Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 399 I say autumn is better than spring

"This is the best way to spend as little as possible."

Xiulan nodded and walked towards the second platform.

"Xiaoxia, let's go." Lin Heng stretched out his hand towards Xiaoxia.

Xiaoxia ran over, opened her arms and said coquettishly: "Daddy, hug me~"

"Okay, baby." Lin Heng picked her up and walked upstairs.

After making a big turn from the south, you will reach the second platform. It is just a little shorter than the first platform, and there is no other difference.

The walls inside are also higher and the slope is much steeper. The loose soil layer on the surface has been completely dug out. If you walk north from here, the winding mountain road on the top of the mountain is at the northernmost position, and they can go up the mountain from here.

As we approached the top of the mountain, there were gradually more fallen leaves on the ground. Leaves of various colors floated on the ground. A gust of wind blew, and the poplars, red maples and other trees on the mountain began to shed their leaves.

November is almost here, and all the leaves will fall off completely in a dozen days at most. Now is the best time to enjoy the autumn scenery.

If you can stand in the sky and look down, the scenery will be even more dreamy and charming.

However, walking in the woods and feeling the leaves falling like drizzle is another kind of enjoyment.

Soon they arrived at a position five or six meters below the cabin, where a small slope of 50 square meters was built for reversing.

"Can we pour concrete here in a few days?" Xiulan asked as she walked towards the cabin.

Lin Heng nodded: "Yes, give a total of 1,200 yuan. If you don't fight, the dirt road will be easily damaged when it rains."

Concrete floors need to be laid, which not only makes walking convenient but also prevents landslides to a certain extent.

"Then lay the concrete. We spent so much money to build it, so we should protect it well."

As Xiulan spoke, she opened the cabin, looked around the house, and prepared to clean it up.

Lin Heng put Xiaoxia down and went to a small reservoir not far away to fetch two buckets of water. Xiulan cleaned the inside of the house while he cleaned the exterior wall of the cabin.

During the days when the excavator was digging the platform, he went into the city several times. Not only did he almost finish the negotiation on selling shrimps this year, he also did many other things. He also bought paint by the way, but he just didn't have time to come up and paint.

The cabin was not big, and it was cleaned inside and out in less than an hour.

Then Lin Heng lit the charcoal and put it into the ceramic stove to boil water. He made a pot of black tea and sat on a rattan chair with Xiulan, drinking tea and admiring the beautiful mountain poplars outside.

I'll paint the wooden house when I leave later. The smell is too strong now and I won't be able to enjoy the scenery here.

"When are you going to hunt black bears?"

Xiulan took a sip of tea and looked at Lin Heng and asked.

"We'll go on November 10th, if it doesn't rain that day. Before that, I have to sell most of the shrimp and then tell Dad how to lay the cement floor."

Lin Heng picked up a few fallen leaves and played with them as he spoke.

"The time is very tight, less than fifteen days. Will it be in time?" Xiulan was a little worried.

"It should be in time." Lin Heng exhaled and smiled.

"Then let's have hotpot these two days, and you can make some beef balls for us." Xiulan said after thinking for a while.

"No problem, I've been wanting to eat it for a long time." Lin Heng nodded.

After chatting for a while, the two suddenly became quiet again, drinking tea, looking at the beautiful scenery around them, and listening to their daughter's birds singing in the woods.

He could sit here all day, watching the leaves fall and the autumn scenery all over the mountains. Every falling leaf seemed to carry a different kind of beauty.

After drinking a cup of tea, Lin Heng picked up the leaves on the ground, made a beautiful flower with a small bamboo stick, and put it on Xiulan's head.

Xiulan was dressed very simply today. She wore a white autumn coat with a yellow shirt on the outside. Her sleeves were folded up to reveal most of her white and smooth arms. She wore black trousers on her lower body and a pair of black flat leather shoes on her feet.

Her hair was simply tied up, and Lin Heng inserted leaves and flowers into her hair, making her look more elegant and warm, like a quiet and beautiful autumn chrysanthemum in the sun.
"Dad, teach me how to make flowers." Xiaoxia said coquettishly while holding a leaf.

"Then you watch carefully."

Lin Heng took a leaf and began to teach her. Xiaoxia had good hands-on ability and was able to make a rough version of it by following along, but it was far from what Lin Heng and Xiulan had done.

"This one is for mom, and this one is for dad!"

Although it doesn't look good, she likes to give it to others.

"Thank you, darling." Xiulan said with a smile.

She put together the leaf flowers made by Xiaoxia into a bouquet and hung it on the wall in the room, giving her the ones she made to play with.

Making flowers with colorful leaves is really an interesting thing. Each flower has its own characteristics and is different.

After playing for a while, they got up and walked into the woods to take a look.

