Chapter 222 - 101: Frying Pan
The more urgent matters in the short term have all been completed.
The wheat in the fields is expected to mature around July 15, while the barley can be harvested a bit earlier, around July 10.
Barley yields less than wheat and has lower food value.
But Chen Zhou is not planning to brew alcohol, so he doesn't value barley highly.
...
After discovering the natural fertilizer "pigeon droppings," he temporarily gave up on the idea of continuing to cultivate fields on the mountain. He decided to reopen a field at the foot of the mountain where Pigeon Cave is located, or develop one along Rock River, for the convenience of transporting fertilizer and growing crops.
Between these two favored locations, Chen Zhou prefers the slopes by the river.
There, the sunlight is ample, it's close to the water source, making it easy to irrigate during the dry season. The only downside is that moving the pigeon droppings would be more effort.
However, with plenty of time now and five bearings available from the chair rollers, Chen Zhou doesn't find transporting the pigeon droppings to be much of a hassle.
...
On the afternoon of July 1, after returning home, Chen Zhou plucked and gutted all the wild pigeons, cleaning them thoroughly.
In the hot weather of the dry season, even salting and hanging them in the shade can't guarantee the pigeons won't spoil, so the best way to preserve them is to eat them.
Of course, since discovering what appears to be a mineral of natural nitrate, he now has another option—refrigeration.
However, given that Pigeon Cave is not too far away, and wild pigeons are not a precious resource, Chen Zhou believes that spending time and resources to refrigerate pigeon meat would be a waste.
Better yet, he could make a small fridge to chill a bottle of rum or ale, or squeeze some lemon juice or cane juice to cool down.
In such a season, in such times, lying in a hammock and gulping down a sip of cold beverages would be so pleasurable.
...
On the night of the 1st, Chen Zhou made a pot of pigeon soup, adding a bit of kelp for freshness and some fennel for flavor, and the overall taste was good.
He ate six pigeons himself, while Lai Fu, Xiao Huihui, and the pregnant Ti Zi finished the rest.
A backpack full of wild pigeons was thus consumed.
On July 2, Chen Zhou took out the minerals he had chipped away, using a hammer to crush them, conducting a careful examination.
He found a wooden bucket and filled it halfway with water, then added a large amount of crushed minerals and stirred.
Soon after, the water in the bucket began to emit a chill and gradually froze.
It turned out that these half-transparent crystal-like salt particles were indeed nitrate, and high-purity potassium nitrate at that, which absorbed heat from the water very quickly, ensuring his cold drinks were sorted.
On the 2nd, in addition to testing whether the mineral was nitrate, Chen Zhou also moved the safe door and safe to the beach, dismantling part of the wooden stone wall, adjusting the angle, and embedding the safe door and safe into it.
The ship didn't have metal panels as heavy or regular as this; lead panels weren't suitable for tools. Having finally acquired a piece of metal suitable for cutting, he planned to cut the steel plate again and again into shovel shapes.
The embedded iron wooden pickaxe wore out quickly during digging, often becoming blunt when encountering rock, making kiln expansion inefficient. If he could have a steel pickaxe, numerous tasks would be twice as effective with half the effort.
Of course, the Space-Time Cutter can only cut the steel plate into usable shapes and can't drill holes or handle fine details.
Once the pick heads are cut, installing wooden handles will be Chen Zhou's headache.
...
While waiting for the 19th mysterious reward, Chen Zhou began to flatten the floor of his bedroom, excavate, transport white soil, and lay the floor.
According to his previous design, the bedroom's internal floor used wooden boards, while the edge close to the wall was paved with stone or brick.
The wooden boards for the bedroom floor were carefully selected, with most of the colors consistent, making the dwelling appear warm and comfortable.
The kitchen, which often caught fire, was fully paved with stone bricks to avoid accidental fire.
By mid-August, it's the next rainy season. When the rains come continuously, collecting materials and construction progress will inevitably be extremely difficult.
To avoid having nothing to do during the long rainy season, besides laying the floor, Chen Zhou also transported a lot of stone and white soil around the kiln cave.
When he received cement before, he thought there was too much cement. After several construction projects consumed all the cement, he began feeling that the rewarded cement was too little.
Many sturdy and useful structures require high-quality cement as building material.
Now that there is a way to acquire stone bricks, if sufficient cement could be obtained, whether for brick and wood structured houses or defensive walls against attacks, it wouldn't be a problem.
Busy until July 10, like picking up a package, carrying a backpack and bringing Lai Fu, Chen Zhou went to the beach to collect his reward.
...
Taking a distant look at the reward center, he found that this reward was packed in a cardboard box, and the size wasn't large, making him lose interest and curiosity.
Estimates suggested this reward might be another "useless scrap" or "something with limited use," so Chen Zhou directly ignored it and started organizing the cut wooden stone walls.
Considering that the walls included the safe and a stone mill to be cut, building the new wood stone wall required more attention to detail and consumed more time.
Skipping lunch, working non-stop until dark, once the new wall was built, Chen Zhou finally had time to cut open the cardboard box and check his reward.
The entire cardboard box was rather flat, with the seal on the side.
Cutting open the box, the first thing that caught his eye was a slightly angled wooden handle wrapped in plastic packaging.
"Damn?"
Seeing the wooden handle instantly invigorated the utterly exhausted Chen Zhou, who grabbed the handle, directly pulling out the contents of the box.