My village can't be like this

Chapter 667 May
After the rice seedlings were planted, the garlic in the field next door was ready to be harvested.

The amount of garlic from a few acres of fields is not a lot, but it is not a small amount either. If you estimate it all, I estimate that there are several thousand kilograms.

"Mom, let's find some people to harvest the garlic in the field tomorrow."

So on the evening after planting the rice seedlings, he discussed with his mother Wang Fang about hiring someone to pick the garlic.

"Why don't we just deal with it on our own? It's not a big deal anyway. It just takes two more days."

Wang Fang obviously thought differently from Zhang An. She didn’t really want to spend the money.

Because the only thing that needs to be done at home during this period is planting rice, which has now been completed.

In the following period of time, their family was basically idle. Picking garlic was not a rushable task, so they could just do it by themselves and take their time.

After all, their family only has a few acres of garlic, so even if they work slowly, they can finish the work in four or five days at most.

So in her opinion, hiring someone to do the job would be a waste of money.

"Um, well, then we'll do it ourselves."

Zhang An originally wanted to persuade his mother a few more times, because in the past two years, whenever there was any larger work at home, they basically paid people from the village to help, and he had already developed a lazy character.

But when he saw Wang Fang's unquestionable look, he could only swallow back the words he was about to say.

He was very familiar with his mother's temper. If there were other things happening at home, he would definitely listen to her and spend some money to hire someone to help.

But if there is nothing else to do at home and it is not a very urgent job, my mother, who has been frugal for half her life, will definitely think of sending her own family members to do it.

In fact, the garlic in those few acres of fields was nothing. Even if there were only three of them in the family, they could finish it in a few days at most.

Especially there is Zhang An, who works like an ox or a horse and doesn't know what tiredness is.

The reason why he wanted to find someone to help was just because he was lazy.

Wang Fang didn't care what Zhang An was thinking and went outside on her own.

When I came back, I brought back three or four bundles of glutinous rice straw, which were prepared for picking garlic tomorrow.

In Hongyan Town, when it is time to harvest garlic, people will pull them out of the soil and bundle them into bunches, which are not only convenient for taking them home, but also for drying.

In fact, it is entirely possible to use the garlic stalks themselves to tie the bundles, but the garlic in Zhang An's family has grown into garlic shoots, and the remaining stalks are too short.

So the best thing to do is to use the straw left over from last year. It is very convenient and easy to find.

Among the rice straws, the rice straw from glutinous rice is the best because it is stronger and softer and not so easy to tear.

The next day, it didn't rain either. I didn't know whether it was a favor or not.

Zhang An got up early in the morning and found his mother was steaming buns.

So after eating three or five of them in a hurry, he went to the field carrying some straw.

God was very kind to us this year, and the weather was good and the harvest was good.

The soil in this garlic field is relatively loose, so it is relatively easy to pull the garlic.

If it had been during the drought of previous years, the soil in the field would have probably become hardened, and it would have taken some effort to pull the garlic out of the soil.

After bending down and pulling a few plants, Zhang An took out gloves from his pocket and put them on.

It's not that he wears this thing because he is spoiled and afraid of working.

Mainly, pulling garlic and picking peanuts are jobs that seem easy, but once the quantity increases, it will hurt your hands.

Anyone who has done this will prepare a pair of gloves.

Otherwise, when it's time to rest, your hands will tell you what it means to suffer.

Zhang Anke didn't think he had mastered the legendary iron sand palm, so he wisely prepared gloves in advance.

After a while, Zhang Jianguo also came. He was supposed to go out to herd sheep in the morning, but he didn't go because his family had to pick garlic.

Wang Fang arrived the latest because she had to finish the housework at home before coming.

Since there was no one at home, little Siqi was naturally brought over. He was looking for earthworms in the field, and then picking some wild flowers and weeds. Xiaohu followed him and prevented him from running out of the field.

Zhang An is indeed a human harvester. He can bend down for a long time without having to stand up straight, and he can pull out a bunch of things in a short while.

