I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 30 Daily life in the cabin
crunch~

Luc gently pushed the door open, and a warm breeze hit him, dispelling the coldness in his body.

The cold air exhaled from the mouth immediately evaporated and turned into wisps of white mist.

The quaint fireplace was burning with a roaring fire. I took off my heavy coat and hung my wet and cold deerskin coat on the wooden pole in front of the fireplace to let it dry slowly.

Reaching out my hand towards the crackling fireplace, the warm light gradually loosened my stiff fingers. Above the fireplace, a clay pot was slowly cooking a pot of thick soup. Bubbles were bubbling on the surface of the soup, and inside was chopped parsnips and pork chops. The rich aroma filled the cabin.

".Master, you are back?"

Above Luc's head, in a flat corner, a grease lamp made of tusks dispelled the darkness. Ryan, whose hair was illuminated by the oil lamp, stuck his head out, stretched his arms out from the deerskin and hay blanket, and prepared to get up from the bed.

"Just lie down. What are you doing here?"

Luc scooped out the steaming hot soup in a small bowl, pulled out a chair, took out a wooden spoon from the wooden tube at the corner of the hinge, and stirred the broth carefully while blowing on it slightly.

He blew away the hot steam from the thick soup, and the firm aroma of pork was evenly mixed. He lowered his head and took a sip from the small bowl, and suddenly a warm current flowed through his whole body.

"How are you, are you feeling better today?"

Luke put down the ceramic bowl and looked at Ryan, who did not stand up after hearing what he said.

Ryan's face was a little haggard, and he looked a little listless. Although he didn't get out of bed, he straightened up slightly when he saw Luke:
"Thank you for your concern, Master. I feel much better now. My forehead no longer feels as hot as it did a few days ago."

Luke nodded after hearing this and said, "That's good."

It turned out that just a few days ago, Ryan, who had always been healthy, suddenly caught a cold and started to have a runny nose and sneezing. Then, overnight, he had a fever.

Fever and cold are not minor illnesses at this time, but rather very serious.

Without good treatment methods and appropriate medicines, in most cases, people can only endure. Whether they can survive depends entirely on their physical condition.

If someone were to bleed, it would be even more unbearable.

Fortunately, Luke did not know how to bleed. Ryan had a fever in mid-December, about a month after he came to the cabin. The boy who used to be pale and thin at John's place gradually gained weight after eating well every day, which enabled him to survive the disease.

"I just reinforced the roof. It shouldn't leak anymore."

As Luc spoke, he stood up and scooped out another bowl of broth and handed it to Ryan.

Ryan took it with both hands, holding the still boiling soup, swallowing it in small sips, and a few drops of juice flowed from the corners of his mouth onto his clothes.

Seeing that Ryan could eat his meal, Luc felt relieved. He returned to his seat, picked up a bone needle from the hinge, and began drilling holes in a piece of rabbit skin.

Rabbit fur is relatively soft and is a good fur for making hats.

Luc had no textile thread, so he could only use the more primitive method of punching holes and weaving pig tendons into the shape of a hat.

With the help of another tusk grease lamp and the fire of the fireplace, Luc patiently "sewed" the rabbit hat bit by bit.

Ryan put down the ceramic bowl, and all the soup in it went into his stomach, filling his long-lost hunger. He wiped the corner of his mouth, looked at Luke sitting below, and said with some guilt:
"I'm so sorry, Master, I didn't expect that I would be sick at this time."

Ryan knew that Master Luc had gone out not only to repair the roof but also to check on the wheat. In mid-December, heavier snow than ever before fell across the vast forest, a thick layer of white snow covering every inch of land.

Heavy snow means a good harvest. Sufficient snow will kill insect eggs in the soil, providing a boost for next year's harvest. However, it will also bring new problems - excessive snow will also kill crops.

In theory, winter wheat and rye are cold-resistant enough that snow will not destroy them. On the contrary, covering them will provide them with warmth.

Yes, snow will provide insulation for winter wheat
The snow in Burgundy a few days ago was just right, which not only curbed the growth of weeds and created space for grains, but also kept the wheat from being frozen and prevented frost damage.

In addition, before the cold winter came, Luc applied fertilizer to the fields to keep the soil more fertile and warm.

However, man proposes, God disposes. In recent days, the snow has suddenly become heavier. Over the past few days and nights, the temperature has dropped rapidly, exceeding the acceptable level for the grains. In addition, the land has only been reclaimed not long ago and is far less fertile than cultivated land. In order to ensure that the grains do not die, Luke goes out almost every day in the past few days, clearing the snow in the cold wind, and then collecting straw everywhere to cover the wheat to provide them with heat.

But how can it be easy to find thatch in winter?
So these days, Luc often goes out for most of the day, and only comes back at mealtime to cook food for himself and Ryan who is bedridden.

"Just focus on recuperating and don't dwell on it. The grains are a little frozen, but it's not serious. I alone can save them."

Luc put the rabbit hat on his head. The rabbit skin hanging on both sides protected his ears and cheeks very well, which made Luc very satisfied.

This time when I go out, my cheeks won’t hurt from the cold.

Looking at Ryan who still felt a little guilty, Luke put down his rabbit hat and sighed:

"Besides, your fever is also related to me. When we first expanded the new roof, the soil wasn't sticky enough, otherwise there wouldn't be drafts at night. You're far from the fireplace, and you don't have as much deerskin as I do, so you caught a cold. Don't blame yourself."

From a humanitarian point of view, Ryan was, after all, his first subordinate. From a selfish point of view, he was a useful slave and his personal property. Luc did not want to see Ryan get sick or die from illness.

"master"

Ryan's eyes were a little moist. To be honest, when he first had a fever, Ryan thought he was going to meet his parents. His mother died of a fever while fleeing famine. So when his forehead became extremely hot and his whole body became weak, at that moment, Ryan was ready to die.

But as time went by, he slowly regained his strength. In addition to God's blessing, Ryan knew that all this was inseparable from the care of Master Luke.

Master Luc first continued to repair the roof to ensure that there would be no more leaks. Then, on the night when his fever was the worst, he covered himself with his deerskin coat to prevent himself from moving, and then continued to feed himself hot water and vegetable soup throughout the night.

A lot of sweat was oozing out from his forehead and back, but Master Luke tucked the corners of the quilt tightly and told him to tuck himself into the quilt without exposing an inch of skin.

This went on for the entire night, with the strong stench of sweat emanating from the deerskin coat. By dawn the next day, Ryan's fever had mostly subsided.
Taking Ryan's empty bowl, Luc waved his hand. He was too lazy to watch a young man cry. If it was a little girl, it would be fine.

"Hurry up and hold it back, it's so disgusting. If you have time for that, you might as well get better and help me with the work. What the hell, winter is here and I don't have any free time at all!"

Luc grabbed the rabbit hat and put it on his head. He originally wanted to spend the winter in the warm cabin, but things did not go as he wished. The frostbite of the grains alone was enough to make him busy.

"Let little Charlie accompany you. If anything happens, just let him come out and call me. He's getting smarter and smarter."

Luc patted little Charlie's head. Little Charlie grew rapidly, from the height of his calf to the height of his thigh in just a few months.

Little Charlie licked his palm to express his affection. Luke gave Ryan a few more instructions, took the mattock, and opened and pushed the door open again.

A cold wind blew in my face, blowing away the remaining warmth on my body.

(End of this chapter)