Chapter 19 Earthen Stove
Today is the fifth day we have lived in the cave. Yesterday we planned to build an earthen stove, but plans could not keep up with changes, and building the earthen stove turned into building a chicken coop and a rabbit hive. Today we must put things right and build the earthen stove.
I wake up in the morning and repeat the same routine every day: wash my face, rinse my mouth, solve physiological problems, and then cook breakfast. It’s the same today, the difference is that breakfast has changed from one egg to two eggs, and Houttuynia cordata has been replaced by Chinese cabbage. I can finally change the taste.
As soon as I had a full breakfast, I started preparing things for the earthen stove. There were some stones in the cave. When the cave was cleaned, the stones were piled together. They could be used to build the stove, so there was no need to look for them outside. There is no soil in the cave, so you have to look outside. Preferably there is sticky yellow soil. She searched for a long time nearby before she found yellow mud, and filled half of it in a backpack and carried it into the cave.
Yi Ke found a relatively flat place to make an earthen stove. He first used many stones to build the basic frame of the stove with an open round opening. He brought the iron pot to test the size of the stove opening. The stove opening should not be too big or too small. The iron pot should be placed just right, with the edge of the iron pot five or six centimeters higher than the stove opening.
The height of the stove chamber cannot be too high. If it is too high, the fire will not be strong enough. If it is too low, the flame cannot straighten up and the combustion will not be good. I didn't know how to calculate it specifically, so I could only do it based on my feeling.
A rectangular stove door is left in front of the stove body, and a round hole is left behind the stove body to make a chimney for smoke.
After the earthen stove frame is completed, use mud to fill the gaps between the stones in the stove body.
First, sweep up the ashes from cooking in the past few days, take a handful of hay and chop it up, pour the ashes and chopped hay into the mud and mix them with water to form a thicker mud. Then fill the stone gaps in the stove with this mixed mud. Wait until the mud is completely dry, and the earth stove will be stable.
After the gaps are filled, mud is applied inside and outside the stove. After the stove is smoothed with mud, the earthen stove is built and can be used after it dries.
After the stove was built, Yike went to the cave to find a stone with a relatively flat surface. This stone was slightly larger than a washbasin. She took great pains to move the stone and placed it next to the stove. This is temporarily used to store vegetable bowls.
Yike looked at this simple kitchen and thought about what was missing. Oh, it was still missing a cutting board. She ran out of the cave with the hatchet, slid down the cliff with the rope, and chopped a big tree with the hatchet. She didn't know the name of the tree, but she knew it was very hard and suitable for making a cutting board.
She could chop and then rest, then chop again. This was much more difficult than chopping bamboo, as the tree was hard and big. Her little hands were covered with blisters, and these were hands that had been calloused from long-term labor. She really tried her best to chop this tree. After the tree was cut down, it had to be trimmed, which was another big project, but in the end, her wish came true. A cutting tree stump about 70 to 80 centimeters high and more than 20 centimeters in diameter is made and placed in the kitchen for use. Ha ha! Hard work pays off, persistence is victory.
As for the rest, she cut off the branches, dragged the trunk to the spring, and peeled off the bark, so that she could cut at it when handling animals at the spring. She gave herself a thumbs up for her cleverness!
The kitchen was basically equipped with everything it should be, including a stove, an iron pot, bamboo bowls, bamboo chopsticks, a kitchen knife, and a chopping board - made from a tree stump. Bamboo tubes for water were lined up against the stone wall, at least ten of them, large and small, long and short.
A home has everything for living, eating and sleeping, so how can it be without a bathroom? Since she was alone, she moved a few larger stones to Tunnel No. 2 and could just stand on the stones to take a bath. There was no one else in the cave anyway. As for where the water would flow, she really had no way to deal with it for the time being. She could only think of a solution when the time came. "Everything will work out when the time comes." As for the toilet, a hole was dug under a tree near the cave, far away from the spring. A few sticks were laid on the hole, and people squatted on the sticks to urinate and defecate. I think this is much more convenient than squatting on stones to urinate and defecate in the countryside. Moreover, the urine and feces in this pit can be used as farm fertilizer in the future. The vegetables in the vegetable garden will depend on it. The wood ash from future fires will be poured into this simple pit. Covering with wood ash helps dry the feces, deodorize, reduce mosquitoes and flies, and improve the sanitary environment of the toilet.
Yike's new home now has all the necessary facilities, and Yike is happy.
Yike went to the forest again to check if there were any animals in the traps. This time I only found an animal that looked like a weasel in a trap. Although it was a living animal, I didn't recognize it, so I didn't keep it. I killed it and cooked it for dinner. It tasted average, not as delicious as rabbit meat.
It was another morning, and Yike's biological clock woke her up on time. She lay on the floor covered with dry grass, but still felt a chill on her back.
"I have to check if the bamboo bed is dry. If it is, I will move to sleep on it."
Yike got up, stretched his limbs, did a set of boxing, and worked up a sweat before stopping to wipe off the sweat. I came to the stove and touched the mud on the stove with my hand. It was almost dry, but to be on the safe side, I waited one more day until it was completely dry before lighting the fire.
