I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 62 Ice Magic
"call!"

The sharp sound of breaking wind sounded in the early morning of dawn. Ryan was sweating profusely as he practiced the dagger in his hand in a very methodical manner.

"Well done, Ryan, you've made great progress."

Luke was holding a sword and bow on the side. He glanced at Ryan's actions and couldn't help but praise him.

The busy farming season was over for the time being, and Robert was in charge of the routine weeding and watering. Hearing Luc's praise, Ryan smiled shyly. Half a year of full meals had completely restored his healthy body shape. Fifteen or sixteen years old was the time for growth, and compared to before, he was half a head taller.

Ryan did have a talent for swordsmanship, just like Luc's archery. Fifty yards to the east of him was a row of arrow targets made of thatch. Luc used the Mediterranean stringing method, drew his short bow, and with a whoosh, nailed the arrow firmly in the center of the target.

As new homes are built, much of the subsequent construction will expand around this area.

The shooting range is just one of them.

After practicing for about half an hour, Luke and Ryan put away their swords at the same time, and Ryan walked into the house half a body length behind Luke.

Ryan brought breakfast and now it was just the two of them eating.

Luc said to Ryan, who had eaten half a slice of bread in one bite, "Robert and his family have been here for two weeks. I think it's necessary to re-plan the area of ​​the valley."

"look--"

Luke took out the charcoal and quickly drew the approximate scope of the forest on the table.

This was one of the purposes of our survey along the river a few days ago.

"Master, your painting is a bit ugly."

Ryan blinked and looked at the simple floor plan, hesitated for a moment and couldn't help complaining.

"That's not the point!"

Luke's face darkened, and he slapped Ryan on the back of the head. Looking at Ryan shrinking his neck, he said unhappily, "Look here! With the wooden house as the center, what are there on the east and west sides?"

“.There are trees.”

Luc sighed. It seemed that Ryan only had a talent for swordsmanship and would not be able to manage the household in the future.

"To the east is our cultivated farmland, and to the west is the livestock area. My plan is that the area around our wooden house will be used as a living area and will not border any other area."

"As for grazing, the pasture east of the farmland is good."

"In order to better ensure food security, I plan to build a real cellar behind the cabin. If possible, I can also separate it into an ice cellar."

"The hens have recently started hatching eggs, and the previous chicken coop needs to be expanded."

Luc mentioned a lot of construction plans one after another. Including Robert's family, there were actually only two more adult laborers, but four more mouths to feed. The increase in population would inevitably bring about an increase in food. The previous small cellar obviously could not store food for too many people.

"Next, you have to work hard and take Robert with you to dig out the cellar behind the cabin."

"This time, the cellar must be deeper, and the area should be about the same as the old house. There's no need to rush this project; it can be dug out within three months."

Ryan nodded, and then heard Luc say with a smile: "I heard that Robert's son is very attached to you?"

"I've been following you around so often that I've almost become your henchman."

Hearing Luc's teasing, Ryan couldn't help scratching the back of his head. "Master, Miller actually admires you very much. He often tells me that you are very powerful. He is just afraid of you, so he prefers to get close to me."

"Well, I'm not here to blame you. It's a good thing that Miller follows you. Robert seems honest, but his two children are very smart. You should take good care of Miller in the future. Who knows, he might become a good carpenter when he grows up."

For two weeks, Robert and Mary worked diligently. Perhaps the shadow of fleeing famine was too strong, so they rushed to do any hard work. Although they ate oatmeal almost every meal, they could occasionally eat vegetables and meat. They were very satisfied with their current life, at least in the short term, so they were afraid that Luc would despise them for being lazy, so they got up early and went to bed late every day to build the forest for Luc.

After dinner, Ryan called Robert, who had returned from the fields early that morning, to go behind the house to select a location for the cellar. Miller, seeing this, followed Ryan like a little dog. Luc called Mary and prepared to further expand the chicken coop.

