By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 190 Choosing a Shelter: I Want It All! [Bonus Chapter!]

(P.S.: Extra chapter! Please vote!)
On the fourth day, Li Younan finally completed the main structure of the house. Next, he needed to lay the rafters, which are the sloping layers under the tiles.

Once you have the rafters, you can cover them with thatch, waterproof cloth, or even, if you want to be extravagant, burn some tiles and lay them on top.

It's worth mentioning that Li Younan also made distinctions when choosing timber. The main frame of the house used another advantageous tree species from around the lake: white spruce and black spruce. These two types of trees have tall, straight trunks, and their wood is light, tough, easy to cut and split, and has natural resistance to decay, making them suitable for the core framework of the shelter, such as pillars, beams, and rafters.

To make it easier for him to work from a high place, Li Younan took some time in the afternoon to make himself an A-shaped ladder, also made using mortise and tenon joints.

In the video, Li Younan demonstrates the art of mortise and tenon joints, saying, "This form of vertical connection between pieces of wood can be achieved using many different types of mortise and tenon joints."

"Given our current conditions, we don't have chisels, only axes and saws, so we will try to use this simple yet sturdy mortise and tenon structure—the dovetail joint."

"You can try this kind of mortise and tenon joint. It's very convenient. Just do this... this... then that... that... and hammer it in like this, and the connection is complete. No glue is needed, and it's very stable."

When laying the rafters, Li Younan wasn't so meticulous; he was even too lazy to peel them. He simply cut grooves in the necessary places and laid them directly on the rafters.

His house wasn't as big as a real ancient house; everything was scaled down proportionally, so the rafters were also relatively small.

After laying down the rafters, Li Younan then looked at the temporary shelter. There was a waterproof tarpaulin on the temporary shelter, but it couldn't be used to cover the new house yet, since the new house couldn't be officially inhabited because the walls hadn't been finished.

During his break, Li Younan pondered what material to use for the wall.
He considered making bricks, but then rejected the idea.

To be honest, while bricks have many advantages, firing so many bricks requires too much time and effort. First, you need to dig a large kiln to fire the bricks. Next, you need to cut enough wood and keep feeding it in. Finally, you need to take it out and use it. It would be very difficult to build four walls in less than ten days to half a month.

This means he will have to stay in the temporary shelter for just as long.

no need.

Therefore, Li Younan's first rejection was of using fired bricks to build the walls.

Of course, if Li Younan has enough time and leisure time later on, it wouldn't be a problem to do this. Bricks still have many uses, such as building fireplaces. And if he wants to change things in the future, he can build another layer of bricks inside or outside the house.

There are three more reliable options. The first is to build an earthen wall.

Li Younan observed that the clay here was of pretty good quality. Mixing in some special grass would further increase the soil's stickiness. Since they had to cook every day, wood ash was readily available. He was also a carpenter and could make a mold, which naturally provided the conditions for compacting the adobe bricks.

The advantage of earthen walls is their better insulation. Thick earthen walls can greatly resist cold winds and lock in the temperature inside the house. In addition, the location is a natural shelter from the wind, so even when winter comes, you will be very comfortable.

The disadvantage of earthen walls is that they are time-consuming and labor-intensive, but they are much faster than brick making.

The second option is to directly arrange the wood to build the curtain wall. The advantage of this method is that it is fast. With Li Younan's efficiency, the wooden house can be built in two days at most.

The last method was to build a stone wall with stones. After much deliberation, Li Younan finally chose to have it all.

Each of these three options has its own advantages. Li Younan's plan is to make the walls of the entire house mainly earthen walls. First, use the foundation piles as thick as an arm to build the frame, and then fill it with rammed earth.

The so-called foundation pile is based on the principle of inserting a toothpick into tofu to increase its load-bearing capacity.

This can effectively improve the stability of the structure.

Meanwhile, leave two spaces in the middle. In one space, make a window using wood and adobe bricks. It doesn't need to be too big; it just needs to let some light in during the day.

On the other wall, a stove was first built by stacking stones in the middle, and the smoke vent of the stove was integrated with the outer wall, which solved the problem of heating the house with fire, while also ensuring convenient smoke ventilation.

Without further ado, Li Younan planned to devote all his energy, except for foraging for food, to building a shelter.

……

Every day when Li Younan went out, he would bring a bow and arrow. Unfortunately, he had been here for several days but had not had a single opportunity to fire an arrow. As for the scary bear, he had not even seen a shadow of it.

However, Li Younan is not yet so arrogant as to hope that Xiong will come knocking on his door.

He catches fish every day, and with the added carbohydrates, he's currently in perfect health. In fact, Li Younan thinks he might have gained a little weight.

However, if you eat fish as your staple food every day and carbohydrates are just an extra side dish, you'll get tired of it after a while.

Just as he was thinking this, Li Younan, who had been unlucky for so long, finally had a change of fortune. A wild rabbit actually wandered by in the forest that he had searched countless times.

This was no good! Li Younan quickly nocked an arrow and crept over.

These wild rabbits living in the wild are very alert. As soon as Li Younan made the slightest noise, they immediately ran away at lightning speed and disappeared without a trace.

Li Younan was not discouraged. Instead, he patiently searched the direction where the rabbit had disappeared. He knew very well that this kind of rabbit was simply hiding in a place that was not easy to find. If he stirred up the grass to scare the rabbit, he could still force it out as long as he was in the right direction.

In such a tense and exciting moment, there was no energy or time to set up fixed camera positions. Li Younan said to the action camera, "Unfortunately, I didn't choose a hunting trap, so for the rabbit that's about to be caught, we can only try our luck with bows and arrows. Let's see how we are today and whether we can hit it with one arrow?"