Yike threw some wild vegetables to the chicken coop and rabbits, put his breakfast food - two eggs and five cabbage leaves - into a backpack, passed through Tunnel No. 1, and came to the watchtower.
Yike stood on the watchtower and watched the sun rising from the edge of the forest. It was a good day today. She was also in a good mood, thanking the sun for its daily company, which made the lonely Yike feel that the world was still warm.
Yike nimbly climbed down the rock pulling the rope. Looking at the worn-out rope, Yike decided to make a bamboo ladder today, as the bamboo ladder was stronger than the rope. It is convenient to get on and off, and most importantly, it is safe.
He quickly placed the iron pot on the stone stove and filled it with water. The flint struck the hatchet, sparks flew, and the dry grass ignited instantly. She moved the burning firewood into the stove, placed a few large dead logs in the stove and set it up. Then she went to carry out the three important daily chores in life: washing her face, rinsing her mouth, and urinating and defecating.
Yike came back jogging from the toilet. The toilet was dug quite far away because he was afraid that the bad smell would drift over. And every time she urinated or defecated, she would throw wood ash into the burial, which was the best fertilizer for growing vegetables in the future. hehe! The older generation who have lived in rural areas know that this is farm manure, an indispensable fertilizer for crops in the fields.
As long as you plan to grow vegetables, you can’t do without this kind of fertilizer. Of course, animal feces would be fine, but can you find it in the forest? Two words: Haha!
After having breakfast, Yike put on his backpack, took his hatchet and walked around the place where he was going to make traps. There was no harvest today, and Yi Ke came back disappointed. She picked up two bundles of firewood by the way. Picking firewood was also her daily task. Putting down the firewood he had collected, Yi Ke decided to make a bamboo ladder today.
"How do I make a bamboo ladder? Look at my clever brain and my dexterous little hands. It's an easy task." No one has spoken to her for dozens of days. She has been talking to herself. She doesn't know whether her language function will degenerate, but she doesn't want to become mute. So from now on, she has one more homework to complete every day - talking to herself.
Making a bamboo ladder seems simple, but it is quite difficult for Yi Ke who lacks tools.
First, you can go to the bamboo forest to find a few older bamboos, remove the branches, use a rope as a ruler, select the two oldest and thickest bamboos to be the ladder supports, measure with the rope, mark them, and cut off the excess parts.
To install the steps on two bamboo supports, holes need to be made in the supports, and the holes must be symmetrical. This is the most difficult part. If the bamboo is chopped too heavily with the hatchet, there is a fear of cutting it; if it is too light, there will not be enough space to make a cut; and if the force is neither too light nor too heavy, it is difficult to control. If it were in the previous life, a drill would have easily solved the problem. It took Yi Ke a long time to finally cut the two bamboos.
After the ladder support was completed, the other bamboos were cut into short bamboo sections of 50 cm in length to make steps.
After all the materials are prepared, just arrange the two old bamboos with slits in the direction of the thickest tail and thinnest head, and insert the short bamboo nodes into the slits of the old bamboos. The steps start from the bottom, which is the tail of the old bamboo, until all the short bamboos are inserted into the mouth of the old bamboo. When installed to the slender top, the upper steps should be shorter and the bamboo ladder should be installed in an A shape so that the ladder is stable.
After the bamboo ladder is formed, you can tie each step with a rope. If there are no iron nails to fix it, you can use ropes to tie it up.
The bamboo is made, but the problem is how to place it on the stone wall. But I don’t have enough strength to move it.
The first thing that comes to mind is the pulley. She put two bamboo tubes, one large and one small, together, fixed the small bamboo tube on the branch of the crooked pine tree, and used the rope to roll the large bamboo tube. The bamboo ladder was successfully hung and placed on the stone wall on the left side of the cliff.
Yike slid down the rock holding the rope, fixed the bamboo ladder at the bottom, and tried to climb up to the watchtower. After experimenting back and forth two or three times, I finally confirmed that the bamboo ladder was stable and safe. A safety rope was also prepared next to the bamboo ladder for double insurance.
After the bamboo ladder is made, you can break the remaining bamboo, peel it, and cut the peeled bamboo into small bamboo strips of uniform size and thickness. Use these bamboo strips to weave two bamboo baskets and a backpack. Although it does not look good, it is stronger and more durable than a backpack woven with vines.
In his previous life, Yike lived with his grandfather in the countryside for a period of time when he was a child. My grandfather often used bamboo to weave bamboo baskets, baskets, bamboo mats, etc. and sell them at the market. At this time, the naughty Yike came to help. After a few times, he learned how to weave simple bamboo products such as bamboo baskets. He could weave bamboo mats but not how to close them. What's more, the bamboo strips of bamboo mats were very thin, and Yike could not cut them.
Yike also hung a bamboo basket on the cliff. If you want to get something up, you just need to put it in the bamboo basket and pull the pulley to lift it up. Now with the pulley, it's very easy to lift things up.
I feel so happy!
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