Traveling through the mountains and farming

The ewe in the sheepfold was licking her three lambs.

Lin Wan, who was outside the sheepfold, was worried that the ewe had given birth to three lambs. Would there be any extra goat milk for her to drink?

She quickly asked Granny Zheng next to her how to increase the ewe's milk production.

Granny Zheng smiled and told her the method.

First of all, you have to feed the ewes well and plenty of fresh grass.

Another thing is that it must drink enough clean water. Water cannot be lacking.

Also, let it go out for a walk every day to exercise its body.

The two siblings who had just run over to see the lamb quickly responded and said that they would be responsible for leading the lamb out to graze on the gentle slope from now on.

In this way, the ewes can exercise and eat fresh grass at the same time.

They also have to go out more often to cut grass, and if they can't finish it that day, they will dry it and eat it in the winter.

So for the next period of time, Lin Wan and her two siblings went out to cut grass and hunt in the morning, and took care of the small animals and vegetable fields at home in the afternoon.

Express goat milk once in the morning and once in the evening every day.

We cook goat milk once in the morning and once in the evening at home, with one cup of goat milk for each person.

If there is any left, Lin Wan will use it to make milk cakes and milk tofu.

These dairy products are not only delicious but also can be preserved for a long time.

Lin Wan had never made these two dairy products before and had only seen the production videos.

After careful recollection and many attempts, Lin Wan finally mastered the proportion of ingredients and the cooking time.

That afternoon, they used the stones they collected from inside and outside the cave to build a big nest for the two little rabbits near the sheep pen.

Taking into account that rabbits can dig holes and have strong reproductive abilities, they built the nest entirely with stones and made it very large.

The livestock they currently raise include a ewe, two lambs, two rabbits, five pheasants and a wild duck.

The little fox was not considered a domestic animal; it later became a member of their family.

The three kids named it Xiaobai.

Its original name was Xiao Huihui, but after giving it a bath, it was discovered to be a little white fox, so its name was changed to Xiaobai.

Mainly because this little fox is so spiritual, very smart and very friendly.

When they go out to pick fruits, Xiaobai will lead the way and take them to places where there are wild fruits.

It would also play with the children. Lin Wan once saw it deliberately giving way to Lin Jing.

When playing a chasing game with Lin Jing, it slowed down even though it could run very fast. When Lin Jing was about to catch up, it sped up again, making everyone laugh.

If they want to go out to pick fruits to a distant place, Lin Wan will follow Li Chongwu or Luo Dashan and others.

All of them who were living in seclusion in the cave agreed that if they were not in the nearby patrol area, they would have to be accompanied by at least one person who was good at hunting.

In this way, they spent ten days busy and orderly.

Because everyone concentrated their labor on building houses during this period, the progress of house construction was greatly advanced.

By today, everyone's house had been built.

Tomorrow is the day when the last family, Dr. Zhong, will move into his new home.

In order to thank everyone for taking care of him, Doctor Zhong prepared a thank-you gift, two bottles of wound medicine and some herbal medicine for colds to each family.

These days, Dr. Zhong goes out to collect herbs every morning and comes back in the afternoon to sort, dry and prepare them.

On the second morning, we will explain to you one or two herbs that we collected the day before.

Why not explain more?

Because if you explain too much, people won’t be able to remember.

Now that he has prepared all the healing herbs and the herbal remedies for colds and winds, he is worried that he will not have a container for the healing herbs and paper wrappers for the herbal remedies for colds and winds.

Doctor Zhong, who always smiles happily at the dinner table, looked sad while eating breakfast today.

Seeing this, Lin Wan asked, "Doctor Zhong, what are you worried about?"

"Sister, Master is worried about what to use to store the wound medicine and cold herbs he made." Lin Jing answered immediately.

"You can use bamboo tubes to hold the wound medicine, and you can use large leaves to wrap the herbs for colds," Lin Wan suggested.

Doctor Zhong shook his head. "If the wound medicine is packed in bamboo tubes, it won't be airtight and will affect its efficacy over time."

Then he continued, "Oh, it would be nice to be in the county town, I can buy ceramic bottles."

Ceramic bottle?

These three words lingered in Lin Wan's mind.

Lin Wan suddenly had an idea. She could try making a small pottery bottle.

