My village can't be like this

Chapter 594 Asking for Straw
Seeing Zhang An's family still threshing rice, Zhang Jianwen felt embarrassed to just stand there and chat, so he walked over and picked up some rice to thresh together.

Even though Zhang An and Zhang Jianguo kept saying no, Zhang Jianwen still insisted on helping.

"Zhang An, I remember that last year you didn't take much of the straw from your fields. You burned it all into ash to fertilize the fields."

While throwing millet, Zhang Jianwen suddenly said to Zhang An.

"Yes, uncle. My family produces a lot of rice every year, and there is a lot of bran. We also plant several acres of ryegrass in the field over there, and we have prepared a lot of silage before winter, so we don't need much of this straw. If we pile it in the field, it will take up a few nests of grain. We can just burn it into ash to fertilize the field, and that's it."

Zhang An wasn't quite sure why Zhang Jianwen asked this, but he nodded and answered anyway.

"What about this year's? Will it be useless?"

When Zhang Jianwen heard what Zhang An said, his eyes suddenly lit up and he quickly asked.

"It's similar this year. At most, when it's cold, I'll take some back to pad the circle."

It is very cold in winter. Although the livestock have thick fur to protect them from the cold, Zhang An is still worried that they will get cold, so he puts a layer of straw in the pen for them.

"Then don't burn the straw at your house. I'll take it back to feed the deer. There are more than 20 deer of all sizes in the village now. They can't survive on corn alone. We need to find some straw to feed them together."

When Zhang Jianwen heard Zhang An say that their family no longer needed straw, he asked for the straw.

Straw is a treasure these days. It is not a big deal in spring, summer and autumn when people can cut it everywhere to feed livestock. But in winter, straw becomes the staple food for every household to feed cattle and horses.

Although they don't look very useful, they can save a lot of food for farmers who raise livestock over the course of several months in the winter.

Moreover, if the straw is put into the pen and the livestock cannot eat it all, it can be fermented into manure, which is the best base fertilizer for planting crops next year.

Of course, it can also be used to make beds or for many other purposes.

Therefore, the status of straw in rural areas is not low at all now. No matter who the family is, when harvesting rice, they will tie up all their own straw and pile it into a haystack. In winter, they will take it home to feed the livestock.

Some families who raised many livestock were afraid that they would not have enough straw, so they even used the corn stalks in the fields.

Take it home and chop it into pieces with a guillotine. The livestock love it very much.

But Zhang An's family is different. Although they have a lot of livestock, they usually store more silage and rice bran. Both silage and rice bran from chicken blood rice are extremely nutritious for livestock.

Compared with those, the straw seemed tasteless to their livestock.

Therefore, Zhang An's family has not made much use of the straw in the fields in recent years. Basically, they burn it all into ash in the next year and use it as fertilizer for the fields.

There are so many deer raised in the village now. Although winter is only a few months long, he really feels bad for eating corn every day.

It happened that no one came to the deer park to see the deer in winter, and the sika deer did not need to be fattened up. Zhang Jianwen thought about saving money and feeding them with straw and cornmeal like other livestock.

After all, even if the cattle and horses have to plow the fields next year, they eat straw mixed with cornmeal in winter, and these deer don't work, so they can naturally eat it.

But even with this straw, the amount from just their family would definitely not be enough to feed the deer farm for a whole winter, so they would have to ask other families for some.

But although every household in the village had straw, almost everyone raised livestock, so it was not easy for him to ask for it.

At this time, he remembered that before plowing the field, Zhang An's family burned more than ten piles of haystacks in a row, so he came directly to Zhang An to ask.

In particular, the straw of Zhang An’s family is from chicken blood rice, which is much better than the straw of ordinary rice.

"Hey, it's not a big deal. Uncle, you can just come and get it when the time comes. I'm going to burn it if you leave it here."

Seeing that Zhang Jianwen wanted the straw, Zhang An generously gave him all the straw from his own garden. Anyway, they had no use for it at home and it would be a pity to burn it.

Seeing his uncle making such a serious trip just for the straw, Zhang An couldn't help but sigh that times have changed and the status of items has changed.

You have to know that in the later days when mechanization became popular, this straw was just unwanted stalk. It couldn't be burned, and it was a nuisance to leave it alone. It was not as valued by everyone as it is now.

