Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 381 I'd Rather Have a Breeze in the Mountains
Taking Xiaoxia with them, the three of them went to the chicken coop on the mountain to pick up eggs.

The grass and chickens here have reached a delicate balance, and neither can defeat the other. The chickens often look for various insects such as grasshoppers and earthworms, and eat the tender leaves of the grass, while the grass grows wildly with the nutrients in the chicken manure.

The reason why Lin Heng did not remove the thatch here was because it had strong vitality. Other pastures would easily be destroyed by the chickens.

The three of them walked in wearing long trousers without worrying about getting their feet pricked, and they could find eggs laid by the hens in small holes in the earth.

"Dad, there's a hole here!!"

Xiaoxia looked at the hole and wanted to pick up the things, she was so excited.

"Be careful with snakes. Hit it with a stick first." Lin Heng said, hit the nearby grass with a stick, and looked into the hole before letting Xiaoxia pick it up.

Free-range black chickens lay light green eggs that are small in size but taste and are very nutritious.

Since he has free-ranged the chickens, he no longer feeds them with mixed feed. He just adds some shell powder to the large-grain corn he feeds to supplement calcium. The rest they can get from insects and soil.

After these chickens have been well-behaved, they will be released to eat insects in the pasture. They are unable to harm the growing grass, and will return to the pen when called in the evening.

Xiulan held the basket and carried the eggs to Xiaoxia, while Lin Heng led the way.

The eggs here are basically picked up every three days, and about ten to fifteen eggs can be picked up each time, and sometimes there will be one or two goose eggs.

There were originally 23 chickens and 4 geese, but now there are only 20 chickens and geese left. The missing ones all died for unknown reasons during their growth process.

Survival of the fittest. Last year, more than 40 chicks were hatched, but only these few survived. They all have strong resistance.

This year his mother is trying to hatch eggs again. The pheasant eggs that were hatched last time have left the nest these two days and hatched four little pheasants. He estimates that it would be good if one could survive in the end.

After picking up the eggs, they were too lazy to go out and turn over the sweet potato vines in the afternoon. Lin's mother helped look after the two twin grandsons, Lin Heng Xiulan and their father, and pulled out the weeds in the astragalus field.

In the evening, he went to Sandie Lin Hai's house for dinner. During the meal, Lin Heng asked Lin Hai to take a part-time job as a postman and collect stamps at the same time. It would be safer for him to go into the mountains to sell things with the identity of a postman.

After breakfast the next day, Lin Heng saw Lin Hai off, and when he came back he went to Hongfeng Mountain to drain the shrimp pond. After so many days of exposure to the sun and disinfection with lime water, the pond was ready to drain.

During the water release period, he was also constantly feeding and caring for the shrimp fry and the carp fry in the mountaintop reservoir, helping with farm work, and taking his wife and children for walks and bathing.

Maybe his soul has grown old, he is not in a hurry to do things, and is unwilling to lose his life in order to get money faster.

When the pond is full of water, it needs to be disinfected again to remove other organisms and pests and diseases, and then he starts to cultivate the water. Fertilizing the water can effectively reduce the use of feed, and the method of fertilizing the water is also very simple, which is to throw manure water.

Soak cow and sheep dung in water and ferment it into manure water. Then disinfect it thoroughly with lime and sprinkle it into the pond. Do this in small amounts and multiple times until the water in the pond turns green and the visibility is less than 20 centimeters.

By the time they finished fattening the pond with water, it was already July 1st. They threw the caught bighead carp back into the pond to test the water, and then threw in the water peanuts that had been cultivated in advance to cultivate them.

Early in the morning of July 5, they released a small number of shrimp fry into the net and put them in the pond to observe for three days.

After making sure that there was really no problem, they began to release shrimp seedlings on a large scale early in the morning of July 8th. Not only his eldest brother's family came that day, but also his third father's family.

"Third father, are you still planning to raise shrimps now?" Lin Heng asked with a smile while releasing the shrimp seedlings.

In order to prove that he has no selfish motives, his third father has also been studying here these days and listening to his explanations.

But many things cannot be learned just by watching. Every step Lin Heng takes is based on experience, experience gained from losses.

Lin Xutao smiled and said, "I feel like I have learned almost everything. I have also disinfected my pond, and the shrimp I raised for trial seems to be fine."

He was actually a little nervous, but his wife Li Xue repeatedly urged him to learn how to raise shrimps, so he had no choice but to agree.

Seeing this, Lin Heng did not stop him and said with a smile: "Okay, we will release the shrimp seedlings for you after we have released them all. We will definitely have extra shrimp seedlings this year."

