King of the Wilderness-Chapter 126 - 117: Maintenance and Cabin Waterproofing
After enjoying a feast of Chinese food to celebrate their victory, the exhausted group sipped on ice-cold beer, relishing the hard-earned peace.
The sun of the polar day had already tilted to a very low angle, but the sky remained bright.
Old George looked at the twenty-one concrete pillars that had just begun to set, his eyes full of the pride of a craftsman! He stood up, ready to say goodbye.
"Lin, I believe you’ll have a beautiful house soon!"
Old George gave Lin Yu’an a hearty pat on the shoulder, his face full of appreciation.
"Next, it’s the most tedious maintenance period. Remember what I told you, the strength of concrete is ’nurtured’."
"You’ll have to maintain it for at least twenty days, taking care of it like a baby, and don’t let it dry too fast."
"Follow the watering frequency and rhythm I discussed with you before, and call me any time if there’s a problem."
"Don’t worry, George. And thank you, if it weren’t for you, my progress wouldn’t have been this fast." Lin Yu’an sincerely thanked him.
Old George waved his hand, looking at Lin Yu’an, then at Stan, Hank, Barton, and Cody who were also preparing to leave, his expression turning serious and sincere.
"Kid, you don’t need to thank me, nor them."
"What you should understand today is that in Alaska, especially in a place like Wiseman, no one can truly survive alone."
He continued, "I helped you because I saw your determination, and because I need a reliable partner to chase those dreams of youth once more."
"Stan helped you because he sees you as the future pillar of this community. As for them..."
He pointed to Hank, Barton, and Cody, "They came to help without even asking for any payment."
Pilot Hank smiled and chimed in, "That’s right, Lin. I helped you with the concrete today because I know that if my plane breaks down and needs a part, Cody would fix it without a second thought."
"If I’m caught in a snowstorm in the mountains, Barton would be the first to ride out on his snowmobile to find me. And if my family needed any help, Stan would help without hesitation."
Mechanician Cody nodded and added, "Each of us possesses a survival skill that others need."
"I need supplies, so I rely on Hank’s plane. If I’m sick, I’ll rely on Emily. If I want a nice meal, well now it seems, I rely on you, Lin." He winked at Lin Yu’an, eliciting a round of good-natured laughter.
Hunter Barton, the quiet-spoken Athabasca, simply summarized, "Here, you help me, I help you. Only then can we survive the next winter together."
"Tomorrow, I’ll continue to help you wrap up the foundation work. The hunting season is upon us, and I want to invite you to come with me to hunt enough food for the elders in the village."
Lin Yu’an, a bit flattered, immediately replied, "I’d be delighted! Just call me, Barton, and I’ll surely join you."
Stan added, "So, kid, don’t think of this as us one-way helping you. This is just how things work in Wiseman."
"Today we help you with the foundation. Tomorrow, maybe you’ll need to drive that Chinese loader to help George clear the snow-blocked roads. Here, we are each other’s insurance."
Listening to these plain yet survival-theory-filled words, Lin Yu’an was filled with unprecedented emotion.
He finally deeply understood the weight of Stan’s words: "We need neighbors more."
It’s not just a polite exchange; it’s a golden rule for survival on this harsh land, verified through generations.
He stood up, raised his beer, and solemnly addressed everyone present, "I understand. Thank you all, for today I learned the most important lesson! For our collective survival, for Wiseman, cheers!"
"Cheers!"
Under the Alaskan polar day, everyone clinked glasses.
At this moment, Lin Yu’an was no longer an outsider; he had truly been accepted as a member of this community of tough men and strong women!
Lin Yu’an insisted on giving them some Chinese liquor and cigarettes as gifts for his neighbors. No one declined, as sharing is also part of mutual aid on this land.
David and Mike, like chroniclers of time, quietly recorded everything here. They exchanged a glance, both understanding "this is the perfect material" in each other’s eyes.
After bidding farewell to these reliable neighbors, Wood Forest Land returned to its tranquility.
But Lin Yu’an’s work was far from over. He began the meticulous work of foundation maintenance that Old George had emphasized repeatedly—curing the concrete.
He first used a watering can to evenly spray a layer of water over the surfaces of the twenty-one newly set concrete pillars.
Then, he found large plastic sheets from the pile of supplies and tightly covered each pillar.
"What’s that for? Are you tucking them in?" David asked curiously.
"You could say that," Lin Yu’an explained. "Covering them with plastic sheeting is to maximize the retention of moisture. The hardening of concrete is a hydration process, and it needs sufficient moisture to reach its designed ultimate strength."
"In Alaska with long daylight and dry air, if it loses moisture too quickly, the concrete will crack and become useless."
