big sister headed home

Chapter 70

In order to pickle all kinds of pickles, Dou Hua specially bought a few big jars, pickled two jars of sauerkraut, two jars of salted radishes, and one jar of chili peppers, made a jar of soybean paste, and a jar of bean paste, in the corner of her house now There is a row of stalls and jars.

There is a lot of coarse salt needed to marinate these things. The salt shops in the county town sell them in limited quantities, and she only bought two catties of salt. It was far from enough to marinate these things. I had to find some ways. I bought a few catties of private salt. Only barely enough.

There is enough firewood at home this year. There are several stacks of corn stalks on several mu of land. There are also two stacks of wheat straw. When the corn is dry, rub the corn kernels down. The Hua family doesn't have to worry about burning enough, it will be enough for the next year's wheat harvest.

Fearing that the rabbits would be cold in winter, they tore a lot of wheat straw and put them in the rabbit pen. The rabbit nest was also covered with a layer of yellow mud to make it thicker.

Dou Hua raised the bees in several boxes, and now it’s time to harvest honey. Dou Hua is fully armed, tightly packed from head to toe, and even wears a pair of sewn gloves, and opens the beehives one by one, and the honey inside Cut half of it out, and leave the remaining half for the bees to eat over the winter.

As the weather gets colder, these bees will stop coming out and live on the accumulated honey in the hive.After collecting the honey, Dou Hua coated the outside of these beehives with a thick layer of wheatgrass mud, just like a rabbit nest. With the mud wrapped around the outside, these bees are not afraid of the cold in winter.

These beehives took out quite a lot of honey, which was enough to fill a jar. Dou Hua carefully covered the jar and put it in the cupboard. When the little ones wanted to eat honey, they would scoop it up with a spoon. Put it in a large bowl and drink it with boiling water. It has the unique sweet fragrance of honey. Drinking a bowl when it is cold is quite warm.

There was a persimmon tree in the yard, and the branches were covered with bright red persimmons. Dou Hua led several younger siblings to pick off the hard and not ripe persimmons one by one, and picked two full baskets. Some of them were kept fresh and put into the cellar, and some of them were dried by Dou Hua into persimmons. Persimmons can be stored for a long time and can be eaten for a long time. These are a few small snacks.

The two jujube trees in front of the courtyard belonged to her family, and the red dates on them were all smashed down. Dou Hua made a jar of drunk dates with wine and sealed them up. The rest were dried in the sun except for eating now. up.

Taking advantage of the sunny day, Dou Hua cooked a few pots of sweet potatoes in a large pot, sliced ​​them after cooling down, and dried them into dried sweet potatoes. The dried sweet potatoes are very fragrant and sweet whether they are eaten dry or put into a pot to make porridge. One of the few snacks for farm children, dried sweet potatoes are unremarkable, but sometimes they are also something to fill the stomach.

After the autumn harvest, the weather turned cold day by day, one autumn rain and one cold, and after two rains, the weather became even colder.

The thin quilts at home are all put away, and the thick quilts are replaced. Before changing them, take advantage of the full sun to dry them well, and remove and wash the dirty ones.

The quilts in Dou Hua's house were all made a few years ago. After a long time, they became less warm and had a musty smell. Dou Hua thought that the small ones at home were not cold-resistant, so she I bought a new quilt inner quilt and new cotton from the county seat, took it home and added a few new quilts, one new quilt for each person, the old quilts were removed and washed, and they were used as quilts. Waiting for the cold winter months, the weather will change It was even colder, at that time one quilt was not enough, and another quilt was needed.

Dou Hua is not good at needlework, and Dou Cui took over the quilt sewing work, and she was there to help. Dou Cui's needlework is dense and good, and the work is finished after a few days .

In addition to quilts, you also need to prepare winter clothes and shoes. Dou Hua’s family is all children, and it’s time to grow up. This year’s food is good, and the whole family has grown up. It's a little short, and so are the other siblings. The clothes they used to wear are all too small.

All these clothes were disassembled and washed, and the ones that could be made smaller were made smaller. If it was not enough, Dou Hua bought new fabrics and cotton, and made new cotton clothes for the family. The shoes were also made new, and the old clothes were used for the inside. That's enough, I don't know how long it will take Dou Cui alone to make these clothes and shoes. Fortunately, with the help of my aunt Li, I took time to make it for several days.

There is a lot of work in the farmhouse, and there is always work for a diligent family. There are a lot of odd jobs at home. Fortunately, Dou Hua and her siblings are all industrious. When I saw work, I did it, and the house was clean inside and out, not worse than when Dou Sanshan and his wife were alive, and a little bit neater.

Seeing the weather getting colder day by day, what Dou Hua is most worried about is the problem of heating in winter. There is no coal here, and there are no good heating methods in ordinary farmhouses. The best way is to burn more firewood in the stove. Heat up the kang a bit, get into the quilt, and cover with another quilt.

From the memory of the original owner, Dou Hua understood that in previous winters, her house was heated by a kang, and this kang was warmer in the first half of the night, but when the stove was cold in the back, it was still uncomfortably cold.The temperature inside and outside the room was about the same except for a wall, which was really cold.

There are also wealthy people who burn charcoal for heating, but the charcoal is quite expensive, and ordinary people cannot afford it.Dou Hua thought that instead of buying charcoal with others, she would burn some charcoal for home heating. She thought that now that the farming is slack, there is no work in the field, and his uncle is at home now, so she put charcoal burning with He mentioned it.

Dou Sishan has no objection to burning charcoal, but he doesn't know how to burn it. If he knows, he can burn some charcoal and sell it for money. Their Dou family village guards the mountain, and there are not many other things. But there are many.

Dou Hua doesn't know much about burning charcoal, but she still knows some principles. There is no good way, so she can only do a few experiments by herself.

Dou Hua and Dou Sishan built an earthen kiln, and after experiments, they finally mastered the method.However, burning charcoal is a hard job, and it cannot be done by one or two people. The first thing to do is to chop wood and transport the wood, followed by firing, which is manual work.

Dou Sishan hesitated for a moment, but he still said that he wanted to cooperate with his elder brother Dou Dashan. Dou Dashan's family has five boys, and the labor force is sufficient. If you can join the group, the job will be easy.

Dou Hua didn't think it was a problem, anyway, she wasn't doing this job, she just raised an opinion, if the uncle is willing to cooperate with the uncle, she has no objection.

"Uncle, you only cooperate with Uncle. Second Uncle and the others know if they will be unhappy. How about this? You sit together and discuss it. Burning charcoal is hard work. The more you work, the more you get. One more People should work harder." Dou Hua said.

Dou Sishan nodded, seeing Dou Hua's admiration, "Girl Hua'er is right, I will discuss it with them."

"We don't have any charcoal burners in Dou's Village. If we succeed, we will definitely be able to make money. But you have to hurry up. Now, before it's cold, you should burn more charcoal, so that you won't be too late when it's cold." Dou Hua reminded .

Needless to say, Dou Sishan is already thinking about putting things on the agenda as soon as possible. He sees his wife and Dou Hua opening a noodle shop to earn money, and his heart is itchy. He has long thought about making money. Now this opportunity Right in front of him, he naturally couldn't let it go.

Dou Qing has been listening by the side, at this moment, she said, "Sister, let me burn charcoal with my uncle, I am not afraid of getting tired."

For a while, Dou Hua also noticed that her younger brother had become very interested in making money. First, he was driving mountains, and now he was thinking about burning charcoal. Seeing her younger brother making progress, Dou Hua was also happy, so she nodded accepted.

(End of this chapter)