I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 36: Cylindrical Wheel
Luc used a dagger to peel the vines, leaving behind the soft inner core. His two hands continued to weave upwards on a rectangular base that was beginning to take shape. A faint grease lamp swayed on the hinges, and the wooden curtains were rolled up, blowing in a cold breeze.

"This snow won't stop falling."

Ryan shoveled some charcoal into the fireplace. The fire was blazing. The higher temperature than usual made him unconsciously move closer to the window. He muttered to Luc who was weaving a dustpan:
"Master, won't it take a long time for our brick kiln to be built now?"

Since the earthen kiln was built, Luc burned charcoal twice and built a foundation for the brick kiln with Ryan. Then the overwhelming snow hindered their progress.

"Looking at this, I guess I'll have to wait until spring before I can start working."

This snowfall is much more severe than the previous ones. It is not suitable to go out at all. Staying comfortably at home is the best option.

Luc ignored Ryan's muttering and concentrated on fiddling with his dustpan.

The delicate rattan strips are passed through the woven mesh little by little and then pressed firmly to form the side walls of the dustpan.

This step requires relatively delicate operation, but fortunately Luc has woven rattan baskets before, so it is not difficult.

After everything is woven, take a rattan stick and tie the edge of the winnowing basket tightly, squeezing it continuously to ensure that it will not fall apart.

While tightening the cane, Luc turned his head to look out the window and answered Ryan:
"Let's wait until spring. It's a good time for us to rest. Once the winter snow melts, I'm afraid our workload will be unprecedented."

Up to now, if we only talk about the basic needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation, Luke has barely met them through continuous construction and land reclamation.

As for clothing: there are a large number of hats, snow boots, fur coats, and gloves made of rabbit skin, deerskin, and pig skin.
Food: air-dried and cured meats, countless parsnips and a small amount of nettles, not to mention apples, mushrooms and other fruits and wild vegetables after the spring.

Accommodation: The wooden house is equipped with charcoal and a fireplace, which can easily withstand wind, snow and severe cold.

Two legs are enough for traveling for now.

Logically speaking, once the wheat matures, Luc will have nothing to worry about.

But things can't be calculated that way.

A person who is starving to death just wants a bowl of porridge, but a person who drinks porridge every day just wants to have a meal.

I believe no one would refuse if they could get a higher quality of living environment.

After hooping the dustpan and coating the surface with animal fat and waiting for it to dry, Luc placed it at his feet and stood up. "As for the food, don't worry. With such a low temperature, the outside is like a big cellar. The food won't go bad."

The cold wind rushed in from the window and hit Luc's cheeks. The cold touch just conflicted with his hot body. Seeing that Ryan didn't seem to hear what he said, he turned around unconsciously and saw Ryan still adding charcoal to the fireplace. Luc couldn't help it and slapped him on the back of the head:
"You're still adding more charcoal! Can't you see it's so hot that we need to open the windows? Look at your face, it's red from holding it in. Little Charlie is going to be paralyzed from the heat!"

"Ouch!" Ryan cried out in pain and hugged the back of his head. Hearing Luke's scolding, he subconsciously glanced at little Charlie. Sure enough, the black dog was clinging to the bottom of the window, with its tongue hanging out and a look of helplessness on its face.

Ryan, who was burning charcoal as if it were wood, rubbed the back of his head with his mouth pursed, turned his head and smiled embarrassedly: "Hehe, master, this is not my first time burning charcoal, I am a little uncomfortable."

Luke turned around speechlessly, not having the time to argue with him, and instead asked about the things he had explained before.

"Is the wooden barrel I asked you to make finished?"

Hearing about the serious business, Ryan said seriously: "It's done!"

This wooden tube is not a wooden barrel, but something similar to a bamboo tube.

Since there was no bamboo, we had to use a more clumsy method to make a similar slender tube.

"That's good."

Luc nodded. In that case, we can build a waterwheel! A waterwheel is actually a tool for drawing water from a stream.

The turbulent water flow drives the drum wheel to rotate, so that the water flows along the prepared trough to the fields or wooden houses.

