【Quick Wear】My Years as a Mother-in-law

Chapter 322: Primitive Tribe Chieftain Mother-in-law 42

"Before tanning, the hides need to be cleaned and softened. Otherwise, the hides will be very hard and won't last long. When the hides are softened by soaking them in water, they need to be stirred and rubbed. Any stains, such as feces and blood, on both the inside and outside of the hides need to be carefully cleaned."

"In addition to softening the leather, this step also cleans it. After tanning, leather is generally difficult to clean. If you use too much water to clean it, it will become dry and hard, so you must clean the leather carefully in this step. I will teach you how to clean leather correctly later."

"After cleaning the hide, spread it out on a wooden bench tilted at a 45-degree angle, with the hairless side facing up. Then use a blunt knife to scrape off any remaining grease, flesh, or blood. You can use the back of a kitchen knife or a wooden stick to patiently remove any scraps of flesh. When scraping out the residue, apply a little force, but also be very careful to avoid cutting the hide, which would ruin it."

Yun Xi took a piece of leather and demonstrated, "It's cold in winter, so you can soak the leather in water for a longer time."

"I won't explain the principles of tanning leather; it's too complicated to explain. Let me simply talk about vegetable tanning. There are many raw materials that can be used for this method, such as woods like quebracho, chestnut, and oak; barks like oak, wattle, bayberry, larch, and fir; and leaves like lacquer, cotinus, and tea. Some plant fruits, such as citronella and kiwi fruit, are also sources of tannic acid for vegetable tanning. There are also many other plants that can be used to tan leather."

"There's something in these plants that tans leather."

"I have some tea leaves here. I'll show you how. Any ordinary tea leaves will do. Pick some and add water to it and bring it to a boil. Boil it for as long as you can to allow the tannic acid in the tea leaves to seep into the water."

"After the water cools, pour it into a large barrel and put the raw hides that have been soaked and restored to their fresh state into it. Then, constantly stir the hides for more than 30 minutes every day to allow the tannins in the water to penetrate into the hides and combine with the collagen."

"After a month, the leather will soften. Take out the fur and pat and rub it. This method is suitable for cowhide and deerhide."

"The process for tanning furs like fox, sheep, rabbit, bear, and tiger skins is slightly different from that for leather. The hairy hides aren't placed directly into the tanning vat. Instead, some tanning liquid is poured onto the hairless side of the hide. Then, the hide is rubbed with your hands continuously. This rubbing needs to be continued for a long time, as the hide needs to absorb the tanning liquid. The hairy side of the hide doesn't come into contact with the tanning liquid."

"Once the tanning liquid has been absorbed by the leather, sprinkle a small amount of tanning liquid on the inside of the fur, then fold it inside out and wrap it up, making sure the tanning liquid doesn't leak out. Once the fur is wrapped, place it in a cool place for a few days, then you can take it out and pat and rub it."

"Once the leather is thoroughly tanned, wash it with clean water and then stretch it on a frame to dry."

"This is the specific method of leather tanning. It takes a long time, but the tanned leather is very soft and comfortable, with less odor."

Yun Xi took a sip of water to moisten her mouth. "Tomorrow I'll teach you how to clean the leather. There's a lot of tea leaves on the mountain. Forget about this year. Next year I'll take you to pick some and dry them. I'll put a few pounds here for you to use first."

After saying that, Shi Shiran went back to the house.

Shu thought about the chief's words and began to study them seriously, while the others were carefully processing the leather. Although the tribe distributed leather every year, it was never too much to have more of this stuff.

"When will this winter end? I feel like I've been exiled to Ningguta. System, are the people in the Yuncai tribe all right?" Yun Xi took a bath and sat in front of the stove to dry her hair. The dry hair smelled like a mixture of shampoo and firewood. It was so unpleasant.

"Fortunately, their tribe built three houses and dug a cellar, so they can squeeze in." The system came back to its senses from studying cultivation and continued, "They want to build a few more houses next year."

"I guess not. Although this place is also very good, there seems to be something very important in the ancestral land in the inherited memory. I must take my people back. We can't live here anymore. We can sell it to the Yuncai Tribe." Yun Xi propped up her chin and looked at the jumping flames in front of her.

"System, give me a panoramic map of this planet so I can look for it."

"okay."

Yun Xi stretched out her hand and touched the screen, zooming in and out, checking it bit by bit. The Sun and Moon Continents were two large continents, with a vast ocean between them, and they seemed to be unconnected.

I looked carefully at the continent I was on. I didn't find any similar places in the south. And almost every habitable place had orcs living in it. It definitely couldn't be the ancestral land of the Yang tribe. But it seems that there are quite a lot of orcs on this continent.

She headed north specifically to look for Xueqing and her group's original tribe. She couldn't recognize it, but she saw that the orc tribes living in the frigid north were all in dire straits. With the temperatures so low, Yunxi even doubted that any orcs could survive. Fortunately, she saw a tribe digging snow caves and fishing in the river. Others were even courting ferocious wild beasts. Starving beasts can do anything, but wild beasts are also hungry, so who's going to eat whom?

"Go see another continent."

Yun Xi turned the map over and frowned. After examining it carefully, she was puzzled. "It seems that there are not many orcs living on this continent."

There were only a few orcs left, and they had transformed into bird-like forms. If they weren't birds, could they be phoenixes? They looked very much like phoenixes, but also different, like Suzaku. Could that continent be the territory of the bird-orcs?

"I'm tired of watching it. Let's watch it tomorrow."

After searching for a while, Yun Xi felt very sleepy. After urinating, she quickly went to bed. She didn't have to be on duty tonight and could have a good sleep.

The whole winter passed lazily like this. In February of the following year, the cold finally retreated and the warm sunshine spread to the earth.

Cherry, Apricot and the other two came to Yun Xi to discuss their plans for this year.

"I remembered the location of our ancestral land. This year we will leave here and return to our ancestral land." Yun Xi said straight to the point, "The house here can be sold to the Yuncai Tribe. Let's discuss what is more suitable."

"Ah? Go back to our ancestral land? Mom, is our ancestral land better than here?" Ying was relatively calm.

Tao guessed, "It should be better than here."

Xing affirmed, "It's definitely better than here, otherwise why would my mother say she wanted to find the ancestral land?"

Yun Xi nodded. "It's better than here. This place is at most a village, while the ancestral land is a city."