Chapter 175 - 74: New Shelter (Part 3)
A few months ago, when he was still transporting supplies on the ship, he had already planned to build a small courtyard, construct a grape arbor, dig a well, and enjoy the shade under the arbor.
Grapes are a nutritious fruit, and once scaled up, they have a high yield.
After the grape arbor is set up, he plans to find a sunny slope with good sunlight and temperature to build a few drying houses, specifically for drying raisins, and maybe even attempt to brew some fruit wine from the grapes.
Compared to grapes, melons that are easily affected by drought and floods are rather lackluster.
As the saying goes, drought melons and flood dates; on this island with abundant rainfall, the taste of melons surely wouldn't be great. Even if the timing is calculated, letting the seedlings grow during the rainy season and bear fruit in the dry season, it still requires daily watering and meticulous care, which is quite troublesome.
Moreover, wild melons are small in size with a lot of seeds inside, which doesn't please Chen Zhou. If it were watermelons, he would be willing to invest his efforts to cultivate them.
...
On the afternoon of March 29, Chen Zhou devoted himself to clearing the weeds on the vacant land.
Indeed, the grass here grows high and the ground is flat, perfect for hiding. Plus, there are no trees around to block the sunlight, aiding snakes in rapidly increasing their body temperature; there were quite a few snakes nestled there.
During the weed cutting, he saw at least five or six kinds of snakes.
There were some ordinary-looking small snakes, some with a triangular head and yellow-brown, some with round heads draped with dark green scales, and one with a body of red, white, and black patterns, appearing anything but benign.
The sky was gloomy with low temperatures, making these cold-blooded killers lazily hide in the grass, quietly lurking, waiting for some unsuspecting prey to deliver themselves.
Unexpectedly, their habitat was suddenly disturbed, and faced with the collapse of a large area of weeds, the startled snakes crawled away one after another.
Several times, venomous snakes came within a meter of Chen Zhou, scaring him into a cold sweat, and he immediately hacked away with the Iron Blade.
If the snake reacted quickly and was lucky enough to dodge the blade, it might escape death. If not and took a hit, it would instantly be split in two, writhing painfully on the ground.
They don't have the ability of earthworms; after a few struggles, they slowly become limp.
After cutting several patches of grass, seeing so many snakes within the grass, fearing that Lai Fu might recklessly provoke these lethal creatures without knowing any better, Chen Zhou tied him up in the open area.
Not until the grass was fully cut and he had checked under the stones in the grass to ensure no remaining "residents" did he untie Lai Fu.
He stacked the cut grass stems and leaves for later use on the shelter's roof, and taking a look at the sky, Chen Zhou took Lai Fu back to the kiln.
He took out a small iron can, lit a fire, boiled some water, and added some small meat cubes inside.
Once the food was cooked, he took out a flatbread, chopped it with an axe, held up the small iron can, and ate while soaking the flatbread, all the while filling a small wooden box with salt.
Before the sun set, Chen Zhou planned to add some salt to the sheep, check if the big ram's injuries had healed, and also take a look at the sheep traps he set a few days ago.
Today's inspection of the rabbit traps at the forest edges yielded nothing, so he only hoped for good news from the sheep.
Seal meat, after all, isn't pork or beef, and it doesn't quite suit his taste.
When he first slaughtered the seal, it had been a long time since he'd had fresh meat, and it tasted incredibly delicious, seemingly better than all delicacies.
But after eating it for two months straight, even though he only ate two pieces of jerky each day, he was beginning to tire of it.
Before heading out, Chen Zhou had made up his mind that if he caught a sheep today, and it turned out to be an adult ram, he would butcher it for meat rather than keep it for breeding.
If it were a ewe, he'd have to control his appetite.
The husbandry has developed to the point where there are only two rams and one ewe, and one of the rams is the ewe's offspring.
Who raises sheep in a monogamous system? It's not about seventy-two concubines, but still, at least there should be multiple mates for the big ram, otherwise it wouldn't be fair after the beating it suffered.