The happy little days of the Ye family

When Ye Xilin opened the door and walked out of the house, it was already bright.

Everyone at home is already busy, and the smell of breakfast is already wafting from the kitchen.

Ye Mu and Wang Chunyu have already killed the three pullets and are applying spices to the chickens.

Ye Donglin on the side was carefully cleaning the vegetables just picked from the small vegetable garden.

Washed vegetables look cleaner and more comfortable, and women in the town like to buy Ye’s freshly washed vegetables.

After Ye Donglin picks the vegetables every morning, he takes them to the backyard and washes them. The washed vegetables are particularly juicy and very comfortable to look at.

Ye Xilin quickly washed up and then went to cook pig food.

Ye Xilin raised 12 breeding pigs, 10 of which were sows that gave birth to piglets, and the remaining two were breeding boars.

In addition, there are two litters of piglets that are not yet full-term, and a litter of piglets that are just one month old.

Ye Xilin went to the cellar and brought up two baskets full of sweet potatoes. He chopped the large ones into several pieces and threw the smaller ones directly into the large iron pot for cooking pig food.

Then they brought six baskets of pigweed over. These pigweeds were brought back by Ye Xilin yesterday afternoon.

With a few clicks, the pigweed was cut into long lengths, all poured into the large iron pot, and then some bean dregs were added.

Then add water that has not covered the bean dregs, and you can start a fire.

Ye Xilin cooked four large pots of pig food. It seemed like a lot of pig food, but there were 4 breeding pigs at home.

And most of them are pregnant or lactating sows, and four pots of pig food are only enough for one meal.

The Ye family's pigs eat just like themselves, three meals a day, morning, noon and night. Ye Xilin cooks pig food three times a day.

Ye Xilin lit the fire in the four stoves, and he was already so hot that he was sweating all over.

It was such a hot summer day, with the four burners facing him for roasting. Ye Xilin felt like a roast chicken in the oven, and it would be cooked after a while.

As soon as the fire was lit, Mrs. Ye stood at the door of the kitchen and shouted: "It's breakfast, it's breakfast."

Ye Xilin added a few large pieces of wood as thick as his arms to the stove hole, and then walked quickly towards Mrs. Ye.

"Milk, what delicious food did you make today?"

Before the person came forward, Ye Xilin's smiling voice reached Old Mrs. Ye's ears.

"Pumpkin porridge, steamed sweet potatoes and salted duck eggs." Mrs. Ye looked at her tall grandson with a kind face.

Then everyone came over one after another, and the Ye family was the most active and lively when eating.

There is no shortage of food in the Ye family. Mrs. Ye never shares food with everyone. She always eats as much as she wants.

In addition to a salted duck egg for each person, pumpkin porridge is in the pot, and you can eat as much as you want, and you can also take as much sweet potato as you want.

If you don't have enough food at the end of the meal, some of the extra food in the bowl will be given to those who don't have enough.

The sow Ye Xilin has been raised at home for more than two years.

Ye Xilin already has a lot of experience in how to take care of sows, how to take care of newborn piglets, and how to deliver sows.

At the dinner table, Ye Xilin also talked about his thoughts.

"The homestead next door still has a lot of open space. I want to build three more pig pens, one large, two small and three, and raise a few more breeding pigs."

"I think you don't have time all day long. Will you be able to keep yourself busy if you raise a few more breeding pigs?"

Ye's mother felt a little distressed when she saw her youngest son getting up early and staying late every day.

What Ye Mu said made sense. Ye Xilin was already very busy collecting pig grass, cooking pig food, and feeding pigs every day.

Ye Xilin seriously considered it. If he raised a few more breeding pigs, he would really be too busy.

Father Ye on the side suggested: "It would be good to raise a few more breeding pigs, but you can't do it yourself. I think you might as well hire someone to help with the pig weeding."

Ye Xilin was very happy, patted his thigh and said cheerfully:

"Dad, what you said makes sense. If I hire someone to help with the pig weeding, I will have the energy to raise more sows."

A piglet can be sold for 220 coins, and the sow at home can basically give birth to 10 piglets in one litter, which is 2 taels of silver.

After Ye Xilin's careful care, a sow can give birth to two litters of piglets a year, which means that a sow can earn 2 taels and 4 coins a year.

Now most people in the village have reclaimed their fields, and the wages of casual workers have risen to 25 cents a day.

Even so, after Ye Xilin calculated carefully, it was still cost-effective to hire someone to kill pigweed.

Old Mrs. Ye smiled and said: "You are usually in charge of raising pigs, so you can make your own decisions."

Mr. Ye continued to eat breakfast, obviously letting Ye Xilin make up his own mind just like Mrs. Ye.

Mrs. Ye and Mr. Ye have now retired and are fully committed to cultivating the younger generations of the family. They let them make their own decisions on all matters at home.

As long as the general direction is correct, they will not interfere.

My son has become a grandfather, and it’s time to hand over the family to the next generation. The Ye family will still have to rely on their sons and grandchildren to support them in the future.

While the old couple is still here, give the younger ones some more exercise, so that they won't leave and the family will be leaderless.

Although Ye Xilin already had an idea in mind, he still looked at his elder brother out of habit.

Ye Donglin naturally agreed and gave Ye Xilin some advice:

"Now that the wages of casual workers have risen sharply, it is not cost-effective to hire casual workers to clear pigweed. I think you might as well hire a few children to help you clear pigweed."

Wang Chunyu next to Ye Donglin also said:

"I usually go to the back mountain to dig wild vegetables, and I see many children hunting pigweed. If I give them money or sweets as a reward, they will definitely be willing to help hunt pigweed."

Ye Xilin thought this was a good idea. There were still many idle children in the village. He could ask them to help with the pig weeding.

25 Wen a day, if you hire an adult to cut pigweed, it will be 750 Wen a month.

Although children are not as capable as adults, clearing pig grass is an easy job. Children in the village have been clearing pig grass since they were young.

He could have spent less money and hired two little kids to help with the pig weeding.

If you give me some candy to coax you, and you have money to take and candy to eat, whether it is a child or an adult at home, you should be willing to do so.

Ye Xilin decided directly, "I will find someone to come back and build a pigsty later. Brother, please help me bring some caramel back at night."

"Okay, how much do you want?"

"Bring back two kilograms first."

The matter was settled like this. After breakfast, Ye Xilin went to the village to find someone to help build a pig pen.

If someone hires someone to weed the pigs, Ye Xilin only needs to cook and feed the pigs every day, and occasionally deliver the sows, which can save a lot of time every day.

Ye Xilin thought it was perfect and he could raise a few more sows.

Ye Xilin plans to build a large pigsty and raise a boar and 5 sows.

In addition, three small pig pens were built, which are used for pregnant sows to live alone.

People in the village just fertilized the paddy fields a few days ago, and everyone has been idle recently.

Ye Xilin quickly found a dozen or so uncles from the village who came to build pig pens.

25 cents a day's wages, food not included. Now is the slack time for farming, and there are still many people who are willing to come to Ye's house to build pig pens.

With more people comes greater strength. It took a total of 6 days from drying the soil embryos to building three pig pens.