American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 54 The Flesh Curtain and the Woodshed

Then, Lin Yu'an laid out horizontal and parallel steel fishing lines inside the smoking room.

The crossbeams that suspend the meat strips are designed to withstand the weight of tens of kilograms of venison.

Finally, for the roof, he first used several thinner wooden poles to build it at a slight angle.

The rafters extend from one wall of the smoking chamber to the top of the other wall, forming the roof rafter frame.

Then, on the rafters, he first laid down a layer of birch bark that he had collected earlier, and then covered it with a large amount of moss.

He deliberately left some narrow gaps as channels for the smoke to escape.

With the smoking room ready, Lin Yu'an returned to the shelter to prepare for smoking the meat.

"Before smoking, the venison needs to be cut into long strips or thin slices so that it is easier to smoke thoroughly."

He picked up a piece of venison hind leg meat, and the sharp multi-tool moved nimbly in his hand.

Following the natural grain of the muscle, the thick venison is cut into strips of varying lengths, each about five to ten centimeters wide.

He cut very carefully, striving to keep the meat strips of uniform thickness with each cut.

This ensures that they are heated and dehydrated to a consistent degree during smoking.

After all the venison had been cut and processed, Lin Yu'an began to hang it on the wire beams inside the smoking room.

Soon, the smokehouse was filled with densely packed strips of meat, with pink and dark red pieces hanging interspersed.

In the dim light filtering through the gaps in the roof, a rather spectacular "flesh curtain" was formed.

He specially adjusted the spacing between the meat strips to ensure that there were at least gaps between them so that the smoke could circulate fully and evenly coat and smoke each piece of meat.

"All the venison is now 'on the shelves,' and we can start smoking it!"

"The key to smoking is the 'smoke' rather than the 'fire'; what is needed is a large amount of continuous, thick smoke."

Lin Yu'an used a few stones to simply enclose a fireproof area about half a meter in diameter on the ground in the center of the smoke chamber.

First, start a small fire in it using dry, fine firewood and reeds.

Once the fire had stabilized, he began adding the half-burning charcoal and covering it with a large amount of slightly damp pine needles and moss.

These damp materials do not burn intensely when heated by charcoal.

Instead, it smolders slowly, producing a large amount of thick, long-lasting white smoke and emitting a unique aroma that blends pine resin and needles.

Soon, the entire smoke chamber was completely enveloped in thick, milky-white smoke.

"The smoking process usually takes several days, depending on the size of the meat, the intensity of the smoking, and the desired preservation effect."

“I don’t need such dry jerky. The current temperature is enough to prevent semi-dried jerky from spoiling.”

He gently closed the simple wooden door of the smoking chamber, leaving only a tiny gap to observe the interior.

Then they stepped aside and quietly watched over this "food factory" that was undergoing the smoking process.

The time has come to the forty-eighth day.

Since yesterday evening, Lin Yu'an's attention has been almost entirely occupied by this smoke room.

Every one or two hours, he would leave the shelter to carefully check the concentration of charcoal and smoke inside the smokehouse.

And always keep an eye on the smoldering incense to see if any new, damp pine needles need to be added.

To guard against nocturnal predators that might be attracted by the smell of meat.

He tied several thin fishing lines he had taken from his tackle bag to the paths around the smokehouse, with a few small bait bells attached to the other end of each line.

Any uninvited guest's intrusion will trigger a crisp alarm.

Fortunately, the bait bell remained silent throughout the night.

Lin Yu-an slept intermittently for a few hours last night, and felt fairly well this morning.

The first thing he did after getting up was to get up and walk quickly to the smoking room.

As you approach, an even stronger aroma of meat, mixed with the smoky scent of pine resin, wafts towards you.

He pushed open the makeshift door made of thin wooden stakes.

Inside, smoke still lingered, and the hanging strips of venison, after being smoked overnight, had visibly shrunk in size.

The color also changed from bright red to a very appetizing, oily deep reddish-brown.

"Yes, the smoking process is progressing better than expected."

Lin Yu'an muttered to himself as he added some new fuel to the bonfire to ensure the smoke would last throughout the day.

Back in the stone house, the fire in the hearth was rekindled.

He heated the pan-fried venison tenderloin that he had specially saved from the previous night in a stainless steel pot.

