From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 106 Child's Grandfather
After harvest, the grapes remain almost entirely in the wooden boxes.

Chen Zhou placed its food bowl and water bowl next to the wooden box, and the customized "cat litter box" was not far away.

Tizi is a very patient mother and takes good care of the kittens.

Newborn kittens cannot defecate on their own and need stimulation from their mother's licking.

After drinking milk and falling asleep, kittens are easily crushed by their mother cats. This is because kittens have weak motor skills and their bodies are not strong enough. If they are crushed under the mother cat for a long time, they are very likely to suffocate.

Chen Zhou placed the cat bed next to the bed with the intention of taking care of Tizi and also looking after the kittens.

After all, Grape is taking care of the kittens, licking their fur and feeding them all day long, so she must be very tired. If she is not careful, she might crush the kittens.

At critical moments, he, as the "cat grandfather", can be of some use and contribute to the growth of the kittens.

In addition to helping Ti Zi take care of the kitten, Chen Zhou also has to rack his brains to prepare "confinement meals" for it.

Three kittens are not a small number. As they grow up, they will need more and more milk.

Grape's size is only average among female cats. If she is not fed well, the three kittens will suck her milk dry in a month.

In order to provide Grape with nutritious "confinement meals", Chen Zhou planned to go to the Pigeon Cave again in the rain, catch some pigeons and get some saltpeter.

……

Speaking of saltpeter, Chen Zhou has actually been studying how to make an insulated box during this period of time.

There are many good materials for insulation on the island, such as driftwood and foam provided as rewards.

Chen Zhou has always had a dream of drinking iced drinks during the dry season.

The temperature on the island could not drop below zero, so his dream could only be realized with saltpeter.

In addition to iced drinks, he also wanted to preserve some fresh lamb, rabbit, fruits and vegetables.

He was really tired of eating things like seal jerky, rabbit meatballs, dried kelp, and dried lemon.

Especially seal jerky.

It felt a bit fresh when I first ate it, but now when I slice it and cook it, it feels like eating pre-prepared meals from a modern small workshop, or freeze-dried meat chunks in the seasoning packet of instant noodles. It's disgusting no matter how I eat it.

Compared to this shelf-stable air-dried food, frozen food obviously tastes better.

The refrigeration capacity of saltpeter is unquestionable, but the temperature on the island is too high, and placing it in an ordinary place still cannot guarantee a long-term freezing and preservation effect.

Chen Zhou originally planned to dig a cellar, but because of Grape's upcoming birth and other trivial matters, it has been delayed until now.

If not, a new round of cave excavation and expansion work should have begun long ago.

After several cuts, the safe steel plate placed on the beach has been successfully transformed into the shape of a pickaxe head.

A sharp pickaxe head made of pure steel is much stronger than an ironwood pickaxe head.

The only drawback is that there is no hole on the pick head for installing the wooden handle, so it can only be tied with a rope.

After living on the island for so long, Chen Zhou, who initially knew nothing about knots, is now able to use hemp ropes to tighten wooden sticks and build tents and wooden houses that are strong enough.

It was no difficult task for him to tie the pickaxe head and wooden handle tightly with a rope.

However, the wear resistance of hemp rope is limited. If used in heavy working environments for a long time, it will soon become loose and broken.

If you want to make your steel pick more durable, there is only one suitable binding material to use -

A climbing rope is provided with the climbing bag.

However, tying a steel pickaxe with a climbing rope requires cutting the climbing rope. This kind of good thing cannot be manufactured, and it cannot be restored after being cut.

Worried that he might need the climbing rope for important work in the future, Chen Zhou did not waste it.

Although the hemp rope needs to be replaced frequently, which is indeed a bit troublesome, it is sufficient for use.

……

According to Chen Zhou's plan, he wanted to expand the depth of the kitchen by about two meters, and then dig a three-meter-deep cellar at the innermost part.

The cellar entrance is one meter square, with a wooden cover and accessed via a ladder.

The walls of the cellar were made of stone bricks and white mud, and then a layer of cut driftwood boards were glued on top - he also planned to boil some fish bladder glue.

In the cellar wrapped in driftwood, there are several double-layered square pottery jars.

The pottery jar is composed of a large square jar and a small square jar nested together. Water and saltpeter are placed in the space between the two jars, and meat or vegetables and fruits that need to be refrigerated are stored in the small square jar.

However, due to the arrival of the rainy season, the large pottery kiln could not start production for a while, and the double-layer square pottery jars had to be put on hold temporarily.

The foam box is not affected and can be used after cutting, gluing and fixing the shape.

Of course, the durability of foam is far less than that of ceramic pots. Due to the limited amount of foam, the volume of refrigerated items is also smaller than that of ceramic pots, so it can only be used temporarily.

