Chapter 167 - 71: Impervious to Soft or Hard Approaches (Part 3)
Chen Zhou called out to the mother and son sheep, placing his palm on the back of the billy goat, rubbing off the blood and wool, and approached the half-grown lamb.
Baa~
Seemingly sensing the scent of its own kind's blood, the lamb deftly leapt to the side, avoiding Chen Zhou's large hand.
"Untrainable creature, wait until you grow a bit bigger, by the next rainy season I'll slaughter you for a hot pot."
Attempt failed, Chen Zhou felt rather bored.
Remembering the unfinished work for the day, he left a harsh remark, leaving the billy goat and its wife and stepson to chat, and departed from the meadow.
Returning to the cave, he dismantled the wooden floor of the bedroom, laying it on the platform, and moved the river sand inside the cave outside to spread and dry it.
During the drying process, he picked out large stones and water grass roots and other impurities from the sand, and brought the driest river sand back to the storage room for future use.
Busy until the afternoon, the sky grew increasingly overcast, fearing the rain would come too suddenly, Chen Zhou gathered up the river sand and wooden boards early and returned to the cave.
Soon after, the sound of rain started, and outdoor work was basically finished. He swung the pickaxe to start digging the foundation next to the load-bearing column.
...
Between March 15 and March 20, there were no continuous two-day sunny periods.
Possibly due to the overly wet fields, the wheat growth was poor, yet the rice grew faster and faster.
Under Chen Zhou's careful care, all the crops were healthy, even the few stalks bitten by birds recovered from their injuries, though they were slightly shorter than the other plants.
Apart from digging the foundation, Chen Zhou pulled out the bedroom floor, converting it into a new load-bearing beam to replace the mortise and tenon structured wooden load-bearing beam.
The indoor environment wasn't dry enough, and the moisture inside the river sand was always lingering.
Helplessly, he started a fire next to the sandpile, using high temperatures to dry it quickly.
Although this method seemed to waste firewood, it proved highly effective, quickly drying the river sand.
He tried mixing some cement and felt that the unscreened river sand was of decent quality.
Selecting excellent stones for building the load-bearing columns, Chen Zhou planned to start construction immediately.
He expected to complete the construction of the four load-bearing columns and install the newly manufactured load-bearing beam by March 25,
March has 31 days, leaving 24 days between the completion of the columns and the earthquake on April 18.
Considering Robinson might have misrecorded the date due to illness, the exact time might be 25 days or 23 days.
There was enough time to dry the cement on the load-bearing columns, but he couldn't completely trust these columns to stay in the cave during the earthquake.
Before the earthquake, he had to build a temporary shelter outside and transfer all important items from the cave to the temporary shelter until April 20.
According to the book's description, heavy rain fell soon after the earthquake, making staying outdoors sure to cause colds.
Actually, Robinson's severe illness was mostly due to being drenched by this rain, and partially because he was frightened by witnessing the earthquake.
Having read the original work is akin to predicting the future, Chen Zhou certainly wouldn't repeat the mistake.
He planned to build the temporary shelter at the edge of the woods beside the fields, making transportation convenient, and allowing him to check the cave immediately after the earthquake.
But after using it, he found the waterproof effect of the thick canvas inadequate, unable to withstand heavy rain and soon developed leakage problems, Hence, when building the temporary shelter this time, he didn't want to use thick canvas as the roofing material.
Chen Zhou wanted to set aside a few days, return to the camp at the foot of the mountain to dismantle that tent, and lay the roof with the previously bonded large waterproof fabric.
To store important materials already moved to the cave, he decided to use a wood-stone mixed structure, building this temporary shelter larger and more stable.
And during the construction process, he aimed to avoid previous mistakes made with the camp below the mountain, ensuring proper waterproofing and drainage, ideally creating a semi-permanent shelter.
Even if abandoned later, it could serve as a deluxe doghouse for Lai Fu.