This can not only expand the irrigation range, but also save the trouble of using wooden buckets to collect water over and over again.

Of course, digging a well is the best way to get water, but it would take a long time for only two people to dig a well.

Although winter is very cold, it is not cold for 24 hours. It is still relatively mild at noon every day. Since he had an idea, Luc did not wait any longer. The next day at noon, the two of them started chopping a lot of firewood in the fenced yard.

Luc used an axe to chop the firewood into small pieces, and Ryan used a plane to polish it, and then used a chisel and hammer to wedge a notch on the opposite sides of the long wooden block - these were the things the drum cart needed the most.

When building a wooden house before, Luc was troubled by the lack of nails, so he thought of using mortise and tenon structure.

It’s just that the mortise and tenon structure of the house is too complicated for Luc to learn, but he has no problem with simple mortise and tenon joints.

For example, the wooden benches that were once seen everywhere are typical mortise and tenon structures.

The two men made a large number of long wooden strips with notches, and then made a batch of short wooden strips with bulges at both ends.

The protruding part is the tenon, and the recessed part is the mortise.

The two men spent two days chiseling out the wooden strips and then building a triangular wooden frame. They used a hammer to tighten each mortise and tenon joint, and shook it vigorously to find that it was very solid before moving on to the next step.

The next step is similar, requiring a large number of long and short wooden strips, except that there is an additional thick short wooden board with a notch on each of the left and right centers. The purpose of this thick wooden board is to create splashes when the water wheel rotates.

Starting from the triangular wooden frame as the center and expanding outwards, a total of twenty-four scrapers were built and assembled. The number of triangular wooden frames increased, and finally a circular drum car assembled by eight triangular wooden ladders, twenty-four scrapers and several long and short wooden strips was completed!
This relatively complicated construction process makes time pass quickly.

When the snow stopped falling, the river gradually thawed, and the food supply became less and less, Luc and his companions erected a thick tree stump that had been split in half vertically by the river at the foot of a high slope.

In the middle of the eight tripods of the drum wheel is a thick wooden central axis. Following the same method, grooves are dug in the middle of the wooden piles at both ends of the river, and the central axis is embedded in them. The turbulent stream water suddenly falls down, driving the drum wheel to start rotating continuously!
The two men who had unconsciously taken off their deerskin coats looked at the drum that kept making creaking sounds, and Ryan felt infinite emotion in his heart.
As a carpenter, it was the first time he heard of the mortise and tenon structure. With his rich experience, he immediately understood the usefulness and convenience of this structure.

Glancing at Luc's face from the corner of his eye, Ryan once again deepened his suspicions about Luc's identity.
Is Master Luc really not a noble? Even if he isn't, he can't be a farmer. How could an ordinary freeman hunt wild boars on his own and come up with so many strange and useful ideas?
Charcoal water mill.
Any random thing can be considered as a worthy target for recruitment by the lord in an ordinary village.
"The old water pump is built, but how do we get it to pump water out?"

Ryan cleverly hid his thoughts and asked another concerned question.

The drum wheel started to turn.

But the water is still in the stream?
Hearing the question, Luc couldn't help but laugh out loud, as if he was waiting for Ryan to ask a question. He said with a teasing look: "Remember the wooden barrel I asked you to make? Give it to me."

Ryan trotted out the wooden barrels and handed them to Luc. Luc tied the eight wooden barrels diagonally to the bottom of the tripod with rattan. The barrel cart rotated, and the wooden barrels were immersed in water in rows. The moment the water came in, the water flowed back in. When the wooden barrels rose to a high place, they slid out again.

Ryan slapped his forehead and said, "Yeah, why didn't I think of that!"

"Master, from now on we just need to put something on the place where the water falls, and then extend the channel, and the water will naturally flow into the fields!"

"Master, you are indeed a man blessed by God!"

　Initially, we used feet and pounds to fit the style. If most people think it is not good, we can change to meters and catties.

　　Also, thank you all for your support, ＼（￣︶￣）／

　　
　
(End of this chapter)