Pottery is easier to fire than ceramics.

Her modern farm has a study course that teaches children to make pottery using the ancient earthen kiln method.

In order to ensure that the pottery could really be fired, she supervised the construction of the earthen kiln and tried to make pottery herself and fire it in it.

Although I failed several times, I finally succeeded.

Thinking of this, Lin Wan smiled and said, "Doctor Zhong, we can make pottery bottles ourselves!"

Doctor Zhong looked at her with confusion: "Firing pottery bottles? I don't know how."

Lin Wan smiled and said, "Yes, I can. I have done it before. We can give it a try."

"That's daring!"

"We have to hurry up, or we won't be able to finish it today."

After that, they quickly finished their breakfast and started to prepare.

They needed to find clay, build a kiln and prepare firewood.

Lin Wan first selected a location for building the earthen kiln and told Dr. Zhong how to build it.

Then, he took the two siblings to dig white clay from a nearby stream.

When they came back with a wooden barrel of clay, Dr. Zhong built a simple earthen kiln.

As Lin Wan said, a fire pit for burning firewood was dug at the bottom according to the slope terrain.

Above the fire pit there is a platform made of ordinary clay with several ventilation holes on it.

This is where the pottery is placed inside the earthen kiln, and Dr. Zhong has already started a fire to dry it.

A circular kiln chamber has been built outside with clay.

With the earthen kiln and clay, the next step is to make the mold.

Lin Wan poured the clay out of the wooden barrel, placed it on a clean wooden board, and kneaded it continuously like dough until the clay became soft, flexible and fine.

Then he used his hands to rub the clay into long and thin strips, and used the clay strip coiling method to shape the pottery bottle bit by bit.

She dipped some water in the pottery bottle and smeared it evenly inside and out, trying to make it as smooth as possible.

After watching the whole process of Lin Wan making the blanks, Dr. Zhong and the three children also began to learn how to make ceramic bottle blanks.

After repeated attempts and failures, they made dozens of ceramic bottle blanks, and finally selected more than twenty that were acceptable.

Lin Wan also made some blanks for cups, plates, ceramic bowls, ceramic basins, and other utensils, as well as some small ornaments in the shape of rabbits and puppies.

Then they put the blanks in a cool place and wait for them to dry naturally.

"Sister-in-law, how long do we have to wait before we can start cooking?"

"When these ceramic bottles are about 70% to 80% dry, we can try it this evening if things go well."

After hearing this, the children would check the dryness of the pottery bottles from time to time.

Time passed slowly in the anxious waiting.

Nearing evening, Lin Wan was once again pulled by the three little ones to check whether the blanks were ready for firing.

“It’s still a little short, but you can try.”

After hearing this, the three little ones carried the pottery in a winnowing basket and walked towards the earthen kiln on the gentle slope.

Since the small ceramic bottles are not big, more than ten can be put in at one time.

Together they sealed the kiln mouth with clay, then lit the fire and started firing.

The three little ones just squatted there and watched, making sure the firewood kept burning.

Li Ke asked: "How long does it take to burn?"

"It will take about two hours. You have to keep the fire burning."

The three little ones stayed beside the earthen kiln and watched the fire.

Two hours later, the first batch of pottery bottles were finally fired.

The children couldn't wait to open the kiln.

Lin Wan hurriedly stopped them: "Don't be in a hurry, wait until the kiln cools down a bit, otherwise it will easily damage the pottery bottle."

After more than a quarter of an hour, Lin Wan felt that the temperature was about right, so she carefully opened the kiln.

The children rushed forward to see if the pottery vases had been fired.

When Lin Wan took out all the pottery bottles, she found that half of them were intact and the other half were cracked.

Li Chongle said somewhat disappointedly: "What a pity, only half of them are good."

"A half success rate is pretty good," Lin Wan comforted.

"Oh, these little pottery bottles are quite pretty, so white and clean." Li Ke said with a smile.

Lin Wan also thought that these small white ceramic bottles looked pretty nice.

They planned to fire another kiln today to first produce the small pottery bottles that Doctor Zhong would use, and continue with the rest tomorrow.

Doctor Zhong was very satisfied with the small ceramic bottles they made, and decided to make more when he had time. This way he would never be short of bottles and would have something to store his pills, ointments, and powders.