were hungry again after finishing their work.
"This place is really nice. It became warm after the fire started for a while." Lin Heng said.
Because there are stones and soil all around, the heat can be easily reflected back, so it is much warmer than outside.
"Finally I can get a good night's sleep. I can't believe how much suffering I would have to endure tonight if there was no cave." Lin Yue nodded.
It is good to hunt on snowy days, but not many people in the village are willing to hunt because it is too painful.
Everyone chatted for a while, ate their food and then lay down to rest.
Lin Heng chose dry moss and leaves, and lay down back to back with Xiongba to rest.
The three of them fell asleep immediately without saying a word all night.
The next morning, everyone got up late and it was already past eight o'clock when they woke up.
"The snow has stopped, but it seems to have become a lot thicker." Lin Yue walked out and said.
"Isn't it going to be sunny today?" Lin Yue said as he looked at the sky which had turned blue.
"It's 80% done. Let's quickly get something to eat, and then find a way to move the beef back." Lu Honghai said.
Lin Heng nodded and walked over to take a look at the hanging antelope beef. All of it had been frozen hard. Only by looking carefully during the day could one feel how much meat there was.
When he thought about how so much had to be transported by manpower, he missed having an agricultural drone that could transport it quickly.
After a simple breakfast and feeding the dog, the sun came out as expected, the snow in the woods began to melt, and a cold wind blew continuously.
After finishing the meal, Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "Someone must stay here. I want to stay here. Uncle and brother, you guys can carry some beef back. Go back to Uncle Three first, and then send someone back to get five or six people to help carry it. Otherwise, we will be exhausted if we carry it back slowly."
He wanted to look around the mountain to see if there were any other good stakes, so he wanted to stay and guard them.
His uncle sprained his foot but was able to walk normally today, so it wasn't a big problem.
"You want to find a stake, right?" Lin Yue saw through it.
"Yes, I think so." Lin Heng nodded.
"Okay then, let's transport it back." Lin Yue nodded in agreement.
Lu Honghai naturally had no objection. He could do whatever he wanted.
After discussing it, they went to cut down kudzu vines and used them with wooden sticks to make two backpacks. Each of them carried a 50-jin ox leg and walked back.
Lin Heng sent them for a distance and then came back. He set up several traps under the trap where the beef was to catch small animals.
A vine was pulled over the meat and some green shrubs were hung on it to cover it, to prevent birds from flying over to eat it and to prevent the meat from thawing due to sunlight.
After that, he took Xiongba to the nearby mountains to find good stakes. He carried the hunting rifle with him, of course. Although they made such a big noise yesterday that even if there were prey, they would have run away, it was not heavy to carry.
“How strange!”
After searching for a whole morning, Lin Heng showed a puzzled expression.
When I wasn't looking for them before, I just casually found two. Now that I'm looking seriously, I can't find any.
This made him a little disappointed, and coupled with the fact that it was terribly cold today after the snow melted, he immediately decided not to look for it and to wait until another day.
On the way back with Xiongba, he dug up two yams. Since he didn't have a hoe, he could only use a hatchet to carve a wooden shovel. The tool was not easy to dig, so he only dug out half of it, which weighed about three pounds in total.
When he got home, he cooked a yam and steak soup in a small aluminum pot. He couldn't stand the barbecue every day.
Apart from the beef, he didn't have much left. There were four sweet potatoes weighing less than two pounds in total, two pounds of rice, and a bottle of beef and mushroom sauce, and nothing else.
According to his estimation, he would have to stay here for at least three days, and he had to have carbohydrates, not just antelope beef.
While the meat was cooking, Lin Heng went to work on the shelter. He moved a lot of stones from nearby and started to build it bit by bit from both sides.
The opening of the cave gate was nearly five meters wide and two and a half meters high. He only built half of it in one afternoon.
There were only him, Xiongba and their dog in the forest. The mountain wind whistled and the leaves rustled. The quiet environment made him feel peaceful and comfortable.
It is quite comfortable to sleep on two pieces of cowhide at night, even though they are unprocessed.
The next day he spent half a day repairing the entrance of the cave, and then filled the gaps between the stones with mud.
The door is one meter wide and is a simple door tied with vines and branches, which can block the wind at night.
After finishing the outside, he did a simple tidy up of the inside at noon. He built a table with stones, cleaned the outside of the chimney and surrounded it with stones.
He didn't have the heart to make the bed or anything like that, nor did he want to be so tired.
In the afternoon, Lin Heng took Xiongba out again and climbed to the top of the mountain. The man and the dog sat on a gray and white boulder, staring at the mountains and feeling the cold wind in a daze for a while.
He enjoyed the feeling of living alone in the mountains, but also missed his family a little.
"Let's go and get some yams." Lin Heng touched Xiongba's head and stood up and said.
He took a last look at the silent mountains and blue sky in the distance. Compared with the mountains and rivers that had remained unchanged for thousands of years, he often felt that he was as small as a mayfly.
He took a deep breath and turned around, focusing his attention on the woods. Even though it was small, he still enjoyed the fun of life and did what he wanted to do.
“Ouch!”
Xiongba wagged his tail, followed closely beside him happily, and responded eagerly to his every gesture and call.
After a while he found a yam, and still only dug out less than half a pound. Although it was a waste, he had no other choice.
“Ouch!”
Just as he was about to go down the mountain, Xiongba stopped in front of a tree stump, put a paw on it and called out to him.
Lin Heng walked over with a bit of doubt, and after a careful inspection, he immediately smiled: "I'm lucky today, I actually found a lot of chestnuts, pecans and acorns."
He wouldn't eat acorns, but he ate chestnuts and hickory nuts, which must have been some squirrel's food.
After getting the things, he happily took Xiongba back to the cave.
In the evening he cooked chestnut rice in an aluminum pot, and the dish was a skewer of grilled antelope beef and beef and mushroom sauce.
"Go to sleep. Let's go somewhere farther tomorrow."
Before resting, Lin Heng touched Xiongba's head and cleaned the eye boogers for him.
I took a day off today and felt less tired than yesterday. I plan to explore further tomorrow.
(End of this chapter)
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