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

Chapter 204 Bison! Bison! [Second Update!]

While the rain had some impact on Pasini, it was still within an acceptable range.

Despite the rain, today was the closest he had come to a large prey in recent times.

He slowly parted the grass in front of him, squinted, and saw fresh hoof prints extending into the distance from the mud on the ground.

He became increasingly excited.

At this moment, he was wearing the waterproof suit provided by the production team, and raindrops were falling on the brim of his hat, his thick beard was covered with water stains.

He licked his lips—humans may not have such a keen sense of smell to track prey, but their clever brains give them the ability to find clues through the slightest traces.

You should know that a cougar doesn't look at footprints on the ground.

He only has enough mutton for a few days' worth of rations left, and currently only one leg of lamb is hanging in a specially made smoking room.

Therefore, it is necessary to catch the next prey as soon as possible in order to maintain the possibility of winning.

More than three weeks, almost four weeks, have passed by this time.

He believes that at least half of the contestants have already been eliminated, and those who remain are true wilderness survival experts.

Standing out from this group of people is not an easy thing. Although he had enough confidence for a long time, confidence does not mean being blinded by it and becoming stupid—God will punish those who are arrogant.

Following the footprints on the ground, he continued to feel his way forward, bow and arrow in hand.

Finally, as he parted the next patch of grass, his eyes lit up, but he quickly crouched down, peeking out from the dense undergrowth with his gaze fixed intently ahead.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement, and licked his lips.

After tracking for so long, he finally caught up with a North American black-tailed deer!
It is clear that this is an adult black-tailed deer, with an estimated length of over 1.5 meters, a height of about 1 meter, and a weight of at least 100 kilograms.

It was summer, and the black-tailed deer's fur was rust-brown.

Black-tailed deer are widely distributed in North America. Generally, they live at higher altitudes, so encountering one here was a complete surprise to Pasini.

He carefully turned on the action camera and whispered, "Guys, it's a black-tailed deer. God help me, I'll make it."

He muttered a few words, gently pulled back the bow and arrow, and crouched down.

At this point, the black-tailed deer had not yet discovered him.

When it was only about 20 or 30 meters away from the black-tailed deer, the deer suddenly became alert—it abruptly stood up straight, its ears twitching warily.

Pasini cursed under his breath, but the sound of the rain masked his movements. He knew he couldn't wait any longer; he had to fire immediately.

He drew his bowstring taut and released an arrow.

Unfortunately, the arrow missed the black-tailed deer, grazing its neck and embedding itself in the mud in front of it.

However, this sudden arrow completely startled the black-tailed deer.

The black-tailed deer cried out and took off running.

Pacini was unwilling to let go of such a prey that he had caught. He nocked an arrow and, without stopping his footwork, gave chase.

A man and a deer chased each other through the tall grass.

Pasini's waterproof boots splashed up thick mud, but as he ran, the prey ahead seemed to drift further and further away.

At that moment, Pacini's heart sank to the bottom.

Here, near the lakeside swamp, he suddenly saw the black-tailed deer in front of him lower its body.

A sudden surge of joy followed – it turned out that the black-tailed deer had panicked and stumbled headfirst into the mud.

The black-tailed deer struggled to its feet, and Pasini drew his arrow and fired another shot at it, but he couldn't see whether it hit the target.

The black-tailed deer did not stop moving, but it was slowed down by being stuck in the mud.

Pasini finally reached a position of about twenty meters before it struggled to climb out of the mud, and then drew his bow and fired an arrow.

The rain is still falling, and shows no sign of letting up.

Pasini raised his head, letting the rain pelt his face, then a slight smile appeared on his lips. It didn't matter what the weather was like; God would bless his people.

……

The rain finally stopped the next day.

Li Younan had already started making the bath tub, and decided to finish making it before continuing his hunting.

He had already finished making all the planks for the bathtub when it rained.

Compared to the small wooden tubs made before, the bath tubs are all made of large wooden planks that are over one meter long.

But the most difficult part wasn't making the boards for the barrel body, but rather the wooden boards for the bottom.

To be honest, as long as the clamps are tight enough, the tub body is not easy to leak, but the bottom of the tub is a bit troublesome.

The bottom of those small wooden tubs is supported by a wooden tray sawn from a single piece of wood, but the bottom area of ​​a bath tub is too large.

Even if you could find a log that thick, you couldn't cut it down with a portable saw.

Using mortise and tenon joints to assemble the bottom of a bucket requires a great deal of skill.

Li Younan's alternative method is to make the bottom of the bathtub into a near-oval shape.

The oval base is made of two wooden boards, each more than 30 centimeters wide, joined together using a sliding plate mechanism. To ensure it is leak-proof, the joints must be perfectly sealed.

The final product was quite satisfactory.

The edge of a wooden board is recessed; although there is no chisel, it can be carved out little by little with an axe.

The other convex rail was also made with an axe and a saw. The dimensions of the rail were fitted very tightly. The last ten centimeters or so even had to be hammered in little by little with a wooden hammer. Finally, it was heated over a fire to set its shape.

The bottom of this finished wooden barrel fits perfectly, just like a single piece of wood.

