After eating the Lantern Festival and seeing the ice lanterns, even if the Lantern Festival has passed, the New Year can be considered over.
On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Xu Shiyan borrowed the commune's horse sledge.
I packed a sledge with food and various cages, took the dog and the sable, and went up the mountain.
As soon as we arrived on the mountain, we discovered that there were many fox footprints around the house, which must have been left by the scoundrels who came back from time to time.
When they opened the warehouse, they found the carcasses of several hares and pheasants.
Needless to say, this must have been rations obtained and stored by a scoundrel.
This guy probably used the warehouse as a nest and slept on the ground with a torn sack in his mouth.
Knowing that the scoundrel was safe, Xu Shiyan was relieved and quickly lit the fire.
There hasn't been a fire in the kang for a long time, and there is a cool breeze in the chimney and the kang hole.
Okay, let's light a fire, and all the smoke will pour out from the stove pit, which makes Xu Shiyan choke and cough and bring tears to his eyes.
There was no choice but to keep the fire burning with the door open. Xu Shiyan sat at the door, holding a paper shell and fanning it constantly.
After burning for about an hour, the cool air was blown out, and the smoke gradually became smoother. The chimney outside began to smoke, and the smoke stopped pouring into the house.
The kang has been burned, and there is still a stove. Fortunately, the stove is easier than the kang, and it will be fine after a while of smoke.
After all the smoke in the room had dispersed, Xu Shiyan quickly closed the door. The heat in the room slowly increased and he felt warmer.
When the house was warmed up, Xu Shiyan started to pack up, clean, and then cook.
When I went back this time, I brought a lot of fire ladles, pancakes, pickles, miso, etc. from home. Su Anying even stewed a pot of pickled cabbage for Xu Shiyan to take with him.
This makes cooking a lot more convenient. You can just heat the sauerkraut with a hot spoon, put the sauerkraut in the pot and stew it again before eating.
At night, I suddenly heard the sound of a dog. It was not barking, but another kind of sound that was more chirping.
Xu Shiyan went out to check, and sure enough the scoundrel was back, so he quickly let him into the house.
The deadbeat seemed very happy to see Xu Shiyan. He circled around Xu Shiyan several times and made loud noises again.
Xu Shiyan was so upset that he couldn't laugh or cry, so he could only pat his head, spread a sack on the ground again, and let the scoundrel sleep in the house.
The next day after returning to the mountain, Xu Shiyan led the deadbeat up the mountain to lay traps in the pine forest. Xu Shiyan was still thinking about catching another sable to keep as a companion for his family member.
In addition to trapping under the pine forest, Xu Shiyan also went with the deadbeat to the Xiaohei River to look for traces of otters.
It's not difficult to find traces of otters when there are scoundrels around, but the hard part is how to catch them alive.
In the past, when Xu Shiyan found traces of an otter, he would just shoot and kill him.
But now if you want to catch someone alive, you have to think of a way.
There is a warm spring in the upper reaches of the Xiaohei River, and there are traces of otters there.
During the day, Xu Shiyan built a ditch near Nuanquanzi. The roof of the ditch was covered with pine bark and birch bark to protect it from the wind and snow.
Inside, there was a thick layer of dried burdock grass, urala grass, etc., and a roe deer skin mattress on top.
Why do you use roe deer skin when you go into the mountains? The main reason is that the roe deer skin has no smell. Even if it gets wet, it will not emit a special smell.
If you go into the mountains in the summer when it rains, you won't attract snakes. If you use other skins, they will smell when it rains and get wet, and it is easy to attract snakes.
Of course, there are no snakes in winter, but otters also have a very keen sense of smell, and the skins of other animals are smelly, so the otters might not come ashore if they smell them.
Otters are quite interesting. They play in the water during the day, pull in the water, and play games in the water. They are very courageous.
No matter what beasts on the shore stare at it or even scare it, it doesn't care. If it plunges into the water, no one can do anything to it.
But at night, the otter turns into a coward.
Go ashore, enter the water and take only one path, follow your own footprints exactly, stop one step at a time, listen for any movement, and then look around your footprints to see if there are any traces left by other animals.
Once you find that something is wrong, you immediately turn around and jump into the water and never come out.
Xu Shiyan took advantage of the daytime to break open a hole in the ice in the distance and caught a lot of fish.
When it got dark, Xu Shiyan got into the ditch that had been built in advance.
There was a special hole left in the wall facing Nuanquanzi, and Xu Shiyan stared at it with keen eyes.
Suddenly, a splashing sound was heard, and two otters emerged from the water. They rolled their little eyes, looked around, and then climbed onto the shore from the water.
The otter is a very strange animal. Even though it has just come out of the water, its fur seems to have a special layer of material, and it does not stick to any water after it comes out of the water.
The two otters cautiously stepped ashore, stopping step by step and listening for any unusual movements.
It wasn't until they confirmed that the surroundings were safe that they walked on their short legs, sniffed, and rested among the trees on the shore.
Xu Shiyan waited until there was no sound in the bushes, then tiptoed out of the ditch, and placed several traps with fish on them on the road where the two otters passed by just now.
This kind of trap is similar to a mouse trap. It has no serrations and will not hurt the otter.
However, this kind of clamp is so heavy that the otter cannot drag it and can only spin in place, so some people call it a mushroom clamp.
After putting the clip in place, Xu Shiyan walked backwards and covered his footprints with a layer of snow.
Lest the clever otter notice anything unusual or smell something and run away.
Xu Shiyan returned to the fortress and just squatted inside and stared.
Fortunately, he was wearing thick clothes, which protected him from the wind, so he didn't get too cold.
When the sky in the east turned slightly white, the two otters who came ashore felt hungry and came out of the grass.
After some careful observation, I felt that there was no danger, so I walked towards Nuanquanzi with confidence, following the footprints left last night.
As a result, I just walked not far when I smelled the fishy smell. Following the fishy smell, I saw the delicious fish on the clip.
The otter, who was already hungry, immediately became happy when he saw the fish.
But these two guys were very alert and did not pounce immediately. Instead, they squeaked and returned to the grass again.
Then he stuck his head out and looked around until he confirmed that there was no danger around him. Then he boldly came out and went straight to the fish.
Xu Shiyan placed several clips, and the two otters each ran away.
As a result, as soon as they bit the fish, before they could run away with it, they touched the clamp and caught them all at once.
Xu Shiyan had been staring at the two otters. When he saw this situation, he immediately came out of the ditch.
Walking closer, he caught the two otters and put them into the cages prepared in advance.
These two otters happen to be one male and one female. They are both about three years old, which is a good time.
"Come on, come back with me. I'll take care of everything you eat and drink from now on."
Xu Shiyan looked at the two little guys in the cage, which were round, with cylindrical bodies, short legs, and shiny brown and black fur. He was overjoyed.
If you have these two live otters and raise them well, you will be better off in a few years.