HUN Chapter 68: Beaver Fur Hat

Lin Yu'an battled against the increasingly heavy wind and snow, trudging one deep step at a time toward his shelter.

The air temperature seemed to have dropped several degrees within just a few minutes, and the bone-chilling cold penetrated relentlessly, desperately trying to pierce through his thick clothing.

The clear animal tracks he had just discovered in the snow were also being smoothed over by newly fallen snow and fierce winds.

The entire forest was being ravaged by this sudden blizzard.

Visibility became extremely poor. Beyond ten meters, everything was a white expanse where sky and earth were indistinguishable.

Lin Yu'an relied almost entirely on memory and his sense of terrain to struggle through the wind and snow, identifying directions with difficulty.

He kept his body low to resist the wind's force, each step extremely heavy and difficult.

Finally, after nearly half an hour, the stone house shelter appeared ahead through the wind and snow.

The moment he entered the shelter, the violent howling outside was instantly muffled by more than half.

The stove inside the stone house hadn't gone out and still maintained a relatively warm small environment.

"Huff... huff... finally made it back."

Lin Yu'an leaned against the stone wall by the door, breathing heavily, removing his gloves and rubbing his somewhat stiff, frozen hands.

He walked to the small window opening and looked outside through the gap.

He saw chaos between heaven and earth, snow falling like rain, fierce winds raging, as if the entire world had fallen into a white apocalypse.

"Looks like I'm not going anywhere today."

He walked to the stove and skillfully added quite a bit of dry wood. Blazing flames began rising in the stove.

The orange-red light instantly dispelled the indoor chill and brought a touch of warmth to this small refuge in the raging blizzard.

Outside was an upside-down world of ice and snow, while inside were warm dancing flames and abundant food stores.

This stark contrast created a strange sense of peace in Lin Yu'an's heart.

Since he couldn't go outside, he decided to find something to do. He remembered those two beaver hides he had tanned.

He picked up a soft, thick beaver hide and displayed its glossy, smooth fur in front of the camera.

"Such good fur would be a waste just sitting there. I plan to use them to make two hats."

"One for myself, and another to give to my wife Aliya."

"I plan to make a variant of a 'hunter's hat.'"

While speaking, he used a small piece of charcoal to carefully outline the hat's contours on the tan hide.

The hat's main body consisted of three pieces of fur: one top piece covering the crown, and two crescent-shaped side pieces that could wrap around the sides and back of the head.

Besides the main parts, he also drew outlines for two ear flaps that could cover the ears and parts of the cheeks.

After outlining all the components, he began cutting.

He didn't have modern scissors, so he could only use his sharp multi-tool knife, extremely carefully cutting bit by bit along the drawn charcoal lines.

Beaver hide was very tough, making cutting quite laborious. He needed considerable force to make the blade penetrate the hide completely in one go.

After all the fur pieces were cut according to his design, he began preparing sewing tools.

Lin Yu'an took a medium-sized metal fish hook made of high-carbon steel from his fishing gear bag.

He first used two stones as pliers and an anvil, carefully hammering the curved hook part straight, which came with a built-in eye for thread.

Lin Yu'an cut about a meter of nylon fishing line and skillfully threaded it through the eye of his homemade fish hook needle, tying a secure knot.

He picked up a crescent-shaped side piece and the oval top piece, aligning their edges with fur face to fur face.

He first used the sharp tip of the fish hook needle to pre-punch uniform small holes every three to four millimeters along the edges of the two pieces that needed sewing.

The fish hook needle was extremely sharp and could easily penetrate the tough beaver hide.

"Pre-punching holes makes subsequent sewing easier and ensures uniform stitching."

Then he began the actual sewing.

Inside the shelter, there were only the "crackling" sounds of the burning fire and the subtle "tap tap" sounds of the fish hook needle penetrating leather.

Lin Yu'an concentrated fully as the nylon thread under his pulling tightly sewed the two pieces together, forming a neat and solid seam.

After long, meticulous work, the hat's main body was sewn together.

He also cleverly used the beaver's iconic flat tail section, which remained even after tanning, as a back trim.

A ruggedly styled beaver fur hat full of hunter character was finally born in his hands.

He tried the finished hat on his head, and the size was just right.

The thick, soft beaver fur clung tightly to his head and ears, instantly blocking out the outside cold.

After making two hats, it was already dark, and the blizzard showed no signs of weakening.

After a simple dinner, he added plenty of dry wood to the stove and went to sleep.

Day fifty-eight.

Seeing the slightly reduced wind and snow outside his shelter, he chose not to wait passively.

Instead, he immediately began his next "indoor workshop" project.

"With such heavy snow outside, after it stops, birds like grouse will likely fly to low branches to avoid the snow and search for food."

While speaking, he dragged out a spruce sapling from the corner that he had previously collected as backup material.

"Although bows and arrows are useful, they're quite freezing to handle in this weather, so I plan to make another hunting tool, a long-pole snare."

"Using a long pole to 'fish' grouse down from branches when they're completely off guard."

He selected a spruce sapling about four meters long.

Because it was long enough, straight enough, and light enough, it was also one of the backup materials for making fishing rods.

He cut a section of steel wire about fifty centimeters long and bent one end into a very solid small ring.

Then he threaded the other end of the wire through this small steel ring he had made, forming a slip knot that could slide and tighten freely.

He adjusted the snare loop's diameter to about ten centimeters, a size that could easily slip over a grouse's head and neck.

A simple long-pole snare was finally completed.

"Guys, this device's principle isn't about strength and speed, but about extreme patience and timing."

He brought the pole tip close to the camera, showing the almost invisible wire loop.

"First, you silently approach prey perched on a branch. Then extremely slowly extend this snare toward its head."

"Birds like grouse sometimes remain still and observe when they don't sense direct threat."

"When the snare successfully passes over its head and loops around its neck, you just need one quick pulling motion, and the slip knot will instantly tighten!"

"Its success depends entirely on your skill and patience."

Near noon, the wind and snow outside the shelter had somewhat weakened.

Although the sky remained overcast, the blinding winds and blizzard had calmed down.

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