Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 128 - 50: Tanning Pelts

With a box of bottles and two seal heads, I returned to the cave, set up the iron pot to boil water, and scooped the brain matter into sterilized glass jars spoon by spoon.

By the time I finished this, it was almost dawn.

Since getting up at dawn on the 27th, checking the crops, heading to the beach to collect rewards, then slaughtering the seal, dissecting and dividing it, skinning and deboning...

Chen Zhou had been working for more than twenty-six hours almost non-stop.

After storing the brain matter, he felt his head was heavy, his consciousness and body extremely fatigued. Even if he wanted to force himself to keep working, he couldn't hold on any longer.

He washed the mud and blood off his hands, took off his clothes and hung them by the campfire to dry.

Carrying a body full of fatigue, he collapsed onto the bed, and as soon as he closed his eyes, snores quickly emanated from his nose and mouth.

...

This sleep was a deep, dark one.

When he awoke, it was already the evening of the 28th.

Overwhelmed by thirst, Chen Zhou rubbed his still aching head, changed into a new set of clothes, and walked into the kitchen.

In a daze, more than a dozen hours of time had vanished without a trace.

Looking at the dimly lit cave and the long-extinguished campfire, he couldn't help but feel a sense of having traversed time.

Ever since coming to the island, Chen Zhou's routine had been stable, and he always had a clear sense of time.

This was the first time he struggled to distinguish the passage of time, not even knowing whether he had slept for a day or two days and a night.

He drank a glass of water, washed his face with cold water, and felt a bit more awake. Chen Zhou first went to check the jars containing the brain matter.

The 17th-century glass jars didn't have screw-on lids, using a stopper similar to those on wine bottles, so the seal wasn't very tight.

But since the brain matter had only been in the jars for a short time, it was just slightly yellow, with a thin layer of oil floating on the surface. It still smelled normal and was unlikely to spoil soon.

He placed the glass jars on a wooden shelf deep in the kitchen and fed Xiao Huihui, Tizi, and Chinchilla some food. Chen Zhou then reignited the campfire to prepare himself a meal.

After filling his stomach, he needed to promptly deal with the layer of seal fat and seal meat at the camp below the mountain.

During the free time while waiting for the meal to cook, Chen Zhou brought out two large square glass containers.

These used to be personal containers for the Captain and the First Mate to store clean drinking water. Each glass container had a capacity of about 2.5 liters. He planned to use these two glass containers to store oil.

He cleaned the glass containers and placed them by the campfire.

Chen Zhou returned to the bedroom and pulled out the notebook that contained the technical guidance from the old buddies on the forum.

On the second day of the challenge, as soon as he found paper and pen, he recorded this information, regardless of its truth.

It had been 119 days since then. If relying solely on memory, this information and the techniques would have been long forgotten.

"A good memory is no match for a bad pen," and his habit from his study days once again provided him with help.

Sitting by the campfire, he carefully reviewed the process of tanning fur.

Chen Zhou first examined the tools and resources needed for tanning.

All the tools mentioned by the forum buddy could be made by hand, and the resources were common. The only somewhat special ones were animal fat and plant ash, both of which he had. It seemed that tanning the fur wouldn't be too difficult.

After roughly noting the specific steps, Chen Zhou placed this precious survival handbook back in the bedside drawer.

The meal was almost heated.

...

After the meal, Chen Zhou checked on Tizi's injuries.

The scab on its exposed wound on the rear half of its body had already formed, needing no further disinfection. The fur around the area tied by a strap had all fallen off, looking quite unsightly.

Confined in a wooden box all day, Tizi's spirits were somewhat depressed.

However, its physical condition had improved considerably, and it was now able to stand and move freely. It was expected that in two more days, it could be tied to the kitchen as a "security guard."

Before heading out, Chen Zhou carried half a bucket of water to give to the mother and baby goats and also took a tour of the fields to see if the crops were affected by the heavy rain.

