Modern humans were blessed to be able to count on dehumidifiers and dryers to help us get through the rainy season. Technology is incredible!
Most older houses were made of wood, so I wondered how people back in the day had dealt with humidity. I asked Yumoto-san and Aikawa-san—apparently, they’d used charcoal. Maybe I should start cultivating the habit of looking things up myself before they get fed up with my questions.
Aikawa-san had repaired the charcoal kiln that had been in his house and was using it. A smart choice—there’s no shortage of wood here, after all. I decided to ask the former village head who used to live on my mountain if my home had a charcoal kiln. He told me there was one, but it had been left unused for some time. With Old Man Yumoto’s assistance in cleaning and repairing the kiln, I succeeded in making charcoal. It was a lot of work, and it took more than a week, but I was able to make a sizable amount. I shared some with the Yumotos and their neighbors, who were quite content with the gift; there were a lot of uses for charcoal. I was glad to be of use, and I decided to do this again next time I made charcoal. (All of this happened in May, by the way.)
I’d also asked about other effective methods for dealing with the humidity. One solution was to simply pluck weeds and mow the grass around the house, which apparently made a big difference. My face went pale when I heard that from Aikawa-san—I had actually been planting white clover around my home! I’d heard that it was good food for the chickens, so I’d pulled out a cluster by the roots that’d been growing near the fields and had replanted it near the house. White clover was pretty resilient, and you didn’t even need to divide the roots—you could just cut off a piece, plant it, and it would still grow.
I thought a house surrounded by flowers would look like something from a fairy tale. I’d been completely unaware of what I was actually doing.
“Tasty!”
“Tasty!”
Well, at least Tama and Yuma were happy about it. I hadn’t planted any right by the front door, but all the chickens had to do was go outside, and there was food all around them. At first, when I’d been planting it, Tama hadn’t known what I’d been doing. She’d pecked at me.
“Ouch! Hey, I’m planting food for you guys around the house! Don’t interrupt,” I’d chided her, and she’d started pacing about. Heh, I can tell from the way she’s walking that she’s pretty excited. They’re so easy to figure out.
“Don’t touch it for at least a week or so, got it?” I’d told the chickens, and they’d seemed to heed my warning—they had just loitered around for a while. The clovers had taken root after just a week, so they really were pretty resilient plants. This had all happened in late April.
Sometimes, when we went down to the village and stopped by the general store, the children would put flower crowns on the chickens. That looks pretty cute. Maybe I’ll try making them myself.
However, I got the impression that Pochi and Tama wouldn’t appreciate the present very much, so I decided to do it when I was alone with Yuma. I looked it up on the internet and found a tutorial.
“So, first you tie the stems together...”
This isn’t going as smoothly as I expected. I checked the tutorial again on my phone. Wait, I’ve got it wrong. First, you bundle a couple of flowers together and then tie a stem to that.
“This is harder than I thought.”
Yuma tilted her neck, as if to ask, Not done yet?
“You can just go play outside. I’ll call you when I’m finished.”
She nodded and trotted off toward the fields. As for me, I began to realize just how clumsy I was. I thought it was just a matter of getting the hang of it, but I just couldn’t seem to tie the stems together to make a ring.
Yuma came back, probably thinking that I must be done already.
“Uhhh... I couldn’t quite get it right. My bad.” I apologized and put the misshapen flower crown on her. Yup, I’m definitely not very good at this.
“My bad?” Yuma cocked her head, which was decorated with flowers. The crown itself might be misshapen, but this has its own clumsy charm.
“Yuma, that looks cute.”
“Cute?”
“Yep, cute.”
“Cute!” She flapped her wings happily and ran off. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t make a proper one, but seeing Yuma’s reaction made me feel warm and giddy. Thanks, Yuma. You’re the best.
✦ ✦ ✦
Anyway, having white clover near the house was apparently bad for humidity, meaning I’d have to do something about that. Mold was a big concern for wooden houses like mine. I had no choice but to move the flowers somewhere else, and I had to do it before the rainy season set in. Not that I care about the fairy-tale vibe—it’s just a shame I have to move the chickens’ food farther away from the house. While Pochi and Tama were out on patrol, I moved the clover to where it had been originally, near the fields. Oof, I’m beat.
Yuma was around, but she didn’t peck me. The problem was Tama. In the evening, when she came back, she noticed that the flowers around the house weren’t there anymore. “Flower?” She asked inquisitively.
“Sorry, I learned that having them nearby is bad for the house, so I moved them over there, by the fields,” I explained, pointing to the flowers.
Tama’s gaze remained fixed on me. “Flower.”
“I told you already—I had no choice. Otherwise, we might’ve ended up with no house to live in.”
“Flower!” Tama walked up to me, and when I rebuked her again, she pecked at me, much harder than usual.
“Ow! Stop it! That seriously hurts! I’m telling you that it had to be done!”
However, Tama wasn’t satisfied with my excuses—she kept pecking me. Did you really care that much about the white clover? I felt sorry for her, but at the same time, I was dead exhausted from trying to run away from her.
The next day, I woke up stiff and achy—probably from moving all the flowers by myself and running from Tama. She seemed to notice this, and she took the opportunity to peck me even more. Heartless monster.
As for Pochi, he also ate the white clover, but he didn’t seem to mind not having them right by the house. Probably a personality thing.
I was able to weed the area around the house, including the white clover, before the rainy season. This should help with the humidity. I didn’t want to move all the white clover to the fields, though. I ended up putting some in a planter and kept it under the front eave. If the chickens eat all of it, I’ll just bring more from the fields. Shouldn’t be a problem with how hardy clover is. Actually, why didn’t I just use planters from the beginning...?
I still had a few unused planters, so I decided it’d be a good idea to leave a few of them around the house outside of the rainy season. What’s that? You think I pamper my chickens too much? Leave me alone.