I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 106 (45) Nearly

After seven days, the soap was successfully dried in the shade. Luc tried it and found that except for a slightly strange smell, it had good cleaning ability.

The construction of the wooden fort also entered a long period of repair.
The main difficulties have been overcome, and the next step is to proceed step by step. Within seven days, the second-floor partitions and stairs were successfully completed, and the basic structure has been completed.

The staircase is located on the far left side of the house. It is made of pure wood and coated with resin, with an overall dark brown color.

The two of them put a lot of thought into the safety of the stairs.

The staircase is divided into eleven steps, which is the most convenient number of steps for people to climb. Two wide and thick wooden boards are taken, the upper part is tightly attached to the floor, and the lower part is beveled and close to the ground. The steps are embedded in the middle of the wooden boards, and a gradually rising guardrail is installed on the side without the wall.

The stairs to the first floor are on the west side, while the stairs to the second floor are on the north side.

An open space is left at the intersection of the two on the second floor to avoid the trouble of having nowhere to step as soon as you reach the top of the stairs.

A row of guardrails is also nailed on the second and third stairs to prevent people from accidentally falling due to the gaps in the stairs.

Finally, at the end of April, the construction of the wooden fort was once again stopped - Luke was going to do spring plowing.

That’s right, although the rye and wheat have not been harvested yet and the fields have not been cleared, don’t forget that Luc has a newly opened piece of land for spring plowing!
This second field had been only one acre when old Ecker reported the account books, but two more acres had been added before the severe cold.

On a total of three acres of land, Luc no longer planted the main grains, but oats, barley, as well as lettuce, parsnips, wild leeks, etc.

The farm tools purchased from Hoffman were enough for thirteen adults, each with a sickle and hoe.

Time was running out, and as soon as the wooden fort stopped, everyone rushed to the fields, and sowing was basically completed in May.

Luc stood up, pounded his aching waist, and looked out at the thriving wheat fields in the distance.
As for why rye and wheat are not planted during spring plowing.
I'm afraid I don't have time to plant it.
The mountain breeze blows across the plump ears of wheat in the autumn plowed fields, and the golden wheat waves roll in layer upon layer.

The reason for not planting is simple.

Field, not enough!
After last year’s spring harvest, the amount of land remained essentially unchanged, as it was reclaimed after purchasing spring-rejuvenation seeds.

Coupled with the increase in labor, the autumn plowing fields were expanded to an area sufficient for planting.
But at this moment, we cannot generalize.

After last year's autumn harvest, from the harvest in September to the first snow in December, most of the time was spent collecting winter rations, leaving little time for reclaiming wasteland.

In addition, Luc frequently went in and out of the valley, taking at least two laborers with him each time, so it was considered good enough that he could find time to open up three acres.

This year's harvest is no worse than last year's.

That is to say, six and a half acres of rye will produce more than thirty times the yield of one-fifth of an acre last year.

How much is more than thirty times?

Luc took a deep breath of the aroma of wheat ears
——Nine thousand pounds!

Nearly 10,000 output!
Luc's eyes brightened. More than nine thousand pounds, after deducting the cost and threshing, the flour ground out was nearly seven thousand pounds, enough to fill the entire granary, enough to feed the fifteen people in the manor, including adults and children, for a year and a half!
And this is without any wild grass, wild fruits or meat, and with full meals every day.

Not to mention wheat.

If all of this is taken into account, with such abundant grain, even if a major disaster occurs, the people on the manor can live frugally and have enough to last them for two years, or even three years in extreme cases.

Of course, this is just an ideal situation.

There is still a big gap between ideal and reality.

Old Ek and the others were certainly not blind; they also saw the growth of the wheat fields. The rolling waves of wheat almost shattered their decades-long understanding. George, a well-traveled man, was even more astonished. In all his travels, he had never heard of anyone growing nearly 10,000 pounds of grain on less than ten acres.
Although all these grains will eventually go into Luc's private pocket, it cannot stop people from admiring him. Some devout believers have gone to church to thank God more than once.

The days of spring harvest are when people go to church most frequently. Luc, who temporarily replaces the pastor, has memorized the hymn by heart.

The sharp increase in production naturally means that more wasteland must be opened up.

Even if one-third of the nine thousand pounds was set aside for growing crops, thirty acres would be needed.

"Thirty acres!"

Looking at the few remaining flat grasslands, if we want to open up wasteland, we need to cut down trees and open up fields.
In the past, there was more land but less food, but now the situation is reversed.

It seems we can only wait until autumn plowing.

Luc shook off his thoughts. No matter what, a good harvest was still a great joy!
Not long after sowing, the wheat fields were irrigated and everyone immediately started harvesting the rye!
Abundant food can capture everyone's heart.

Sheaves of wheat were transported to the threshing floor, which was stacked in front of the granary. Old Ek's wrinkled face was smiling so hard that it almost turned into a bun shape like George's.

Old Ek has thoroughly understood Luke's temper. According to his master's kindness, it is estimated that in the future, the people of Ward Village will not have a problem eating black bread for every meal, but at least once every three days, and it must be pure black bread without any impurities!
Old Eike also has selfish motives.

Like Robert, Old Eike also believed that the population of the manor would grow. As a steward, he would try his best to treat everyone equally, but deep down he preferred that the people of Ward Village could live a better life.

After all, in his heart, he regarded the remaining people in Ward Village as his relatives.

Hans, the heartless big man, looked like a human beast, carrying several bundles of wheat by himself, his mouth grinning almost to the back of his head.

No matter how dumb a person is, he knows how to eat, and the more wheat ears there are, the fuller he will be.

Everyone was working tirelessly for the rye horse. Ryan stayed up three nights in the cabin to make six flails.

When all the rye was gathered in the open space, the flail was taken out (the other one was embedded with iron nails to make it a weapon) and distributed to the six women and Robert, who kept beating the wheat ears with a crackling sound every day.

Let Ryan and the others continue to decorate the wooden fort during their free time.

Luc was alone. He chopped a pile of firewood, sat aside, and studied another tool.

It is relatively simple to thresh grain with a flail, but if we want to manually winnow and sift out the chaff from nearly 10,000 pounds of grain like we did last year, we don’t know how long it will take to finish.

What Luc is going to do now is a threshing machine, also known as a grain windmill!
After building the house, he was already familiar with the mortise and tenon structure. He dragged the tree trunk, peeled off the bark, and used an axe and saw to split it into several four-sided wooden strips of different lengths.

Each wooden strip is chiseled with convex and concave points and then pieced together.

First, use three wooden strips to form two H shapes, and then use two other longer wooden strips to embed them together to form the basic base.

In front of the base, continue to build upwards and raise it a bit. This will be the entrance to the valley in the future.

After setting up the simple frame, Luc began to build the core of the valley windmill - the fan.

The fan is built in the same way as a barrel wheel and mill wheel, and the working principle of the grain windmill is similar. By shaking the fan quickly, it will break up the grains, and the light chaff will float away with the wind, while the heavy grains will roll down and remain.

Use four pieces of wood as the fan blades, and use a planer to grind a piece of wood as the rotating shaft. The fan blades cannot be tightly embedded in the rotating shaft, they need to extend to better peel off the grains.

Luc thought about it, and then mortised two small sticks on each side of the shaft, hollowed out the middle, pushed the fan in, and nailed it with wooden nails. The fan was completed.

(End of this chapter)