From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 67 Leather Raincoat

The most annoying thing about the island's rainy season is the erratic timing of rainfall.

The sky was clear just a moment ago, but in the blink of an eye, a layer of clouds appeared and it started to rain. The rain could be heavy or light, and it came and went quickly, making it impossible to prevent.

As a native inland person, Chen Zhou had never seen a larger river. The "lake" he was most familiar with was the local reservoir.

After arriving on the island, I could accept everything except the climate, which was really hard to adapt to.

On the morning of March 3, after eating, he arrived at the beach to move cement.

When we arrived at the beach, the weather was fine and the sun was shining. After we moved a few bags of cement, the sunlight was blocked and it started to rain.

Fortunately, he had eaten a full meal in the morning and had plenty of energy, so he jogged back to the tent carrying the cement and the cement bag didn't get wet.

In fact, whether the cement gets wet or not is secondary. What Chen Zhou is most worried about is his own health.

The two rainy seasons each year last nearly four months in total. During these four months, if you go out to work, you will inevitably be exposed to the rain. Not only will you catch a cold, but the probability of catching a cold will also be greatly increased.

Now he is at the peak of his physical condition, he is strong and healthy, with strong immunity, so he can basically get through this minor illness.

But this is not a trade where risk and reward are equal.

He can win countless times, but the virus only needs to win once to take his life.

If he could accumulate enough food in another ten or twenty years and build a cave with everything he needed, he could stay at home during the rainy season and rest until the dry season.

But it’s not possible now. There are too many things to do, especially the load-bearing columns, which are related to life safety.

He did have the choice to give up building the load-bearing pillars and build a tent in a safe place in advance to hide.

The problem is that after he hides, if something happens to the wooden load-bearing pillars in the cave, causing a large-scale collapse and burying the cave, all his efforts over the previous few dozen days will be wasted.

It would take at least another entire dry season to clean and dig the cave. What would be the point of all the hard work he put in? It would be better to just build a wooden house.

The current situation is that load-bearing columns must be built, but at the same time, we must try our best to avoid catching a cold from being caught in the rain, or find medicines to deal with colds.

There is definitely no hope for medicine. Even if the seeds in those bottles and jars really contain Chinese herbal medicine that can cure colds, by the time they grow and mature, the rainy season will have long been over.

It is even more unreliable to count on mysterious rewards. Chen Zhou knows with his butt that the next reward will definitely not be medicine. If it is medicine, he will wash his hair upside down.

……

While piling cement on a raised wooden box and waiting for the rain to stop, he came up with an idea - could he make a raincoat?

There are still some small pieces of plastic sheets left in the cave. If you stick them together and make them into the shape of a raincoat, you don't have to worry about getting wet when working outside.

Moreover, a raincoat is lighter than an umbrella, and you don’t need to free up one hand to hold the umbrella handle, which has no impact on your work.

After thinking it over, Chen Zhou felt that this idea was feasible and planned to try it after returning home.

After the rain stopped, they transported cement dozens more times, and finally completed the cement transportation work within one day.

It was getting late, and re-reinforcing the tent would have to wait until tomorrow.

As for the waterproof frames inside the tents, they are now being replaced by wooden boxes.

Chen Zhou felt that wooden boxes were superior to wooden frames in all aspects except that they took up more space, and the effect was very good. So he decided to give up the work of making waterproof wooden frames and directly use wooden boxes to pad the cement.

This can save a lot of time and materials, especially precious nails, which are one less when one is used and are basically impossible to make by yourself.

……

Return to the cave, light the oil lamp, make a bonfire, and heat up the meal.

Remembering the idea from the daytime, Chen Zhou took out a few remaining nylon bags and plastic packaging bags, drew a simple coat outline on them with pineapple ink, then cut them open, sewed them up with needle and thread, and applied a layer of fish bladder glue on the seams. The manufacturing was complete.

The whole raincoat is ugly in appearance, with one part using a transparent plastic bag and the other part using a nylon bag.

Because the transparent plastic bag was not big enough, the raincoat was made by splicing together several pieces of plastic cloth, forming many seams from needlework and yellow-white glue marks from the fish bladder glue drying. When worn on the body, one looks like a highly respected Nine-Pocket Elder of the Beggars' Gang, with patches all over his body.

Looking at this uniquely styled "raincoat", Chen Zhou vaguely felt that it was unreliable.

Taking off his outer clothes, trying to reduce the bulk of his body to make it easier to get dressed, he pulled the raincoat on.

After moving his limbs slightly, he found that the stitches were fine, but the solidified fish bladder glue cracked in large pieces, making a continuous sound of breaking glue, as if he had put a small whip on his body.

"Shit, I knew this wouldn't work!"

After cursing, Chen Zhou quickly took off his raincoat and checked the seams.

The fish bladder glue in the shoulders, elbows and armpits, which have the greatest range of movement, has completely cracked and lost its waterproof function.

The front chest and back remain basically the same, with no abnormalities.

