Chapter 22 The First Battle with Rats 2
At noon, Andrew was preparing lunch in the kitchen, while Salil and Sophia sat in front of the sun-drenched house, kneading grass leaves to make twine.
"Sariel!"
Emma's voice came from the distance, and this young married woman living in the village approached slowly on a Dom sheep.
Dom sheep are not fast, and what is needed to get from the foot of the mountain to the mountain is not speed and explosive power, but endurance.
After half an hour of running and stopping, you can get from the village at the foot of the mountain to the houses on the gentle terrain.
"Salil, I brought yarn."
Emma is a good friend of Salil's family and a very good partner.
In addition to providing food to Salil's family, some daily necessities are also provided from time to time.
In contrast, Emma will ask Andrew for help when her family is in trouble.
Salil raised her head while sitting on the wooden stool and said happily: "I'm here, Emma!"
Emma got off the Dom sheep, holding the reins of the Dom sheep with one hand, and looked at the people who were processing the sword-leaf grass. Saryl.
"Sariel, what are you doing?"
Saril explained: "Lawrence is good at dealing with rats. His traps can kill those rats. According to his request, we need to prepare more straw ropes."
Lawrence did not kill them. Dead rat, but he said he could do it.
For Andrew and Saryl, since Lawrence said this, they naturally believed that he really had this ability.
Modesty is not a northern virtue.
The most talked-about things in the cold winter tavern are all kinds of bizarre things, punching giant beasts, fighting sea monsters, escaping from the hands of gods, and encountering wizards and witches.
In mortal legends, warriors are often inseparable from arrogance and arrogance.
Both men killed a rabbit.
One person said: I was lucky today, I caught a rabbit.
Another person said: Let alone a rabbit, even a bear, I can kill it!
It is difficult to evaluate in other places, but in places like the North, where force is valued, people trust the latter more.
Lawrence said that he had a way to deal with mice, something that Andrew and Salyl could not or could not do well, so he won the trust of Salyl and Andrew.
Arrogance and self-confidence are considered hard currency in the entire Northern Territory, and even in this era.
When there are too many things that cannot be done and cannot be understood, people will tend to trust those who can do it and let them take the lead.
Taking care of accounts, writing names, hosting, and thinking of solutions, this arrogant era is in many ways too humble. People will choose to shrink when faced with unknown things that they lack the ability to do. They shrink even more than modern people and dare not take risks.
Emma instantly thought that Lawrence was an expert in catching rats and a wise sage!
"There are many mice in my house, and my shoes have been chewed up. Can Mr. Lawrence go to my house to catch mice?" Emma looked
around, but saw no sign of Lawrence.
Salil said: "We will be busy here for a few days, but it should be okay."
Emma said happily: "Okay! Maybe I can help a little bit. Do you need the leaves of the Sword Leaf Grass?"
Salil was busy. She divided the washed slender blades of grass into strands to dry, "Yes, wool thread can also be used."
Emma quickly sat down to help. Winter will be here in a few days, and everything that needs to be done is almost done. This time I took advantage of the delivery work to have some time to sit around.
Soon Emma and Salil started chatting, and while chatting, the things in their hands did not stop.
Elsewhere, Lawrence has found three mouse holes in the house.
"A few rats will not approach humans, and their hiding places are closer to a few places such as boxes and corners." "
When there are more rats, they will approach humans. Judging from the fact that no rats have taken the initiative to approach me in the past few days, the rats here should not be close to humans." Not much."
"But once winter comes, the rats outside will gather in areas rich in food. Now the house is like a bread that emits the aroma and heat of food. Rats within a dozen kilometers will regard this place as their first choice. Target."
Rats cannot be killed cleanly, and Lawrence knew very well that he could not do such a thing.
Even if you give yourself all the modern tools, as long as you still live in the mountains, the rats will never die and will repeat the same thing every year. Once you get used to it, the rat population will grow rapidly!
Fat rats will crawl on the mud walls of wooden houses, poop on the bottom and on the bed, compete with cattle and sheep in livestock pens, bite and drag away chickens, and even eat sleeping pig ears. .
Chicken coops, sheep sheds, and pig pens are all active areas for rats.
They can be found in roof beams, toilets, chimneys, iron pots, and even buckets, in all kinds of unexpected places.
What's even more terrifying is that even if people starve to death, these rats can't starve to death.
Raising cats and dogs cannot cure the disease, and the battle with rats must be a long-term matter.
Lawrence didn't have much experience in catching mice. He simply found mouse holes and blocked them, or he set up simple traps using the same method as catching birds.
Lawrence is no smarter than Andrew and Salyl, he just knows why the mice are there.
Preserving food can greatly reduce the number of rats.
Only if the rats cannot guard the golden mountains and silver mountains to eat, their number will decrease.
Of course you have to kill some rats too, a two-pronged approach.
Lawrence sprinkled some dry pine nuts from his pocket and set up a colliding trap of tilted sticks at the entrance to the mouse hole.
It's just a small wooden stick supporting a tilted weight, very simple.
"I haven't heard the sound of rats at night recently. If I hear continuous sounds, it means rats have given birth. The little rats are barking desperately." "
Generally, families are very tired at night, and it's not easy. If you find these rats, you will ignore them and sleep in your own room, missing the best time to find rat nests." Judging
from the performance of Andrew and Salil, Lawrence found that at least there were no obvious signs of rat activity before today, so as to prevent rats It will be much simpler.
"Andrew, in order to prevent mice from finding food in the kitchen, we need to make a cabinet specifically for storing food." Andrew
was cooking, and he looked confused after hearing this, "Cabinet?"
Lawrence explained: "It's just for storing food." Wooden boxes for storing fresh meat, vegetables and recent cooking items to keep mice out and add some ice to make the meat fresher." The altitude is high here and ice is available year-round,
but It usually consumes manpower, material resources and time.
Andrew thought for a moment and said, "Just use it when eating. Wouldn't that be troublesome?"
Lawrence said: "No, I am a very good carpenter. I can help make cabinets, and I can also make you a weapons rack specifically for storing weapons, but I need you to provide me with wood." Andrew's eyes quickly lit up, and the
weapons The proposal made him very happy.
"No problem. I have nothing to do in the past few days. Maybe doing something will be beneficial to everyone."
Getting rid of rats requires mobilization. A single person cannot deal with the rats. When we were on the farm, because it was difficult to do anything alone, we could only deal with the problem in our own house. The rats in the neighborhood cannot affect the rats in the entire estate.
Lawrence went to clean the sheep and pig pens again, thinking about how to protect his newly purchased chickens from the cold and rats.
"Chi!"
"Chi—!" Salil was laughing and chatting outside the house when she suddenly heard a scream in the house and quickly realized it was the sound of a mouse!
"Lawrence!" Salil shouted loudly: "Come here Lawrence, there are rats!!"
She did not go in directly, but stood up and shouted to Lawrence who was busy in the chicken coop.
Lawrence quickly came out of the house a few meters away and entered the house first while Salil was waiting.
Andrew and Salil had moved most of the furniture when they were looking for mice. Such movement naturally frightened the mice in the hole.
After the group leaves the house, the mouse will also come out to see what's going on.
It is this characteristic that Lawrence uses to set traps.
Most animals have two characteristics. The first is to drill holes and squeeze into small places, and the second is to be curious.
When Andrew came over, Lawrence was showing off his trophy, a fat, stoned rat.
Lawrence held up the big mouse: "If it had been a few days later, we would have been able to hear the song of the little mouse while we were sleeping."
(End of Chapter)