18 Life Goes On

CHAPTER 18 Life Goes On In my third year on the island, everyday life really started to take shape. I was busy hunting and cooking in the mornings, just as I had every morning for two years now. I spent afternoons working on projects, like building shelves and improving both of my homes. Some days I would head out to my valley and check on my crops. They were doing

第十八章生活继续我在岛上的第三年，日常生活真正开始有了规律。 早上我忙着打猎和做饭，就像两年来每天早上一样。 我把下午的时间花在做项目上，比如搭架子和改善我的两个家。 有时我会到山谷里去看看我的庄稼。 他们在做

quite well, despite all the attention they received from local birds and hares! To solve the first problem, I hung feathers all around to scare the birds off. To solve the second problem, I built a fence around my crops so the wild hares couldn't get in. Both solutions worked and soon the crops were undisturbed by the local wildlife. The harvest that year was quite small, so I decided just to replant the seeds I sowed. One of the comforts of my old life that I strongly desired to have was bread. I needed to make sure I had enough barley and rice to make that dream a reality. When the rains started, like usual, I stayed inside as much as possible. I spent a good few weeks trying to teach Poll to speak, and she eventually learned to say a few words and phrases. That season was also the start of my pottery making. There was a good amount of

很好，尽管他们受到了当地鸟类和野兔的关注！为了解决第一个问题，我在四周挂了羽毛来吓跑鸟儿。 为了解决第二个问题，我在庄稼周围筑了一道篱笆，这样野兔就进不来了。 这两种方法都奏效了，很快庄稼就不再受到当地野生动物的干扰。 那年的收成很少，所以我决定把我种下的种子重新种下。 在我过去的生活中，我最渴望得到的舒适的东西之一就是面包。 我需要确保我有足够的大麦和大米来实现这个梦想。 下雨的时候，像往常一样，我尽量呆在屋里。 我花了好几个星期的时间教波尔说话，她终于学会了说几个单词和短语。 那个季节也是我开始做陶器的季节。 有很多

natural clay on the island. I made many attempts to bake the objects I shaped in the fire. But each time they would emerge broken. What am I doing wrong? I wondered. I experimented with different types of heat. Soon, I learned that they didn't break if I set them on the embers, instead of directly into the fire. Like my baskets, the bowls were far from perfect. I made a lot of pots for cooking and started to enjoy a variety of different dinners, like stew and broth! What a change from my usual meals of fire-roasted meat. That year, my second harvest was also successful. I now had enough seeds in storage that I felt comfortable trying to make bread. The biscuits I had saved from the ship had long run out and I craved something like them. First, I carved a large bowl from the piece of ironwood I had chopped off almost

岛上的天然粘土。 我多次尝试在火中烘烤我塑造的物体。 但每一次他们都是破碎的。 我做错了什么？我想知道。 我尝试了不同类型的热量。 很快，我了解到，如果我把它们放在余烬上，而不是直接放在火里，它们就不会破裂。 就像我的篮子一样，这些碗也远非完美。 我做了很多锅做饭，并开始享受各种不同的晚餐，像炖菜和肉汤！和我平常吃的火烤肉相比，这是多么大的变化啊。 那一年，我的第二次收获也很成功。 我现在有了足够的种子，可以安心地做面包了。 我从船上存下来的饼干早就用完了，我很想吃点类似的东西。 首先，我用那块几乎被砍下来的铁木刻了一个大碗

two whole years ago. Next, I put some of my corn into the bowl and tried to grind it into meal. After that, I strained the meal through some old clothes, hoping to separate out the husks. Now I had flour. Having no yeast to make it rise or any butter to add flavor and grease to bake with, I simply mixed the flour with water and hoped for the best. Well, these loaves were little better than flatbread, but they were delicious nonetheless. The harvests continued to be successful. I didn't want to destroy any seeds, so I started only planting once a year. I knew how much seed I needed, how much flour I could make and actually use—I didn't want to anything to go to waste.

整整两年前。接下来，我把一些玉米放进碗里，试着把它磨成粉。 在那之后，我用一些旧衣服把这顿饭过滤了一下，希望能把壳分离出来。 现在我有面粉了。因为没有酵母来发酵，也没有黄油来调味，也没有油脂来烘烤，我只是把面粉和水混合在一起，希望能有最好的结果。 嗯，这些面包比大饼好不了多少，但它们仍然很美味。 收成继续丰收。 我不想破坏任何种子，所以我开始一年只种一次。 我知道我需要多少种子，我可以做多少面粉——我不想浪费任何东西。