I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 193 Broom and Straw Hat

Before the orcs could finish tidying up, the raindrops started falling rapidly, and the rain made them even faster.

Fortunately, most households had already harvested their grain, with only a few orc households still having harvested theirs.

The Bai family had many people working. They had harvested all their wheat and beans, and carried all their mung beans home. After finishing the harvest, the family hurried off to help the other beastmen.

Soon all the orcs' food was collected, and the rain started falling even faster. The orcs put their hands on their heads and ran back in the rain.

The large beastmen all transformed into their beast forms, carrying their families and clansmen back to their home. Cang also transformed into his beast form, carrying his mate and two sons back home.

When they got home, the heavy rain had stopped. The family stood at the door and looked outside. The lightning had moved further and further away, and the thunder had gradually subsided.

It's very likely that the rain won't come.

Bai Ling went out of the yard and looked around. The ground was only slightly wet. It would dry overnight, and there was no need to wait until tomorrow morning. By tomorrow morning, she would have to spread out the piled-up soybeans to dry, carry out the mung beans to dry, and dry the wheat again.

Bai Ling prayed silently that the next few days would be sunny so that all the grain could be dried properly.

Bai Ling had a good plan, but the weather didn't go according to his wishes. When he woke up in the morning, the sky was overcast, and by the time he had breakfast, a light drizzle started to fall outside.

It was impossible to work in this weather, but the orcs in the tribe wouldn't be idle either. They all took advantage of the rare time at home to do some work. Bai Ling went and carried back some sorghum. He planned to use the sorghum to make brooms for sweeping the floor and brooms for scrubbing pots, and then use the sorghum husks to make a straw hat.

These are all small items, but they are very helpful in life. They make sweeping the floor and washing pots very convenient. With a straw hat, you won't get your head wet when you go out in a light rain.

Bai Ling arranged a bunch of sorghum and cut the sorghum stalks with scissors about a foot below the ears.

Before the sorghum was completely dried, Bai Ling found a few pieces of broken pottery and began scraping off the sorghum ears.

The task was simple. Bai Ling demonstrated it to her family, and they learned it quickly. Several creaking sounds rang out in the main room at the same time. The sounds weren't too harsh. Bai Ling then cut a lot of sorghum ears, some long and some short. The long ones were used to make sweeping brooms, and the short ones were used to make dishwashing brooms.

To make a broom, you have to peel off the outer skin of the sorghum stalks. This is not a difficult task, but Bai Ling is very careful when peeling them because the peeled sorghum husks are used to make straw hats.

Soak the peeled sorghum husks in water, then take them outside and weigh them down with stones.

*

Bai Ling first made a pot scrubbing broom, which was very simple. She just arranged a bunch of sorghum seedlings, tied them tightly with silk thread made of animal sinew, and then trimmed the sorghum stalks with scissors.

"This can be used to wash pots and pans, so the tribe won't need leaves to wash dishes anymore."

At this time, there was no dish soap or dishcloth. The beastmen loved to eat meat, and there would be a layer of grease left on the pots and pans. The beastmen would use a kind of leaf with fuzzy leaves to wash the dishes. In the autumn, they would also collect a lot of that kind of leaf to store for use in the winter.

With a dishwashing broom, washing pots and pans becomes much easier.

Making a broom is a bit more complicated. First, you need to find a straight twig about the thickness of a finger, and then tie sorghum stalks to the twig. To make it easier to use, the sorghum stalks must be tied tightly.

The ears of sorghum, which were far from the stalks, were also tied into bundles. Bai Ling tried to make a broom, but it was a little different from what he had imagined. The sorghum ears were not a neat strip, but rather crooked.

The whole family gathered around Bai Ling, and Cang asked, "Ling, is this the one who sweeps the floor?"

Bai Ling nodded, holding the sorghum ear part, and said to his father, "This part should be neat, but my skills are not good, so it turned out like this."

Feng took the broom from his son, examined it carefully, and then asked, "Ling, you said this place should be neat and tidy, right?"

Bai Ling nodded.

Feng then said, "Then I'll give it a try. This doesn't seem too difficult."

Feng was a man of action. He had just seen how his son did it, and he had memorized all the steps, so it shouldn't be difficult for him to do it.

Cang also picked up the sorghum and sat down with his partner to make a broom.

Bai Ling, Yue, and Chen stood to the side watching. None of the three of them were very skilled; even if they could do it, they wouldn't do it well.

After Feng and Cang finished making the broom, Bai Ling was completely convinced and gave them a thumbs up: "Father, Father, you are amazing."

Feng picked up the broom and tested it on the ground. It was indeed very effective at sweeping, much cleaner than a broom made of twigs.

“This is great,” Feng said. “We’ll use this to sweep the house and the twig broom to sweep the yard. I never imagined sorghum could be used for so many things.”

"Well, besides making brooms, sorghum can also be used to make curtains, but you need needles to make those. The needles used for sewing animal hides in the tribe won't work. When I have time, I'll get some iron needles so I can make curtains."

*

Weaving a bamboo hat isn't actually that difficult, but Bai Ling can't do it herself; her father, Feng, has to do it.

Father Feng was the most skilled person in the family, Father Cang could also weave many things, and Chen could also weave some simple utensils. Bai Ling, however, was not good at it. He simply didn't have the talent for it. Even when he wove a basket out of tree branches, it was crooked and uneven. Yue's skills were not as good as his. It took her a long time to weave a basket, and the finished baskets could not be carried out. They could only be placed in the cave to store things.

Bai Ling arranged the semi-dry reeds and then roughly explained to her father how to weave a bamboo hat. First, she arranged the warp and weft threads, and the gaps between the warp and weft threads were about the thickness of a thumb.

This step wasn't difficult. With Bai Ling's explanation, Feng tried twice and made the warp and weft threads that Bai Ling needed. Bai Ling then asked her father to continue filling in the warp and weft threads. When the woven warp and weft threads were about half an arm's length long, Bai Ling took them from her father and tried to press down the woven warp and weft threads to make the shape of a hat.

Since it was her first time making one, Bai Ling had no experience and the warp and weft threads she wove were too small. The hat couldn't fit her head inside, so Bai Ling restored the warp and weft threads and had her father weave an extra palm-width outward.

This time, Bai Ling wasn't needed. Feng held the woven warp and weft threads in one hand and placed the other hand underneath, pressing the threads into the shape of a hat.

He put it on Bai Ling's head, and it fit perfectly, covering half of Bai Ling's forehead.

The next step is relatively simple: weave the warp and weft threads outwards, and when the brim is wide enough, thread the high-waisted skin through the gaps in the warp and weft threads.