From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 93 June
The taste of the roasted frog was almost the same as the one he had in his childhood. The familiar flavor warmed Chen Zhou's heart and filled his stomach.

Being used to eating seal meat and mutton, the sudden change of taste made him feel that the meat was fresher and more delicious.

……

After two days of vacation, the tasks on the schedule are being pushed down one by one, waiting to be completed.

The rice dried quickly. Chen Zhou weighed it and picked out the ones with the fullest grains and the heaviest ears to be kept as seeds for the next season. The ones of poor quality were shelled and pounded in a mortar to be used as food.

I haven't eaten rice for more than half a year since I arrived on the island.

Drinking noodle porridge all day long, even if he could occasionally cook some dumpling soup or make a few dumplings to satisfy his craving, it could not make up for Chen Zhou's longing for rice.

After sorting out the rice suitable for seeds, he used socks and glass jars to germinate the seeds in advance according to the old method, and then started to make an earthen rice hull.

After the verification of the prototype, the theoretical and practical functions of the earthen rice huller were tested. Chen Zhou had basically no doubts about the process issues, so progress was rapid.

In five days from May 5nd to 22th, most of the parts of the large earthen rice huller were completed. Even the white mud mill wrapped in the wooden shell had been dried, waiting for the unhusked rice to be poured in to see its real effect.

The 26th was the sixteenth day for the mysterious reward to be delivered. As usual, Chen Zhou spent another day tidying up the wooden and stone walls on the beach and collecting his reward.

This reward is quite useful - it is a large mountaineering bag.

This hiking bag is different from those cheap goods labeled as travel products. The overall material and design have taken the needs of users into consideration. It may not be comprehensive, but it is close to perfect.

The backpack fabric is mainly made of special nylon material, which is wear-resistant and tear-resistant, has a certain degree of breathability and is relatively light in weight.

The back uses a three-dimensional cut waist belt and a breathable back panel design.

There are many connectable buckles on the backpack, allowing the user to freely adjust the backpack according to the load. The top cover and shoulder straps are covered with a layer of waterproof material to prevent rain from soaking the items in the backpack.

On this backpack, which has no edges and corners and looks like a big gray pocket, you can also see buckles for storing tools, a special port for inserting a water bottle, and pockets for sports cameras and electronic devices...

Of course, these were not enough to make Chen Zhou feel that it was very useful. What really surprised him was the bundle of climbing ropes that came with the backpack.

It was a bundle of inelastic polyester climbing rope, with a total length of about 45 meters when stretched out and a diameter of about 9.5 mm, and was quite heavy.

Although this climbing rope is not as thick as the rigging on the ship, its tensile strength and wear resistance are far superior to hemp rope.

Not to mention that it can be used by Chen Zhou for mountaineering, even if it is installed on a crane, it can be used to pull and carry heavy objects back and forth without any problem. If one is a bit more wasteful and cuts the climbing rope into small pieces and uses them to tie up rafts or fix the structure of a wooden house, it would be a waste of material.

After finishing these chores at home, Chen Zhou plans to go to the river valley plain again, and this mountaineering bag will come in handy then.

The leather pockets he sews himself are incomparable to professional mountaineering bags in the 21st century in every way.

With more professional equipment, he can carry luggage, more food, more tools, and go farther, or even go directly from the river valley plain to the fruit valley to collect fruits and plants and enrich the food variety in the cave.

As he put on his backpack, Chen Zhou shamelessly thought:

“It would be great if the next reward is a portable tent, then I can travel around the island with the backpack and the tent.”

Although this island may not be as big as a county in his hometown, it is still a vast enough world for one person.

Robinson lived on the island for nearly 29 years, but he was unable to fully explore the island's resources and species.

Chen Zhou still wants to complete this challenging task.

Of course, ideals are ideals and reality is reality.

The food was running out, the shelter had not been built, and there were still many supplies waiting to be moved. There were also a lot of things to do at home. Even if a tent was really delivered next time, he would have to wait a few years before he could "travel around the island."

On the 26th, in addition to collecting the mountaineering bag and stacking and organizing the wooden boards and stone bricks, Chen Zhou also looked at the salt drying pond.

Most of the seawater that was initially introduced into the drying pool has evaporated, and after being introduced into the crystallization pool, it has formed a layer of white salt grains on the cement floor.

The salt grains were very thin but large in area. After scraping them off with a dagger, they were put into a wooden box. When cooking porridge that night, Chen Zhou tried some of the new salt and tasted it.

Facts have proved that the traditional method of making salt by drying it in the sun is relatively reliable.

After being diluted with water, the taste of the meat porridge was almost the same as the salt he took from the boat, and basically did not affect the eating experience.

……

On May 5, the earthen rice rice hull was completed, and Chen Zhou simply processed the rice grains to be used as food.

On the same day, he began to study the structure of the water mill, and found a narrow river channel with fast-flowing water beside the Yan River. He cleared the weeds there, and moved some wooden boards and stone bricks there, preparing to build a processing workshop there.

Life during this period was relatively dull, with no setbacks or accidents.

The goat couple was not sad about the mysterious disappearance of their lamb, and the mouse accepted the rabbit sausage.

The crops are growing well, but they just need to be watered frequently, as the island is in the dry season.

Carrying water every day is a bit troublesome, so Chen Zhou is considering building a water channel or digging a well to provide a convenient water source for the fields and life.

However, both the construction of water diversion channels and the digging of wells are large projects that require sufficient tools and cannot be completed in a short period of time. They can only be recorded in a notebook and done after all the tasks to be done are completed.

The plants in the cabin were taken good care of by Chen Zhou. The grapes and tobacco grew well, but the mountain celery showed signs of acclimatization and had completely died.

There is another thing that makes Chen Zhou very regretful——

The plant that looked very much like a chili pepper was indeed a chili pepper, but the fruits it produced were completely different from modern chili peppers. They were very small and tasted strongly bitter, and could not be eaten as chili peppers or used as a seasoning.

His dream of stir-fried pork with peppers was shattered.

Fortunately, mountain celery does taste like celery, and if it is successfully cultivated in the future, the mutton and celery dumplings plan can still be saved.

All the sugarcanes planted beside the mountain stream survived, but some were still wilting.

After they grow strong, Chen Zhou plans to slowly expand the sugarcane fields beside the mountain stream in preparation for sugar production.

Aloe vera is more adaptable and has begun to reproduce normally, so there is no need to worry about its growth status.

……

The long-term crackdown on rabbit hunting has achieved remarkable results. At least in the edges of crops and woodlands, rabbits are rarely seen now.

In the storage room, batches of tanned rabbit furs are neatly stacked together.

When he was free, Chen Zhou tried to make some gloves with the rabbit fur.

As he often cuts trees and does carpentry work, his hands have grown calluses. However, these calluses cannot fully protect his palms while he is working, and scratches and breakages are common.

In his opinion, gloves are important items that are urgently needed but are out of stock.

However, Chen Zhou's needlework was too rough.

It's okay to sew huge garments like leather raincoats or low-tech items like leather bags, but it's beyond their capabilities to make small and complex items like gloves.

After wasting a lot of thread and several rabbit skins, he only sewed three pairs of loose gloves, which looked like motorcycle gloves for keeping out the wind and cold in the northern winter.

The gloves can still keep your fingers warm without moving - this is probably the most useless function on a subtropical island.

Once the fingers moved to work, the gloves became a hindrance, greatly affecting the feeling of grasping the tools. After trying to wear them several times, Chen Zhou finally gave up on the rabbit skin gloves.

(End of this chapter)