I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 3: Digging is a Skilled Job (Part )

The addition of the thickened wooden spear made Luc's afternoon digging more efficient:

The mattock breaks up the hard grass, the wooden spear or stake digs deep into the soft soil, and finally the wooden shovel completes the shoveling. The three tools work together to dig out the outline of the foundation in a short while.
It was inevitable that some stones would be dug up along the way. Luc piled them up aside, and they would come in handy later.

They worked until dusk and finally laid the entire foundation. The deep pit at the base of his thigh made Luc feel a sense of accomplishment.

As night fell, Luc had already returned from where the red deer had stopped, carrying a helmet full of fruits.

The fruit that red deer use as food tastes really good, and the flesh is firm. Most importantly, there is a lot of it, enough for Luc to eat for a long time.

After moving all the items, including the mail armor, into the foundation, and cutting a plant similar to artemisia to serve as a mosquito coil, Luc fell into a deep sleep on a simple pillow made of rabbit skin wrapped in hay.
Silent all night.

The next morning, after finishing his meal, Luc suddenly became worried about the foundation.

I seem to have overlooked an important issue!

The reason why the foundation is the foundation is that it is dug out and then filled and compacted to make the house built more solid.
But then, why bother building a temporary shelter first? Wouldn't it be better to just build the real house in one go?

“I still don’t have any experience.”

Luc frowned. There were two options before him now. Either he really built a real house in one go, or he found another way.

"We can't fill it up anymore. We've been digging the pit all day and can't put it off any longer. Let's start building the roof today!"

After thinking for a while, Luc came up with a new idea. Since he couldn't use it as a foundation, he could just build a roof directly on the pit!

Although it will be a little ugly, but at least I don't have to look at the stars every night.
Luc shook his mind off and stopped worrying about it, picked up his axe and started chopping down more trees.

Luke first picked five thicker trees to work on. After he had chopped them all down and carried them one by one to the edge of the foundation, he chiseled a gap on the south side of the foundation that was large enough for one person to enter. This would later become the door to the house.

Then he dug a shallow pit on each side of the gap, placed two tree trunks in the pit and stood them up. One end of the standing trunk had been cut into a slope by Luc, and the other two trunks were placed on the slope, and the four pieces of wood formed the shape of a "介" character.

The last piece of wood passed between the two slanted woods, with one end placed between the two woods and the other end placed on the northern edge of the pit.

A simple roof frame emerges.

But a new difficulty was placed before Luc.
The frames are set up, but how do we make them stable?

First, there were two upright pieces of wood. Luc found that even if the pit was filled with soil, it would still shake slightly when shaken with the hand. This was easy to solve. Luc first took out the wood, then used a flint to light a small fire to burn the bottom of the wood until it was carbonized. Then he used his helmet to get stream water to activate some mud, and waited for the soil to dry and bond with the carbonized wood. The refilled wooden piles were much stronger than before.

But the three above made Luc somewhat helpless.

There are no nails for Luc to sink into.
As for tying it with rattan, it is even less strong.

After much deliberation, Luc had no choice but to resort to the most primitive method: using a mattock and a knife, he chiseled holes in each of the four logs, then hammered smaller wooden strips into the holes to act as nails. To further stabilize the structure, Luc split a notch above the previously hammered-in strips and inserted another, creating a double layer of reinforcement. Once again, Luc overestimated his progress. By the time he finished this step, it was already dusk. Seeing another day slipping by, he felt a little unsatisfied with having only built a prototype.

"Let's see if we can put up the roof before it gets dark!"

Compared to the house frame, the roof is much easier to make. You can just pile up pieces of wood of the same length on the sloping roof. The wood does not have to be very thick, just as thick as your arm will do. You just need a lot of them, about twenty or so.

Carrying fruit, an axe and a flint, Luc plunged into the forest.

The sky is filled with sunset glow, the sun is setting, and the moon is high in the sky.

Sometimes time is incredibly slow, and sometimes it is as fast as lightning.

The chirping of birds at night fills the quiet forest, and the rustling of insects among the leaves is like a symphony of the mountains.

In the pitch-black environment, a fire suddenly appeared, like a stranger breaking into the mountains, and kept approaching the foot of the mountain.

Luc held a torch in his left hand and carried a piece of wood on his right shoulder. He walked down the steep slope in three or two steps. Not far in front of him, there was a pile of wood.

"Twenty of them! Finally, they're all chopped down!"

The moonlight shone on Luc's face, reflecting his tired face, but he did not intend to rest. Now he needed to lay the wood on the roof. It was not a troublesome job and everything was done in less than ten minutes.

Exhausted, Luc returned to the foundation. Strictly speaking, it could no longer be called a foundation. It was like a new house about to be born.

Looking at the rough roof with bark on it, Luc closed his eyes contentedly.

In his dream, he dreamed that he was eating meat. The rich and mellow meat gave off a strong meaty aroma, which made Luc's mouth water.
When he opened his eyes, everything around him seemed like a blow to the head, leaving Luc in a daze for a long time.

Of course, Luc is not a weak person. He was ready for a hard struggle the moment he decided to open up the wilderness. He just suddenly realized that he should eat something good.
The excessive work last night and the fact that he had only eaten fish and fruits in the past few days had left Luc feeling a little overwhelmed.

What’s more serious is that Luc felt that he was seriously lacking in salt!

Whether eating rabbit meat, fish or fruit, it cannot last long without salt supplementation. Fortunately, the construction of the house has been completed for the most part, and the next work is some delicate work: such as mixing yellow mud with soil and thatch, and applying it carefully on the rows of wood on the roof. After it dries, it is covered with thatch, and a real small house is completed.

These tasks can be put aside for a while, Luc decided to look for salt today!

Of course, Luc himself didn't know where to look, but the elk herd knew!
As the host here, the red deer herd has a fixed drinking area, so there must be a place for them to absorb salt.
That's where Luc will get his first dose of salt!
After breakfast, Luc dressed and left his mail armor in the cabin, which he had begun to call the earth pit. He equipped himself with a mattock and a cross sword and waited quietly for the herd of red deer.

After a while, a herd of elk appeared in Luc's sight. The leading female deer saw Luc standing in the distance looking at her, but ignored him. She had seen the other side for three consecutive days and had not seen any aggressive behavior from Luc.

After drinking water, the female deer led the herd away, and Luc followed quietly behind, slowly moving towards the other side of the forest.

(End of this chapter)