"Qiqi, don't go pull up the seedlings, come back quickly."

Just when Zhang An was about to straighten up and take a break, he suddenly heard his mother's voice.

Turning around, I found that it was Xiao Siqi who was being dishonest. He ran to the edge of the rice field and was about to pull up the rice seedlings that had just been planted.

Little Siqi was just a little curious, but after hearing what his grandmother said, he stopped destroying the rice crops.

"Laugh, you still have the nerve to laugh, have you forgotten that when you were little, you often pulled up rice seedlings in other people's fields, causing a bunch of people to come to your house to complain."

Wang Fang greeted her grandson and turned around to find Zhang An smiling face and immediately glared at him.

Don’t think that Zhang An was as quiet as a girl in the past few years.

But he was very naughty when he was young, especially when he was five or six years old, he was simply a nuisance.

They either used bamboo sticks to beat the cabbages in other people's vegetable gardens, or pulled up the seedlings in other people's fields and floated them in the water.

The key point is that not only did he cause trouble, but he was also caught, resulting in people coming to complain to him every few days.

And every time someone came to complain, Wang Fang would beat him in front of the villagers.

As a result, every time Wang Fang took action, the person who made the complaint had to come and persuade her, fearing that she would hit Zhang An too harshly.

Of course, he is not the only one who has received such treatment.

In the village, most parents will give their children this kind of education after they do something wrong.

However, Zhang An was very stubborn when he was a child. Every time he was beaten, it would only last for a day or two at most. In less than three days, he would start doing bad things outside again.

Therefore, even though he was the only son in the family, he was beaten every other day when he was a child.

But it is precisely for this reason that he has not grown crooked.

When Zhang An heard his mother talking about her past, the smile on his face became even happier.

He had originally forgotten these things, but now that his mother brought them up, he remembered them again.

He didn't think it was shameful to be beaten for getting into trouble as a child.

On the contrary, this is a part of every rural child's complete childhood.

You must know that a childhood without getting into trouble or being beaten is not a complete childhood at all.

Just as Wang Fang expected, the family of three took four days to bring all the garlic from the field back home.

On the last day, Ding Yi learned that Zhang An's family had taken the garlic home, so he brought people to load a truck and bring it back to the supermarket. Originally, Ding Yi just wanted to add some fresh food to the fresh food area.

But unexpectedly, the new garlic sold very well as soon as it was put on the shelves.

That truckload weighed more than a thousand pounds, and the original plan was to sell it over five or six days, but it was all sold out in less than two days.

So he asked someone to drive a bigger truck over and take away all the new garlic from Zhang An's family.

Although Zhang An knew that new garlic would taste more fragrant, he didn't expect it to sell so well.

Their family had originally thought of asking Ding Yi to help sell a portion of the garlic, and then hanging the rest on the roof to dry before selling them slowly, or finding a garlic collector to take them all away.

I never expected that in just a few days, Ding Yi had eaten it all, and there was no need to even take the time to bring it upstairs.

Time passed day by day, and April was over.

In May, the grass and trees are warm and moist. It is the transition period between spring and summer. It is no longer as chilly as in the early spring, nor as hot as in July.

Many places may have already started to experience high temperatures, but in this stretch of mountains with an altitude of one or two thousand meters, it is the most comfortable season of the year.

Hongyan Town, located on the outskirts of Wumeng and surrounded by mountains, is indeed a rare and good place.

The same is true for Changqing Village, which faces a broad river in front and lush green mountains in the back. The mountain breezes blowing from the mountains and sweeping across the river have long since dissipated the heat from the sun, and blow towards the faces of the mountain people with a refreshing coolness.

In May, hard work and bustle once again became the themes of Changqing Village.

This year is the first Labor Day in history to have a seven-day holiday.

On the first day of the holiday, many people came to Hongyan Town with their families.

As the top star in Hongyan Town, there are naturally many visitors from Changqing Village.

The weather is not very hot at this time, so they can't come here to escape the heat. It seems more appropriate to go on an outing instead.

