Xing'an Mountains 1984: Starting from climbing mountains to support the family

Chapter 201: Building a shack and boiling antler glue
Following Li Shengli's words, Chen Weidong looked over. It took him a while to realize what those branch-like shrubs were. They were all shed antlers from deer.

Because of the long period of wind and rain, it really looks like a dry bush. If it weren’t for the close distance, it would be impossible to see it!

"Shitou, Bingzi, those are deer horns!"

Following Chen Weidong's reminder, Shitou and Bingzi also reacted.

"Wow, so many deer have lost their antlers, I'm going to make a fortune!"

Shitou cried out in surprise, ran over, and picked up a deer antler from the snow.

Bingzi and Li Shengli also grinned. Although they didn't know how much the antlers of a deer were worth, there were still hundreds of deer with antlers in that large area, which could be seen with the naked eye. There were probably many more buried under the snow.

This is a considerable fortune.

Seeing Shitou pulling out several deer antlers from the ground one after another, Li Shengli and Bingzi couldn't help it anymore and ran over to pull out the deer antlers from the ground together with Shitou.

Chen Weidong did not go over. The deer with its antlers shed was right there and could not run away.

Chen Weidong looked around, trying to find a suitable place to set up camp.

In the end, Chen Weidong's sights were still on the edge of the cliff.

The best place to set up camp is a spot below the cliff.

That was a mountain root at the bottom of the cliff, a huge bluestone mountain root.

Building the shack at the foot of the mountain is just right as it can isolate the moisture from the underground.

It's just a bit troublesome to build a shack on the rocks.

"Brother Shengli, Bingzi, Shitou, don't rush to look for the antlers of the deer. Go out and look for some wood first and build a shack. We will be staying in this valley for several days!" Chen Weidong called out loudly.

"Coming!" Li Shengli responded.

He came to Chen Weidong and took a look at the position he chose.

"This is a good place. We can build four small huts. We can each have one hut and no one needs to complain about each other's smelly feet." Li Shengli said with a smile.

"I thought so too. A small shack for each person. Smaller spaces are warmer."

Chen Weidong also smiled and nodded.

"Let's go! Let's chop wood!"

Li Shengli took the lead and walked towards the big guy! He took out an axe from the big guy, threw one to Shitou and Bingzi, and then led the two out of the valley to chop wood.

The trees in this valley are crooked and unsuitable for building shelters.

The trees outside the valley are more suitable.

Li Shengli took two people to cut down trees. Chen Weidong did not go to help, but took out the gun from his back.

He was going to hunt and prepare to fill his stomach first. At noon, the four of them were busy looking for deer to remove their antlers, and they didn't even have time to take a bite of their dry food.

There are still many small animals in this valley, such as hares, pheasants, sand chickens, flying dragons, mergansers and so on.

Not only are there, but there are a lot of them. Perhaps because there are no natural enemies here, all kinds of small animals are tending to proliferate.

As soon as they entered the valley, several wild rabbits crawled into their snow dens, and more than a dozen birds such as pheasants and sand chickens flew up and flew far away.

Chen Weidong took a few steps forward when he startled a group of birds again and raised his hand to fire a shot.

Suddenly, several pheasants, mergansers and other birds were shot down.

Chen Weidong did not rush forward to pick up the prey, but continued to walk forward while reloading bullets. After walking a few dozen meters, he startled another group of birds.

Another shot was fired.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"Bang~"

I shot down a few more birds. I have to say it's really nice to practice shooting in a place like this.

Chen Weidong did not put down his gun, but continued to reload bullets and fired a shot at the snow pit on the ground.

After firing three shots, Chen Weidong put the gun on his back.

He walked in the direction of the shooting and picked up the prey one by one. He had grasped the timing of the shooting very well.

Shoot when the birds take off, before they have time to separate.

This is the only way to catch the most prey.

After a round, Chen Weidong picked up three hares, six pheasants, five flying dragons, and three mergansers.

There was so much prey, enough for them to eat for several days in the mountains.

Let’s have some stewed duck later. Three ducks are just enough for the four of them.

As for the hare, I'll chop it up and feed it to the dogs later.

Chen Weidong took out an axe and chopped some firewood in the valley, and lit a bonfire near the pond.

He also made a simple earthen stove, placed the big pot he brought on it, and boiled a large pot of water.

Then they start to clean up the prey. Even if they don't want to eat it today, they have to clean the prey, drain the blood, take out the internal organs, and wash it clean.

Otherwise, if you leave it overnight, the prey will be inedible. The temperature difference between the inside and outside will cause the prey's internal organs to rot quickly, and the blood will seep into the muscles, turning them sour and smelly.

Chen Weidong was very skillful. In a short while, he skinned the three rabbits. He put the skins aside, split the rabbits in half, and fed them to the dogs.

Remove the internal organs of pheasant, dragon and merganser and throw them into the pot.

After soaking for a while, take it out and start plucking the feathers. After plucking the feathers of the birds, Chen Weidong turned off the fire under the big pot, took out the pot brought by Bingzi, and re-lit it.

