Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Chapter 1125 Start Burning Now

After breakfast, Huang Li and Liu Guilan cleared the table together, while Wang Dazhu, Wang An, and Huang Zhong got busy.

The fuel for the Earth Fire Dragon is made of wood chunks or tree trunks, along with wet sawdust.

Of course, other fuels can also be used, such as tree branches, bark, straw, and wet leaves, as well as sorghum stalks and chaff.

However, the fuel in the cellar has a shorter burning time, meaning it can burn for a short period of time. It might take half a month or a month for the fuel in the cellar to run out, and then the cellar needs to be opened and fuel added again, which is relatively troublesome.

Therefore, tree roots, that is, logs mixed with wet sawdust, or thick tree trunks mixed with sawdust are the best.

Once lit, as long as the air intake is properly controlled, it can normally burn for the entire winter without needing to add fuel again, which is quite convenient.

Although Kaoshantun is surrounded by trees and has abundant timber resources, it lacks any real timber.

Because digging up logs was a very time-consuming and laborious task in those days, no one would bother digging up logs when there were plenty of trees.

Furthermore, after the tree is felled, simply cover the stump with soil, and once the branches have grown out, leave the two thickest branches and cut off all the rest. Then, in just a few years, these two branches will regrow into a large tree.

Of course, trees that grow to maturity in this way are called secondary trees, and such a forest can be called a secondary forest.

In general, digging out the tree stumps after planting the tree is completely unnecessary.

The fuel Wang Anjia added to the fire dragon was thick tree trunks and wet sawdust.

The thick tree trunks and logs left over from when Wang Anjia built his house were all left aside and not chopped into firewood, so this time they were all stuffed into the fire dragon.

Wang An watched with a pang of heartache as Wang Dazhu cut the fine timber into sections with a chainsaw, and said to Wang Dazhu:

"Dad, this wood is so good, isn't it a bit of a waste to just burn it as firewood?"

Wang Dazhu said without even looking up:

"What's there to regret? After the heavy snow, we can go to the mountains and plant a few more trees, bring them back, and leave them there. They'll be ready to use next spring."

After saying this, Wang Dazhu seemed to have thought of something, suddenly raised the chainsaw in his hand, turned to Wang An and said:

"What kind of furniture do you want to make with this wood? If you want to use it, we'll pick out the best pieces and save them for you. Anyway, we still have plenty of wood in the backyard of our old house."

Wang An shook his head and said:

"No need, no need to keep it. I don't really want to make any furniture. It's just a waste to use such a thick tree trunk for firewood."

To be fair, the pine trunk that Wang Dazhu was sawing at this moment was nearly half a meter in diameter, and it was almost the same thickness from top to bottom, so it could definitely be called a piece of excellent timber.

Unfortunately, such good timber was sawed into small pieces by Wang Dazhu, who is always frugal and stingy. To be honest, this is simply a waste of resources!

There was no other way; the timber resources were simply too plentiful, and the locals didn't care about the timber at all. They just squandered it as much as they wanted. To be frank, at that time, when the locals needed firewood for cooking, no one even wanted to burn tree branches. They only wanted to burn the thick logs, splitting them up and using them as firewood.

What's really strange is that even though the locals don't seem to care much about trees, the number of big trees around the village doesn't decrease at all; in fact, they seem to grow better every year. That's just ridiculous!

Only in the forest farm area, perhaps due to logging methods, were there patches of empty space in the forest. Years later, they even came up with the slogan "Protect trees, prohibit indiscriminate logging, and give animals a home."

To put it bluntly, this is basically them cutting down all the trees, pocketing all the money from selling them, and then expecting others to cherish the trees, plant new forests, and even rebuild homes for the animals.
What the hell should we say on this one day?
Upon hearing Wang An's words, Wang Dazhu glared at him sharply and said in an annoyed tone:
"You're just wasting time. Why don't you take it easy these days? Hurry up and move the wood to the cellar. You're just wasting time."

Wang An chuckled, not caring at all. He pulled over a small cart and started loading it with wood. Once it was full, he pushed the cart directly into the cellar along the slope at the entrance.

Stack the thick tree trunks one by one in the cellar, trying not to leave too many gaps between them. If the gaps are too large, it will increase the chance of open flames. This will make the tree trunks burn faster, causing the ground heating to stop prematurely.

Of course, even if there are some gaps, it's not a big problem, because that's when you'll need to use wet sawdust.

The Wang family had no shortage of sawdust; they collected a lot of it when they were building their house in the spring.

Dry sawdust is absolutely unacceptable as fuel for the ground fire dragon; it must be wet sawdust that has been soaked, because only wet sawdust has a fire-retardant effect, preventing the tree trunk from catching fire.

After all the tree trunks from several carts were pushed into the combustion pit, Wang An said to Huang Zhong, who was watering and stirring the sawdust:
"Xiao Zhong, push the sawdust in. Just unload it to one side. Push two cartloads first, that should be enough."

Although Huang Zhong was slower to develop and less strong, the best thing about this child was that he was obedient. He would do whatever he was told and would never say a word of objection.

So after Wang An finished speaking, Huang Zhong agreed and began to use another small cart to load sawdust.

In this way, cartloads of tree trunks were pushed into the combustion pit, and shovelfuls of wet sawdust were poured into the crevices of the tree trunks.

The three of them worked together, each doing their own job, and the speed was quite fast. In just one morning, both combustion pits were filled with fuel.

Looking at the combustion chamber filled with fuel, Wang An asked Wang Dazhu:
"Dad, when are we going to light the fire? Or should we start burning it now?"

Wang Dazhu thought for a moment and said:

"What day was Xueqing's birthday?"

Wang An remembered the birth time of his child with remarkable accuracy, for this was the continuation of his bloodline from two lifetimes.

Therefore, upon hearing this, Wang An replied without hesitation:

"At the end of this month or the beginning of next month, are you planning to light the fire again, Dad?"

Wang Dazhu thought for a moment and said:

"No, it's getting really cold before dark. Let's start burning it now and mix the mud. Once we have a fire, we can put bricks on it to seal the cellar door."

(End of this chapter)