abnabooks Chapter 3 Building a House
Chapter 3 Building a House
It must be said that this place is truly rich in resources.
In just a short while, he saw two kinds of fruit trees that resembled mangoes and persimmons, as well as small berries such as plums, tigerberries, raspberries, and berries. He didn't know how many other fruits he hadn't seen yet.
Indeed, without human interference, the resources of nature are far more abundant than humans can imagine.
There used to be a saying in Northeast China: "Beat a roe deer with a stick and scoop fish with a ladle."
Leaving aside Northeast China and Fujian Province, let's talk about their village. In the early 1980s, loach, eel, crucian carp, soft-shelled turtle, tortoise, stream shrimp, frog, and catfish were all readily available. Where can you find them now?
Back then, horseshoe crabs weren't protected animals. Because their shells were too thick and hard, few people ate them, and they became tools for children's games.
It was only after it was proven to have medicinal value that it was captured in large quantities and its numbers gradually decreased.
In the past, the mountains, streams, and seas were overflowing with seafood. In coastal villages, vegetables sometimes sold for more than seafood. It was only later, due to environmental damage and overfishing, that seafood became scarce, causing prices to skyrocket.
After resting for a while, Cai Xuan picked up a long-handled machete, stepped across the ditch, and followed the spring water originating from the rocky mountain to clear a path. He walked to the mango-like tree, cleared a space, and drove his tricycle over. Looking at the time, it was already past one in the afternoon, and he was starving, so he took out bread and milk and ate.
After resting for a while, we began exploring the rocky mountain, looking for a cave where we could sleep.
A mango-like tree grows beneath a massive rock, behind which lies a stone mountain formed by stacked boulders. Some of these boulders are half-buried in the soil, some only their tops are visible, and some are completely exposed to the sunlight. They stand upright, lie at an angle, crawl, or lie supine, their varied shapes creating a unique stone mountain.
There were no ready-made paths on the mountain, so Cai Xuan had to use a machete to clear a way and climb upwards while gripping the rocks.
As he climbed, he saw plants growing in the cracks of the rocks, resembling wild pears, banyan trees, rosehips, and konjac. Wild pears are tiny pears; he had eaten them as a child—they were tasteless, but they could be used in medicine.
"Huh?"
Cai Xuan suddenly realized that he could use a fruit tree similar to the wild pear to graft the pears he bought onto it, so that he could eat the delicious pears sooner. After all, they were both pears, so there would be no problem with crossbreeding.
He discovered that he was far too intelligent, so intelligent that it was somewhat frightening.
Cai Xuan deliberately climbed towards the rocky area, and soon discovered a stone cave. Judging from the distance, it should be above a fruit tree that resembles a mango tree.
The cave is formed by a huge rock lying across two other stones, creating a "door" shape. The interior is spacious, rectangular, and approximately one hundred square meters. Unfortunately, rainwater has eroded a small hole at the back of the cave, causing large amounts of mud and sand to flow down and accumulate inside. The mud and sand are covered with withered branches and leaves, and some vegetation grows on top. One particularly thick tree has its trunk protruding through the small hole.
If you want to live here, you have to block up the small hole at the back and clear out the grass, mud, and sand. It's quite a lot of work.
Cai Xuan was not in a hurry to make a decision. Shishan may not have much else, but it certainly has a lot of caves.
So they continued their search. There were two smaller caves to the right of the first cave, but they were small and leaked. So they turned back and started climbing up the rocks to the left of the first cave, and found a large tree that looked like an olive tree next to it.
Following the rocks upwards, we arrived at the top of the cave and discovered a small grove of trees. The small cave that had been carved out by rainwater behind the large cave we had discovered earlier was located behind this grove of trees.
He glanced at it and continued climbing.
Just a dozen meters away, another cave was discovered. The entrance was narrow, only wide enough for one person to bend down and enter, but the inside was quite spacious.
Unfortunately, the cave ceiling was unprotected, and the interior was overgrown with vegetation, making it uninhabitable. After circling around and exiting, I continued climbing for a while, but finding no large caves on the right, I turned to climb on the left. Not long after, I saw another cave.
Inside the cave, there is a smooth dirt path carved out by mountain streams; it looks very clean.
Following the dirt road uphill, you soon emerge from the cave and see a grove of tall, sturdy ancient camphor trees, some of which are covered with various parasitic plants.
After a few glances, they continued their search for the cave. A short distance further up, they found a spring with a plentiful flow of water, seemingly the source of the spring they had seen earlier below. The spring was located in another cave, but it was cold, damp, and chilling, completely uninhabitable.
