Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 119 - 45: The Second Mousecatcher, Ti Zi

The crops are thriving, and under Chen Zhou's meticulous care, there's been no sign of wilting or disease among the seedlings so far.

This is partly due to the "slash-and-burn" cultivation method.

The soil that has been burned rarely retains insect eggs or weed seeds, and before a new batch of pests discovers this field, the rice and wheat seedlings remain safe.

Besides tending to the fields and setting traps for rabbits, over the past week, Chen Zhou finally collected enough white clay box by box, and the wall construction could begin.

...

January 21st.

Chen Zhou went through his routine of washing up, ate some leftover rabbit meat with cheese flatbread porridge, inspected the farmland, and began preparing for the wall construction.

Previously, in the countryside, without laser levels, masons usually used plumb lines and string to ensure they built straight walls.

Only two wooden wedges and two rolls of string were needed, and after aligning and tensioning them, the rectangle between the parallel strings would be the area for building the wall.

To determine the verticality of door frames and corners of the walls, a line is hung from the top with a weight at the end.

Professional masons have cone-shaped plumb lines, but if one is unavailable, tying a brick or a stone would not affect the results too much.

After all, stone walls are different from brick walls; due to the irregular shapes of the stones, it's inherently more difficult to build them as neatly as brick walls.

Chen Zhou brought a lot of rigging from the ship, but they were mostly too thick and heavy, and once tensioned, they wouldn't stay taut for long, affecting the work.

To make a suitable thickness of the string, he took apart a four-strand hemp rope, dividing it into four thinner strings.

Although the resulting thin strings were still several times thicker than regular cotton strings, as long as they were tightly tensioned, they wouldn't sag, and they could be used without issue.

After resolving the string issue, Chen Zhou also assembled a simple scaffold in preparation for the need when building higher walls.

As for measuring the neatness of the short sections of walls, a ruler found on the ship could be used.

The plasterboard was substituted with a wooden board, and the trowel was still replaced by the Iron Blade.

Though the tools looked odd, their effectiveness in use was not compromised.

Given the exceptional quality of the white clay from the sunny slope, Chen Zhou had enough confidence to build the wall sturdy and aesthetically pleasing.

Considering the earthquake in April, he planned to put in extra effort to make the entire outer wall even more robust.

He planned to lay a foundation of 1.2 meters for the wall, and every five meters construct a solid square buttress to support the top of the cave dwelling.

However, with this new construction standard, there would again not be enough stones, so he had to continue transporting stones and wait a bit longer.

Located in the high mountains, there was no shortage of stone materials.

But there were differences between types of stone materials as well.

Stones that were weathered and crumbly, those not suitable for wall construction, ones with smooth surfaces and low friction, those not hard enough, and even those not aesthetically pleasing were all excluded by Chen Zhou from the selection.

The stones he preferred were located under the Broken Cliff in the mid-slope forest.

There, almost unaffected by sunlight and wind, the stones had rough and hard surfaces, mostly regular in shape, with shades of dark gray or light blue, and were quite elegant when stacked.

Moreover, the quarrying site at the Broken Cliff was not too far from the cave dwelling. During the process of breaking and transporting the stones, it would also create a gap in the cliff, forming a direct road to the riverbank camp, achieving two goals at once.

Besides the gray-blue stone material from the Broken Cliff, Chen Zhou also planned to select some white stones from the Dragon Cat Gravel Heap.

He wanted to use white stones to build the outer edge of the wall buttresses and the topmost layer of the wall.

Combined with the light yellow stones cleared from the sandy soil and the gray-blue stone material from the Broken Cliff, this outer wall on the lonely island could possess colors as rich as that of modern houses.

...

From January 22nd to January 24th, Chen Zhou was busy transporting stone materials.

To make ascending and descending the Broken Cliff easier, he used trees to nail a long ladder connecting the top and bottom of the cliff, pulling a wooden bucket filled with stones up with a rope, slightly improving work efficiency.

However, due to frequent use of the wooden bucket for transporting earth and stones, the iron hoops around the bucket were showing signs of loosening.

Chen Zhou estimated that in a few days, the first tool to break due to transporting heavy loads would appear.

In the original story, Robinson didn't have as many wooden buckets as he did; the tools used to transport earth and rocks were baskets woven from wicker.

Compared to wooden buckets, wicker baskets have a larger capacity, are lighter, and can be remade, without worrying about wear and tear, clearly more suitable for this type of high-wear task.

But Chen Zhou was different from Robinson.

Robinson had learned the craft of basket weaving as a child, but he lacked the necessary knowledge.

Attempting to learn a new craft from scratch could take at least six months, if not more, like three to five years, and he couldn't spare that much time at the moment, so he could only continue using wooden buckets.

...

Evening of the 24th.

Putting down the carrying pole, he dumped the stones from the bucket next to the pile and stretched his sore shoulders. Chen Zhou walked down from the platform and went to check the farmland.

The weather was hot, with no heavy rain for dozens of days, and even when clouds gathered, it was just a light drizzle that finished quickly.

The water-loving rice seedlings needed watering every morning; otherwise, their growth would be delayed.

To conserve water, Chen Zhou would carry the water bucket to water each plant individually. After all, there were only 128 rice seedlings, which didn't take much time.

Wheat and barley were much more drought-resistant than rice, although they grew slowly.

Apart from some wood ash and the inherent fertility in the soil, there were no extra nutrients, so although not infertile, it wasn't particularly rich either.

Based on the current trend, it would take at least half a year for the wheat and barley to mature, and the yield might not be very high.