Chapter 174 - 74: New Shelter (Part 2)
Tall trees easily attract lightning, which is a big fire hazard, and too many birds roosting above can rain bird droppings, dirtying the roof, which is also a difficult problem to ignore.
"It would be great if I could be rewarded with dozens of barrels of paint someday, or a paint tree sapling; I could learn to make paint myself..."
Daydreaming, Chen Zhou led Lai Fu back to the cave, took out the iron blade and measuring rope, and headed to the clearing to start constructing the new shelter.
...
The shelter in his mind resembled a Viking House in form.
The beams were set up between tree branches, with long wooden sticks laid on either side of the beams. Moss mixed with soil was stuffed in the gaps between the sticks for insulation and rainproofing.
Waterproof fabric and thick canvas were laid over the moss, with a row of thin branches placed on top of the canvas. The bottoms of the branches were inserted into the soil, with the tops fixed to the beam, pressing the canvas, waterproof fabric, and moss tightly together.
A wide layer of leaves and tree branches covered the thin branches, with additional moss and compressed wild grass stalks and leaves filling in between the branches.
With multiple layers of protection, the shelter wouldn't have problems with rain leakage or wind penetration in the short term.
As for the inside of the shelter, learning from the lessons of the camp at the foot of the mountain, Chen Zhou decided to expend more effort, driving wooden stakes into the ground and laying wooden planks to make it an elevated structure to avoid the pervasive rainwater and streams in the forest during the rainy season.
Coincidentally, a new batch of wooden planks was made on the beach, and with some processing, they could be used to lay the floor of the new shelter.
To make the new shelter more practical, he also planned to use the newly cut stone bricks to build a fireplace. The chimney of the fireplace could conveniently extend through the roof, making cooking inside easier and providing a heat source for the house.
In addition to these references to the Viking House design, Chen Zhou also had some new ideas of his own.
Anyway, the waterproof fabric wasn't large enough, so he decided not to lay planks on both sides of the entire beam, planning to construct about two-thirds of the framework, with the remaining one-third of the roof fitted with half planks and half wooden windows — there were many wooden windows brought down from the ship, and only two had been used so far.
The room assembled with wooden windows would undoubtedly have gaps and would leak when it rains, making it unsuitable for inhabitants, but it had the advantage of good lighting.
Chen Zhou intended to build two rows of flowerbeds on the sunroom floor using stone bricks and then plant some herbs or crop seedlings inside.
From Robinson Crusoe, he read that many edible crops grew on the grassland near Fruit Tree Valley.
The identifiable varieties included sugarcane, tobacco, giant aloe, melons, and grapes. According to the book, cassava might also be there, the staple food of the Indians, but Robinson hadn't found it, though it should be on the island.
When the dry season comes, Chen Zhou planned to travel afar, transplanting some sugarcane, aloe, melons, and grapes to this sunroom, while also searching for cassava.
Rice and wheat as staple foods naturally tasted good and matched his dietary habits.
However, these two crops were troublesome to process, and limited by their variety, their yield was not high. Their cost-performance was not as good as highly productive crops like cassava that could be eaten directly.
Sugarcane and aloe were also very important.
Among the condiments needed in cooking, salt was the least likely to be lacking. Being next to the sea, making salt was very simple, though with poor quality and a bitter taste, it was barely edible.
Sugar would rely on sugarcane.
Sugarcane is one of the raw materials for white sugar.
In the 17th century, Europe had already started large-scale production of aesthetically pleasing, less impure white sugar through advanced technology.
Through developed long-distance voyages, they colonized various parts of the world, established plantations, and heavily cultivated sugarcane, then bought slaves or hired workers to harvest mature sugarcane, which was cut into sections, and the juice was extracted.
Through multiple stages of evaporation, clarification, and crystallization, sugarcane was turned into clean, pure white sugar, sold for huge profits.
Among the common folk, people simply filtered sugarcane juice to remove impurities and directly boiled it into syrup in a pot, poured into molds, and cooled to form sugar cubes.
These sugar cubes were yellow and could be used as white sugar when crushed.
Although they looked very different from white sugar, they tasted similar.
The island's conditions were rudimentary. While it was possible to force a multi-stage evaporation and clarification, that was like taking off your pants to fart — unnecessary and redundant.
As long as syrup was boiled to make sugar cubes that could be crushed and eaten, it would suffice to meet Chen Zhou's needs.
Living alone, where things needed to be refined, were refined, and where they needed to be simple, they were kept simple.
This irrelevant matter, he never cared about.
Compared to sugarcane, which can be made into sugar, aloe wasn't as important.
However, as a versatile herbal medicine, it could clear heat, reduce inflammation, relieve itching, treat mosquito bites, and soothe sunburns and cuts, so having some around would always come in handy.
After cultivating sugarcane and aloe, they could be massively planted on the open ground outside the shelter.
From watching the agricultural channel's fortune programs during his childhood, Chen Zhou knew that both of these economic crops were very easy to grow, had fast growth rates, and were highly resistant to pests, diseases, drought, and flood, much sturdier than rice and wheat, and there was no worry about birds eating them.
Especially aloe, covered in spines, unless rodents were extremely starved, they would never nibble on it easily.
...
In addition to sugarcane and aloe, grapes, a delicious and highly productive fruit, had long been added to Chen Zhou's planting list.