"It seems that the glued parts of the fish bladder glue cannot withstand large movements. If it is spread on the ground like a waterproof sheet and does not move, it will be fine, but once it moves, the glue will come apart.

I guess the two sleeves can’t be kept, but if I transform this raincoat into a vest, maybe it will be a good idea.”

Touching the neck of the raincoat, Chen Zhou suddenly remembered a kind of raincoat that was widely used by ancient people - the straw raincoat.

There is a poem that says, "A green bamboo hat, a green raincoat, no need to go home in the slanting wind and drizzle."

The straw raincoat was the raincoat of the ancient people.

Its appearance is simple and effective, and it can protect against rain without delaying work, which meets his needs.

Born in the 21st century, all the raincoats Chen Zhou saw since childhood were made of plastic or rubber.

Fortunately, with the development of modern film and television technology, he learned about the appearance and general structure of the straw raincoat from the chivalrous knights in the movies.

The upper part of the straw raincoat has a shawl-like structure that can be wrapped around the neck. It can completely block the rain dripping onto the shoulders and create a slope to allow the rain to flow downwards.

The lower part of the straw raincoat is similar to a short skirt, which is bulky and thick, and the overall shape is barrel-shaped, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. When combined with a hat, it can easily cope with light wind and rain.

According to traditional craftsmanship, the straw raincoat should be made from the bark of palm trees.

Chen Zhou couldn't find a palm tree, and didn't know how to make a raincoat with palm tree bark. So he planned to use a special material to make a raincoat that was unique to him - seal skin.

As an animal that stays in water all year round, seal skin is naturally waterproof. The fur is soft and thick, and also has a thermal insulation effect, which can completely replace palm tree bark.

The shape of the large seal skin was not regular. Ever since he caught a cold, Chen Zhou had been using it as a blanket. He took this opportunity to trim the edges of the seal skin.

Cut off the seal's broken head and limbs, leaving only a rectangular piece of fur on the body, which looks much more beautiful when spread on the bed.

As for the parts that were cut off, the parts that could not be made into complete leather were cut into small strips and used as ropes, and the parts that could be made into leather were put together with the small seal skin and reserved for making "leather straw raincoats".

I lit an extra lamp and didn’t dare eat first, for fear that I would feel sleepy after eating and delay my work.

Take a small piece of seal skin from the drying rack that has been idle for a long time.

Placing the hemp rope, seal skin strips, needle and thread, and the large seal skin cut into small pieces beside him, Chen Zhou picked out a piece of fur of suitable size and wrapped it around his neck.

Pinching the outer edge of the collar with his fingers, he turned the sealskin over and, using a long wooden stick to hold up red-hot charcoal, burned two small black dots into the inside of the sealskin to mark it.

Then he considered the size of the raincoat, picked out a few pieces of fur and the seal skin for the collar, stacked them together, adjusted it into the shape of a shawl, took out scissors to cut off the excess part, and began to sew. Chen Zhou was not good at needlework, in order to ensure that the fur raincoat was strong enough, he laid the stitches very densely, sewing three stitches within one centimeter, and the sewing speed was extremely slow.

With her head lowered, she used needle and thread to sew the raincoat under the light of the oil lamp.

The light flickered, turning the needle and silk thread into many strips.

Chen Zhou's eyes became more and more sore, and he saw double vision in a trance. In a daze, he pierced his fingers with several small holes.

After working till late at night, he felt that his brain had gradually turned into a mess and he couldn't even sew a straight line.

Putting down the needle and thread in his hand, Chen Zhou picked up the upper part of the leather raincoat, felt its weight, and tried to wear the unfinished product around his neck.

A little bit big, probably just right for a coat.

Knowing that I have not let down the dedication of these two seals.

After rubbing his swollen eyes, he finally couldn't hold on any longer. He hurriedly ate two bowls of porridge, went back to the bedroom and fell asleep.

……

On March 3, it was a rare sunny morning, but Chen Zhou got up late.

When he got up from the bed, he felt that his upper eyelids were a little swollen, and the pressure was so severe that he could only open his eyes a crack.

After putting on his clothes and hurried to the mirror, Chen Zhou opened his eyelids to take a closer look. He found that his eyes were full of bloodshot and the corners of his eyes were red. It should be eye fatigue caused by excessive use of the eyes.

During the busiest academic period in senior high school, staying up late to review and do papers often causes this eye symptom.

After going to college, Chen Zhou never stayed up late to work like this again.

Carefully pulling the corners of his eyes, Chen Zhou felt that the eyestrain was quite severe this time, and muttered to himself with a hint of sarcasm.

"Alas, needlework is really bad for your health. I should have waited until daytime to work."

……

Fortunately, Chen Zhou often faced similar problems in school, so he had accumulated enough experience in dealing with them.

Go to the kitchen, boil a pot of hot water, then soak the cotton cloth and put it on your eyes as a hot compress.

After the hot compress, do a set of eye exercises, massage the Jingming acupoint, and scrape the eye sockets, and the swollen eyes will be greatly relieved.

