happy apocalypse

Chapter 153
In a blink of an eye, golden autumn and October are here, and we have no time to rest this month, and there are still many things waiting for us to do.

First of all, the pine nuts on the mountain are harvested this year, and we are in a hurry to harvest pine nuts.Another important thing is to prepare the firewood for the winter, and finally the rations for cattle and sheep.We decided to combine the three things together and do them together when we go up the mountain.

People in the village basically have contracted pine forests on the mountain, but they didn't try to take back the pine nuts on the mountain this year.They collect pine nuts every year because pine nuts can be sold for money. Looking at the current situation today, no one would be willing to exchange grain for pine nuts with a little meat. Their own children want to eat, and a small bag is enough, so they think that this year There is really no need to go down from the mountains to fight against pine nuts.You know, harvesting pine nuts is a purely manual operation, requiring people to climb trees to pick them.

Jiang Zhi and I wanted to collect more pine nuts for storage, so we went to the homes of several acquainted villagers and confirmed that they did not plan to collect pine nuts this year. We said that we would provide 100 catties of grain and wanted them to take all the pine nuts in the mountains. Charge us.

To them, the 100 catties of grain are like picking up for nothing. If we don't want those pine nuts, they will be eaten by small animals in the mountains, so everyone agreed after a few polite words.

Since it is manual work, our family has insufficient manpower, and we have never picked pine cones, so we have to learn how to do it.

We want to find a few young men with picking experience in the village to help us pick together, and we can also learn how to harvest pine nuts.

At the beginning, we were worried that no one would be willing to help us when the A virus was always threatening human safety in such hot weather.But the actual situation is that there must be brave men under heavy rewards. Each of us paid 20 catties of rice per day to hire people, and 10 young men signed up that day. The price is very high now.

Qin Hanbin and Zhang Fanyu also came, "Brother Jiang, originally you asked for help, we should come to help, but I see that your family collects pine nuts, so we want to collect some, so...so..." Qin Hanbin scratched his head in embarrassment.

This is really like our family. Now what my family does, they will follow suit. This will see that we want to collect pine nuts. They don't know what to do, so they want to collect some.

"It's okay, it's right for you to go collect some. Save some at home, it will always be useful in the future. Also, since you want to be on par with our family, let me tell you, we go up the mountain not only to collect pine nuts, but also to pick them up along the way." Some firewood, it is estimated that this winter will be colder than last winter, so prepare some too."

10 young people, together with 5 men, 4 women and 5 children from our family, formed a pine nut picking team.

The tools for picking pine cones are very simple, a long pole hook, a canvas bag supported by a wire loop, and a safety rope tied around the waist are all there is.

We first started picking from the pine forest of our family, and when we arrived at the place, we watched the 10 young people put their hand hooks on the roots of the lowest branches, and then began to climb the tree with agility, and climbed to the branches at the top of the tree. Sit down on the tree trunk, fasten the safety rope firmly to the trunk, and start picking. If they can reach it with their hands, they pick it off with their hands and put it in a canvas bag hanging around their necks. If they can't reach it with their hands, they pick it up Just bend the branches with a hand hook, and then pick them. If some are really out of reach, they will find a way to drop the pine cones to the ground, and people on the ground can pick them up.

The rest of us will work together below. Jiang Zhi, Li Cheng, and Li Shanqing are strong, and they are responsible for carrying the sacks full of pine cones home, and let Jiang Dad and Qu Dad spread them out in front of the door and in the yard to dry. .

Chenchen leads a few children to pick up pine cones under the tree. This job is considered a high-risk job, and the pine cones may fall from the top at any time. It is not fun to be hit by the pine cones accelerated by gravity, so they all carry helmet.

The eldest brother-in-law, the second brother-in-law, our three sisters and Weiwei were responsible for collecting thick branches in the pine forest and tying them together, waiting for Jiang Zhi and the others to transport them home with the pine nuts.There will also be some weeds growing under the pine trees. After the crazy growth this summer, it has reached knee height. We will also use sickles to cut some grass casually, and store food for the cattle and sheep for the winter.

At noon, when Jiang Zhi and the others went up the mountain, they would take the meals prepared by Jiang Ma and Qu Ma for everyone, take out moisture-proof mats, spread them out in the pine forest, and it would be a picnic.

Everyone spoke very highly of the food prepared by our family. With so many people eating, Jiang’s mother always stewed several large pots of dishes in a large iron pot. There are more ribs and less potatoes, and there are at least two meat dishes every day.