"Yes, third brother. We will give you the seedlings for free. It depends on your ability to raise them. As long as you take good care of them, there should be no problem." Father Lin also felt that it should not be a problem. He studied it for a year last year and found it quite simple.

But what he didn't know was that there was a reason why Lin Heng came here frequently to check on the situation.

While Lin Yue was putting the shrimp fry in, he asked curiously: "Brother, do you think I can put some shrimp fry in my fish pond?"

The grass carp fry in his one-acre pond were already two centimeters long. He had originally planned to catch them himself, but later got delayed and just bought female and male fish.

Then he built a pond and threw some branches and water plants into it. Within two days, the fish had completed reproduction on their own.

"Of course, but it will only become feed for grass carp." Lin Heng said with a smile.

He was planning to throw the extra shrimp fry into the reservoir on the top of the mountain. They could eat algae and leftover fish feed, purify the water quality, and could also be used as feed for mullets.

"If there is too much, I will put some in too." Lin Yue said after thinking for a while.

Lin Heng nodded: "There must be more."

A few people were releasing shrimp fry while chatting, and when the sun was overhead, they had also finished releasing the fish fry.

After releasing them, there were still 400,000 to 500,000 shrimp fry left in the hatchery, enough for his third father's family. Although the number looked large, it was actually not much, only a few kilograms.

At noon, Xiulan and Lin's mother cooked a table full of dishes, the main dish being a large plate of prawns. Everyone finished the meal happily, and in the afternoon they started to release shrimp fry for Sandie.

He released 300,000 shrimp fry into his third uncle's two ponds, and about 100,000 into his eldest brother's pond. He then put the rest into the reservoir on the top of the mountain.

Once you put it in, you can see the fish running around, all enjoying this feast.

It was already seven o'clock in the evening when I finished the work. A fiery red sunset appeared in the sky and the setting sun was like blood, which made people feel excited.

Whenever he saw the sun like this, Lin Heng thought that this thing was actually a huge burning fireball. He and everything he saw came from this fireball. It was really incredible.

When she got home, Xiulan was sorting out the dried mushrooms. She went to pick some more because it rained a few days ago.

Xiongba and Xiaoxia ran over to him and were intimate with him. After touching Xiongba, he lifted Xiaoxia up high and let her look at the sun outside.

"Dad, the sunflowers we planted are in bloom!" Xiaoxia said happily, putting her little face close to him.

"Thanks to Xiaoxia for watering the sunflowers every day, have you discovered the secret of the sunflowers?" Lin Heng looked at her and said with a smile.

Xiaoxia hugged his neck and nodded her head: "My mother and I watched it together, and the sunflowers really do turn with the sun."

She now feels very accomplished. The sunflowers she planted with her own hands have verified her doubts. Her sunflowers have grown big and round.

"Then I'll take you to paint sunflowers tomorrow." Lin Heng held her and spun her around in the air twice before letting her go.

Xiulan poured him a glass of water and took it out, smiling and asking, "Is this time you are done?"

"Yes, I'm done." Lin Heng nodded with a smile, "The rest is just some small things, such as harvesting grass, weeding, watering, and so on."

After taking a sip of water, he said, "When we have some free time, let's go to Huangtan River to fish a few times." "That's fine with me." Xiulan said with a smile.

After a pause, she remembered something: "By the way, what do you think we should do with the baby Jinbao gave birth to?"

It has been half a month since our golden cat Jinbao gave birth to her cubs, and now the babies can run around.

There are three kittens in total and her family definitely cannot keep any more. There is not much use in keeping them. They are too big and are not as good at catching mice as domestic cats.

"After it grows up and can move independently, I will catch it and release it in the mountains. I plan to go to Birch Cliff with my father in August to look for ginseng, so I will release it there then. Whether it lives or dies will be up to fate."

Lin Heng thought for a moment and said that it was definitely not appropriate to keep so many golden cats at home. It would be more appropriate to release them back into the forest to restore the ecology.

"That's all we can do." Xiulan nodded.

"Or see if there is anyone else who wants to raise it, give it away or sell it." Lin Heng added.

After saying this, he took a shower, had dinner and went to bed early. He was very tired after working all day.

For the next two days, Lin Heng took a good rest at home, painted sunflowers with Xiaoxia, and waited for the sun to warm up the water before taking her to play in the water.

But as the temperature got higher and higher these days, Lin Heng couldn't stand it anymore. The brick house at his parents' side was extremely hot, like a sauna.

On the 12th, Lin Heng went into the city again and stayed there for three days, making connections and looking at the thermal insulation cotton of several companies.