The fat melts rapidly under high temperature, making a soft "sizzling" sound. Paired with a cup of hot tea made from freshly picked pine needles, this marks the start of the energizing forty-eighth day. "Guys, the venison still needs to be smoked continuously, but I can't just sit here all day doing nothing."

Lin Yu-an spoke to the camera while enjoying the delicious pan-fried venison.

"The firewood piled up outside the shelter is getting bigger and bigger, so I decided to build a storage shed for it today to prevent it from getting wet from the rain and snow."

"Winter is coming soon, and I need to stockpile a huge amount of firewood to get through it safely."

"If these firewoods are simply piled up in the open, they are easily damp and their burning efficiency will be affected if there is continuous rain or snow."

"Therefore, a woodshed that can shelter from the wind and rain is very necessary. It doesn't need to be too complicated; the key is to have a roof."

"The key is to keep an eye on the smokehouse while doing other things, so as to prevent it from being robbed."

He chose the location for the woodshed to be behind the stone house shelter, right next to the stone wall.

The stone wall can be used as a natural barrier and is also convenient for daily use.

He selected two wooden poles, each about two and a half meters long, from some leftover spruce logs from when he built the smokehouse, to serve as the main load-bearing pillars on the front of the woodshed.

Use a logging axe to carve the bottom of each post into a sharp wedge shape.

Then, with its sharp bottom end aligned with the hole dug in the ground, use the back of the axe to forcefully smash it into the relatively soft soil.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!" A dull thud sounded.

He repeatedly adjusted the angle of each pillar and tamped the soil around it with his feet to make it stable.

After the two tall pillars were in place, he began to build the roof frame.

He selected a pine pole longer than the expected width of the woodshed as the front crossbeam connecting the two tall pillars.

He cut grooves on the inner tops of the two pillars and at the corresponding contact points at both ends of the crossbeam.

The front crossbeam was securely placed in the groove at the top of the two tall pillars.

Then, using willow bark rope, the connection points between the beam and the column are tightly bound and reinforced in a crisscross manner.

He then found several relatively thinner branches to use as rafters.

He placed one end of each rafter at intervals over the newly fixed front beam and secured it with willow bark rope.

The other end of the rafters naturally slopes backward and downward, thus forming a distinct single-slope roof frame.

"The key to a roof is to prevent rain and snow, so it must have a sufficient slope so that rain and snow can slide off smoothly."

Finally, when it came to the roofing material, he didn't choose birch bark, but decided to make full use of the abundant reed resources nearby.

He then went to the lakeside or shallow streams and quickly collected a large amount of withered and dried reeds.

He bundled the reeds together, starting from the bottom of the roof, and laid them tightly, layer upon layer, on the sloping rafters.

He laid it very thickly, several centimeters thick, and secured it to the rafters below with willow bark ropes to prevent it from being blown away by strong winds.

The structure of this woodshed is extremely simple, with a sloping reed roof supported by two tall pillars in front.

The back is directly grounded or placed on low wood, with both sides completely open for easy access to firewood.

Although it had almost no decent walls, it occupied a large area, enough to hold the firewood he would need for the next few weeks or even longer.

And it can effectively protect them from rain and snow from above.

If needed later, he could also consider using tree branches to build a fence of tree branches on both sides of the woodshed.

"Alright, guys, my makeshift woodshed is finished! It's simple, but it's enough to keep out the wind and rain."

Building this makeshift woodshed took up almost his entire day.

As the western sun began to sink into the silhouette of the distant mountains, Lin Yu-an finally finished all his work.

They then neatly stacked the collected firewood under the newly built firewood shed.

As night fell again, the fireplace inside the stone house was relit, radiating a warm glow.

Lin Yu'an then briefly heated the remaining pan-fried venison tenderloin on the hot stone slab above the stove.

Accompanied by a few pieces of roasted wild onions, this was his dinner after a hard day's work.

After the meal, he did not rest immediately, but went to the smokehouse again to carefully check the condition of the smoke fire.

They added some new charcoal and damp pine needles.

After confirming that everything was alright, Lin Yu'an returned to the warm stone house shelter, ready to face another unknown night on the shores of Lake Chirko.

(Thanks to all the shareholders for their strong support, I was able to experience the achievement of suppressing the platinum status for one day during the new book launch period.)

(It's confirmed to be released on July 1st. I'll work on it for two days straight this weekend to accumulate as many copies as possible.)

(This chapter contains 2800 words. Please vote with your monthly tickets.)
(End of this chapter)