"Of course I want it. I won't take your straw for nothing. You can use the deer dung next year to fertilize the fields."

When Zhang Jianwen heard that Zhang An gave all the straw to him, he was extremely happy, as this could save a lot of food.

In their joy, some people returned the favor by giving all the deer dung in the deer farm to Zhang An.

"Uncle, you don't need it. We have enough manure at home. Don't give this deer manure to anyone. It's a good thing after it's fermented. It's no worse than those expensive fertilizers and fried foods. If you put it in the fields, the crops will be much better. If the news spreads, there will definitely be people willing to spend money to buy it. Don't be embarrassed when the time comes, uncle."

When Zhang An heard that Zhang Jianwen wanted to give the deer dung from the deer farm to his family, he was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and quickly rejected his uncle's kindness.

Because they really have enough manure at home. As for farm manure, the more is not necessarily better. Too much will have side effects.

Moreover, they already had deer dung at home, and even pig dung, sheep dung, horse dung, chicken, duck, goose dung, etc.

We usually have more than we can use at home, and we have some left over to share with our two uncles.

However, he also gave Zhang Jianwen an idea, which was to sell the deer dung in the deer farm to other people in the village.

"To sell? Will anyone really buy it?"

Zhang Jianwen was not particularly surprised by this, because when they were young, no one had enough farm manure.

At that time, there was a precedent of selling this thing in the city, but many rural people could not afford it. Most of them carried baskets on their backs and went to the main road to pick up cow and horse dung.

However, the experience of picking up manure ended with Zhang An's generation. Since Zhang An was the only son in the family, Wang Fang was reluctant to let him go, so he had no experience in this area.

"Don't worry, uncle. The fermented deer dung is very effective. Don't forget how many people in our village are raising macaques now."

If it is just to grow crops, some people may not be willing to spend the money.

But when it comes to kiwi fruit, I'm sure the people in the village will scramble to buy it.

After all, the kiwi fruit in Changqing Village is now like a hen that lays eggs, and many families have made a lot of money by relying on kiwi fruit.

In this case, they would naturally hope that the kiwi fruit would grow better and better.

The kiwis grown by Uncle Zhang An’s family had a higher yield than those grown by other families.

The reason for this was that they used deer dung and sheep dung from Zhang An's family.

Many villagers also came to Zhang An's family to ask if they wanted to buy some, but Zhang An's family had so much sheep and deer dung that they could not use it all for themselves and could not supply several families. It was only enough to share with his two uncles.

Besides, Zhang An didn't want to go through so much trouble for that little bit of money, so he refused.

"It seems like this could be done. You young people are really smart."

Zhang Jianwen was even happier because these things, which were originally of little use, could now be sold for money.

"But uncle, deer dung is the same as sheep dung. It needs to be fermented well, otherwise it will have a counterproductive effect."

Seeing that Zhang Jianwen was interested in this matter, Zhang An still gave him a special reminder to avoid causing unnecessary losses to the villagers in the end.

"Don't worry, your uncle knows this. After all, I have been farming all my life." Zhang Jianwen signaled Zhang An not to worry. As farmers, they know the common sense of composting better than anyone else.

After all, in the past, if the farmer's manure was not fermented properly and burned the crop seedlings in the field, it would not just be a simple matter of the family going hungry, but they would also not be able to pay the public grain tax.

It didn't take long before all the rice in the fields was threshed.

In fact, there weren't many left, and it wouldn't take Zhang An and his team much time to deal with them.

With the addition of Zhang Jianwen, the speed increased even faster.

"Jianguo, don't bother tying the straw. I'll get someone to do it when the time comes."

After threshing the millet, Zhang Jianwen saw Zhang Jianguo was going to tie the straw, so he told them not to go through the trouble and he would ask someone to come over to tie it when the time came.

After all, he got so much straw for free, and he felt embarrassed to ask others to tie it up for him.

Zhang Jianguo did not insist and started carrying the bags full of millet from the field to the edge of the field.

After filling the basket with grain, Zhang An carried the basket home and pulled Dahei out.

There were more than thirty or nearly forty bags of millet in the field. Horses could only carry five or six bags at a time, which was too slow.