Lin Heng took Xiulan for a walk in the colorful woods, feeling the sad beauty of autumn.

Lin Heng likes autumn and thinks the scenery is more beautiful than spring. Stepping on the colorful leaves, feeling the crisp and pleasant sound, the sky also has beautiful leaves, like a rain of petals.

"Hey, there are enoki mushrooms here!"

As they walked, Xiulan suddenly exclaimed in surprise. She saw a large clump of enoki mushrooms growing on a tree stump in front of her. They looked plump and very appetizing.

"It rained a few days ago, so no one came here. Maybe there are still people here." Lin Heng said.

"I'll help you find it." Xiaoxia broke free from Lin Heng's hand and started looking around.

Lin Heng turned around and went back to get a basket. He had been busy recently and had not gone up the mountain to look for mushrooms, so Lin's mother went to his nest and picked some Matsutake mushrooms.

Taking the basket, the three of them started looking for mushrooms in the woods.

What's more, there are quite a lot of mushrooms in the forest. I picked up some enoki mushrooms and found some pine mushrooms, which together weigh about five or six kilograms.

"With these fresh mushrooms, how about we have a hotpot tonight?" Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said.

"Sure, but there are no beef balls today and I don't have time to make them." Lin Heng said with a smile.

The family had both beef and mutton. A few days ago, someone in the town killed a cattle and sold it. He bought some good beef and also some tripe.

"We'll do it again." Xiulan said, and then looked towards the ginseng garden and said, "Let's go dig a ginseng and see how big it is?"

"Then go and have a look."

Lin Heng nodded and walked into the ginseng garden.

The ginseng plants in the ginseng garden had withered long ago. He first walked to the center to see how the bees were making autumn honey and checked their population situation.

The two boxes of bees here suffered from the predation of "Seven-horned Hornets" this summer, and the number of bees has decreased a lot. Now I open them and find that they are all fine. The autumn honey has also been capped, so we can find time to harvest some.

After watching the bees, he came back and picked up two more clumps of oyster mushrooms, both of which were large oyster mushrooms weighing one pound each, growing on the trunks of dead maple trees.

After handing the oyster mushroom to Xiulan, Lin Heng took a branch and dug out a ginseng. The soil was soft and it took only a short while to dig it out.

Because it is a two-year-old forest ginseng, you don't have to be as careful when digging it as you would be when digging wild ginseng.

"It's so big and plump." Xiulan was surprised when she saw the ginseng. This two-year-old ginseng was as thick as an index finger, much bigger than she had imagined.

"There are no patterns on it. You can tell it's artificially grown. And it's not fertilized. Ginseng with fertilizer can grow like carrots." Lin Heng said with a smile.

The wild ginseng at home is not only long but also has scars. The lines on the ginseng are like tree rings and are densely packed, just like the skin of an old man.

"Can this be any medicinal effect?" Xiulan took it and looked at it curiously.

"Yes, but the effect is weak. I'll take this back and soak it in wine."

Lin Heng walked out as he spoke, and when he returned to the cabin, he began to paint. There was no need to paint the inside of the cabin, as the paint that had been applied previously could be used for a long time.

Mainly the outside, which is exposed to wind, sun and rain, and needs to be painted every year.

The color of the paint is walnut. Lin Heng pours it out, stirs it evenly, and then just uses a brush to apply it.

With Xiulan's help, the two of them finished painting in half an hour, painting the entire exterior walls and floor of the wooden house.

It was already twelve o'clock when they finished painting, and the three of them walked down the mountain with their things.

In the top part, you can see that there are still sixty to seventy acres of land that have not been opened up. If all these shrubs are dug up and reclaimed, a large area of ​​land can be opened up.

"I made leek steamed buns and winter melon soup for lunch. You can eat them here."

Seeing the three people coming down, Lin's mother looked at them and said.

"I was originally planning to eat here, and then invite you to come over for hotpot in the evening." Lin Heng said with a smile.

After entering the house, Xiulan went to the bedroom to feed the child, and then everyone had lunch together.

After lunch, Lin's mother went to the vegetable garden to dig vegetables and wild vegetables, and came back with Xiulan to wash them in preparation for hot pot in the evening.

Lin Heng and his father went to feed grass to the cattle and sheep. The cattle and sheep pen was now full.

The red-maned horse, Red Date and the white goat are all raised outside the pen. Lin Heng doesn't ride Red Date very often now because its belly is round after eating so much this year.

It went into heat twice during this period, so Lin Heng found a female donkey in the village to breed it, but the mating was unsuccessful.

Mules are usually bred from a male donkey and a female horse.

When Lin Heng came over, this guy snorted and couldn't wait to eat the grass.

After feeding it, Lin Heng took the good grass mixed with hay and fresh grass to feed the cattle and sheep.