Because of the arrival of tourists, the villagers have another opportunity to increase their income.

Especially for those who run B&Bs, basically every one of them is full of people.

However, the people in the mountains are still simple and honest, and the accommodation fees have not increased, and are not much different from usual.

Unlike those in the city, when holidays come, all the accommodation places will raise their prices one after another. If you double the price, I will double it.

In Zhang An's opinion, if this point can be maintained, it would be great, at least the word of mouth will be established.

However, there were too many people coming this time, almost the same as the last National Day. Even though the accommodation in the village was full, there were still some tourists who wanted to play by the river or in the mountains and could not find a place to stay. They could only stay in the slightly farther Hongyan Town.

Speaking of which, there were only three or five hotels where you could stay in Hongyan Town in the past, and they were home to only a few big and small people.

However, in the past two years, as the town has set a theme of vigorously developing mountain village tourism, the number of hotels and inns in Hongyan Town has increased year by year.

Almost as long as you walk onto the street, you can see accommodation signs one after another.

However, although the quantity has increased, the quality has decreased, and the accommodation conditions of each hostel can be said to be uneven.

Except for the best ones, most of the hostels in Hongyan Town are not as good as the private B&Bs in Changqing Village.

And compared to the hostels in the town, the B&Bs in Changqing Village have one advantage.

Because they are not specialized hotels, each one does not receive too many guests, so there are none of the messy problems that occur in hostels and hotels.

This is one of the reasons why many people who come here choose to stay in Changqing Village.

"Hello, I would like to ask if I can stay at your place?"

On the first day of Labor Day, in his own yard, Zhang An had heard questions like this countless times.

Although it is not possible to book rooms online now, many homestays in Changqing Village had already accommodated guests last night.

Even the small portion that remained was occupied shortly after this morning.

Many tourists who have not found a place to stay will come to Zhang An’s house to ask when they are looking for accommodation.

Because their house is so spacious, much more spacious than many other B&Bs in the village.

So many people thought that Zhang An’s house was also a homestay.

In response, Zhang An could only apologize and say no to the other party.

In fact, Wang Fang had thought about running a B&B like other people before.

It's not only the case in the house we live in now, but also in the old house.

She felt that since the rooms in the house were empty anyway, she might as well make use of them.

However, Zhang An felt that it was unnecessary. His family did not need to use this to make money, and there was no need to compete with the villagers for business.

So it took a lot of persuasion to get Wang Fang to give up this idea.

. . .

When I went out and stood on the bridge and looked around, I saw the rice fields that had been plowed and filled with water, scattered in the endless fields, some in the east and some in the west.

Farmers are always very concerned about sowing, and many rice fields are already filled with short seedlings.

When the mountain breeze blows over the water surface in the fields, it has some charm of young lotus leaves just beginning to emerge.

However, because the seedlings are transplanted densely, it is more like putting on a light green coat for the paddy field.

May is also the harvest season, for wheat in the north and rapeseed in the south.

Outside the rice fields, the golden sea of ​​flowers from a few days ago have shed their brightest dresses and condensed into rapeseed fruits one after another.

At this moment, the green rapeseed on the rapeseed stalks have turned yellow without anyone noticing.

This means that it is time to harvest this season's winter rapeseed.

At this time of year, many families would take sickles to the fields to harvest them.

If they are not harvested, they will explode and fall into the fields in a few days or after a heavy rain.

Although both rapeseed and rice need to be harvested with sickles when they are ripe, they are not the same.

After the rapeseed is harvested, it needs to be placed in the field to dry for a few days, but rice does not require such trouble. It can be harvested in the morning and threshed directly in the afternoon.

The main reason for this is that rice threshing only involves knocking the rice grains off the rice stalks, without husking them, so there is no need to dry them in the sun.

But rapeseed is not like that because it is wrapped in rapeseed husks, and when farmers harvest, they only need the dark and tiny rapeseed seeds inside the husks.

Even if the rapeseed is ripe, the juice cannot be pounded out without being exposed to the sun for a few days.

(End of this chapter)