Who knows! As soon as I returned to the mountains to farm, I encountered a natural disaster.

After eating until she was full, she asked, "What were you doing at home today? Did you graze?"

Mu Xi shook his head, "I cleaned up the house, cleaned the sheepfold according to the regulations you made, and measured the dimensions. Tomorrow I will cut down trees, tidy up the house and sheepfold, and dig a toilet."

After that, as if recalling what happened in the afternoon, he added, "The dog seemed to have set an alarm clock. Just as the sun was about to set, it came out, opened the sheepfold, and went to graze by itself."

Zhao Yeqing clicked his tongue in surprise.

"Where are those puppies? Why don't they go out?"

Mu Xi looked a little solemn when he heard her ask.

"After the big dogs went out to graze in the afternoon, I went to check on some of the smaller dogs. I found that one of them had two holes in its leg, which looked like the teeth marks of some animal. I tried to move it and found that the leg had already broken."

Is this why the big dog hid several children in the house?

Maybe after the owner passed away and the children were injured, the big dog became more protective of the children, fearing that they would be in danger.

Zhao Yeqing suggested, "How about we go take the dog out and take a bath."

The two went to the pasture and took the big dog out to bathe first.

After getting along with each other for the past two days, Gouzi did not reject the two of them, and was vaguely close to Mu Xi.

Zhao Yeqing looked very envious.

She found a pair of scissors from the house and trimmed the dog's fur.

The clumps of hair on the dog's back could no longer be combed away, so Zhao Yeqing had no choice but to cut it. Fortunately, the dog's hair was long enough and it wouldn't feel bald after the cut. The areas that were not clumps were also similar to those that had been trimmed. The length of the area was cut evenly.

Dogs do not have sweat glands. The sweat glands are concentrated on the tongue, nose and flesh pads. The belly and sides should be trimmed shorter.

Mu Xi brought shower gel to bathe the dog. Zhao Yeqing had never seen such an obedient dog. He didn't even shake the water during the whole process.

After it was washed, Mu Xi wiped most of the water off its body, stood up and walked away, and then the cat shook its body and shook the water off its hair.

Mu Xi walked into the pasture, picked up a little puppy, and wanted to go out and give it a bath.

The big dog came in and barked. Mu Xi touched its head and said, "Don't worry, I just took your pup to take a bath."

After washing the little one, Mu Xi returned the scented cub to the big dog, "Bring your other cubs here."

The dog barked "Woof!", returned to the house, and brought the two cubs over.

The clean-washed dog still didn't want to stick to Zhao Yeqing, which made her very depressed.

I can only comfort myself that the days ahead are long.

The main room had been cleaned, the old bedding on the bed had been taken away, and the bedding she had just brought back today was spread on it.

The bed frame had been wiped with a towel dipped in detergent. There was no strange smell and it exuded a light fragrance.

This is the joy of coming back after going out to work and finding someone at home who has cooked a meal and put everything away.

Mu Xi walked into the room, "Would you like to take a shower first? The water has been poured."

Zhao Yeqing thought to himself: How virtuous.

The bucket filled with water was the one she brought back today. It was a large plastic bucket used to hold things. It was very clean.

Placed at the back of the house, she could see some dim light from the candlelight in the house through the window at the back when she was taking a shower.

The buzzing in his ears was very annoying. Zhao Yeqing took off his clothes and washed them quickly, but inevitably got a few mosquito bites on his body.

Nights in the meadow are much quieter than in the mountains and forests.

The moon seemed very big, as if within reach, exuding a soft halo, making the empty meadow appear a little gentler.

Mu Xi spread a sleeping bag in the house, lay down on it, and said good night before blowing out the candles.

A dreamless night.

The next day, Zhao Yeqing still went down the mountain to carry supplies. Mu Xi went to see the traps early in the morning and caught two rabbits.

Zhao Yeqing intended to restart the rabbit breeding plan, but unfortunately both of them were male, so he could only cook them with tears.

After Zhao Yeqing went out, Mu Xi followed her down the mountain. Seeing that she encountered a snake and dealt with it without any danger, he reluctantly felt relieved and changed his route into the forest.

There is no bamboo in the forest near the meadow area. He wants to build a toilet and needs bamboo to make pipes.

Dry toilets are unhygienic, so several septic tanks must be dug to make them flush.

In order to save water, he collected the buckets that had been used for many years in the previous wooden house to store the dirty water after washing vegetables, hand washing, clothes and tableware, and planned to move it to the toilet to scoop out the water with a ladle for flushing.

Wooden squatting pits are not durable and difficult to clean.

He thought that after the toilet house was built, he would go down the mountain to knock back other people's ceramic squat pits and install them.

When Zhao Yeqing came back, he expressed his thoughts.

Zhao Yeqing's little face instantly wrinkled with disgust, "Isn't this dirty?"

"Probably not. As for the house we spent the night in a few days ago, no one usually lives upstairs. It may be a room prepared for children who work outside. The toilet is like new, so it probably won't be dirty."

Hearing this, he also felt that what Mu Xi said made sense. It would definitely be much more convenient to have a ceramic one.

"Then you use bamboo for sewers and ceramic squat pits, and there is no cement. How do you connect and seal them?"

The toilet must be sealed, otherwise there will be a peculiar smell.

Mu Xi took out the old man's notes from the cabinet, "Here's how to make your own cement."

In other words, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure.

Zhao Yeqing could not help but pay high respect to the deceased old man at this moment.

-

After some research, the two felt that the method of making cement in the notes was reliable and not difficult.

In addition to the high-temperature calcination step, this requires a relatively closed furnace.

There were iron manuscripts in the tool room, and Mu Xi took them out to chisel stones and build the stove, while Zhao Yeqing prepared cement materials at home.

In the kitchen fire pit, branches, bark, and hay were burned all year round, leaving a lot of plant ash.

She dug out all the ashes from the fire pit, sifted it through a bamboo basket with small gaps, and removed all the unburned firewood, charcoal and residue.

Stir the sifted plant ash with water, let it sit for a while, and then pour off the liquid on top.

Because plant ash contains potassium alkali, which is soluble in water, the mortar remaining after the water is poured out is water-insoluble calcium compounds.

It's a pity that there is no sweet potato field, otherwise the water would be very useful as potassium fertilizer for irrigation.

Zhao Yeqing did not forget to wear gloves. The mortar would burn his hands.

Knead the mortar into gray balls and dry them in the sun.

By the time Mu Xi brought all the stones back and built the high-temperature stove, the gray dumplings that had been exposed to the sun for most of the day were also dry and hard.

A hole was left under the stove to put firewood, hardened ash dumplings were placed on top of the firewood, and then the firewood was ignited.

After watching the fire burn, cover it with stones.

The temperature inside the enclosed stove was extremely high, and the flame had turned orange-red. You could feel the heat even ten meters away.

When the fire goes out, let it cool for another night, then uncover the covering stone and take out the ash dumplings inside.

At this time, after experiencing high temperatures, the ash dumplings are converted into calcium oxide and become very brittle. They turn into powder when squeezed by hand.