Over the past month, nine cows have been in heat one after another. We found three big bulls in the village and have completed the breeding with them one after another. Judging from the situation, they should all be pregnant now.

The gestation period of cattle is long, about 280 days, and they will give birth in June or July next year.

After a month of growth, the lambs have basically stabilized and their resistance has become much stronger.

There were 57 lambs initially, and now there are 55 left. Unfortunately, two of them died this month, which is very sad.

"Son, if you go hunting black bears next month, you'll have to build new cattle and sheep pens next year." Father Lin said as he walked out after feeding the sheep.

Lin Heng nodded: "Yes, we can start building it in the spring. Cows give birth in June and July, so we just need to finish building it before then."

"I'll tell you later how to lay the ground when the concrete arrives here."

Then Lin Heng added another sentence.

Back downstairs, mother and Xiulan had almost prepared the vegetables. Xiaoxia looked at Lin Heng and said, "Dad, I want to eat fish."

"Eat it if you want. I'll catch one for you later."

Lin Heng touched her head and said.

He found a fishing rod and went up the mountain to fish for sika carp. Although grass carp is now big enough to be eaten, it is not as delicious as sika carp and it has no bones, so it is easier to eat.

When he came to the small dam, there were many fallen leaves on the light green water. He stood by the dam, put a small earthworm on the hook and threw it in. As soon as he put it in, a fish rushed over to bite the hook. He pulled it up and saw that it was a plum fish weighing about one pound, so he took it in immediately.

The carp fry in this pond are basically 70 to 80 grams in size now, and the big ones can even weigh one kilogram. The breeding fish at the beginning of the year were even bigger. The growth rate in artificial breeding is still very fast.

I caught three plum carps weighing one pound each and killed them on the spot. Just as I was about to throw away the innards, a big furry head stretched out its head and licked them clean in two bites.

"When did you get up here?" Lin Heng rubbed Xiongba's head. This guy walked without making any sound.

"Woo!"

Xiongba let out a low hum and rubbed his leg, looking like he wanted to eat the fish.

"Just a moment."

Lin Heng patted its head, killed the fish, and then caught another one and threw it to Xiongba.

After getting down the mountain, he took the dishes for the hotpot in the evening, and Lin's mother helped push the child back to the village.

Lin Heng took out some kiwis to eat. These were red-heart kiwis given to him by his eldest brother. They tasted a little sweeter than the ordinary green kiwis, and Xiaoxia especially liked them.

After a short rest, we started to burn charcoal and prepare the ingredients for the hot pot.

Now, most of the crops have been harvested, wheat and rapeseed have been planted, and there is not much work to do.

When Caiyun came back at five in the afternoon, they started to eat hotpot. Today, it was just their family, and his eldest brother and sister-in-law were not at home.

There was fish and mushroom soup on one side and red oil and chili soup on the other. After they boiled, everyone started to use their chopsticks, picked up their favorite things, and started eating.

The hot pot is not cooked in the house, but on the stone table in the yard. It is cool and the smell will not spread all over the house, but it makes life difficult for passers-by outside.

In the yard, after a full meal, you can lean back in a chair and look at the red leaves in the mountains, the blue sky and white clouds, and looking up, you can see the autumn colors everywhere.

The meal lasted until seven o'clock. Mother Lin helped to clean up the dishes before returning to Hongfeng Mountain with Father Lin.

Lin Heng went to the back mountain to walk around to digest his food. When he came back, he saw Xiulan making rice wine under the eaves in the backyard.

The last time the malt koji was fermented, I steamed several pots of old glutinous rice and fermented this 80-jin large jar of rice wine.

Now, a month has passed, and the fermentation of the rice wine has just been completed. The wine scooped out is a beautiful bright yellow color.

"Try it and see how it tastes." Xiulan looked at him and handed him a glass of wine.

Xiulan makes semi-sweet rice wine, which is made by adding fermented glutinous rice to the rice wine. Therefore, the wine has a hint of sweetness and a particularly strong and mellow aroma. It is a type of rice wine that is loved by men, women, young and old.

"It's perfect now, slightly sweet with a lingering aftertaste, and a strong wine aroma." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.

"That's good. I'll scoop them all out, heat them up, and then store them in the wine jar." Xiulan nodded.

I poured out all the wine and weighed it. This time I made 70 kilograms of rice wine, which is enough to drink for a long time.

Put the wine in a bucket and insert a hot water bottle into it to boil the rice wine. The rice wine must be heated, otherwise the yeast will survive and continue to ferment, which will change the taste.

Generally speaking, it is enough to burn it to 75 degrees, which can inactivate the yeast and evaporate some of the aldehyde substances produced by fermentation.

In the past, this temperature was determined by feel, and he would stop cooking when the wine became too hot. Now Lin Heng has bought a thermometer so he can control the temperature.

(End of this chapter)