American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 160 Permanent Shelter Concept
For today's lunch menu, he decided to make a steaming pot of "seafood stew".

He took out his 1.6L stainless steel Seagull pot, which was blackened by smoke, filled it halfway with cool, fresh water, and placed it steadily on the stone stove over the hearth.

While waiting for the water to boil, he began to prepare the ingredients.

He first gently cracked the shells of the limpets with the back of an axe, which had a strong adhesive force, and then skillfully picked out the orange-yellow, abalone-like meat inside with the tip of a knife and threw it into a bowl of bark.

Next came the conch. He put them in a pot, and after the water boiled, he scooped them out with a simple strainer woven from twigs after only one minute of cooking.

After being scalded, the snail meat shrinks due to the heat. He then uses a sharpened twig to gently poke and twist it.

A large piece of firm, chewy snail meat with a spiral tail was completely removed, much easier than picking it out raw.

When you put the snail meat in your mouth, it is incredibly chewy and you can even hear a slight "crunching" sound between your teeth while chewing. The delicious flavor unfolds layer by layer and is exceptionally fragrant!

Finally, he processed the mussels, carefully cleaning the parasites and mud off the shells of each one.

When the water in the pot boiled again, Lin Yu'an began his cooking.

He first threw the previously collected and cleaned pieces of seaweed into the pot.

When the seaweed comes into contact with hot water, it immediately unfolds, and its color changes from dark brown to a more military green, and a unique marine scent begins to permeate the air.

He then poured the prepared limpet meat and conch meat into the pot, and finally added the handful of clean mussels.

He didn't put the lid on the pot, and quietly watched the changes in the pot while eating the conch.

He used homemade chopsticks to pick up a mussel that had just opened. The piping hot mussel meat, with a hint of sticky broth, was blown on before being put directly into his mouth.

That tenderness is worth chewing! The clam meat melts into a soft, fluffy texture on the tongue, leaving only a pure sweetness.

Next, he turned his attention to the limpet meat that was already cooked to perfection.

Limp clams have a much firmer texture, tasting like bouncy meatballs, and each bite is full of a rich, unique abalone-like flavor.

Lin Yu'an sat by the campfire, enjoying the hearty "Labrador Coast Stew" in the simplest way.

He quickly devoured all the seafood, and only then did he scoop out and eat the soft, stewed seaweed.

After finishing a whole pot of seafood, the feeling of fullness and warmth in his stomach instantly dispelled the chill brought by the sea breeze and completely restored all the energy he had used up that morning.

He let out a satisfied burp, feeling his body brimming with energy again.

After fully recovering his strength, Lin Yu'an stood up, dusted off his hands, and focused his gaze once again.

The food problem was temporarily solved, but the thin waterproof cloth on his head couldn't protect him from the Labrador's harsh winter of minus thirty degrees Celsius.

He must immediately begin searching for a suitable location to build his permanent shelter.

Lin Yu'an began to carefully explore the area around his temporary camp.

He had a clear site selection criterion in mind: firstly, there must be a natural barrier, and a huge rock wall was the best choice.

This would shield him from the biting cold wind from at least one direction, and also save a lot of building materials and labor time.

Secondly, the location must be good, a gentle slope with good drainage, and it must never be built in a depression, otherwise a rainstorm or snowmelt could turn his home into a pond.

Finally, maintain a safe and convenient distance from resource points.

He needed to be close enough to the forest to easily obtain timber, not too far from the coast to easily access his "seafood bank," and also close to the freshwater lake on which he depended for his livelihood.

He spent the entire afternoon walking around the area, evaluating four or five potential locations, but rejected them all for one reason or another.

Just as he was preparing to expand his search, one place finally captured his full attention.

It was less than two hundred meters north of his temporary shelter.

It was a rock wall about two meters high, made of hard granite, perfectly facing north, which could block him from the main cold wind.

Below the rock face is a gentle slope sloping southward, covered with thick tundra and low vegetation, with excellent drainage.

And at the end of this gentle slope, less than a hundred meters away, lies the edge of that tall, dense spruce forest.

Here, almost all of his requirements were met perfectly!

Lin Yu'an stood in front of the rock wall, touching the cold and rough rock surface.

Close your eyes, and a clear blueprint begins to emerge in your mind.

He would first dig down the gentle slope to build a semi-subterranean base, using the earth's own temperature for insulation.

The back wall of the shelter will be built directly from this natural rock face, making it virtually indestructible.

Then he would go into the forest and cut down the thickest spruce logs to build the other three walls of the shelter. The walls didn't need to be too high; three or four layers of logs would be enough to minimize heat loss.

On one side of the shelter, he would use the schist he collected on the north slope to build an efficient stone fireplace with a chimney, right next to the wooden wall.

The roof, on the other hand, would extend forward at a gentle angle from the top of the rock face, with purlins made of thinner timbers and covered with his enormous waterproof sheet.

Finally, cover it with a thick layer of tundra, soil, and moss to create a waterproof structure that also provides excellent insulation.

Lin Yu'an kept carefully planning in his mind what kind of shelter he should build so that he could safely get through this frozen winter.

