King of the Wilderness-Chapter 54: Meat Curtain and Firewood Shed

Afterwards, Lin Yu’an horizontally set up fishing lines inside the smokehouse.

As crossbeams for hanging meat strips, ensuring they can bear the weight of several dozen kilograms of venison.

Finally, for the roof, he first used a few thinner wooden rods, constructing at a slight incline.

From one side of the smokehouse’s wall, extending to the top of the opposite wall, forming the rafter framework of the roof.

Then on top of the rafters, he first laid a layer of previously collected birch bark, then covered it with a large amount of moss.

He deliberately left some narrow gaps as channels for the smoke to escape.

With the smokehouse ready, Lin Yu’an returned to the shelter to prepare for the smoking process.

"Before smoking, you need to cut the venison into strips or thin slices, making it easier to smoke through."

He picked up a piece of deer hindquarter meat, with the sharp multifaceted knife moving nimbly in his hand.

Following the natural muscle texture, he divided the thick venison into strips about five to ten centimeters wide, of varying lengths.

He cut meticulously, with every slice aiming to maintain equal thickness of the meat strips.

To ensure that during smoking they receive heat and dehydration evenly.

After all the venison was cut and processed, Lin Yu’an began hanging them on the wire crossbeam inside the smokehouse.

Soon, the inside of the smokehouse was filled with densely hanging meat strips, pink and dark red pieces overlapping.

In the dim light filtering through the roof gaps, forming a rather spectacular "meat curtain."

He deliberately adjusted the spacing of the meat strips, ensuring gaps between them to allow smoke to circulate fully, evenly enveloping each piece.

"All the venison is ’on the shelf’, we can start smoking now!"

"The key to smoking is the ’smoke’, not the ’fire’; what’s needed is a lot of continuous dense smoke."

Lin Yu’an constructed a simple fireproof area with stones, about half a meter in diameter, on the ground in the center of the smokehouse.

He first lit a small open flame with dry kindling and reed flowers.

Once the fire was stable, he began adding semi-burning charcoal and covered it with a large amount of slightly damp pine needles and moss.

These damp materials wouldn’t burn vigorously under the heat of the charcoal fire.

But would smolder slowly, producing a large volume of rich, lasting white smoke, emitting a unique scent mixed with pine resin and needles.

Soon, the entire interior of the smokehouse was thoroughly enveloped in milky white dense smoke.

"The smoking process typically needs to last for several days, the specific time depending on the size of the meat pieces, the intensity of the smoke, and the desired preservation outcome."

"And I don’t need such dry jerky, with the current temperature, it’s enough for semi-dry jerky not to spoil."

He gently closed the simple wooden door of the smokehouse, leaving only a tiny gap for observing the inside situation.

Then stepped aside, quietly guarding this "food factory" in the process of smoking.

It was the forty-eighth day.

Since last evening, Lin Yu’an’s attention had been almost entirely occupied by this smokehouse.

Every one or two hours, he would walk out of the shelter to carefully check the charcoal and smoke density inside the smokehouse.

And remained alert as to whether additional damp pine needles were needed on the smoldering smoking materials.

To guard against nocturnal predators possibly attracted by the meaty aroma.

He tied several fine fishing lines taken from his tackle bag on a few necessary paths around the smokehouse, with the other ends attached to small bait bells.

Any uninvited guest intruding would set off a crisp warning.

Fortunately, the bait bells remained silent throughout the night.

Lin Yu’an had a few hours of interrupted sleep last night and felt fairly spirited this morning.

The first thing he did after getting up was to quickly walk toward the smokehouse.

Approaching, he was hit with a stronger aroma of meat mixed with the smoky pine resin scent.

He pushed open the simple door pieced together with thin wooden posts.

Inside, the smoke was still swirling, and those hanging venison strips had clearly shrunk after a night of smoking.

The color had also transformed from bright red to a mouthwatering, oily deep reddish-brown.

"Hmm, the smoking progress is better than expected."

Lin Yu’an muttered to himself and added some new smoking materials into the smoke fire, ensuring the smoke would last throughout the day.

Returning to the stone house, he rekindled the stove fire.

He placed the venison loin, specially reserved from last night, in a stainless steel pot to heat.

The grease quickly melts under high temperature, emitting a soft "sizzle". Paired with a cup of hot tea brewed from freshly picked pine needles, marks the energizing start of day forty-eight.