Luc has been finding some fox-like animals in the mountains recently. It is obviously not a good plan to let the pheasants go out to forage all over the mountains, so Luc plans to mark out an area within the fence for the pheasants to move around.

The eggs have stopped being picked up. The hen is lying on the chicken coop to protect the eggs. Seeing Luke and others coming, she keeps clucking. This is already considered good. When she has chicks in the future, the hen's fighting power and courage will increase sharply, and she will probably peck at them directly then.

The fence was easy and was built quickly, but the problem was feeding the chickens.

There was no way Luc was going to feed the chickens with grains that were not enough for people to eat. Most of it would have to be insect grass seeds.

"Looks like we need to ask Mary to collect the chicken feed in advance."

After spending some time expanding the chicken coop, Luc asked Mary to take little Charlie to the east pasture to herd sheep.

He ordered his men not to go too far, and went to the mountains alone with a mattock and a small wooden barrel. After searching for a long time, he found a pile of saltpeter from a cave.

Luc is going to try making ice!

The benefits of ice are obvious. In the hot summer, putting food in ice can not only store it for a longer time, but also improve the taste of food and reduce body heat.

Of course, it’s mainly because of the former.

Luc held up a pile of saltpeter soil. In fact, there was more saltpeter soil in the dry toilet, but since there was some in the mountains, Luc would not eat the saltpeter soil in the toilet.

In fact, saltpeter can also be extracted from wood ash. As the most practical "technology" in the Middle Ages, if there is any shortage, just burn the wood ash.

Having had experience in making salt by chance, this time he was familiar with making nitrate thulium.

First put the saltpeter soil in a basin of water to dissolve automatically, then Luc turned around and took out the previous paper model.

When tools were scarce, many items served multiple purposes; paper models made of deerskin could be used as simple filters.

After dissolving the soaked and stirred saltpeter soil in water, Luc picked up the basin of turbid water and poured it into the paper mold. Countless impurities were blocked on the paper mold. In order to filter it better, Luc repeated it three times before stopping.

The filtered liquid was placed in a relatively dark place to evaporate. After a few days, Luc held the crystallized liquid and crushed it one by one with a hammer. After thinking about it, he did not take the usual stream water, but went to the well to get a bucket of cooler water, poured the saltpeter powder into it, and waited quietly for the appearance of ice.

But I waited for half a day and didn't see any ice.

Luc frowned. Could it be that there was too little saltpeter?
Luc thought for a while and chose another method:
He found a smaller container and placed it inside the large container filled with saltpeter powder. He then sprinkled saltpeter and well water on the small container again, and repeated the previous step, doing this over and over again until two small containers were stacked. Finally, a layer of frost visible to the naked eye slowly appeared in the small container on top, but it still did not freeze.

At this moment, little Julie also came over.

The five-year-old girl's brown hair was no longer as dry as it had been before. Because she was still young, she could not do many things, so Luc simply asked her to follow him and wipe his deerskin boots and bring him water when she was free.

The white cat obviously liked this girl very much. Perhaps it was because he had finally encountered an animal of the same size as himself. He often stayed around Julie. At this moment, he bent his front legs and stretched lazily.

Looking at the man and the cat, Luc suddenly smiled and said, "Little Julie, go get a small piece of pottery. I'll show you something interesting."

"What's so fun, sir?"

As soon as she heard the word "play", little Julie's eyes lit up.

"You'll find out when you get it."

Little Julie nodded quickly, ran back to the house and brought out a small bowl. Under her gaze, Luc took the pottery, lifted the water in the small container into the air, and then poured it into the pottery under the sunlight. There was a splashing sound, and the nitrate water looked like a waterfall in the air, but after being poured into the small bowl, it turned into ice chips little by little, which was visibly seen with the naked eye!
Little Julie opened her mouth wide and covered it with her hands in astonishment. Even at her young age, she knew that there was no ice in summer.

Looking at little Julie's appearance, Luc couldn't help laughing.

(End of this chapter)