I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 25 The first snow in 1040 years
Luc stood on the right side of the cabin and observed carefully, pointing from time to time and muttering to himself.

This was the location where he planned to expand the cabin. If he extended it another ten yards or so, it would touch the edge of the fence.

In front of the right side is the warehouse that Luc once built to dry venison. The warehouse has no walls on one side. It is called a warehouse but it is actually an open space with a roof.

October was about to pass and the days were getting colder. Luc realized that although there was enough food to survive the winter, there was still some firewood that had not been accumulated.

Don’t underestimate firewood. Among food, oil, salt and firewood, firewood comes first and is of paramount importance.

There is indeed no shortage of wood around Luc, but when winter comes, people may not have the mind or ability to cut wood in the heavy snow. Wouldn't it be a nice thing to stay indoors and warm by the fire?
In order to prepare for these two major events, Luke and Ryan placed a lot of trees in advance, and now they just need to start construction.

Luke was the first to climb onto the roof and remove the thatch and beams. He had to tear down the house that he had built with his own hands a few months ago. He directed Ryan to support him from below, and soon the east side was completely dug open.

Previously, Luke used the foundation pit as the base, which is commonly known as the underground kiln. If he wanted to integrate it with the original wooden house, the new house had to be built in the same way.

But Luc didn't plan to do that.

When Luc built the wooden house for the first time, he knew that he had made many mistakes. For example, the foundation did not need to be more than ten feet deep. It was not like he was building a steel forest. Of course, those guys might need a hundred feet, but in fact, a three-foot foundation was enough for such a simple house.

So Luc sketched out another plan:
On the east side, dig a foundation much higher than the current wooden house, then fill half of it with gravel, and then build the real wooden house. On the one hand, it saves time, and on the other hand, it can accumulate experience for real house building in the future.

But this will create a new problem: the new house will not be at the same height as the old house, and the terrain inside the house will be higher in the east and lower in the west.

The problem inside the house is easy to solve. You just need to build a dirt staircase between the east and west. But the roof is difficult to deal with. First of all, it cannot be built level. The roof of the new house is too low and people cannot stand up straight on it. The old house cannot be raised because that requires the entire roof to be demolished.

Fortunately, the expanded area will not be too large, just enough to accommodate Ryan.

"Ryan, hand over the stake!"

"Okay sir!"

Ryan is worthy of being the son of a carpenter. Unlike the original method of using the bark as the roof, Ryan skillfully planes the wood with a plane, and the smooth trunk looks very real.

The other floor of the old house has a sloping roof, and Luc piled up the wooden piles that were handed to him one by one in parallel. In order to support the wooden piles, he used beams from the bottom. After laying them, he used the old method to stick them with clay. In fact, earth bricks are the best, but Luc doesn’t know how to burn them for the time being. It’s not too late to plan and try again next year.

After building this side, the roof of the new house will be easy. It only needs to be done step by step. The "human" shaped sloping roof will continue to slope, and the flat-topped wooden piles in the middle will connect the two sloping houses together. From a distance, it will appear as a "rise-flat-rise-fall" roof.

In the middle, Luc embedded all the iron nails he bought to strengthen and stabilize it.

That’s right, iron nails now exist, which was something Luc had not expected when he first arrived at the blacksmith shop. So naturally, the double-layer embedded wooden nails that Luc had used were eliminated, and the progress was greatly improved.

Once the roof is built, all that remains is to construct the body of the house.

The old house has deep earth around the deep pit as walls, while the new house only has an earth pit that reaches the calf, and the rest of the house can only be made of pure wood.

Ryan flattened the sides of the wood so that it could be used for stacking layer by layer. The west side did not need to be built because the interior was connected to the old house, so only three sides needed to be built to a height high enough for a person.

In order to keep warm, the sides of the wooden house were blocked with a large amount of gravel and clay.

It took Luke and his friend half a month to complete the expansion of the house.

"Ah, Master, it doesn't look as bad as I thought!"

Ryan was the first to walk into the "new house". The interior of the wooden house had not changed as a whole, except that the wall on the east side had been opened up, forming a gap. Inside the gap were steps made of simple stones. Walking up the steps, a wooden second floor about eight feet wide, six feet high and five feet long appeared in front of him.

There was only a dirt bed on it, and no other house.

This will be Ryan's new residence. At the same time, Luc lengthened the height of the fireplace to prevent smoke from being exhausted.

By the time the house expansion was completed, it was already the end of the month. The cool breeze gradually turned into a cold wind, and Luke and his partner both put on their deerskin coats.

The next step is the woodshed.

The woodshed is relatively less particular.

It doesn't matter whether it's windproof or cold-proof, you just need to protect it from rain leaks.

The progress of the warehouse was relatively fast. Foundation, wood laying, roof construction, and clay spreading were all done in just a few steps. Luc felt that he was about to become an expert in this area.

After the warehouse was completed, Luke and Ryan put the firewood that had been chopped in advance into the shed in piles, and did not finish until most of the warehouse was filled.

When everything was ready, snowflakes suddenly fell from the sky.
The snowflakes are not big, they are scattered here and there, like pieces of blown goose feathers.

But this also proves that winter is coming!
……

"Ryan, add some more fire to the fireplace."

Luke and Ryan huddled in the cabin, staring out the window at the vast white world.

The snow fell very quickly. Although the trend was not strong, it lasted for a long time, a whole day and night. Now it was quietly spread on the ground, which was a bit dazzling.

The expansion of the wooden house was very successful. Although it was not as wind-resistant as expected, it was still warm inside thanks to the fireplace.

In the corner of the house, not only was little Charlie lying there, but two pheasants were also curled up.
Luke was so focused on his and Ryan's survival that he forgot to thicken the chicken coop.
It was not until last night when Luc was snoring in the house that he heard the pheasants outside cackling due to the cold, and then he suddenly remembered that there were still two living creatures!

On a snowy night, Luke brought the pheasant back. Looking at the wind and frost on the ground and the couple who almost froze to death, he felt full of guilt.

It's not that I feel pity for them, but mainly because they have laid a lot of eggs for me. Now, there is a whole wicker basket full of eggs in the gap beside my bed.

After a night by the fireplace, the two pheasants were finally saved. After covering the room with deerskin curtains to block the cold wind, Luc shoveled out the pottery from the fireplace with a shovel and poured a bowl of hot water for himself and Ryan respectively.

Ryan didn't have the habit of drinking hot water. In fact, no one around him had this habit. It was Luke who forced him to drink hot water.

"We can't keep pheasants indoors all the time. They're not little Charlies that I've trained them to defecate on the ground on time. When the snow stops, we have to reinforce the chicken coop and drive them back!"

Looking at the chicken shit all over the ground in just one day, Luc rubbed his temples with a headache.

"Yes, sir. It's not snowing yet. It will be at least a month before it's too cold to go out. We can take advantage of this opportunity to collect some firewood and food."

"You have a point."

Luc nodded, saying that there is always enough firewood and food.

"By the way, Ryan, I want to tell you something."

"What's wrong, master?" Ryan turned his head in confusion.

Luke drank the hot water, turned around and said with a smile:
"Do you dare to go boar hunting with me?"

(End of this chapter)