Now there is no vegetable market, and no one sells fresh meat every day. For such a long time, there have been a few times when pigs were slaughtered in other villages. When our village got the news, we would rush to the day when the pigs were slaughtered, and bring back some grain to exchange for some.Pork is expensive now, and no one is willing to change it more, which is to beat the teeth.

The number of times these young lads have eaten meat since the cold winter can be counted on one hand.So I am very satisfied with the lunch provided by our family, and I work extra hard when I work.

After dinner, you can lie down under the tree and have a rest before starting work in the afternoon.Everyone said that they didn't expect it to be so cool on the mountain, and there seemed to be a lot fewer mosquitoes than down the mountain.

Of course, that's because I took out a few mosquito repellent plants in flower pots in the space and put them near our pine forest, which was somewhat effective in repelling mosquitoes.

"Brother Jiang, why do you still need these pine nuts now? They can't be eaten as food." After eating, a young man randomly found a pine needle on the ground as a toothpick, and lay on the ground to pick his teeth.It seems that the meat is not less.

"Haha, this pine nut is good, it is nutritious, and the children love to eat it. We are not thinking about it. We have a lot of children, and now there is no place to buy snacks for the children. Collect more pine nuts, and wait for winter when you can't go out. , Fry some for the children, and you can scratch your teeth if you grab it." Jiang Zhi casually found a reason.

Everyone present heard that Jiang Zhi was making an excuse, as much as a child can eat, one sack is enough, and we charge a hundred times that much these days.

I also said to them: "When you go back, each of you will take it back and order it. You Jiang Ge said that you are a child. In fact, pine nuts can also squeeze oil. After harvesting, we want to fry some oil. We need to eat the oil at home. It's over." What I said was also an excuse, we have planted camellia oleifera trees in our space for several years, and our family can't finish half of the oil produced in a while.

I don't know if everyone believed it, but after that, no one asked us why we collected so many pine nuts.

We have been harvesting pine nuts in the mountains since October. Until mid-October, the rice planted in the village has matured. We went home to harvest rice, and our family was busy in the mountains.

The rice in the rice fields of Tashan Village is also ripe. No matter how reluctant people are to go out when the A virus is still rampant, they have to go out of the house and go to the rice fields to harvest rice.

Because, going out of the house may not necessarily be infected with A virus, but if you don't harvest rice, you will definitely be hungry.

Everyone who went to the paddy field was also equipped with firefighter's equipment, long clothes and trousers, plus rubber shoes, in short, they were fully armed.But in this hot weather, it's hard for them to arm themselves to the teeth.Some people are afraid of heatstroke, so they deliberately boil a large pot of mung bean water at night, hang it in the well, and the next day it will be cold, put it in an earthen jar, and carry it to the field.During the break, drink some cold mung bean water to relieve the heat.

Jiang Zhi and his eldest brother-in-law spared a day to help Chen Ming and Zhang Han's family harvest rice.The two of them can't go to the field yet. Chen Ming's family is better. He has a brother and sister-in-law above him. Only his parents went to the fields to harvest rice, so the two of them helped out for a day.

At first Li Cheng also wanted to go, but Jiang Zhi slapped him back and said, "We are here to help others, not to harm others."

I also talked to him next to him and said: "Chengzi, killing people is just a nod. If we have a festival with others, we will not help them to the end. We must not send you there. You are a weapon of mass destruction. You go Yes, it’s about to kill them all. Poor people have worked so hard for half a year, and once you go, you’ll be back before liberation.”

"The whole family is entitled to say that about me, except you. If I were a weapon of mass destruction, you would be super-large. You are stronger than me." Li Cheng jumped up when I said it.

"I know, so I have self-knowledge. I didn't say I would help." I chatted with Li Cheng leisurely.

Li Cheng patronized who was arguing with me, he didn't notice Jiang Zhi and the others left.

At the end of the day, he obediently went up the mountain with us.

These days, Li Cheng, Li Shanqing, Jiang Zhi, the eldest brother-in-law and I have all learned to climb trees, and we are responsible for picking pine cones from the tree. The second brother-in-law will also do it at the beginning, but the conditions do not allow it, and his stomach has not completely gone down. , he can't climb up the tree, so he can only do logistical work below.

When we harvest pine nuts, we don’t take all the cones off a tree, we leave half of each tree, and those are left for the small animals that feed on the pine nuts.We don't want to cause some animals in the mountains to have no food in winter because of our own selfish desires.

And even if only half of each tree is harvested, we can't finish harvesting such a large pine forest.

As for why we collect so many pine nuts, we are actually not very clear, but we just want to collect more if we can.When I see these pine cones, I think of the red ears in the red pine forest.

When you are free, it is time to go to the red pine forest to see the red ears.

(End of this chapter)