SFS Chapter 125 Heavy snow seals the mountain
Chapter 125 Heavy snow seals the mountain
The next morning, Shen Youyou was awakened by the sound of wind outside. After getting up, she looked at the scenery outside and opened her mouth in surprise.
Because the cave they were in was on a high slope, from here they could just see the forest in the distance, which was covered with snow and shrouded in silver.
She was not immersed in the beautiful scenery, but the thickness of the snow at the entrance of the cave had reached the height of her knees overnight.
Really, she had never seen such heavy snow even in her previous life. There was a whistling wind and even the branches not far away were broken.
Shen Zhiqiu and the men were piling up stones at the entrance of the cave, intending to make the entrance smaller to prevent their bamboo partitions from being blown down and hitting people.
At the same time, you need to drill more holes and use bamboo to poke out from the cave to serve as a vent.
Because the heavy snow showed no sign of stopping, they were really afraid that the cave would be blocked, especially when they fell asleep at night, they would suffocate to death.
Shen Zhiqiu saw Shen Youyou stand up and whispered:
"I went out for a walk. It was snowing heavily and the temperature was even lower than last night. I told everyone not to speak loudly. Everyone should speak quietly."
Indeed, given their position, if there was an avalanche, they would be the first to be buried.
In addition to the convenience, no one was allowed to go out, and Grandpa Guo was arranged to make ginger water for everyone every day.
Even women today don’t dare to make kudzu powder and palm oil in the caves anymore, but instead make pine sugar and straw raincoats.
I was afraid that the noise would be too loud and that the avalanche Shen Zhiqiu had mentioned would happen.
As for the mothers of these children, they don’t need to do anything before the snow melts. They just need to keep an eye on their children and never let them shout loudly.
Even when eating, everyone was quiet. When Yuanbao was eating, he made a little noise, and Old Lady Hua gently scolded him: "Keep your voice down, or it will cause an avalanche and bury us all alive."
As soon as these words were spoken, the voices of the children who were eating suddenly became several times quieter. It was amazing.
After dinner, the dishes were washed by the few who were particularly careful. The other women and men were quietly making raincoats.
Li Jingshu didn't know how to make a raincoat, so she helped to tear the palm fibers. Mainly because he didn't dare to use the rake because it made a loud noise.
Li Jingshu held the brown velvet in his hand and suddenly said softly:
"Can we make this brown fleece into a quilt? It doesn't need to be too fine, nor does it need to fit the skin. We can just use it as a layer on top of our bedding."
Because I felt that in the second half of the night, even with one quilt, it was still a bit cold, and they really didn't have a second quilt.
To be honest, the winter in their area is not very cold, so no one had extra quilts in previous years.
Logically, it shouldn't be too cold, but it is unusually cold this year.
The sound was very soft, but the old ladies around her who were sewing raincoats heard it.
Mrs. Hua thought it was feasible: "Although this brown velvet is heavier than cotton, if we make it thinner, it will definitely have some effect."
The remaining old ladies thought it was feasible. They had nothing else to make quilts. They had no cloth, only brown velvet.
There is no need for cloth. If it is made into a mattress, just make it thin and cover it. It is much better than having no second layer.
Making a straw raincoat is still somewhat difficult. If one does not have good skills, the raincoat will not last long, so more people tear the palm fibers to make it.
A few people discussed it and decided that making this quilt does not require much skill. It doesn't matter if it is damaged, we can just take it apart again. There is no technical difficulty at all.
Even this thing, men can probably do it, so let women build the women's side and let the men build their own.
At any other time, just shout loudly and announce it directly.
But at this critical moment, several old ladies got up from the kang on tiptoe.
Because the raincoat was being sewn on the kang.
Not daring to speak, they waved their hands, acting as mysterious as thieves.
They discussed in low voices in groups of three or five, while Li Jingshu went to the men's side to discuss with Shen Zhiqiu.
The atmosphere in the cave was so tense that even when people got up to add some firewood, they did it quietly.
They couldn't let the kang go out, mainly because the weather was too cold. If the kang went out, they would be frozen to death even without an avalanche.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we can't even extinguish the fire for a while. There's no need to be so boring as to wait and see how long it will take for everyone to freeze to death without a fire. We won't do such a thing as seeking death.
If we were to say who felt the coldest at night, it would definitely be the men, even though they had picked a lot of wild cotton before and had to make do with the rags.
They made sure each person had a quilt, but their quilts were definitely the smallest. Men are taller than women, so when making quilts, they couldn't save cloth like we do today, where one quilt is more than enough to cover a large bed.
They were on the road to escape famine, and most of them were not rich before.
When I was in the village, the winter there was not too cold, and the men's quilts were filled with Ula grass, reed catkins, and wild cotton.
It should be said that this year's quilt is the softest they have ever had, but for some tall men, it can only cover their necks but not their feet, so there is always a part of their feet exposed to the wind.
Then they can only sleep with a hunched body, but when people fall asleep, most of them still like to lie on their backs, especially those farm men who are used to being heroic.
Many of them were woken up by the cold in the middle of the night. When they heard the suggestion from the third daughter-in-law, if they were not forbidden to shout loudly, they would have shouted happily. It was just making a quilt,
They can do anything. Who hasn't learned to make a straw raincoat? The principle is similar. Even if they don't have good skills, they still know how to sew.
As long as the seams are strong and they don't break every few days, it doesn't matter if they are ugly. Some details are not worth mentioning when it comes to keeping warm.
Especially when they think about not having to curl up to sleep at night or being woken up by the cold in the middle of the night, they can do anything.
Seeing that they were busy, Shen Youyou also prepared to do her own thing. She originally planned to ask her sisters to help her make the soap.
Looking at this situation, Shen Youyou thought, forget it. What if she wasn't careful about the volume when she spoke? Wouldn't they be completely finished?
In fact, the sound intensity required to trigger an avalanche is at least 140 decibels. Normally, human voice cannot reach this level.
Although sound can transfer energy and potentially affect the stability of snowpack, it is uncommon for avalanches to be triggered simply by human shouting in a natural environment.
But uncommon doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and I don’t want to lose everything because of carelessness.
That's why Shen Zhiqiu was so nervous. The main reason was that the snow was really unusual. So in order not to give herself the chance to make mistakes, Shen Youyou decided to make the first batch of scented soaps by herself, and let the sisters make palm quilts.
If you want to make scented soap, or scented soap with rosin flavor, the first step is not to make the soap, but to extract the rosin essential oil.
Shen Youyou chose to use the distillation method, and because she had all the necessary equipment, the jar for distilling alcohol could be kept intact.