Chapter 609: Animals in the Doomsday Winter
"Good morning, Knight Shay!" A villager wearing a thick winter coat and his face wrapped in a small piece of leather greeted Shay.
"Good morning, Frank! How was the situation last night? The snow is really heavy!" Shay also greeted the villager and asked him about the situation last night.
"The situation is a bit bad. The snow has crushed two houses. Because the snow has not stopped, we have no way to clean up the snow. Your brother was exhausted last night!" Frank reported the situation to Shay. .
With the arrival of the final cold winter, settlements like Shay’s where there are still houses on the ground must face a very serious problem, that is, the snow brought by heavy snowfall will Destroy houses built of wood.
So after discussing with his brother, Xie Yi decided to arrange for someone to patrol at night so that he could handle unexpected situations in time.
After all, after the doomsday winter comes, the problems they need to face are not just snow.
Shay patted Frank on the shoulder, helped him brush off the snow on his shoulder and said: "Okay, I'll go find my brother, you go back and rest first! I asked the canteen to prepare it for you Hot soup, Martha made it early, and I saw she put venison in it."
"That's so good! Nothing warms my stomach more than Martha's venison soup. !" For Frank, who had been on duty all night, a steaming bowl of venison soup full of meat and fat was too tempting.
Farewell to Frank, Shay climbed up the outer wall of the settlement and soon found his brother at the outpost on the outer wall.
It could be seen that even with the protection of the heating field, the outer wall of the outpost to block the wind and snow, and even a fire inside the outpost, Shay's brother was still freezing.
"Brother, I brought you breakfast. After you finish eating, go back and have a rest!" Shay said, taking out a lunch box from his clothes.
Because I was in my arms all the time, the lunch box was still hot.
Shay's brother took the lunch box and opened it eagerly, and then a strong aroma of meat wafted out.
"Venison soup? This is really great!" Although as a former Langton civil servant, Shay's brother has also eaten it before, but obviously there is no life like Langton in the north. Conditions were met, and such a can of venison soup was enough to make him overjoyed.
Shay watched his brother eating deliciously and did not bother him. He just picked up the telescope wrapped in fur, went to the window, and looked through the thick double-glazed window at the woodland outside the settlement.
As the environment becomes increasingly harsh, it is difficult for various animals to survive this extremely harsh climate.
Because the settlement has a heating field composed of energy towers and constant temperature barriers, although the temperature is still very low, it can at least allow animals to survive.
This also leads to some lucky animals coming to the outskirts of the settlement and rubbing against the heating field of the settlement.
For this situation, Shay and the residents of the settlement are happy to see the result. After all, the animals that come to the heating field are also a source of meat, which can greatly improve and enrich the residents of the settlement. recipe.
The venison soup this morning was made from a frozen male deer we picked up yesterday.
In this kind of weather, if an animal dies, it will freeze hard within a few hours. There is no need to worry about spoilage. Even a dead deer can be eaten with confidence.
The villagers are also very happy that meat is delivered to their doorsteps from time to time. After all, in addition to providing meat, animals can also provide a series of valuable materials such as fur and oil. This is a very good supplement for settlements in the apocalyptic winter.
In order to protect animals, Shay restricted the hunting of animals outside the settlement by the villagers. They were only allowed to pick up frozen dead animal carcasses and were not allowed to hunt them directly.
In order to prevent the animals from starving to death due to lack of food, Shea discussed with the villagers and began to feed these animals and cleared an area outside the settlement as a habitat for these animals.
After several times, these animals have become familiar with the villagers in the settlement. Now the villagers feeding them will no longer alert the animals, and some animals will even come up to express friendship and intimacy. .
Under such circumstances, Shay also considered whether to simply light up the livestock industry and domesticate these animals.
But the villagers said that the current situation is enough, and there is not enough space in the settlement to meet the needs of domesticated animals.
Although the scope of the heating field can allow some animals to take refuge, in fact it is only a small strip area where the heating field extends beyond the outer wall of the settlement. It is basically open and unobstructed. .
Animals will come here to take shelter due to the ambient temperature, but this does not mean that many animals can be accommodated here.
But the animals also seem to understand that the number of animals this place can accommodate is limited, so whenever the number of animals reaches a certain level, they will spontaneously crowd out some old, weak or new ones. animals, ensuring that the population living here remains within a certain size.
The animals that were squeezed away could not go far at all. They were either frozen to death or hunted by villagers in the settlements.
Although Shay restricted the villagers from directly hunting those animals living in the heating field, those that were squeezed out were not within the scope of protection. As long as they could be caught, they could be hunted and killed at will.
It is precisely because of this that Shay's settlement not only has meat to eat in the last cold winter, but can also sell furs, frozen meat and grease to the caravans.
These things are already very precious materials in this era, especially animal fat, which is even more precious to city people.
You must know that if you want to maintain body temperature and energy consumption in a cold environment, in addition to sugar, you can only rely on fat.
"It snowed so heavily last night, did any animals freeze to death?" Shay asked his brother. He didn't see any traces of animal activity through the telescope just now. Maybe it was because the snow was too heavy and the animals None of them came out.
Shay's brother shook his head and replied while drinking venison soup: "I didn't see it. The snow last night was too heavy. Even if there are animals that freeze to death, they will be buried quickly. This kind of weather is really bad.”
“I really wish I had a robot! It would be much faster than manual cleaning!” But for some reason his dead deer ended up on the robot.
Large robots are important vehicles for caravans traveling between various settlements. They are also important tools for production and labor in large towns. Shay's settlement is not large enough so there are no robots, but some settlements have robots. Shay has been envious for a long time.
"If you want it so much, you can try to ask her for one when you meet Earl Brandlis this time?" Shay's brother made a joke.
(End of this chapter)