The happy little days of the Ye family

The dates in Xiaohoushan are getting more mature day by day, and the heavy dates bend the branches of the trees.

In the days leading up to picking dates, Mr. Ye would go up the mountain several times almost every day to watch, for fear that someone would have a bad idea to steal the dates.

These jujube trees on the mountain are taken care of by Mr. Ye from the time they are planted to the time they bear fruit. These jujube trees are all the hard work of Mr. Ye.

The red dates are hanging all over the branches, which is very pleasing to look at. Mr. Ye has already agreed with the people in the village to pick dates tomorrow.

Mr. Ye hired 50 skilled villagers in the village and paid him 20 yuan a day to go up the mountain to pick dates together tomorrow.

A total of more than 200 jujube trees have been planted in Xiaohou Mountain. After excluding the ones that have not been planted, there are about [-] jujube trees on the mountain now.

The jujube trees in Xiaohoushan are bearing fruit for the first year, and since they were planted on barren hills, the land is not fertile. Mr. Ye estimated that one jujube tree only has about 170 or 180 kilograms of dates.

Although this yield is far inferior to that of the jujube trees in the backyard, there are so many jujube trees in Xiaohoushan that they can’t hold up. The entire Xiaohoushan can produce more than 3 kilograms of jujubes.

One kilogram of dates dried into red dates is only about 4 taels to half a kilogram of red dates, so the dates in this small back mountain after dried into dates will weigh more than 1 kilograms.

Mr. Ye thought to himself, hoping that this year's dates would be sold at a good price.

Early the next morning, Mr. Ye, Mrs. Ye, mother and daughter Ye Qingqing, led a large number of villagers to Xiaohoushan to pick dates.

At a glance, there are red dates everywhere, and even the air you breathe smells sweet of dates.

The villagers all carried big baskets on their backs and long bamboo poles in their hands, happily picking up dates.

Tang Xiaojing was busy preparing fresh herbs sent from Dashan Village and had no time to come over to help today. However, Tangshan deliberately did not go to the town to solicit customers and came to Xiaohoushan to help pick dates.

Even the Tang family's two oxcarts were driven to Xiaohoushan to help transport dates.

Baskets of red dates were transported to the foot of the mountain, and Mr. Ye helped carry the dates onto the bullock cart.

Ye Qingqing stood beside the bullock cart, picked up a big red date, wiped it on his body and started eating it.

As soon as he took a bite, Ye Qingqing's eyes lit up and he said with a smile: "It's delicious, these dates are so sweet."

Then she stuffed a jujube into Ye Mu's mouth. Ye Mu took a bite of the red jujube. It was indeed very sweet.

Mother Ye smiled and said: "There is less rain this year, so the dates are smaller than in previous years, but they are much sweeter than in previous years."

Seeing that Ye Qingqing and Ye Mu were eating well, Mr. Ye also picked up a date, rubbed it on his body, and then started eating.

Mr. Ye likes to eat sweets, and this date suited him exactly. He finished the date in a few seconds and picked up the second one.

Mr. Ye said cheerfully: "The weather has been good in recent days. The dates will be dried in the sun for a few days. Once the dates are dried, it will be the autumn harvest, so there will be no delay."

Mother Ye smiled and said, "Fortunately, the cellar for storing dry goods at home has been dug, otherwise there would be no room to store the dates."

Mr. Ye: "Oh no, when I was making the shelves, I only thought about using them to store dried mushrooms and bamboo shoots, but I forgot about the red dates. The shelves I made are definitely not enough. I have to quickly order another batch of shelves to store the red dates tonight."

Seeing that the dates were already piled on the cart, Ye’s mother said to Mr. Ye: “Dad, the dates have been packed. How about you transport the dates back first and then stop by Uncle Tang’s house and ask Uncle Tang to help make a batch quickly? The rack comes out.”

"Okay, I'll transport the dates back first, and then I'll go to Brother Tang's place to order some shelves." Mr. Ye quickly got on the bullock cart and carried back a cart full of dates.

When Mr. Ye went back, he happened to pass by the mountain where the village chief lived. The village chief and his family were also picking dates today. The village chief had led a large number of people to pick dates on the mountain early.

The village chief's two sons, Ye Xiayang and Ye Qiushou, led another group of villagers to pick dates on the mountain next door.

Even at the foot of the mountain, Mr. Ye could hear the village chief's energetic voice and the hearty laughter of the villagers.

Most of the people in the village helped pick dates on the mountain, and Mr. Ye didn't meet anyone else along the way.

Mr. Ye drove the ox cart to the back mountain and saw Grandma Ye's family picking red dates on the slope to the north from a distance.

Mr. Ye shouted from the bullock cart: "My father-in-law, my mother-in-law, are you picking dates today too?"

Grandma Ye was holding a basket of red dates and said with a smile: "Yes, the weather has been good in the past few days, so I quickly picked the dates and dried them into red dates."

Grandma Ye's family only planted 5 acres of jujube trees. Although the quantity was not as good as that of Ye's family, the second uncle and Grandpa Ye took good care of it. They even went to the village's big pig farmer to buy a lot of fertilizer and fertilized it. The dates are numerous and big.

In addition to the second cousin who sells tea on the dock, even the eldest uncle also took leave and came back with his wife and several children to pick dates. The whole family picked dates happily.

Mr. Ye saw that the jujubes grown by his parents were obviously larger than his own, and he was very envious. There was a difference between fertilizing and not fertilizing.

On the way home, Mr. Ye was still thinking about whether to raise more pigs. There were too many fields at home and there was not enough fertilizer.

Then I thought that there was not enough manpower at home, and there was no room for pigsty. There were many chickens and ducks at home, and there was no room to build another pigsty in the backyard.

Mr. Ye whispered in a low voice: "You have to eat your food one bite at a time, take your time."

There is a large drying ground in the village. There are too many dates coming up the mountain to dry in the house. Mr. Ye specially borrowed the drying ground from the village to dry the dates.

However, Mr. Ye only borrowed one-third, and the remaining two-thirds were borrowed by the village chief. The village chief's family had two mountains of dates, and they lacked even more space to dry the dates than the Ye family.

The people Mr. Ye found were all people who had helped dig bamboo shoots at Ye's house before. They were all quick and diligent people. They picked all the dates on the mountain in just three days.

Now, not only the Ye family and the drying ground are full of dates, but also the front and back yards of the Tang family are full of dates. The greedy Rhubarb and Xiaohuang will steal dates from time to time.

The two little guys were very smart. They even knew how to secretly bury the pits of the dates after eating them. If Tang Xiaojing had encountered the two little guys secretly eating the dates, he wouldn't have discovered it.

Tang Xiaojing beat Dahuang and Xiaohuang on the spot.

Tang Xiaojing raised his big hand high, and then gently placed it on the two little guys' little butts. I don't know if the two little guys hurt or not, but Tang Xiaojing's hands didn't hurt anyway.

Rhubarb and Xiaohuang, who have been educated, still eat dates secretly from time to time.

After being caught by Tang Xiaojing eating them again, Tang Xiaojing had no choice but to take them to Stone Mountain. He couldn't eat them secretly when he was not at home.