Li Younan was busy until evening before he could officially begin making the barrels.

The final step in making a barrel is actually very simple; the difficulty lies in ensuring that the dimensions of the barrel body and the bottom fit perfectly.

When making the hoop, first drill holes on the side of the wooden board, insert wooden wedges, and then splice them together in pairs.

Li Younan's preliminary work was extremely meticulous. When the wooden boards were joined together in pairs and hammered tightly, no obvious gaps could be seen with the naked eye.

Next, use the thick vines found in the forest to wedge into the barrel, and tap the vines little by little to the bottom.

As the moisture inside gradually dries, this rattan becomes increasingly tight, and its toughness is much stronger than that of bamboo, making it a natural tool for hobbing barrels.

As long as it doesn't leak when it's first made, it will become more and more sturdy and durable over time.

Li Younan secured the two rattan canes to the bottom and the opening of the bathtub, respectively.

In this way, a bathtub with a diameter of about 60 centimeters at the narrowest point of the bottom, a length of nearly 1.2 meters, and a height of more than one meter was completed. Li Younan couldn't help but recall an episode of the show "Living Alone in the Wilderness" that he had watched before—a confident contestant had just entered the wilderness, found a dilapidated wooden tub, and, in a moment of overconfidence, filled it with water, boiled it over a fire, and took a hot bath.

However, before he could even rejoice, he was eliminated because he lost the magnesium rod he used to start a fire, which became a source of laughter and a highlight of that episode.

This also shows how wonderful it is to be able to take a shower for athletes living alone in the wilderness.

Li Younan didn't have any body odor, but even so, after finishing work each day, she would be covered in sweat and need to take off her clothes and wipe herself down with a hot towel. Most of the other contestants didn't have the same conditions as her.

Just imagine, if you don't shower for several months, the smell on your body must be incredibly unpleasant.

The next morning, Li Younan prepared to set off for the hunt.

Before setting off, he filled the largest earthenware pot he had made with water and placed it on the stove. He added firewood, but adjusted the stone controlling the air intake to its minimum position to ensure the fire burned longer. This earthenware pot could boil about 20 liters of water and was specifically used by Li Younan to boil hot water.

As long as the fire in the stove doesn't go out, you can place the earthenware pot on it during the day and have hot water to drink at any time.

Li Younan's idea was that by the time he returned from hunting, the water would be boiled, and then he could add cold water and take a comfortable hot bath.

However, compared to such a large bathtub, even though this was already the largest earthenware pot, it still didn't hold nearly enough water.

There's only one stove right now. If you want to take a comfortable hot bath every day without waiting, you'll need a larger one.

At the same time, Li Younan had the idea of ​​firing larger pottery jars, but firing large pottery jars is far more difficult than firing small pottery jars, and it is difficult to achieve under the current conditions.

Perhaps... we could try other ways to achieve the same functionality, but that's a matter for later.

Li Younan packed all his equipment, slung his ever-present basket over his shoulder, and put the little ewe into its small wooden kennel.

The little thing was reluctant at first, and kept trying to crawl into the house. Li Younan tapped it on the head, and it reluctantly crawled into its little wooden nest.

Li Younan sealed the wooden kennel and stakes where the ewe was kept tightly to ensure there were no safety hazards at home before setting off.

Now he knew that road like the back of his hand, and about two hours later, he arrived at the high ground again.

This time, however, he was completely stunned—when he climbed up the hillside, he could see at least dozens of bison on the opposite hillside below!
Li Younan's heart immediately began to pound wildly.

I couldn't help it, I was just too excited.

He slowly opened his action camera and recorded this amazing scene—what they were not bison on the other side were clearly a herd of walking beef!
You should know that in the wild, no prey, whether it's reindeer, goat, porcupine, or rabbit, is as good as a cow.

First, let's talk about the taste. The reason why beef has become one of the most mainstream meats in the world is not because it is mild-mannered and easy to kill and raise, but because beef is really delicious.

Li Younan firmly believes that whether it's meat or fruit, those unusual and niche foods will never taste as good as the most common and popular ones.

The simplest reason is that if something tastes good, it would have been widely promoted long ago after thousands of years or even longer of human selection.

The reason it becomes a niche product is because those things don't taste good.

Besides being delicious, beef's biggest advantage over other meats is its high fat content.

Beef has a fat content that can exceed 10%, making it one of the highest fat-containing meats among humans, second only to pork.

In civilized society, a high fat content may not seem like a good thing, but in the wilderness, fat is an important source of energy besides carbohydrates.

It could even be said that, under extreme conditions, fat is a more important substance than protein.

If Li Younan could hunt a bison, he could extract at least tens of kilograms of butter.

However, Li Younan quickly calmed down and squinted at the herd of bison.

Cattle are herd animals with thick hides, so hunting a bison is not an easy task.

Moreover, the most troublesome problem is that bison are very large, and even someone as strong as him cannot carry the whole bison back immediately after hunting it.

It's not winter yet, and if the slaughtered cattle aren't dealt with immediately, they can easily rot and smell bad; this process can even be as short as one night.

Therefore, we must carefully consider how to conduct the hunt.

(End of this chapter)