……

It is raining continuously now, and it is temporarily impossible to build a "fully functional cellar". Chen Zhou can only use a large amount of saltpeter to achieve his goal.

Between August 8 and 21, he went out in the rain many times, not only catching pigeons for the grapes to stew, but also some small fish and frogs. As for the rabbits caught in the rabbit snare, the number was even greater.

In most cases, these ingredients are simply processed and then stewed directly in the pot.

Chen Zhou would occasionally add some salt to it to boost appetite, as Grape obviously didn't like food that was too bland.

When taking care of Tizi, Chen Zhou often thought that it would be great if the mother goat gave birth before Tizi. Then it would not be a problem to squeeze out two cups of milk every day to feed the kitten, which would greatly relieve Tizi's stress.

Fortunately, kittens now have limited appetite, and the "confinement meal" provided by "the child's grandfather" can fully meet Grape's nutritional needs.

After feeding for a few days, instead of losing weight, Grape gained some weight.

……

After the three kittens' hair dried, it became fluffy like balls of yarn, and the colors became clearer.

Among them, there are two females and one male.

The eldest and the third are female cats. The eldest cat's fur has three colors, including black, yellow and brown. She looks like a piece of moldy bread or a rag that has been used for many years.

The third kitten inherited the fur color of Little Gray, which is mainly gray. He is the smallest of the three kittens.

As the only male cat, the second one was the largest one when he was born. Most of its fur color was inherited from its mother, with various black and brown patterns. It is 90% similar to Grape, but in terms of body proportions, it looks very much like Xiaohuihui.

The second and third children inherited Xiao Huihui's figure and hair, and also inherited Xiao Huihui's appetite.

Every day when they are feeding, they are the most active. They fall asleep when they are full without making any noise or making any fuss. It is very worry-free.

Although the eldest cub was the largest, he was often at a disadvantage in the battle for nipples. In just four days, his size was surpassed by the youngest cub.

……

It was a rare occasion for a family to have new members, so as per convention, Chen Zhou decided to give the three kittens names.

Otherwise, if you always call them the eldest, the second oldest, and the third oldest, it will become fluent and you won’t be able to change it in the future.

He thought about it for a long time and came up with some common names such as Yuanbao, Pangpang, and Mimi, as well as some more abstract names, but in the end he didn't decide on any.

He thought it would be better to wait until the kittens grew up and give them names according to their personalities.

…Since the morning of the 24th, I have been busy cooking pigeons, roasting frogs, and preparing confinement meals for Grapes.

In the afternoon, when he went to the storage room to get lamp oil, he passed by the rat pen. Remembering that the female rats had been pregnant for nearly a month, Chen Zhou casually glanced inside.

Unexpectedly, with just a casual glance, he saw two hairless little mice under the belly of a mother mouse in the mouse pen. The mice were thinner than their little fingers and curled up under the mother mouse, looking for milk.

"The crops in the field have had a good harvest, and the mice in the house have also borne fruit..."

After the "apartment building" for the mother mice and their pups was built, there was no time to move them to their new home.

A few days ago, he had thought that the mother mouse would give birth to mice after giving birth to grapes, but he was too busy taking care of the kittens to remember this.

If I hadn't happened to glance at him, something unexpected might have happened.

After all, there are two male rats in the rat pen, and it is unknown what breed these baby rats are.

God knows whether they will fight over the ownership of their children, or even more extreme, like African lions, they will directly bite to death the baby mice that are not of their own blood.

Chen Zhou, the female mouse in labor, did not dare to move. She could only put on rabbit fur gloves and take the other five female mice with big bellies to the new apartment building.

These mice have been kept in rat pens since they were young. They have basically no concept of the outside world and do not have much awareness of escaping or finding food on their own. They are relatively docile in nature.

Apart from their own kind, the creature they had the most contact with was Chen Zhou, so they had no resistance to being captured by Chen Zhou and arrived at their new home very obediently.

Of course, this may also be because these female mice are about to give birth and have no energy to resist.

After all, the rat pen is only so big, and they have nowhere to go even if they want to escape.

After transferring the five pregnant female mice, I looked at the female mouse that was still giving birth in the mouse pen - it had already started giving birth to its fourth baby.

The two male rats were frightened by Chen Zhou's big hand that fell from the sky and hid in the corner, not daring to approach the female rat.

Chen Zhou protected the mother mouse with his hands until she gave birth to five puppies. Then he carefully picked her up, picked up the puppies one by one, and moved all six of them to their safe new home.

……

That night, he carried an oil lamp and performed a strict "room allocation" task for the expectant mothers.