After a late breakfast, he placed the semi-finished leather raincoat separately on the grain rack. He selected the materials needed to make the lower part of the raincoat, cut them into shape, arranged them according to the shape of the lower part of the raincoat, and left them for sewing.

After simply arranging the follow-up work of making the straw raincoat, Chen Zhou took Lai Fu out of the cave and went to the camp to reinforce the tent.

……

Since leaving the camp and moving to the mountains, this tent in the camp has been in a semi-abandoned state for a long time.

The bedside tables, beds, decorative paintings and clothing boxes in the tent had long been moved to the mountain. Every time Chen Zhou went down the mountain to maintain the shack and check the supplies, he never paid much attention to the damage to the tent.

When he removed the canvas on the top of the tent, Chen Zhou discovered that the wooden beams supporting the tent had been soaked by water and had begun to rot.

Especially in the heaviest parts where tree branches were piled up, the beams even bent downward, revealing the wood fibers inside that had been turned brown by water.

The problem is so serious that simply replacing the canvas will not work.

The entire tent top had to be dismantled and rebuilt.

Fortunately, it is not difficult to build this kind of tent.

He picked up the axe, chopped down a tree, cut off the extra branches on the trunk, and then cut grooves at both ends of the wooden pillars for fitting together.

Chen Zhou was like an experienced lumberjack, carrying wood and rebuilding the roof of the tent bit by bit.

Put a tarpaulin on top of the tent, and then put the old thick canvas on the tarpaulin, and cover it with branches with leaves...

The progress was rapid and Chen Zhou completed a series of tasks before dark.

He observed the sky and although there were many dark clouds, there was no sign of rain. He took out a bag of cement and carried it on his shoulders. When he returned to the cave, he took a bag of cement back with him.

……

After the tent roof was replaced, the cement inside was temporarily safe.

It just so happens that the rainfall has not been frequent in the past few days, which can be regarded as a small respite during the rainy season.

Taking advantage of the lack of rain, Chen Zhou completely gave up making raincoats and focused on moving cement. After three days, he had moved all the cement to the mountain.

In addition to carrying cement and occasionally going to the cave to add salt to the mother goat and her baby goats, Chen Zhou also has to clear the weeds every four or five days with his homemade small hoe.

Affected by the rainy season, the weeds in the fields grow very fast, and new grass tips can be seen popping up every day.

That is to say, there are few crops planted at present, otherwise he would not have time to do other things.

……

On March 3, heavy rain hit. Chen Zhou hid in a cave and did not go out for the whole day, concentrating on sewing a raincoat.

In order to avoid a recurrence of the last situation, he made up his mind and lit six oil lamps in the room to illuminate the work area from all angles.

And this time he paid more attention to rest.

Use a copper hourglass to time, get up every half an hour to relieve eye pressure, stand at the entrance of the cave and look into the distance to enjoy the scenery -

It was all gray and rainy outside, and I couldn't see anything.

The straw raincoat was not big, but Chen Zhou was reluctant to cut up the large seal skin as material, resulting in him not having a complete large piece of cloth. Using small pieces of cloth would require splicing.

It would have been fine if it was just splicing, but he was also worried that the clothes wouldn't be strong enough, so the stitches had to be extremely fine, which took several times longer.

Besides, Chen Zhou hated this kind of meticulous and boring work. He couldn't calm down and concentrate on his work.

Sitting at the kitchen door, surrounded by six lamps, he would lower his head to sew a straw raincoat, then stand up and walk alone in the cave, looking out at the platform outside.

Or I would whistle to tease Lai Fu, give it a few meaningless commands, and feel secretly proud of myself when I see it look helpless but has to do what it wants.

Hug little Huihui and check its body to see if there are any new scars caused by the grapes.

I continued to persuade it tirelessly to stop facing Grapes with this evasive attitude, and to muster up the courage to regain its male cat's power.

Occasionally, Chen Zhou would look for Tizi - it liked to hide in the corners of the cave and play hide-and-seek with people. If it was ignored for a long time, it would run out by itself, lift its tail and rub its head against people's trouser legs.

As for the little chinchilla, it might be that its IQ was too low, or Chen Zhou did not pay attention to it and interacted less with it, resulting in it not being able to understand Chen Zhou's instructions at all.

It could only hold a small piece of dried grass leaf, standing blankly on the table, like a moving stuffed toy, putting it into its mouth and chewing with its cheeks puffed up.

In this way, combining work and rest, by the evening of March 3, Chen Zhou finally completed the upper part of the leather raincoat.

　Thanks to: book friend with the last digit 5109, You Who Chase the Wind, This Book Looks So Hard to Understand, book friend with the last digit 4014, Fat House with Cruel Heart, book friend with the last digit 0220, Fire Ghost, Galaxy Bat Man, Old Country Bear, Rosen Scarlett, Black and White Believer, UGig, Mr. Liu from Luojia Mountain, and Regretful Priest for their monthly tickets. Thank you for your support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)