Rebirth Farmhouse

Chapter 99

Xiuyao smiled and said, "It's okay, we can retting by ourselves, it's also good to dig more silt from the river."

In the past two years of drought, the deep wells have not yet bottomed out, but the river ditches around the village have bottomed out in many places. It is not bad to pick up silt and throw it into the compost pond for composting.Everyone thinks this method is good, and we will make an appointment to get it tomorrow.

In the early morning of midsummer, with the breeze blowing, it is not as hot as at noon, but there is a refreshing feeling unique to summer.There is a dry and refreshing light fragrance in the air, which makes people feel safe. They are not afraid of the cold wind or freezing rain. If the heavy rain comes, it will be a baptism. It is neither cold nor hot, and it is very comfortable.

There is no work in the cotton field for the time being. Because there are not so many pesticides in this era, there are relatively fewer pests. After taking the top core, I walk every few days to see if there are any insects. If there are no insects, there is no need to enter the field again. .

The old Qin's two acres of sorghum, peanuts, and soybeans were not distributed to them, so the work was not in their charge. They only needed to be responsible for their own millet and cotton.

Qin Dafu's movements were quick, he was not lazy, and he was efficient, so he quickly finished his work in the field.They took big shovels and iron shovels to dig a compost pond on the top of Tiandi.For convenience, they dug one on the top of each field, so that they can fertilize at the same time, and there is no need to pull the fertilizer back and forth when planting the land.

Qin Dafu took Xiuxian to dig a few holes, and Qin Ye used a basket to pick up mud from the ditch.He first blocked the basket with big sycamore leaves and grass, and then carried the mud, so as not to miss much.And Xiuyao and Xiurong are responsible for collecting sycamore leaves and green grass, which are used to cushion the baskets again and again.

The silt in the pond has a fishy smell, which is really not very pleasant, but thinking that this will make the crops harvest, everyone is working with great enthusiasm, and they are not too dirty at all.Qin Xian even caught a few loaches in the mud, scaring Xiuyao into hiding. In the end, Xiuxian was bold enough to pass the loach through the eyes with the dog's tail grass, and then put it on the open space beside it. That way they can't get away even if they twist and turn.

After working all morning, only one compost pool was dug, but a lot of silt was also picked up. Xiuyao and Xiurong also cut a few baskets of grass and threw them in, and also swept some leaves from the trees and threw them in together.

"Father, from now on, the wheat bran in our family is not easy to burn, so we will use it to fertilize it." The wheat bran is too fine, and it is easy to smoke if it is burned, it is choking, and the fire is small, so it is not easy to boil the pot, so everyone They don't like burning, and many people burn outside and throw grass ash directly into the field as fertilizer.

For several days in a row, Qin Dafu led the children to dig the manure pond. This is the first thing to do now, because if there is not enough fertilizer, it will be difficult to grow wheat in winter. Without enough base fertilizer, the wheat will not grow. OK

So Xiurong didn't ask to be at home, she and Xiuyao Xiuxian went to mow the grass every day before dawn, left after lunch, and didn't come back until dark at night.In the past, there was one trip every morning and afternoon, but now it can be delivered three or four times in the morning, and even two people are in charge of mowing the grass, and one person is responsible for delivering it to the compost pond.

After a few days, although we are very tired, everyone is happy, all the tiredness is for our own family, and we don't have any complaints.

During the day, Mrs. Liu dried the water in a small water tank, and at night, the girls could take a shower when they came back. The men, led by Qin Dafu, went to the river to take a shower after dinner, and then enjoyed the cool on the street and chatted with the neighbors before going on. return.

Neighbors know that they have separated, and they have nothing to gain. They have occupied [-] acres of wasteland, and these days they are busy digging compost ponds to pick up silt.Most of the villagers sympathized with and admired them, and some people were concerned: "Uncle Qin, can you pick up mud and mud?"There are no livestock in their family, and they can't collect any dung at all. Farming is a problem.

Qin Dafu smiled and said: "It works, it will definitely work, why don't we pick it together, this way we can clean up the bottom of the river, dig deeper, and store more water."

The man smiled and said, "I won't pick it, I'm tired, let's take a rest while hanging the hoe."

Qin Dafu just laughed, and after seeing that it was almost time, he took Qin Ye and Qin Xian home, and the maids also took a shower and talked in the yard wiping their hair.

Qin Dafu said: "We don't have enough baskets at home, anyway, this is our own handicraft, we'll weave a few more baskets in two days."

Qin Ye immediately said: "Then I'll find time to chop some cotton locust tree." The cotton locust tree is a kind of thin shrub without thorns, which is very useful for weaving baskets.When the young branches and leaves are pinched, red juice will come out. Children often cut it off and put it on the center of the eyebrows. When it is used as rouge, some people smash it to get the juice to dye the cloth. The color is beautiful, girls especially like it.

Xiuyao heard it and immediately said: "Brother, let's collect some cotton locust seeds, but next spring it's best to dig those seedlings and plant them, even big ones are fine, we can just plant one as a fence."

Xiuyao had already planned to use cotton locust tree, Chinese wolfberry, Vitex twig, wild jujube and other shrubs as hedges to slowly enclose the wasteland in her home.These crops can survive in the not very severe saline-alkali soil, and when they grow into flakes and gain momentum, they can be harvested and used.

Cotton locust slivers can be used to weave baskets and baskets. The leaves are actually very good green fodder for livestock. Needless to say, goji berry, Vitex twigs are similar to cotton locust trees. Sour jujube is a good barrier, and it will produce many finger-sized jujubes, sour and sweet Delicious, it is a snack that children like very much.