The big pot before was used to boil deer antler glue, and it was a big pot with eight seals specially brought here.

Now, of course I can’t use any of them to cook, so the picnic tool made by my uncle is still the most useful.

Chen Weidong put the duck fat into the pot and refined it. He took out the oil residue and threw it away, then threw in the dried chilies he brought, fried them until they were fragrant, and added onions, ginger and garlic.

This time when he went into the mountains, Chen Weidong brought a relatively complete set of things, especially food, and he brought a little bit of all kinds of ingredients.

I don't ask for anything else, I just want to eat comfortably during these few days in the mountains.

A capable person will never mistreat his stomach.

After Chen Weidong finished cooking, it didn't take long before Li Shengli and the other two came back carrying wood.

Li Shengli and his team were very particular about the wood they cut, all of which were as thick as arms.

For a temporary shack, you don't need too thick wood, a piece as thick as an arm is just right.

More importantly, this kind of wood is relatively easy to cut. Li Shengli and his two companions cut down more than a dozen pieces of wood in more than half an hour.

If the wood is as thick as a bowl, it would take three people more than an hour to chop two pieces of wood each.

"Brother Shengli, eat first and then go chop wood." Chen Weidong greeted with a smile.

"It smells delicious! Is it stewed duck?"

"Brother Shengli has a good nose. We just shot a few wild ducks and stewed the duck with the radishes we brought. Let's have a simple meal. After we build the shack, we'll make some delicious food tomorrow." Chen Weidong said with a smile.

"Haha, Weidong, you're going a bit too far.

Stewed duck with radish is a mediocre meal, but most people in the village eat pig food.

If you spread this, people will criticize you." Li Shengli said with a big laugh.

"Haha, we go into the mountains to hunt, sleeping in the open air, isn't it just to eat something good?" Chen Weidong said with a smile.

This was not a hunting trip, so when eating, Chen Weidong took a small bottle of wine with him before leaving. Chen Weidong took it out and everyone drank two sips.

Two is just right to get rid of the cold, but too much will delay things.

After all, this is deep in the mountains and wilderness. Although no wild animals have come to this valley in the past, there is no guarantee that no wild animals will come.

So, just drink a few sips to warm your body.

After dinner, Li Shengli led Bingzi and Shitou to continue chopping wood and building huts.

Chen Weidong washed the pots and dishes, and after he had cleaned up everything, he washed the large iron pot with eight seals.

Chen Weidong did not go to help Li Shengli and the other two. Instead, he took the antlers from the deer that Shitou and the others had found earlier, put them in the stream below the pond and began to wash them.

Deer shed their antlers in the spring. Up to now, the shortest ones have shed their antlers for more than ten months, and they are already covered with dust.

Chen Weidong took the brush and scrubbed it over and over in the stream until the surface looked clean. He then put it aside and continued to scrub the antlers of other deer.

After washing and removing the antlers from five deer, Chen Weidong stopped temporarily and removed the antlers from the washed deer.
Chop it into small pieces with an axe, then put it into a large eight-seal pot, add clean water, and start soaking.

Then, he went to find a few more deer with antlers removed and continued to wash them.

It sounds simple to make antler glue from antlers. All you need to do is wash them clean, chop them into pieces, soak out the impurities, boil them over low heat, filter out the impurities, and continue boiling over low heat.

Although it is not difficult, it is very troublesome to actually do it, and boiling deer antler glue is very time-consuming.
Take the step of cleaning the shed deer antlers for example. The longer the shed deer antlers are, the more dirt there will be on them, and the more troublesome it will be to clean them.

Especially since it’s winter in Northeast China, the temperature in the valley is a little higher than outside, but it’s still around minus ten degrees Celsius.

It feels so good to wash the antlers off a deer in a stream in sub-zero temperatures.

Moreover, it usually takes a whole day to boil a pot of deer antler glue, which is very time-consuming.

After Chen Weidong washed off the antlers of five deer, he went to the big guy and took down another eight-seal pot.

This time when they went into the mountains, Chen Weidong and his team brought two large eight-seal pots, which were used to boil deer antler glue.

Chen Weidong built a simple earthen stove and placed the eight-seal pot on it.

Chen Weidong chopped the deer's antlers into small pieces, put them in a pot, added water, and soaked them.

Then continue to remove the antlers from the deer, clean them, chop them into small pieces, put them in a pot and soak them in water.

Chen Weidong was stirring the antler fragments in the pot while thinking!

There are so many deer in the mountains that have shed their antlers. It is impossible to boil all of them into antler glue.

Chen Weidong was not greedy, and took advantage of the fact that the swamps in the mountains had not yet thawed! The purpose of going into the mountains this time was to get as much as possible and bring some back when he returned.

Thinking about the deer losing its antlers, Chen Weidong pondered for a while, then walked to the big man, picked up a shovel, and dug a big hole beside the stream.

This pit is not very deep, and it is impossible to dig it too deep to lead the stream water into the pit. There is a hole on the other side. When the water is full, it will flow out from the other hole and merge into the stream again.

(End of this chapter)