David, watching as Lin Yu’an only watered the aboveground part of the meter-high pillars, curiously asked, "Lin, you only water the top part? What about the buried sections? Don’t they need maintenance?"
Lin Yu’an smiled, "Good question. But as for them, the earth is their best caretaker."
"The underground parts are tightly surrounded by soil, living in a natural, high-humidity environment to gradually harden."
Early the next morning.
After completing the routine watering maintenance for all the pilings, Hunter Barton arrived as promised.
Their goal was the pile of gravel that looked like a small hill.
Lin Yu’an operated the Xu Gong loader, transporting large amounts of gravel by the bucket to the edge of the foundation area.
Barton, on the other hand, pushed a professional site wheelbarrow back and forth between the loader and the foundation, precisely dumping the gravel into every corner that needed filling.
The two worked in perfect harmony, with one responsible for macro transportation and the other for detailed placement, achieving high efficiency.
"Why are we going through so much trouble laying these damned stones?" David, carrying a camera, asked while avoiding flying stones.
"Drainage, David, drainage!" Lin Yu’an answered loudly.
"It’s the most important thing. This gravel layer ensures that any melting snow or rainwater can quickly seep through and drain away, without soaking our foundation, keeping the space below clean and dry."
Based on the slight slope of the terrain, Lin Yu’an dug a deeper trench around the entire foundation on the outside of the beams.
He and Barton first laid a layer of specialized geotextile at the bottom of the trench.
"This fabric is used to prevent soil from clogging the pipes," Lin Yu’an explained to the camera.
Then they laid black perforated corrugated pipes with numerous small holes at the bottom of the trench.
They connected them into a complete loop with connectors, finally leading to a natural low-lying area far from the camp.
After the pipes were laid, they filled the entire trench with more gravel.
"This piping system is like a moat for our foundation. Any water collected around the foundation will be absorbed into these small pipe holes first and then drained far away."
"It ensures that the core area of our foundation always remains in the driest state."
After ten hours of intense work, with Lin Yu’an and Barton’s collaborative efforts, the ground work of the entire foundation area, including trenching, pipe laying, and gravel placing, was almost completed.
The entire site was transformed into a flat, sturdy, and highly professional-looking modern construction platform.
That day, after Lin Yu’an completed the maintenance work, he found David and Mike packing their luggage.
"Lin, are you really going to stay here alone for twenty days?"
David looked at the desolate but vibrant construction site, somewhat worriedly asking.
"That’s right," Lin Yu’an nodded.
"The upcoming work will be scattered and tedious, not suitable for filming. I’ve already communicated with Richard, and the crew has agreed to give you a short break. Come on, I’ll drive you to Fairbanks Airport."
This suggestion brought a touch of friendship warmth to David and Mike.
Lin Yu’an started his Ford Conquistador and once again headed south towards Fairbanks along the Dalton Highway.
After sending the two to the airport and agreeing to meet here again in twenty days, Lin Yu’an did not immediately return.
Instead, he headed straight to the largest farm and gardening supply store in Fairbanks.
This store was as large as a supermarket, offering everything from tractor parts to various livestock feeds.
His eyes first fell on a granular organic slow-release fertilizer designed specifically for fruits and vegetables.
He picked up the packaging bag and carefully checked the ingredients list and the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ratio on the back.
He explained into his GoPro camera: "For greedy creatures like tomatoes and cucumbers, we need to lay a good nutritional foundation for them first."
"This granular organic fertilizer has a balanced nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ratio of approximately 5-5-5.
"It is made from a mixture of natural materials like poultry manure, bone meal, and blood meal, and can slowly decompose in the soil, providing stable nutrition for plants for up to several months."
He placed a large bag of granular fertilizer into the shopping cart, then headed to the liquid fertilizer section.
"We also need to prepare some ’functional drinks’ and ’multivitamins’ for them."
He ultimately selected two highly efficient organic liquid fertilizers: a high-concentration fermented fish fertilizer and a seaweed concentrate.
He picked up the two bottles of liquid fertilizer: "Fish fertilizer is rich in nitrogen and amino acids. During the seedling stage, using it for irrigation can promote rapid leaf growth and strengthen the plants."
"The seaweed concentrate, on the other hand, is rich in various trace elements and natural growth hormones. Using it during the flowering and fruiting stage can increase fruit set rates and enhance plant resistance to pests and cold." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
"By using these three fertilizers together, with granular fertilizer as a long-term base fertilizer mixed into the soil, and alternating the two liquid fertilizers according to different growth stages,"
"we can provide a comprehensive and powerful nutritional support system for these nutrient-loving crops from start to finish."
After purchasing all the items, Lin Yu’an set off on his return journey again.
When he was alone, driving the fully loaded Conquistador on the lonely highway, his heart was not at all lonely, but full of plans for the future.
