Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 114 - 43: The Most Valuable Episode
Chen Zhou hates everything related to probability, because his luck has never been good.
Unfortunately, waiting for seeds to germinate is a matter tied to probability.
This long and uncertain process makes him feel tormented,
Since sowing the seeds on January 10th, whenever he has a bit of free time, he walks down from the platform to check the furrows, at least a dozen times each day.
However, the results are always about the same each time.
The seeds definitely won't sprout that quickly, even if they do, it's impossible for them to break through the soil layer in just a few days; they are buried in the soil, growing bit by bit slowly.
Chen Zhou knows this clearly, but he is very anxious and worried, fearing the seeds won't germinate as smoothly as the rice and wheat Robinson haphazardly sowed.
After all, the success or failure of farming is of great significance. Whether or not he can eat rice and bread later all depends on these seeds.
...
On January 11th, Chen Zhou spent the morning digging white clay, carrying it back to the cave to prepare for a wall.
As usual, he fed the goats, cut some grass for Little Dragon Cat, and netted some fish for Xiao Huihui—he made a long-handled scoop net from a broken fishing net, which was quite effective for fishing.
The little goat kid was caught when it was about three or four days old; by mid-November, it would be able to find grass on its own.
If no one intervenes, after the lamb eats grass, the mother goat would gradually wean it, and she would also stop secreting milk.
But Chen Zhou kept milking so that the mother goat continued to produce milk up to January, although it was becoming less and less.
He used to be able to drink more than half a pot of milk tea every day, now it takes two days to brew a pot.
If it weren't for being busy and having a tight schedule, he would have gone out to find the goat herd long ago.
The temptation of dairy products is quite significant; it's hard to find food containing both high-quality protein and fat on the island.
Now the dairy goat has become accustomed to human proximity, the lamb, though not very close to Chen Zhou, doesn't deliberately stay away either,
which precisely shows they are not purely wild goats, likely having been domesticated before.
Being released on the island with no one taking care of them, their nature slightly reverted to a wild state but without completely losing the genes familiar with humans.
This is good news for Chen Zhou, as it means if he can capture a large number of goats, the difficulty of re-domesticating them won't be too high.
That afternoon, sensing the soil in the fields wasn't moist enough, Chen Zhou watered it again.
The air on the island during the dry season is dry, and without human care, the germination rate of seeds would greatly reduce.
While watering, he noticed many birds often circling above the fields and occasionally landing, so he made a "scarecrow".
The scarecrow's frame was wooden, covered with a layer of torn canvas and wrapped with a few strips of cloth.
When there's wind, the fabric on the scarecrow flows with the wind, as if coming to life.
At dusk when the light is dim or at night, seeing the scarecrow unexpectedly when stepping out of the cave is even more frightening, as if a terrifying monster from a horror movie waiting for prey in the field.
Although the scarecrow looks ugly, it can still have a slight deterrent effect on birds.
Since it was in the field, the birds daring to land have noticeably decreased.
Aside from birds, rodents and wild rabbits living in the woods also pose threats to the crops.
Chen Zhou guessed they might have come to the island along with goats and cats.
With a lack of natural enemies on the island, these animals live comfortably.
It can be foreseen that if allowed to continue developing, it won't take many years for the island's ecosystem to be severely disrupted, much like future Australia, overrun with rabbits and hard to control.
Currently, Chen Zhou relies primarily on Lai Fu for prevention.
Tying it at the edge of the field overnight guards against rabbits and mice, but this is not a long-term solution.
Chen Zhou plans to build a stone wall all around the field.
If the foundation of the stone wall is dug deep enough, it could prevent rabbits from harming the crops.
In case of an enemy attack, the stone wall of the field can also serve as a defense.
This is undoubtedly another time-consuming project, and before the project is truly completed, Chen Zhou came up with other ways to deal with these pesky creatures.
When checking the crops, he always carries a crossbow, ready to hunt whenever he sees rabbits lingering at the edge of the forest.
Of course, with many obstacles in the forest, rabbits being small, sensitive in hearing and quick, he tried several times but never hit.
But even if he didn't hit, for timid and cautious rabbits, being attacked is warning enough, and they would instinctively keep away from the fields.
Besides direct attacks, Chen Zhou also loudly intimidates them, throws stones, and tries to find rabbit paths, setting dozens of rabbit traps in the suspected rabbit paths in the bushes or beside tree trunks.
He doesn't have hunting experience, only relying on techniques of setting traps taught by the older generation, seeing places in the bushes with footprints resembling those of rabbits, he finds a small tree or sticks a wooden stick beside it to adjust the height, tying a rope.
The trap opens from the top, using a slipknot; once the rabbit's head gets trapped, the more it struggles, the tighter it gets, impossible to get free.
According to old hunters, rabbit traps are best made with soft and sensitive steel wire or smooth plastic rope, which makes the slipknot shrink quickly with little smell, not easily alerting the rabbits.
It's best to boil ropes used for setting traps in saltwater beforehand to remove odor, especially ropes that have caught rabbits before, otherwise it would scare the rabbits, reducing the probability of catching them.