Just as he was talking, there was a sudden rustling in the grass about twenty meters ahead. Li Younan was immediately excited and looked over. The next moment, the rabbit suddenly scurried out and continued to run wildly in a certain direction.

Li Younan drew his bow and shot the arrow almost in one smooth motion. His muscle memory and conditioned reflexes took over his body; without any aiming, the arrow flew out, the bowstring still trembling slightly after it was released. In the action camera's lens, the running rabbit looked as if it had been struck by a meteor, instantly crashing into the nearby grass.

Li Younan ran over and saw that the arrow had pierced the rabbit's abdomen, pinning it to the ground. The rabbit was still struggling slightly. Li Younan quickly pulled out his hunting knife and ended its suffering with a single stroke.

Li Younan said to the camera, "Guys, it seems my archery skills haven't deteriorated despite not having had a chance to be put to practice. Next, we need to take this rabbit back. We have enough food for today, so we can improve our meals."

Back at the camp, it was still early, so Li Younan quickly performed an autopsy on the rabbit.

With his Level 2 slaughtering skills, he was extremely efficient when dissecting rabbits, peeling off the entire skin perfectly.

This was also the first animal with fur that he had hunted, which made Li Younan extremely excited. With the rabbit's fur, he could do a lot of things.

However, this freshly skinned rabbit skin is called raw skin. There is an important process to be done before it can be used directly as tanned skin. If the raw skin is not processed into tanned skin, it will become very hard after the rabbit skin is dried.

In modern civilized society, chemical substances such as salt and alum can be used to soften the substance, but in this wilderness, such conditions are naturally unavailable. However, it doesn't matter, as rabbits naturally carry this substance with them.

This method, known as brain-rubbing leather technique, has been passed down for thousands of years. It involves rubbing the raw hide with the brain matter of the prey evenly and letting it sit for a few days to soften the fur.

Li Younan first laid out the whole rabbit skin to dry, and then collected the rabbit's brain matter, planning to process it carefully when he had time in the evening. Right now, he needed to solve the problem of eating.

He caught a rabbit today, and with the fish he catches every day, he won't need to go out to find food for the next three days.

Bunnies are so cute, and bunnies taste delicious.

His skills in smoking fish have improved these past few days, and perhaps he's become less picky. In any case, fish that wasn't finished on the first day can still be eaten on the second day.

Li Younan plans to stay indoors for the next three days, focusing on finishing the fireplace at the campsite and then building the earthen walls.

Building a fireplace requires a lot of stone, but fortunately there are plenty of stones nearby, so we don't have to go too far to bring enough stone.

After having roasted rabbit for lunch, Li Younan began building a fireplace under the drafty eaves.

To be fair, it's easy to find angular stones here, which are perfect for building fireplaces, as they are very stable due to their own weight.

Li Younan spent most of the day moving stones from nearby to build a semi-circular fireplace, and then filling the gaps with clay.

A nearly half-meter-high stone ramp was piled up on the outside of the fireplace, partly to make the fireplace more stable, and partly to set an anchor point for the construction of the earthen wall behind it. Li Younan had also reserved the location for the smoke vent, which could be completed using adobe bricks.

Next, the rammed earth wall was constructed.

Earthen walls are also a Chinese intangible cultural heritage. These adobe bricks are very simple to make, requiring only wood ash, soil, and wooden molds.

Although earthen walls are now obsolete, and rural earthen walls need to be repaired every year to avoid the risk of collapse, Li Younan's wall does not need to be built so high and has a foundation pile design, making it very stable. In addition, it cannot be lived in for more than a year, so it can be called perfect.

Li Younan had already checked the soil here and found it to be quite cohesive. Although it wasn't as good as loess, it was more than enough to build a mud wall that would last for several years.

In many regions, human ancestors began to transform nature in this way, gaining the ability to cope with harsh climates.

The only problem is that Li Younan doesn't have any tools to store water right now, and making earthen walls requires a lot of water. Fortunately, this is not a problem at all for a carpentry expert.

Although the materials were limited, Li Younan was still able to make a wooden barrel with his skill level. The only problem was that the materials for making the barrel were not easy to find. Fortunately, Li Younan had tried several kinds of vine materials when he was weaving rattan baskets before. There happened to be one that was relatively hard and could be used to make a wooden barrel after being dried.

Evening was still busy. He lit a fire under the drafty new house and completed the final step of barrel making by the light of the fire.

The only drawback is the lack of a planer. The bucket looks very rough, and they didn't even bother to make a handle. It's more like a wooden basin. But that doesn't matter. As long as it doesn't leak, it's a good bucket.

As luck would have it, thunder began to rumble at that very moment.

In this pitch-black environment, it felt somewhat eerie.

Li Younan looked up at the roof, which had neither tiles nor waterproof cloth. Through the gaps in the rafters, the sky was pitch black.

He sighed softly, stood up, placed the bucket he had just made on the open ground, and then obediently crawled into his temporary shelter.

Although the temporary shelter was cramped, narrow, and not very comfortable, it was indeed the only place that sheltered him from the wind and rain.

The rain was pouring down outside, and although it was damp inside, it was generally dry.

It was only then that he realized how important shelters are to humanity.

His thoughts drifted back thousands or even tens of thousands of years to one of humanity's ancestors, where outside were rampant wild beasts, wind, snow, and darkness, but inside the shelter, it was so warm, safe, and secure.

This was the first rainy night after entering the wilderness.

(End of this chapter)