Alaska Gold Rush Diary

Chapter 101 Jungle Wild Game Feast

Time slips away quietly amidst calm and busyness, and another half month has passed in the blink of an eye.

In the past two days, the three of them have noticed that their daily harvest has begun to decrease sharply.

Previously, even on the worst days, there was still a harvest of seven or eight ounces, but recently, for three consecutive days, there has only been a harvest of less than five ounces.

"It seems this mining site is nearing depletion."

Zhou Xin's prediction was correct; the following day, the harvest was even less than two ounces.

If it's purely manual gold panning, the harvest is very considerable, but with mechanized operations, the harvest is far from ideal.

There's no need to linger here any longer; we can head to the next mining site.

As of now, their total catch has reached 516.7 ounces.

"Get ready to pack your things, we're setting off for the next mining site tomorrow!" Zhou Xin announced at noon that day.

The benefit of planning and preparing in advance is that the current work can continue in an orderly manner.

In the afternoon, Edward and Alo began dismantling the ore washing machine and generator, while Zhou Xin planned to cook a big meal to celebrate the occasion.

He first went to the place where he had found the camu fruit before and picked all the ripe fruit.

Then he went into the jungle and began to gather various spices and ingredients.

In addition to the wild ginger, wild herbs, salissa pepper, and Amazon watercress he had found before, he also unexpectedly discovered another spice that he really liked: wild chili peppers.

Wild chili peppers are small, round, and resemble goji berries in appearance.

Moreover, in addition to its spiciness, this wild chili pepper also has a unique fragrance that ordinary chili peppers do not possess, making it a very precious natural spice.

As for ingredients, he found a fruit tree called Gubuasu.

This fruit resembles a papaya in appearance and has a sweet and sour flesh.

In addition, he also collected a lot of heart palm fruits, Paranana nuts, and the all-purpose palm core.

He also found a pheasant nest in the woods with five pheasant eggs inside.

Just as he was carrying his bountiful harvest and preparing to head back, Logan brought another unexpected surprise.

It carried an animal that looked like a rabbit in its mouth and dropped it in front of Zhou Xin.

Zhou Xin recognized it as a porcupine, which resembled a rabbit but was much larger.

"Logan, you want to celebrate with us too, right?" Zhou Xin smiled and patted the wolf's head.

In this way, the ingredients for dinner are completely plentiful.

When he returned to the camp, he saw that Edward and Alo had already packed up all the machines.

Seeing his two teammates working so efficiently, Zhou Xin felt very gratified.

"Now you can all get some rest and look forward to a big meal tonight!"

"Yo ho!"

Edward cheered and started running across the river.

Alo silently walked to the mule shed and fed the two mules a mixture of hay and sago palm starch.

Because they would soon need to work, Zhou Xin fed them sago palm starch every day to supplement their nutrition.

Zhou Xin prepared four dishes tonight.

The first dish was heart palm stewed with guinea pig meat, accompanied by Amazon watercress and eclipta prostrata, a combination of meat and vegetables, with a rich and delicious soup.

The second dish was dry-pot spicy pork ribs. I hadn't eaten the ribs from the wild boar from last time, so I made them and ate them today.

The cured pork ribs are seasoned with salissa pepper and freshly harvested wild chili peppers, and the bottom of the pot is lined with palm heart. Although it is a bit dry, it no longer has any gamey smell and becomes more and more fragrant the more you chew it.

The third dish is a mixture of pheasant eggs and sago starch, with wild herbs added, then pan-fried into a crispy on the outside and tender on the inside egg pancake.

The fourth dish was a crispy snack made by deep-frying smoked dried small fish and Paranoid nuts.

Finally, he also extracted juice from the fruits of the gubuasou and camu, added some cane sugar, and made a uniquely flavored beverage.

To cater to Edward, in addition to roasted palm hearts, he also baked some crispy pancakes using sago palm leaves as a staple food.

Edward's eyes lit up at the sight of the sumptuous meal laid out on the table.

"Cheers to our gold mining operation's milestone success!" Zhou Xin raised his hand to his natural mixed fruit juice drink.

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

The three of them drank their fill and began to enjoy their sumptuous dinner.

In addition to the delicious food, drinks were also included, which elevated the three of them's jungle feast to another level.

The fruit juice is sweet and sour, and the addition of cane sugar makes the sourness milder, making it taste really good.

The three of them devoured the food in a whirlwind, leaving nothing behind.

At this moment, the sun, as red as a salted egg yolk, was still on the horizon, its afterglow bathing the forest in a warm hue.

The three sat quietly by the river, watching the sun slowly set, feeling peaceful and serene.

That evening, the three returned to the treehouse, lay in the tent, and watched the classic movie "Indiana Jones" while discussing their plans for the next day.

"Now that we have a boat, I plan to transport the mules across the river; it'll be safer that way."

Zhou Xin initially planned to leave the mules on this side of the river and feed them by going back and forth across the river every day.

But that would not only be troublesome, but also make it difficult for them to take care of the mules.

After all, the jungle is full of dangers. For example, if a mule is bitten by a snake, it might be possible to save it if it is discovered immediately.

"Tomorrow, we'll be leaving here and embarking on a new journey. But we'll have to abandon this treehouse you worked so hard to build," Edward sighed.

"It's alright. Living in the treehouse has greatly improved our comfort level, which is well worth it. Besides, I can build another one when we get to the next mining site."

After a brief settling in, the treehouse quieted down, and the three watched a movie, occasionally bursting into laughter.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, they got up and set off.

They loaded the equipment and supplies onto the mules' backs, and each person carried a portion to lighten the mules' load, before heading towards the upstream mining site.

Because they set off very early, they arrived at the mine site around 1 p.m.

Zhou Xin finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the wooden boat steadily moored on the riverbank.

Without taking a break, the three of them quickly ate some palm kernels and began loading equipment and supplies onto the ship.

They plan to transport all the materials across the river today and set up and debug the ore washing machine so they can start panning for gold first thing tomorrow morning.

Although the ship appeared capable of carrying all the equipment and supplies, Zhou Xin still divided the transport into two trips.

This was to be on the safe side; he couldn't risk anything by letting the ship sink.

If the equipment is damaged, they will have to resort to inefficient manual gold panning for the rest of their lives.

Working together, the three successfully transported all the equipment and supplies to the other side of the river.

Next came the most troublesome part: mule transport.

The mules were already a little afraid of getting on the boat, and after being forcibly driven onto it, they could barely stand up.

Fortunately, Zhou Xin and Edward worked well together, and Alo helped from the other side of the river. In addition, the river was not wide. After a while, they finally managed to get the mule across the river without any major incidents.