"Folks, the deer meat still needs to be smoked continuously, but I can’t stay here all day doing nothing else."

Lin Yu’an said to the camera while enjoying the delicious fried venison.

"The firewood accumulated outside of the shelter is growing, so I’ve decided to build a storage shed for it today to prevent it from getting soaked by rain and snow."

"Winter is approaching, and I need to stockpile a huge amount of dry firewood to get through it safely."

"If the firewood is just stacked outdoors, once there is continuous rain and snow, it can easily become damp, affecting burning efficiency."

"Therefore, a woodshed that can shield from wind and rain is very necessary, it doesn’t have to be complicated, the key is to have a roof."

"The focus is on being able to pay attention to the smokehouse while working, to prevent being robbed."

The location for the woodshed was decided to be at the side and rear of the stone shelter, adjacent to the stone wall.

This takes advantage of the stone wall as a natural barrier and makes daily access convenient.

He selected two spruce logs from those left over from building the smokehouse, each about two and a half meters long, to serve as the main load-bearing pillars in front of the woodshed.

Using the logging axe, he sharpened each pillar’s base into a sharp wedge shape.

Then, he aimed the sharp base into the excavated pit on the ground, using the back of the axe to forcefully drive it into the relatively soft soil.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!" The dull sound of impact echoed.

For each pillar, he repeatedly adjusted the angle and firmly stomped the soil around the pillar with his foot, ensuring its stability.

Once these two tall pillars were stabilized, he began constructing the roof frame.

He selected a pine rod longer than the intended width of the woodshed, as the front crossbeam connecting the two tall pillars.

He cut grooves at the inner tops of both pillars and at the corresponding contact points on each end of the crossbeam.

He securely placed the front crossbeam into the groove at the top of the two tall pillars.

Then, using willow bark rope, he tightly bound the connection points between the crossbeam and the pillars in a crisscross manner for reinforcement.

He also found several relatively thin branches to serve as rafters.

Aligning one end of these rafters at intervals on the securely fixed front crossbeam, he fixed them with willow bark rope.

The other end of the rafters naturally inclined backward and downward, forming an obvious single-slope roof frame.

"The key to the roof is to prevent rain and snow, thus it must have enough slope to let the rain and snow smoothly slide off."

Finally, for laying the roof material, he chose not to use birch bark, but decided to fully utilize the abundant reeds nearby.

He swiftly collected a large amount of dried reeds from the lakeside or shallow stream banks.

He tied these reeds into bundles, starting from the lower part of the roof, layering them tightly one upon the other on the inclined rafters.

He laid it very thick, several centimeters deep, and secured it with willow bark rope to the rafters below to prevent it from being blown away by strong winds.

The structure of this woodshed is extremely simple, with two tall pillars in front supporting an inclined reed roof.

The back directly touches the ground or rests on short wood, with both sides completely open for easy access to firewood.

Though it hardly has any decent walls, its footprint is large enough to accommodate the firewood he needs for the coming weeks or even longer.

And it effectively protects them from rain and snow falling from above.

Later on, if needed, he can consider using branches to construct enclosing branch walls on both sides of the woodshed.

"Alright, folks, my simple woodshed is finished! Though crude, having a roof to shield from wind and rain is sufficient."

Constructing this simple woodshed nearly took up his entire day.

As the sun started sinking into the outline of the distant mountains to the west, Lin Yu’an finally finished all the labor.

And neatly stacked part of the collected dry firewood under the newly completed woodshed.

The night descended once again, and the fireplace inside the stone house was lit, exuding warmth.

Lin Yu’an continued to reheat the remaining fragrant fried deer tenderloin on the hot stone slab at the fireplace entrance.

Accompanied by a few pieces of roasted wild onions, it became his dinner after a day of hard work.

After dinner, he did not immediately rest but instead went back to the smokehouse to carefully inspect the state of the smoking fire heap.

He added some new charcoal and wet pine needles.

After ensuring everything was fine, Lin Yu’an returned to the warm stone shelter, ready to face another uncertain night at the Chilco Lakefront.

(Thanks to all the shareholders for their strong support, allowing me to experience the achievement of being a platinum title for one day during the new book period...)

(It’s confirmed that it will be released on July 1st, so this weekend I will work hard for two days to save up some...)

(This Chapter has 2800 words, monthly ticket, I beg you.)