My village can't be like this

Chapter 702: Training Chou Chou
In the following days, Zhang An, who had some free time, was thinking about applying some fertilizer to the fruit trees in his own orchard.

But as soon as this thought came to his mind, he immediately remembered that everyone in the village was busy planting rice in the fields and few people had time to spare.

If it were other crops, some people might put their housework aside and free up their hands to earn the wages first.

After all, the wages earned from helping Zhang An's family for a few days could buy a lot of crops, so the work in the fields could naturally be put on hold.

But rice is different from other crops. Now is the best time to transplant the seedlings in the rice fields.

Although late transplanting will not have a big impact on the harvest date, it will affect the harvest.

Because for the same seedlings, if transplanted at the right time, each rice plant will definitely have more grains than if planted late, and the fullness of the rice will also be affected.

Therefore, if you want to hire people to work these days, you probably won’t be able to find many people. No matter how important the task is, they will finish planting their own rice first.

After all, the food that rural families eat all year round is all grown by their own hard work, and they can't just give it up no matter how busy or tired they are.

In later generations, because food was cheap, many people were unwilling to farm themselves, but instead worked for others and then used the money they earned to buy food. In this way, in addition to their own food, they could still have a lot of money left over, which was much more cost-effective than farming.

Of course, this is not the later times, so people don’t have this habit yet.

Thinking of this, Zhang An put the idea aside for the time being and decided to do it after everyone was done with the busy farming season.

As for letting the family handle this matter on their own, Zhang An never thought about it from beginning to end.

If they were to ask the family of three to fertilize the dozens of acres of fruit forest, it would not only take a long time, but would also make them extremely tired.

Zhang An, who had nothing to do, caught Chouchou and took him out for training. He was very concerned about this little ferret.

The little guy Chouchou has grown very fast in recent times. In less than a month since he came to this family, he has grown a lot bigger.

However, this is also normal. It affects the growth rate of animal cubs very fast after a period of time after birth.

In addition, Zhang An often gave it some special treatment and supplemented it with some magical space spring water, which resulted in it not only growing fast but also growing very solidly.

There is no sign of its immaturity at all.

Zhang An was not planning to conduct normal training for Chouchou, because he had been taking it into the space from time to time during this period, and the dog had been tamed very thoroughly, so there was no need to worry about it being disobedient or biting people.

Now, Zhang An plans to train Chou Chou's physical fitness and other skills, including but not limited to jumping, climbing, going into water, etc., which are in line with the nature of ferrets.

After a while, when Chou Chou grows up a little bit, Zhang An plans to train it how to hunt.

Although ferrets are not big in size, they are animals whose fighting power is not commensurate with their size.

On the contrary, they are also extremely destructive animals and are ferocious and good at fighting. In the wild, they can often hunt prey that is several times larger than their size.

Such as very cautious pheasants, hares and so on.

In this respect, they have their own advantages and disadvantages compared to the larger hunting dogs.

For example, when hunting dogs are hunting, once the prey escapes back to its own nest, take hares for example. If the hunting dogs fail to catch them in time and let them go back to their own caves, the big dogs will have no choice but to give up or wait and see.

But ferrets are different. They are very stubborn and due to their small size, if the prey goes back to the nest, it will be easier for them to catch it.

Humans first domesticated them for hunting purposes, because their slender bodies and curious natures are very suitable for entering caves and forcing rodents, rabbits and other animals to leave their nests.

According to historical records, ferrets first entered the human world when the ancient Romans used ferrets to catch rats and rabbits.

When the training began, Zhang An first started by training Chou Chou's courage.

Because the little guy was taken away along with his nest not long after he was born, and he was not allowed to grow naturally in the wild, his wildness has been seriously affected.

Especially after coming home, it no longer has to worry about food. Plus, it stays with Xiao Siqi all day long. Zhang An is worried that over time, it will become a useless creature that only needs food.

Especially in terms of courage, don’t let the animals you raise be afraid to climb down from high places, otherwise they will be worse than weasels.

At the beginning, Zhang An put Chouchou on the table and then guided it down by itself.

The table in Zhang An’s house is only a little over one meter high, not too high, but considering that Chou Chou has just started training, he can take it slowly.

Just as Zhang An thought, Chou Chou didn't have the courage to jump off the table.

But it was smart enough. After finding that Zhang An ignored it, it chose to climb down the table leg and then crawl into Zhang An's palm.

After trying this several times, Zhang An found that no matter how high off the ground, Chou Chou was always very timid and unwilling to jump directly.

So he found a rope, tied a simple swing to a tree in the yard, and then put Chouchou on it.

I thought that since the swing board was not directly connected to the ground, I should be able to force it to try to jump down.

Unexpectedly, after jumping left and right several times, although this guy did not find a way to climb down directly to the ground, he found a way to climb up the tree. He climbed up the tree directly along the rope tied to the swing, and then came down from the tree.

When it finally crawled into Zhang An's palm, it barked happily, as if asking its master Zhang An to praise him.

Zhang An patted his head and suddenly didn't know what to say. This little thing of his was really too smart.

But the training still needs to continue, otherwise when you encounter a place that requires jumping in the future, you will only be able to scream in anxiety.

Since I can't achieve the effect I want in the yard, I might as well move to another location.

It just so happened that his father went out to herd sheep, and his mother took little Siqi to visit friends outside, so Zhang An took Chouchou directly into the space.

"Little guy, let me see how you can take advantage of this loophole."

Zhang An found a piece of wood and smiled maliciously at Chou Chou.

As soon as the thought came to his mind, the wooden board on the ground was suspended in the air, and then Chouchou was caught and put onto the board.