Day four. The morning sun had just pierced the horizon when Lin Yu'an finished his morning exercise of checking the traps. Another day without any traps being triggered.

He ate a simple breakfast of warm mussels and now felt full of energy and highly focused.

Today's task is very clear: dismantle the cables and prepare the first batch of basic materials for the upcoming shelter construction.

He walked to the rock where the cables were drying. After a night of dry sea breeze, most of the moisture on the surface of the cables had evaporated, and they felt dry and hard to the touch.

First, lay the cable flat on the ground, put on gloves, and carefully observe its structure.

This is a classic three-strand nylon cable, each strand of which is made up of dozens of finer fibers tightly twisted together.

At the end, you can also see traces of the material melted after being thermally cut, which prevented it from spreading out.

“You can’t take it apart with brute force.” He said to the camera, picking up a single fiber with his fingers.

“These nylon fibers are very tough, but their weakness is that they can be broken individually. My goal is to find the ‘dissociation point’ of the fiber without destroying most of its length.”

He chose the spot on the cable that was most worn, and with the tip of his Damascus hunting knife, he meticulously pierced the outermost fibers one by one, as if he were skinning prey.

When the cut is large enough, he can clearly see the entangled structure of the three main ropes inside.

He found the end of one of the strands and then began his meticulous and time-consuming disassembly work.

His movements were like those of a patient craftsman, untying and separating the tightly twisted strands of the cable, one loop after another, against the direction in which the cable was twisted.

This process is tedious and requires a great deal of patience. Due to prolonged stress and deformation, the nylon fibers have developed a kind of "muscle memory," and they will try to twist back together as soon as you let go.

Lin Yu'an could only use his knees to hold down one end and use both hands to slowly break apart these stubborn fiber ropes.

Each time he successfully separated a complete strand of rope, he felt a sense of accomplishment!
Finally, after nearly an hour, he perfectly dismantled the thick cable, which was more than two meters long, into twelve thinner but still strong independent ropes, with a total length of more than thirty meters.

After doing all this, he did not immediately begin digging the foundation.

Before construction could begin, he had to transport the main building materials, timber and moss, to the vicinity of the construction site to complete the material preparation phase.

He took the sharp axe and triangular saw from his toolbox and strode into the nearby spruce forest.

His goal was very clear: to find dead trees that were still standing upright.

He quickly locked onto a target, a spruce tree about twenty centimeters in diameter, its bark long since peeled off, the entire trunk displaying a unique grayish-white color in the forest.

He faced the camera and forcefully tapped the tree trunk with the end of the axe handle, producing a crisp, solid "tap, tap" sound.

"The sound is crisp and clear, indicating that the internal decay is minimal and the wood is still hard. This is definitely the material for building a shelter."

“If wet wood is used as building material, after the shelter is built, as the internal temperature rises, the wood will shrink and deform greatly due to the evaporation of moisture, resulting in a loose structure and air leakage. However, this kind of naturally dried dead wood has a very stable size.”

He did not choose those giant trees with a diameter of more than 30 centimeters; instead, he selected straight deadwood with a diameter between 15 and 20 centimeters, suitable for use as walls.

After selecting the target, he first made a V-shaped "guide cut" about one-third the depth of the trunk from the front of the falling direction, about 30 centimeters above the ground at the base of the tree trunk.

Then, he went around to the back of the tree and began the main cut, a few centimeters above the guide opening.

The triangular saw made a regular "shh...shh...shh..." sound as he pulled it steadily and powerfully, and dry wood chips kept spraying out from the kerf.

When the cutting depth exceeded halfway, the entire tree trunk emitted a slight "crack" sound and began to slowly tilt towards the guide opening.

Lin Yu'an immediately put away the saw and took a few steps back.

"boom--"

With a snapping sound, the grayish-white dead spruce tree fell precisely into the open area he had designated.

For the next few hours, the sound of cutting and the subsequent "bang" of axes clearing branches echoed through the forest.

With remarkable efficiency, he felled eight qualified dead spruce trees and cut them into standard lengths of about three meters, suitable for building walls.

Then, with all their might, they dragged and carried them one by one to the edge of the forest and piled them up neatly.

Having solved the main problem of timber, he then turned his attention to the ground.

He needs a large number of intact moss blocks, which will be used as filler to seal and insulate the gaps between the logs.

He walked to a place where the tundra layer was extremely thick, and with his Damascus hunting knife, he first drew a half-meter square grid on the ground, like shoveling a pizza.

Then, he inserted the blade horizontally between the tundra and the soil below, and using the width of the blade, he cut off a large section of the intact tundra, more than ten centimeters thick, along with the root system soil below.

Instead of picking it up directly, he carefully rolled the square piece of tundra into a sturdy roll, like rolling up a carpet. This made it easy to transport and protected the moss's intact structure to the greatest extent possible.

As evening approached, he had already piled up a waist-high stack of logs and a dozen thick rolls of tundra, resembling green Swiss rolls, next to the future construction site.

He stood before the fruits of his day's labor, his muscles aching, but his heart was filled with the excitement of the construction that was about to begin!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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(End of this chapter)