When building the "rat apartment building", he divided it out into separate rooms in advance, with gaps between each room only wide enough for a rat to pass through, to prevent frequent communication between mother rats and their baby rats. Now, it finally came in handy.

……

August 8th is the date when the mysterious reward will arrive.

I thought I would be bored to death in the cave during the rainy season, and I would have to find something to do to pass the time every day.

I didn't expect that after being a "nurse", "midwife" and wet nurse for grapes, I would have to take care of mice now.

Back and forth, he went to the Pigeon Cave and went to the river to catch fish and frogs. He was busy for several days and Chen Zhou almost forgot about the mysterious reward.

……

God is not good at it.

The city was already troubled by trivial matters, and heavy rain fell on the 26th.

The rain was pouring down outside the cave, and even the rain shelter on the pottery kiln could not hold up.

Chen Zhou got up from the bed in a daze in the morning, put on his clothes, and had no time to wash up. He hurriedly put on his raincoat and hurriedly reinforced the rain shelter.

His mind was not clear, he only wore a straw raincoat and forgot to wear a wide-brimmed hat.

After being hit by the torrential rain service, he had a free hair wash. His neck, back, and butt were all wet. Chen Zhou's muddled head finally became clear.

He ran back to the kitchen, put on his wide-brimmed hat, and started a fire. After the rainproof awning was reinforced and he dried himself, he returned to the platform.

Fortunately, there were enough wooden boards and sticks carried into the cave before the rainy season, so the temporary reinforcement of the rainproof shed was particularly smooth. If it hadn't been for the heavy rain affecting the vision, the progress would have been even faster.

Chen Zhou finally felt relieved after confirming that the pottery kiln was not affected by the heavy rain.

Returning to the kitchen, he stripped off his clothes and hung them up by the stove, drying his clothes and body while cooking.

This morning, Grape had boiled fish and half a roasted wild pigeon left over from yesterday.

Chen Zhou and Lai Fu’s meals are mainly meat, mixed with a small amount of rice.

Perhaps due to the lack of carbohydrates, he felt that he had lost a lot of weight, but he couldn't eat fried or deep-fried seal meat.

This forced "weight loss" may continue for some time before the stone mill cutting and assembly is completed.

Unless he could find cassava, a staple of Native Americans, whose starchy content would make up for the deficiencies in his current diet.

After getting dressed, eating, and feeding Tuzi and Lai Fu, Chen Zhou went to the storage room to check on the condition of the female mice.

As he expected, the pregnancy date and delivery date of all the female mice were consistent, with a difference of less than 12 hours.

The female mouse last night was the first to give birth to baby mice. Shortly after it gave birth, probably late at night or early in the morning, five other female mice also gave birth one after another.

When Chen Zhou arrived at the female mice's new home, he found that all the female mice's stomachs were deflated.

Most of the independent "mother and baby rooms" have five baby mice, but there is also a mother mouse that has only given birth to four cubs, and is now hugging the ugly little mouse to feed it.

Naturally, the mother mice after giving birth could not receive the same treatment as Grape. Although their food standards were improved, most of what they ate were the leftovers of Grape, Xiao Huihui and Lai Fu.

For example, fish bones, fish heads and tails, pigeon bones, pigeon wings and pigeon broth, etc.

Despite this, their quality of life is still countless times better than that of wild mice. After all, mice don't eat as much as cats, so leftovers are enough to fill their stomachs.

……

After finishing the chores at home, the rain has weakened, but it is not suitable to go out yet.

Having put on a fur raincoat and a wide-brimmed hat in advance, Chen Zhou sat at the kitchen door waiting, feeling a little anxious.

Last time’s mysterious reward – a box of garlic – was really useful.

After planting in pots, tender green garlic sprouts have grown out and are arranged in a row, looking very pleasing to the eye.

Influenced by this, Chen Zhou is also looking forward to this mysterious reward.

Today should have been the day to reveal the answer, but the damn rain just wouldn't stop, making him worried that the reward items would be damaged.

If the rain outside had been lighter, reducing the risk of getting sick from getting wet, he would have set off earlier.

Unfortunately, the weather did not go as he wished. He sat there from morning to afternoon. The rain eased a little several times, but soon became fierce again, leaving him without the courage to go out.

He knew clearly which was more important, his life or the reward items.

Huddled in the cave, looking at the platform shrouded in rain, Chen Zhou could only pray silently.

The rewards this time must not be very important tools or resources or precision instruments.

If it is an important tool resource, it must have a strict waterproof outer packaging and must not be destroyed by heavy rain, otherwise he will be very uncomfortable.

He even had an idea he had never had before.

That is, he hopes that this reward is a piece of trash among trash, so that even if it is washed into the sea, he will not feel sad, and he can save up his luck for the next reward.

(End of this chapter)