Zhang An simply set up Dahei's carriage, went to the roadside, and pulled the cart in two or three steps.

When Zhang An returned home with the last cart of grain, Su Ying had already finished school and returned home with her son.

"Dad~"

As soon as little Siqi saw Zhang An, he opened his arms and asked him to hug him.

The little guy has a habit. No matter who is at home, he will start to miss them if he hasn't seen them for half a day. This is true for Su Ying and Zhang An.

"Be good, son. Play by yourself first. Daddy still has work to do. I'll hold you when I'm done."

Zhang An was carrying a basket full of grain on his shoulders, so he naturally had no hands free to hold the little guy.

Even if he brought all the millet back home, he would not throw it on his son, because he had been busy in the fields all day and his body was covered with millet burrs. He didn't want to prick his son.

After moving all the grain back home, Zhang An took the clothes Su Ying found for him and took a shower. After coming out, he immediately felt much more comfortable.

Only the area under the neck where the straw leaves had cut it looked a little red.

"Okay, it's time to eat."

By the time Zhang Jianguo and Zhang Yixing both finished their showers and came out, Wang Fang had prepared dinner and was bringing the dishes out from the kitchen.

Little Siqi was still the same as before. When he heard the word "dinner", he immediately ran to the table and found a chair to sit down.

When it comes to eating, he is the most active person in the family.

"Don't worry, I'll go call my uncle."

Zhang An was not in a hurry, but turned around and went out to call Zhang Jianwen.

Regardless of how much he did, he just went to help, so it is reasonable to give him a shout.

Unfortunately, when he arrived at Zhang Ping's house, the family was already having dinner.

"Xiao An is here, come and have dinner with us."

When Zhang Jianwen saw Zhang An, he spoke first, and the old lady had already stood up and was about to get the dishes and chopsticks.

"No, no, no, Auntie, stop busying yourself and sit down to eat your food. My family's food is ready too. I was planning to come over to ask Uncle to have a few bites. Why are you guys already eating?"

Zhang An quickly called the old aunt to stop him. He originally came here to invite others back for dinner, but he failed to invite others and ended up eating at someone else's house.

"Hey, why are you so polite? We came back early in the afternoon, and your aunt cooked early, so you don't have to go back. You can eat here."

"This won't do. I came here to invite you, but I ended up having dinner at your house. This won't do."

In the end, Zhang Anren failed to be invited and went back on his own.

The next morning, when Su Ying went to school, she took her son away as usual.

After she no longer had to look after her grandson, Wang Fang also went to the fields to harvest rice.

Just after we started harvesting in the field, several people came running into the field, one of them was taking pictures everywhere with a camera.

"Hello, fellow villagers. We are from the county's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau. We heard that this year's harvest was good, so we came down to do a survey."

One of the women introduced herself as she walked into the field.

As an agricultural department, it is natural to find some sense of presence in this rare year of bumper harvest.

So we sent some people down to do an investigation, and when the time comes, they will write a few reports and publish them in the newspapers, which can be regarded as their achievement.

Nowadays, if we were to talk about the best developed village in the entire county, it would naturally be Changqing Village, which has been famous for the past two years.

That's why they headed straight for Changqing. As soon as they entered the village, they saw Zhang An's family harvesting rice. Since they were close, they naturally headed straight for them.

"Oh, hello."

Since today's work would not take one day, Zhang An decided to cooperate with them.

Otherwise, he wouldn't want to bother with it at all.

He wasn't the only one who thought this way, others did too.

Because everyone is busy harvesting, and they come to waste everyone's time. Not many people will pay attention to them, mainly because there is no benefit in paying attention to them.

Zhang An gave simple answers to the next few questions, wanting to send them away quickly.

Of course, these people seemed to be very experienced. They didn't drag their feet and left after asking questions. They must have run into obstacles in other places before.

Zhang An's family had already harvested most of the crops yesterday, so there were only a little over two acres left to harvest today.

Today, Zhang An was even more dedicated than yesterday. By noon, all the remaining rice in the field had been harvested.

In the afternoon, we just threshed the millet, and the process was very quick. Before four o'clock, all the millet was collected and put away at home.

This year, we saved a lot of time because we didn’t have to tie straw.

This season can be declared to have ended here.

(End of this chapter)