I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 94: Livestock Inspection
In November, leaves are falling, and the endless crisp crackling sounds of stepping on the dead leaves fill the entire forest.

Luc got up early in the morning to practice horse riding, just like his archery, and he never slacked off except on rainy days.

After riding through the entire forest, a slightly cool morning breeze blew by. Luc tightened his linen.
"The weather is getting cooler"

Luc gazed at the blue sky, his second cold winter in the mountains was about to begin.

After riding his warhorse for a lap to warm up, Luc drew his knight's sword, clamped his grip on the horse's belly, held his breath, and galloped towards the target in front of him.

The sound of horse hooves clattered continuously. When he was about to approach the target, Luc suddenly twisted his waist, pointed his elbows outward, and chopped the sword diagonally. With a bang, he rode past, leaving only the target with half of its thatched head cut off shaking continuously.

Luc continued to move forward, his steel sword drawing an arc in the air, moving from the right to the left, his wrist joint turned inward, and another sword hit the wooden stake on the other side.

"Xu~"

Luc pulled the reins and looked back. Ever since he was able to hit the first straw stake, he seemed to have opened his eyes. In just one month, he was able to hit the target extremely skillfully, and gradually he was able to swing the sword and kill continuously while moving quickly.

"If I continue to practice for another half a year, maybe I can start formal lance training!"

Luc was in high spirits and rode his horse back to the camp with satisfaction. As soon as he entered the stable, Ryan, who was training nearby, ran over to hold the warhorse. Luc intended to let Ryan take care of the warhorse's cleaning and feeding, and hoped that Ryan would learn to ride a horse in the future.

The states of people who have seen blood and those who have not seen blood are two different things.

Ryan killed two bandits in the Wild Boar Cave and executed Martin. His temperament was completely different from when he first arrived.

Although he still seemed like a child in front of Luc, in the eyes of others, he was actually a more stern person.

"Master, the weather is getting colder. Next time you go out riding, wear more linen."

Ryan skillfully combed the warhorse's hair and wiped the sweat off it, and Luc made two boar brushes from the hair of the two wild boars.

"It's out of the way."

Luc waved his hand and scooped a basin of water from the bucket Miller had filled in advance. He washed his sweat-stained face and beard, and said incoherently as he washed, "Winter is coming. You and I have it easy, as we have deerskin coats and wool sweaters, but what should everyone else wear to keep warm is a big problem."

Just like Luke's combat training, the people in the forest never stopped collecting food. After counting the fruits, vegetables and meat that had been dried in advance, Luke and Old Eike determined that they were enough to last the winter. However, the second problem arose - warm clothing!
Of the necessities of life, the only thing lacking now is clothes.

Of course there are many linen cloths, but linen can only be used as shirts and jackets. It is a pipe dream to expect to survive the cold winter with heavy snow in such thin clothes.

"The goat wool production is too low. I asked Mary to shear them again last month. Although we didn't shear as much as in the spring, we still could only knit one wool sweater from six goats."

Luc poured out the murky water and said helplessly, "It would be nice if there were sheep."

There is only one letter difference between goats and sheep, but the wool production is indeed very different. It takes three or four goats to weave one piece of clothing, but the wool shed by the latter in a quarter can be used to weave more than ten pieces!
If you own a few sheep, you won't have to worry about keeping warm.

"It seems the only option is to have them collect more catkins and sew them into linen cloth. That will at least help keep out the cold. But in winter, they should stay indoors and warm themselves by the fireplace."

Luc thought about it and decided that this was the only thing he could do for the time being.

After letting Ryan inform everyone about this matter, the two of them had breakfast and headed to the livestock area.

First, he looked around the piggery. Generally, piglets' tusks should be removed, and boars should be castrated to increase their meat yield and, by the way, remove the masculine trappings. This will tame the pigs and prevent them from becoming aggressive and aggressive in adulthood. However, Luc didn't have the right tools. He searched the cabin but couldn't find any iron tools to extract the tusks. He had to wait and saw off the tusks when they were older.

I looked at the chicken coop again. The small coop was already full of pheasants.

The hen initially hatched more than thirty chicks, but now there are only fifteen left. When they noticed that Luc was looking at them, they all raised their necks and twisted them, staring at Luc cautiously with their one eye on one side.

"It's time to fix their wings."

Luc looked for a while. The fifteen chicks had grown up, and together with the old pheasant, there were four roosters in total.

Although it is not yet the mating season, the four roosters still ignore the fatherly love and filial piety and occasionally fight.

"Well, we can't keep any of the roosters. We have to go outside and catch another one."

Chickens lay eggs and eggs hatch chickens, but Luc doesn't want the next batch of chicks to be the product of inbreeding.

He did it as soon as he thought of it. He called Ryan out, took scissors, and caught the pheasants one by one. Luc skillfully cut off all the wings. For one of the roosters that resisted most fiercely, Luc directly cut the throat with a pair of scissors, and drained the blood bit by bit as the rooster struggled violently.

Chickens are sometimes very tenacious. Even if most of their trachea is cut open, they can still flap their wings for a long time.

He called Mary out and asked her to singe and clean the chickens. Then he instructed Ryan, "Separate the pheasants and hens. Go to the mountain and catch a new rooster tomorrow. You can eat the remaining three roosters slowly over the next few days."

Goats apparently have no such concerns.

The two lambs have grown bigger and will be fully grown in a few months. Moreover, the two lambs are not twins from the same mother, but one from each ewe, so there is no worry about inbreeding.

What is even more worth celebrating is that November is the estrus season for goats. The ewes that are carefully cared for are fully capable of giving birth to two litters a year. The goats caught after the second one are equally powerful. After observing for a while, Luc discovered that both of them are pregnant.

"Good thing!"

Luc smiled and quickly ordered: "Separate the goats and don't let them kick the ewes in the stomach."

"Also, take out some bran and add it to the green grass to feed the pregnant ewes. Whether we can expand the flock next year depends on these two goats!"

Luc was in a good mood because the ewe was pregnant. He returned to the stable and looked at the black donkey and mule.

Black donkeys are now mainly used for plowing, while mules are more used for travel.

Compared with donkeys, mules are better able to adapt to complex mountain roads. They are better at climbing slopes, turning, and moving forward in windy and snowy weather. This is why the Hoffman caravan is basically composed of mules. It will be an important means of transportation for transporting charcoal to Hoffman after the spring.

The mountain roads are rugged, and building roads is a big deal if we want better trade.

But Luc didn't have the conditions to build a road now, so he just paved a winding path made of gravel in front of his wooden house, leading to the fence gate.

That evening, Luc and Ryan enjoyed chicken soup in the cabin. Three days later, Ryan successfully caught a new rooster, clipped its wings, and threw it into the flock of hens. The new rooster had been crowing continuously with its neck tilted back, but when it saw that it was the only one around, it became visibly quieter, seemingly satisfied with the situation.

On the other hand, the three surviving old roosters on the opposite side watched helplessly as the new rooster entered their former home and cackled non-stop.
(End of this chapter)