Song Yuanhuanzhi

Chapter 24
Song Huan's plan today is to tan the rabbit fur.

She also accumulated nine furs during this period, and it would be more convenient to tan them all at once.

It will take about a month to tan the fur, and it will be almost snowy when the tanning is finished, which is the cold time.

Song Huan quietly left the main room and went to the kitchen. The porridge was cooking on the stove, and there was hot water in another pot. Song Huan washed his face with hot water and rinsed his mouth.

Then another piece of firewood was added to the porridge stove, and another stove was heated to prepare tea water.

There seem to be many ways to tan fur, but she has not touched this field of knowledge, which belongs to her blind spot of knowledge.

Now the only thing in my mind is the method that father Song taught Yuanshen, which is tanning with tea water.

When boiling tea, boil it for as long as possible, so that the elements (tannic acid) in the tea leaves can completely seep into the water.

When the temperature of the tea water drops to normal temperature, take some tea water and pour it on the hairless inner side of the fur, and then rub it with your hands continuously.

The rubbing should last for a long time, because the leather needs to absorb the tea water.

In addition, the hairy side of the fur belt does not need to touch the tea water.

After the tea water is absorbed by the skin, take a little more tea water and sprinkle it on the inside of the fur, and then fold and wrap the inside and the inside.

Be careful not to let the tea water flow out of the fur during the folding process.

After the fur is wrapped, put it in a cool place for half a month, and then it can be taken out for patting and rubbing.

When the leather is thoroughly tanned, it should be washed with clean water, and then stretched with a frame to dry.

Now that the stove was boiling tea water, Song Huan went outside the yard to soften the raw hide.

She used to air-dry the raw rabbit skin, and put it in the kitchen to smoke and dry it on rainy days. In this way, she only needs to soak it in clean water to soften it.

When the raw hide is soaked in water, it should be stirred and kneaded continuously, and the stains on the inner and outer sides of the raw hide should be cleaned.

After cleaning the hide, place the hide on a slanted stake at an angle of about 45 degrees.

Turn the hairless side of the hide up, and use a blunt knife or scraper to scrape off any remaining fat and flesh on the hide.

When scraping off the residue, use a little force, otherwise the residue will be difficult to scrape off.But at the same time, be careful not to cut the leather with too much force.

This afternoon, Song Huan failed to clean up the nine skins. It may be that the soaking time was not enough, and the skins were not fully swollen, let alone the residue on the skins. Song Huan just gave up and left them in the Soaking in the bucket.

It's a pity that the tea water has already been boiled. Fortunately, the weather is cold at night, so it's okay to leave it for another day.

The day passed by in such a flash.

next day
The sky was dark, with thick gray clouds piling up in the sky.

When Song Huan got up, he stirred the fur that had been soaked overnight. It took about a quarter of an hour. After washing it twice, he treated yesterday's tea water according to the procedure. Scraping the residue is not the most tiring thing, but patting and rubbing.

In order for the fur to fully absorb the tea water, she can only rub and pat it constantly, and she has to be careful not to flow out of the fur.

After the nine furs were piled up in the shade, Song Huan felt that his waist could not straighten up.

At this time, Brother was pouring a cup of hot water from the house, "Sister, drink water."

Song Huan supported the wall with his left hand, took the water with his right hand, and drank it in one gulp, "What did brother write today?"

Brother directly took out his own words from the room, "Sister, look."

Song Huan read each word carefully, nodded, and praised, "My handwriting is getting better and better!"

Adi shyly put the words back and put them away carefully, tomorrow he will bring these to his parents to see.

Song Huan stuck his head out of the eaves and looked at the sky.

Today is cloudy, gloomy all day.

Looking at Fu Yuanzhi who was still struggling, he said, "It's too dark today, don't do it first, don't read and damage your eyes, and make clothes."

Fu Yuanzhi paused, "Then I'll take this injection first, and I'll be fine after I'm done with this."

Song Huan nodded, "Then hurry up, eyes are important."

Then he patted the brother next to him, "Quick, go and urge your big brother."

Adi chuckled, ran to sit down beside Fu Yuanzhi, and looked back at Aunt Sister.

Song Huan gave a "well done" look.

After Adi received it, he kept looking at Fu Yuanzhi, "Big Brother, Adi will accompany you."

Fu Yuanzhi, "..."

Song Huan went to the side of the water tank and polished the hoe with a whetstone, so that digging the soil would be much easier.

As the weather gets cooler, she plans to dig a charcoal kiln on a sunny slope next to the vegetable garden.

Although she has never dug, but when she was a child, she and her parents went to see the charcoal kiln they fired before, and she knew the general appearance. Although it may be a bit difficult to reproduce the exact same one, the general outline should be ok.

It's just that I don't have much certainty about the charcoal produced by burning. I don't know how long it will take to burn, and I don't know how long the kiln can be sealed, and how long it will take to unseal it.

She vaguely remembered that if the kiln was dismantled too early, the charcoal inside would be melted away, wouldn't it be a waste of fire?
It doesn't matter much to open the kiln. She took seven or eight days to demolish the head office, right?The main thing is the firing process.

Now she lacks everything, but she does not lack time. When the time comes, she will think about it slowly, and there will always be a time for success.

In this way, brother and the others are reading and practicing calligraphy, and it is much more comfortable to put a carbon basin next to them, and when it snows or frosts, you can also put a carbon basin in the room at night, and it will be warmer then.

Song Huan spent two quarters of an hour polishing the hoes, and put them under the eaves. He will go to the mountains tomorrow to see if there are any prey, and he can start digging the kiln the day after tomorrow.

Time passed in the blink of an eye. I went into the mountains yesterday, and the harvest was not too big, but I got a basket of wild pears the size of eggs, which are called "bird pears" in the local language.

As for why it is called this name, maybe it is because it is eaten by birds?
Song Huan tasted one, it was a little sweet in the mouth, after a few mouthfuls of chewing, it was sour, and the astringency gradually came up. It can only be said that the taste is very rich, and it is quite good for refreshing brother.

Song Huan roughly divided the scope today. The soil here is softer and there are fewer stones, so it is much more convenient and easier to dig a kiln.

As for the soil she dug out, she planned to pour it on the new land, so it couldn't be wasted.

She roughly recalled that according to her father's previous posture of going in, the maximum height needed to be dug was about 1.2 meters, and the space inside was roughly a cylinder.

This is a bit of a workload. Not only does it require a hoe, but also a shovel. The shovel is rarely used, and Song's father left it in the shed in the backyard and it was rusted.

Song Huan had to turn it out and polish it before using it.

The shovel is still easier to use. In the afternoon, she also dug a small hole and carried the dug soil into the vegetable field.

In this way, I went to see the traps one day, took the prey with the prey, and brought back the firewood if there was no prey, and dug the cave dwelling in a day. The two things went back and forth. It took half a month, and the cave dwelling was finally completed.

There is also a pile of stones beside the entrance of the cave, which will be needed to close the cave.

The new soil dug out only covers the ground with a shallow layer, and the rest is piled up in the vegetable field.

　The oldest tanning methods: vegetable tanning, oil tanning, brain tanning.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)