The natural downward slope of the hillside helped drain the excess water, and the ridges still maintained their complete raised shape.

The tender green rice seedlings stood proudly on the ridges. After a heavy rain, they grew more robust, and Chen Zhou even felt they had grown a bit taller during this day or so.

The barley and wheat, although not as water-loving as the rice seedlings, also showed no issues, giving Chen Zhou some peace of mind.

Due to his lack of farming experience, he had always lacked confidence in his ability to cultivate and manage the fields to withstand floods.

This heavy rain made him realize that as long as he strictly followed the methods of old farmers, the fields would be fine no matter where they were.

Perhaps this is the wisdom of five thousand years of agrarian civilization!

Carrying a water bucket to the field's edge, he stood the blown-down rabbit skin flag back up and sorted out the strips of cloth tangled on the scarecrow.

After feeding the mother and baby goats, Chen Zhou began transporting chunks of seal meat up the mountain.

...

On the morning of the 28th, before returning with the seal head to the cave, Chen Zhou took Lai Fu from the beach and tied it in front of the meat storage tent.

It had been tied there for more than a dozen hours, and Lai Fu had long grown impatient.

Seeing Chen Zhou, it hopped around, barking and howling, pulling the rope around its neck taut, as if wishing to sprout wings and fly into its master's embrace.

Chen Zhou felt heartache for Lai Fu, of course.

From a personal emotional standpoint, he wanted to untie the rope and give Lai Fu freedom, allowing it to roam between the mountain and the valley.

But from a rational perspective, keeping Lai Fu at the camp below the mountain to guard the seal meat was the best choice.

There were quite a few wildcats in the woods near the hillside. Without Lai Fu's watch, they would have already smelled the meat and would certainly find a way to get into the tent and ruin the piled-up meat chunks.

Hugging Lai Fu's neck, he soothed its emotions, played with it for a while, and then fished out a few chunks of seal meat from the bucket for it to eat.

While Lai Fu happily gobbled up the meat, Chen Zhou started the transport work.

He woke up very late on the 28th, and to avoid completely disrupting his routine, he only made two trips to transport the meat.

On the last trip, he carried away the seal skin.

Tanning the hide couldn't be delayed. The island's climate was hot, and with each passing day, the risk of the materials decaying increased.

...

It was deep into the night.

The campfire still flickered in the cave.

Having slept too much during the day, Chen Zhou tossed and turned in bed but couldn't fall asleep, so he had to find some work to occupy his mind.

By the firelight, he took out a rope measure to measure the length and width of the entire seal skin, then retrieved several thick branches based on these dimensions, nailing them into a frame slightly larger than the seal skin.

Next, Chen Zhou made seven small holes around the edge of the hide.

The small holes were used to pass through thin ropes to be tied to the frame, tightening the seal skin.

Then he took out a worn-out iron blade and began scraping the fat and meat from the skin.

This was meticulous work, extremely demanding on the eyes, and in the wavering flames and dimly lit cave, it required even more of his vision.

After nearly two hours of work, the broad seal skin was finally cleaned.

Sitting by the fire, Chen Zhou was so toasted he started nodding off.

Struggling to keep his eyelids from closing, he scraped off the last bits of meat, tightened the strings on the frame, and applied some cool ash from grasses and trees to the inner side of the hide—this helped in moisture evaporation.

After evenly applying the ash, he took the taut framed seal skin to the deeper part of the kitchen.

The first step in tanning the hide, cleaning it, was done.

The second step was to dry the hide.

In this process, the hide needed to be as open and taut as possible, avoiding rain, dew, or even moisture.

Until the hide was completely dry, it would not rot.

This step usually took about a week, but if in a hurry, it could be dried with fire or smoke-roasting.

Chen Zhou had planned to dry the hide by the fire for a while, but he was just too tired.

After moving the tanning frame, he groggily walked to the bedside, rubbed his sore and swollen eyes, and fell asleep as soon as he lay down.