"Let's kill this wild boar. We can finally eat some meat."
Just thinking about eating meat made Gianna drool. Well, that was the body's natural reaction.
Gianna quickly helped hold down the wild boar, and Floyd finally managed to pin it to the ground. Then, with one clean motion, he finished it off.
After dealing with the boar, both of them couldn't stop worrying about the kids. So they made another trip to carry the children down the cliff.
Gianna looked worriedly at the pond.
The water was dirty. Not only were there dry leaves and branches, but most importantly, there was a strong smell of urine.
That wild boar had clearly been messing around in the pond for a while, treating it like its personal bathtub.
Gianna had always had a positive attitude about life.
After thinking for a moment, she said, "Floyd, go find some big firewood. We'll dig a water pit nearby and use charcoal and sand to filter the water."
Having a water source was already a blessing. If they wanted clean water, they just had to work a little harder.
Floyd looked a bit confused and asked, "What do you need firewood for?"
Didn't they just eat?
Gianna pointed at the smelly pond and said, "Even if we dig a pit next to it to get water, it still won't be drinkable! Charcoal can absorb the impurities... Just go find firewood."
The three kids hadn't seen a pond in a long time. They wanted to go near it but were too scared, so they stood on the side.
Gianna took Xeno's hand and walked to a dry area. "You three kids can play here."
Dennis and Nori quickly said, "We want to help, Mama."
"Xeno wants to help Mama too."
All three kids looked up at her, eyes full of hope.
Gianna knew they were sensible. After thinking for a bit, she said, "Then clear this dry area first, and then go into the woods to collect dry leaves, okay?"
Dennis happily pulled his two younger brothers along and rushed off.
When looking for water, you had to bring a hoe. Gianna took a small hoe out of her basket and chose a relatively clean spot to start digging.
Floyd came back and quickly took the hoe from Gianna's hands. "Let me do this kind of work."
Gianna really liked Floyd's responsible nature.
Wet soil piled up on one side, and when the hole was about half a meter deep, Gianna told Floyd to stop.
Water slowly started to fill the pit.
"Floyd, we need to make a filter bucket, so I'm going to need you to work a little more."
"Filter bucket?"
Floyd looked confused.
Why did it feel like he couldn't understand what Gianna was talking about sometimes?
Gianna didn't panic at all and calmly said, "It's a bucket to filter dirty water. I'll go burn the charcoal. You go find some clean fine soil and stones."
Making charcoal and ash was simple. Soon, Gianna had it ready.
The water in the pit looked slightly yellow and had a faint bad smell.
Gianna worked with her own hands, drilling a small hole in a wooden bucket. She tore a piece of cloth and plugged the hole, then layered in plant ash, charcoal, and then sand and stones.
She found two big rocks to set the filter bucket on, with a water bucket placed underneath to collect the clean water.
Gianna scooped a few ladles of water into the filter bucket and clapped her hands in satisfaction. "Okay, now we just wait for the water to drip down."
Floyd walked over to the bucket and watched the clean water slowly drip down. He caught a bit, smelled it, and the bad smell was gone.
This was amazing.
Floyd looked at Gianna, more puzzled than ever. How did his wife know all this?
"Gianna, how do you know how to filter water like this?"
He remembered that just earlier, the water had smelled terrible.
After filtering, there was no smell at all.
Gianna had already thought of an excuse and explained, "My dad mentioned it to me when he was still alive. We can filter the water one more time. We're not going back today, so let's stay here tonight. It's a good chance to smoke the wild boar meat."
Floyd used to be one of the best hunters in the village, so cleaning the wild boar was no problem for him.
Gianna kept the pig liver and kidney from the wild boar and told him to throw the rest away.
Pig intestines, for example, need a lot of water to clean, and right now, water was too precious.
At night, the whole family sat around the fire, eating the wild boar and dried vegetables stew Gianna made. It was pure happiness.
The mountain hollow got a bit cold at night.
Gianna really couldn't stand the smell of the pond anymore and said to Floyd, "We'll probably stay here for two more days and come back here for water again in the future. Let's take some time to clean up the area."
So the two of them took torches and cleaned up the pig waste.
Gianna, under Floyd's insistence, slept in his arms all night.
The next morning, Gianna quickly walked to the buckets. She smelled the two buckets of already filtered water. There was still a faint smell.
But after filtering one more time and boiling it, it should be fine.
While cooking, Gianna secretly added a little bit of salt to the soup.
If people go too long without eating salt, they'll lose strength and feel tired.
Salt was a luxury for this small family. They could only eat it once every few days, and just a little bit each time.
While waiting for the water, Gianna took the smoked meat from the night before and put it back on the fire to smoke it again.
Meat smoked this way could be stored for longer.
Floyd sat next to Gianna and said, "We can't let the villagers know about this water hole."
To be honest, Floyd was pretty clear-headed about certain things—he wasn't overly kind.
Gianna nodded seriously and reminded him, "Not only the water hole, but we also can't let anyone know about the wild boar meat. We have to sneak into the village at night. The wild boar meat should be hidden for now and not brought back."
Gianna knew very well what kind of people were in the village!
Being too kind wouldn't help anyone survive in this world!
At this point, they could only look after their own family.
On the third morning.
Gianna pulled up two buckets of water from the cliff.
They brought four wooden buckets when they came.
Now they were going back with only three.
The filtering bucket was left in the mountain hollow since they would need it again in a couple of days.
As for the dozens of pounds of wild boar meat, Gianna and Floyd discussed and decided to leave it in the mountain hollow for now.
They wrapped the wild boar meat in cloth and hung it on a tree with rope.
When Floyd climbed up the cliff too, the whole family started the journey home.
They walked more than twenty miles and didn't get back until late at night.
Gianna thought several times about putting the water buckets into the space.
But in the end, she clenched her teeth and held back.
No matter what, the space couldn't be exposed. She just had to suffer a little.
Floyd carried Xeno and a load of water in front.
Gianna took turns carrying Dennis and Nori, and a water bucket was placed in the basket on her back.
The village was quiet late at night.
The five of them quietly snuck back home. Floyd went straight to the cellar and hid the two buckets of water there. Only then did he finally relax.