On the afternoon of the 15th, he came back with a large truck that was filled with thermal insulation cotton.

The insulation cotton was placed on Hongfeng Mountain and in the village respectively.

The next morning, Lin Heng asked his father to come over to help install the insulation cotton. The installation was very simple. He just used wooden strips to nail the insulation cotton under the tiles on the roof, and finally nailed white tarpaulin on the outside to seal it. It looked very beautiful, just like a ceiling.

He also laid a layer of floor on the second floor of Lin Heng's house, and was preparing to lay another layer of floor later so that the second floor could also be habitable.

"Son, you know what, it really works. I just finished it at noon, and the temperature dropped a lot in an instant."

After the laying was completed, Father Lin was surprised.

Xiulan also nodded: "Yes, the house is obviously cooler now."

"Of course, this sponge has a very good thermal insulation effect." Lin Heng smiled.

"I'm afraid it's not cheap?" asked Lin's father.

"It's not bad. The total cost is one hundred and eighty." Lin Heng said. This thing is not too expensive for him, but it is still very expensive for ordinary people.

In fact, there are cheaper ones, but he thinks the quality is not good enough.

Father Lin nodded: "That's acceptable."

The next day, I installed the insulation in the house where my parents lived, using the same method.

However, unlike the mud house, the brick house has to be installed on the exterior walls after the interior is installed. Lin Heng only installed the two sides that are often exposed to the sun, and the remaining two sides are unnecessary.

The effect could be clearly felt the next day after the installation. The temperature in the room suddenly dropped by more than ten degrees. The sauna room, which was originally at 30 or 40 degrees, suddenly dropped to only 25 or 26 degrees.

"I feel much more comfortable now. The money is worth it." Lin's mother said happily.

Lin Heng also said: "Let's take a good rest and go to the mountains to look for ginseng in August."

After checking the situation at his parents' place and finding no problems, he looked at the shrimp fry again and discovered that the dissolved oxygen level was insufficient, so he immediately turned on the oxygenator.

These days he bought six more oxygenators, and together with the money for insulation cotton, he spent another 1,500 yuan.

Now a total of ten aerators are enough. No matter how much more electricity is needed, it will not be enough. He has built an aeration pool, and the water in the shrimp pond is also interconnected, so it is completely sufficient.

But even if he spent another large sum of money, he still had 21,000 yuan. It might not seem like much, but he had already made a lot of investments and was now waiting for them to bear fruit.

When they got home, Lin Heng walked into the house and shouted loudly: "Wife, let's go fishing tomorrow."

"Where are you going?" Xiulan's voice came from the kitchen.

Lin Heng walked in and saw that she and Caiyun were cooking cold fish. He immediately responded, "Huangtan River is fine, and our small river is also fine."

It is already the middle of July and Caiyun has been on vacation for several days.

"Then let's wait until the sun sets completely and go catfishing around six o'clock, or we can get up early and go."

Now she can finally go out and play. Her child is five months old and can eat a lot of complementary food. He won’t be hungry even if he doesn’t breastfeed for a meal.

“Then let’s do it in the afternoon. If we can’t catch any fish, we’ll make a nest and get up early the next day to try again.” Lin Heng said after thinking for a while.

"I'm fine with anything." Xiulan said as she brought out the prepared cold fish.

Served with sour soup, it tastes very refreshing.

Side dishes include pickled sour bamboo shoots and fried cicada monkeys. This year I caught ten kilograms of cicada monkeys and froze them in the freezer, enough to eat for the whole summer.

After dinner, Lin Heng made some preparations in the afternoon. This time he planned to go to the river to catch a big one and try catching soft-shelled turtles again.

The main thing that needed to be prepared was nesting material, so he slaughtered a large rooster at home, asked his parents to come over in the evening to eat chicken, chopped up the chicken's innards, and caught some frogs, chopped them up together, and put them in a bag to let them stink.

I'll use it to bait and go fishing tomorrow afternoon.

Chicken that is regularly exercised tastes chewy and has the unique aroma of native chicken. It is delicious whether it is fried or stewed.

Now that our family is well-off, these little roosters are often eaten. We just killed one a few days ago for my father’s birthday, and now we want to eat another one.

Don’t be afraid after they’ve finished eating, because Mother Lin has hatched another batch of chicks that will be born soon.

"If you want to go fishing, call me and we can go together." Father Lin took the initiative to speak at the dinner table.

"And I guess your brother wants to go too. He has nothing to do lately." Father Lin added.

"That's fine, let's go together."

Lin Heng had no choice but to agree, and what was originally an activity for two people suddenly became an activity for four people.

(End of this chapter)