After Zhang An called out to Chou Chou a few times, the little thing found that it couldn't find anything to climb, whether it was going up or down on the ground. It seemed like there was no way to go up or down on the ground, so it started to get anxious.

But no matter how anxious I was, the little thing just wouldn't jump.

Zhang An became furious and found some stones to throw at it from behind to scare it.

It’s true, although this method is simple, it is very effective.

Because Chou Chou had been living a good life at home for a long time, he had never been threatened like this. When he saw the stone thrown at him, he was immediately frightened and jumped straight towards Zhang An.

Zhang An was not very far away from it, only about one meter away. The snow ferret had a good long jump ability and it jumped into Zhang An's arms in an instant.

When lying in Zhang An's arms, the little guy's body trembled slightly and made a very soft cry, which seemed to have frightened him.

However, after this experience, the little thing became much braver. Zhang An continued to try a few more times, and it was able to jump directly down from above.

Maybe because I had already jumped once and realized that nothing was wrong, I was not as scared as before.

At the beginning, I was a little hesitant, but after trying a few more times, I completely let go.

Until finally, Zhang An raised the suspended wooden board a little higher. After training several times, Chou Chou was already brave enough to jump from a height of more than two meters.

After practicing jumping, there is no need for special training for climbing, because it is a gene engraved in the little ones' bones.

Otherwise, when we were training it to jump high, it wouldn't have specifically looked for places where it could climb.

All that’s left is to go into the water. Wild minks are very good at swimming because they often dive into very deep water to prey on fish.

During this time at home, Zhang An would often bathe the little thing and let it get used to the water.

The effect is really good. Now Chouchou is no longer afraid of water as he was when he took his first bath. Instead, he can play in the water.

However, this time, Zhang An was not going to train it by filling a basin with water for it to play in, but to put it directly into the fish pond so that it could adapt to the water with fish.

In this way, it will go into the water to find food on its own in the future.

There are several fish ponds in the space, and Zhang An specifically picked a pond without carnivorous fish for it to play in.

After all, this was its first time diving into the fish pond. If there were more ferocious fish, such as the water bully like black carp, Zhang An was worried that it would be scared and suffer from psychological trauma.

So I found a pond with only herbivorous fish such as carp and crucian carp and put it in there.

When it grows up and becomes well trained, let it go to compete with those water bullies to see who is more powerful.

Although Zhang An did not go into the water, he could still see the situation in the water.

Maybe it’s because they are different species. When Chouchou first entered the pond, the fish were very curious about it and many of them swam towards it.

And Chou Chou was also scared as it was his first time seeing these big fish in the water. He immediately swam to other places as if he was avoiding these big fish.

This is only the case in space. If it were in the wild, you would probably never see such a scene.

Because minks are at the top of the food chain, fish just exist to be eaten, so they dare not get close to them.

But gradually, Chouchou got used to the presence of fish in the water and has tried to reach out his claws to some small fish.

Zhang An didn't need to teach it. After playing for a while, it surfaced on its own to breathe.

The fur was very soft to begin with, and after being soaked in water, it looked like a wet towel. Seeing Zhang Anhao, he wanted to pick it up and wring it.

But I still restrained myself. After all, if you dare to twist this little thing, it will die.

After taking a breath, Chou Chou dived back into the water. Last time, a school of fish came looking for it, but it hid away out of fear. But this time, it seemed like a king returning, and went specifically for the school of fish.

In a short while, the pond was turned upside down and the fish were chased everywhere.

Finally, he caught a crucian carp that was two or three fingers wide and placed it in front of Zhang An as if to seek credit.

Zhang An was very satisfied with its performance and gave it the fish as a reward.

Then Zhang An took Chouchou out of the space, found a dry towel and wiped the water off its body.

Today’s training results are still very good, so there is no need to continue. Just review it when you remember it later.

As for other hunting skills, it is too early now, at least we have to wait until the little thing grows up.

As June came, the heat in the air was somewhat diluted because it started to rain.

The Dragon Boat Festival is approaching and this year's rainy season has arrived. After every household has finished planting rice and corn, they can have a short period of time to rest.

In addition to training Chou Chou from time to time every day, Zhang An also takes out the oil residue left over from this year's oil pressing and crushes it again.

After a few days, when he finds someone, Zhang An plans to use the crushed oil residue, mix it with the space spring water, and then use it as fertilizer for the fruit trees.

"I remember that you have already planted the seedlings, why are there so many oil residues left?"

When Zhang An was grinding oil residue, Zhou Yang came to his house.

"This is what's left over from this year's oil pressing. I didn't sell a single pound. I brought it all back. You know that Chen Ze and I pressed nearly 2,000 pounds of rapeseed this year. I can't use much of my few acres of land. This is for topdressing the fruit trees."

Zhou Yang was not like other people, and Zhang An was not particularly idle either. Instead, he talked to him while grinding the oil residue.

"What is the effect of applying this oil residue to fruit trees?"

After hearing what Zhang An said, Zhou Yang continued to ask.

"The effect is quite good. Fruit farmers in many places buy oil residue to fertilize their fruit trees. However, we use less of it here. We only use it when planting crops."

In the Hongyan Town area, oil residue is indeed not used much. Except for some people using some when growing rice, the rest is basically sold for money.

Of course, some old men will stay here specifically to apply fertilizer to the tobacco leaves they grow.

"Oh, if I had known this, I wouldn't have sold mine, and I would have kept the money to fertilize the fruit trees."

Zhou Yang immediately regretted it after hearing this, because he opened a restaurant, so his family also squeezed a lot of rapeseed oil this year.

But there was too much oil residue after squeezing it out, and not much could be used when growing rice in the fields, so it was all sold.

Now after hearing what Zhang An said, he regretted not staying to apply fertilizer to the kiwi trees at home.

(End of this chapter)