There was no other way but to exit the cave and search elsewhere.
Walking a short distance up the narrow crevice to the left of the spring, another spring was discovered. The water flowed slowly down the cracks in the rocks, its destination unknown. This spring did not flow as much as the previous one, but there was a small pool inside the cave, its water crystal clear.
If I live nearby in the future, I can come here to get water.
There are paths to take from here, either left or right. However, the right side is full of rocks, so the chance of finding a cave is greater than on the left. Therefore, Cai Xuan went to the right.
The path wasn't easy to walk, but fortunately, Cai Xuan was agile, climbing and jumping until he quickly reached the top. He ducked to avoid a massive boulder looming overhead, and ahead lay a jumble of boulders. In the center of the boulders was a sandy area formed by mud eroded by mountain streams, and in the middle of this sandy area grew an extremely thick tree, three or four arm spans in diameter. Judging from its trunk and leaves, it seemed to be an olive tree, but the trees here were very different from those in his hometown, and Cai Xuan wasn't sure.
After passing through the sandy and rocky ground, a huge stone wall came into view.
There's a turtle cave at the foot of the rock wall, which is habitable.
The entrance was narrow, requiring one to crawl on the ground to enter. The space inside was about the size of a room, but too small to stand upright, and it was pitch black. It might be okay to stay here occasionally, but it was unsuitable for long-term living.
Write this down for future reference. If we can't find a more suitable cave, we'll stay here for the time being.
Emerging from the turtle cave, and following the rocks along the cliff face, one finds a small grove of trees, roughly five or six acres in size, likely formed by rainwater erosion and the accumulation of soil from the mountainside. Behind the grove lies another pile of boulders. The numerous crevices between the rocks suggest the presence of caves.
However, Cai Xuan suddenly didn't want to leave.
He wanted to build a wooden cabin in this forest and cultivate the land there. Because of its location in the mountains, the terrain was restrictive, wild animals couldn't come up, and there weren't many snakes or insects, making it a good place to live.
So they made up their minds and turned to walk back.
I didn't notice it when I came up, but I realized it wasn't easy when I went down.
Because there were no paths on the mountain, we had to climb down the rocks. Sometimes we had to use our hands to support ourselves between two huge rocks to get down, which was very dangerous. Fortunately, we made it back to where we parked our tricycle safely.
He wasn't in a hurry to climb up. After climbing for so long, he was hungry, so he ate something.
After a short rest, we started moving things. An army marches on its stomach.
How can you build a house without food? Besides, if you get hungry while building a house, are you going to run downstairs to eat? That doesn't make sense. Also, he doesn't feel safe leaving these things in the tricycle. If wild animals or something eats them, he'll have nowhere to turn for help.
He moved everything from the car into the turtle cave and even built a makeshift stove out of stones on the sandy ground to cook things.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to stand eating cold food like bread, instant noodles, canned food, and milk every day.
As for what to cook, that's simple.
Among the things he brought was a small iron box containing 10 jin (5 catties) of compressed biscuits. After taking the biscuits out, he used pliers and a Phillips screwdriver from the tricycle's toolbox to pry open the lid of the small iron box, and then used a hammer to flatten the sharp corners, making a small iron pot. The tin shells of the canned goods could also be used for cooking.
Water is stored in plastic bags.
He bought a lot of things, and packed them into several plastic bags. He put them in two layers, which made excellent water containers.
The good news was that while gathering firewood, he discovered that the path to the spring no longer required climbing and jumping over rocks. A short walk down from the grove of trees revealed a gap carved out by a mountain stream; descending from there led directly to the spring, making water collection very convenient.
Once everything was ready, construction began.
First, he found a spot near the mountainside in the grove, facing south, and used a machete with a hook to clear away the surrounding shrubs, bushes, and weeds. Then he whittled a sapling he had cut down into a hoe handle and attached the hoe he had bought. The online seller advertised that the hoe was made of rail steel, suitable for hoeing rocky ground, and of excellent quality.
He didn't know if it was true or not, but it felt quite heavy and the molten steel was of good quality.
The machete struck it, producing a crisp "clang".
After assembling his hoe, he used a plastic dustpan to remove the dead branches and leaves covering the soil, cleaned the ground, and then began cutting down trees to build the house.
To be honest, he didn't know how to build a house with wood either, so he adopted the method used in the north and Russia, stacking the logs one by one to form a house. The people there call this method of building houses "wooden log cabin" or "wooden log cabin," which is a typical Russian dwelling.
Anyway, there are plenty of trees here, so there's no worry about running out of wood. The empty space left after cutting down the trees can be used for farming.