In addition, Xiuyao also asked everyone to pay attention to the seeds of the purple clover, collect as many as possible, and they can be sown next spring.Anyway, no matter how much they grow, they will eventually come out, so if they are allowed to grow there, they will gradually become a climate.

Alfalfa is a very high-yield pasture grass. It can feed cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs. It is also an excellent green manure, which can improve the geology, and the excess that cannot be eaten can also be cut and fertilized. It can be said that the whole body is covered with Treasure, especially useful for that barren land.

Of course, no one planted in patches, so the seeds had to be collected hard. In late autumn, her main task was to collect all kinds of seeds.

When he got busy, the time passed faster. In a blink of an eye, the beginning of autumn came. Qin Dafu planted the seeds of radishes, cabbage, and spicy vegetables (mustard lumps) from the old Qintou in the cotton fields and valleys. It can be harvested in late autumn or early winter.

Their family is short of food, and there are no fresh vegetables in winter, so they can only hoard winter vegetables in large quantities.And radish, cabbage, and spicy cabbage are good things. They can be pickled to make pickles, and radish and cabbage can also be fried. If there are many radishes, they will be full after stewing. They are must-have dishes for poor farmers.

The fact that Qin Dafu's family opened up [-] acres of wasteland was a sensation at the time, but it seems that they didn't plow the land for anything afterwards, as if they wanted to grow winter wheat.Wouldn't that be a wasted year?After all, the wasteland here is not free, it belongs to the court, even if you reclaim the wasteland, it still belongs to the court, and you have to pay rent.Ordinary wasteland is exempt from tax for up to three years. It is said that this piece of wasteland is exempt from tax for five years. If there is still no harvest after five years, it will be taken back.Not only that, in the past five years, if you don't hurry up, you really can't get the seeds back.

But Qin Dafu's family didn't seem to be in a hurry, except that they went there every day with a big pick to plan, and there was nothing serious about it.They were curious about how the Qin family would farm the land. If they wanted to grow wheat, this wasteland should be plowed deeply.

On this day, Xiuyao and her eldest brother came to the wasteland to investigate carefully. Qin Ye was also curious about how the younger sister knew this. She even grabbed a lot of soil and put it in a bowl, and asked him to dig out soil of different depths. for her to put in a bowl.

And it's been doing this for days.

"Little sister, you can't dig over there. At most, the [-] acres of land can be dug out. The rest of the land is almost full of stones." Qin Ye looked at the big head, and he paid attention to it. There are also small notches.This wasteland, even where there is soil underneath, is full of gravel and gravel, and it is very difficult to clean it up.

After Xiuyao put the soil in different places in the water and tried it, she said to Qin Ye: "Brother, in fact, there is only less than [-] mu of land that can be planted. In some places... well, about [-] mu of land Only a few things can be planted, and most of the rest cannot be planted.”

Qin Ye wiped the sweat from his forehead and fanned the wind with a straw hat, "Little girl, then we need another fifty mu?"

Xiuyao smiled and said, "Brother, anyway, five years of white farming, ten acres of crops is enough." She stood up, holding some ten yuan she picked up in her hand, and said to Qin Ye: "However, even those who can grow crops , It’s not just planting it like usual, we have to make some other preparations. Brother, I’m quite tired.”

And even the piece of land that cannot be farmed has other uses, Xiuyao has already thought about it, since the family is separated, they must all be separated, so as not to be annoying when everyone mutters.

Qin Yexi said: "As long as you can grow something, what are you afraid of being tired? Big brother has plenty of strength." He is not afraid of being tired at all, but he is afraid that the family will not have enough food, and his parents, younger brothers and sisters will starve.

Xiuyao was moved, and said to Qin Ye: "Brother, I will put stones. I will put stones according to the quality of the land. I divide this place into several grades. The more stones, the worse the grade of the land. It takes a lot of energy.”

Qin Ye nodded, "Okay, brother, I'll listen to you, whichever piece of land you want to clean up first, we will clean up which piece of land first."

Xiuyao held the stone and put it down according to the pre-investigation. If one stone is placed outside normally, then three or four are the best here, and the most can be seven or eight.

There are only a dozen or so acres that can grow crops without major "surgery", and there are a dozen or so acres that need to be improved to a certain extent, and the rest have to be "exchanged". Xiuyao has other uses.

After a long time, Xiuyao put all the stones away, Qin Ye looked at it, and the best one was the one under his feet.

Xiuyao said: "Brother, let's grow mustard greens here in a few days, and next year we can grow some leeks, broad beans, garlic and so on." She pointed out the area and marked it with stones.Of course, she just said casually that what to grow depends on the conditions. Even if these things are planted, they may not all be able to grow. She said this, but also gave Qin Ye and his family some confidence, telling them that here is Can grow things.

Then she walked another distance, stopped, and said to Qin Ye: "Brother, here we will grow some spinach this year, and next year we can grow square melons, sunflowers (sunflowers) and sugar beets." She listed several easy-to-grow crops Come out, so there are also choices. When the time comes, measures should be adapted to local conditions and time, and the decision will be made based on the difficulty of obtaining seeds.

She pointed to the land not far away, and told Qin Ye her general plan: "Brother, look at that area, let's plant some cotton locust stalks, twigs, and dog meat." Then she pointed to the distance That piece, "there we can only grow Artemisia salina."

Qin Ye naturally couldn't understand her things for a while, but he felt that although there were not many things planted, and none of them were food, Qin Ye was still very happy. At least those hanging melons could be eaten as food. If there were too many vegetables, they could be eaten in winter. Go sell it, no matter how cheap it is, you can exchange it for some money.

In the next few days, people in Taoyuan Village found that the Qin family seemed to be crazy, busy working in the wasteland all day long.

(End of this chapter)