My 1995 Small Farm

   Chapter 100 Shotgun

  On the first day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, it was gloomy and gloomy all day, and it rained lightly in the afternoon. The villagers were worried about the rain this year, so they all wore straw hats and carried shovels to the fields to drain the water.

I am most afraid of rain for a few days before the wheat is ripe. It is said that the watermelon grows in the ground and is soaked by the rain, which is easy to burst and rot, or the sugar content drops and is not sweet. This only affects the price of selling melons, while wheat More serious than this, the mature wheat will germinate in the fields when it encounters heavy rains. The farmers' hard work for half a year will be in vain, and the losses will be huge.

Fortunately, on the afternoon of the second day of May, the sky was completely clear, and after a few days of southeasterly winds, the yellow wheat waves covered the sky, and the threshing field was about to be cleaned out and repaired. rake. A layer of floating soil was drawn out, and then people pulled the broken cauldron tied with a rope, scraped it with the edge of the pot, poured water on it, dried it for a while, spread the wheat straw from previous years, and repeatedly rolled it with a zhou. . After doing this back and forth several times, and then drying the field, the field will be flat, hard, and smooth.

On the fourth day of the fifth lunar month, wheat harvest or called wheat harvest at this time is a bit inappropriate. It should be called 'take sickle'. Before setting a sickle, the opera troupe in the county will join in the fun and sing opera at the temple fair in the county town. The blowing is Xikai sickle, which coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival. It is also a beautiful thing to catch the temple fair, eat zongzi, and listen to the big opera.

At the temple fair, summer harvesting tools such as sickles, brooms, sieves and dustpans crowded the booth, which made Chen Dazhi's business better than ever before, and his face was full of smiles. Wang Lixian's family went to the farmers market a few days ago. At the fruit and vegetable morning market at 4 o'clock, half of the watermelons were sold. At this temple fair, I also went to a stall to sell melons, and the business was also very good.

Chen Ling also joined in the fun and listened to two scenes. He was mainly driven by Wang Susu to buy glutinous rice, which he would use to make rice dumplings tomorrow, but unfortunately, Liu Xingeng, the owner of the oil mill, saw his granddaughter on the edge of the stage and came over. He ordered several thousand kilograms of peanuts with him. After Chen Ling agreed, he gave him the address of the small courtyard in the south of the city, and asked him to put a note in it whenever he needed it.

After the temple fair, the atmosphere of the festival was very strong. After Chen Ling bought the glutinous rice, Wang Susu soaked all the glutinous rice, peanuts, and red dates. In the early morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, he went to pick fresh reed leaves and prepared to start making dumplings. .

   But just a few packs, Liu Nier arrived with a bunch of little dolls.

   "Uncle Fugui, Uncle Fugui, we are here to feed the fish. Look at this earthworm, he is so rough and old."

   "Good guy, where did you dig it, so much?"

   "Just outside your yard."

Ever since I dug the lotus pond and raised fish, they are still both beautiful and strange. Liu Nier and several skin monkeys come every day. Those who go to elementary school have wheat leave, and those who do not go to elementary school run wild every day. , When he came to Chen Ling's house, he carried a small bucket, caught small crickets, small grasshoppers, and fished tadpoles to feed the fish.

   But after a heavy rain, the water from the fish tank and the lotus pond in the front and back yard flowed out, making grass grow wildly in the two yards, and the earthworms and insects were also huge.

   Even the grape trellis in the courtyard began to hang clusters of small green grapes.

Immediately following, there were more birds coming to Chen Ling's yard. In addition to the house finch and the little swallow, the white-faced bird, the oriole, the wax-billed bird, and the woodpecker also seemed to be in trouble. Of course, magpies also came, but after learning the lesson from the last time, they still dared not get too close.

   So it's not surprising that Chen Ling heard Liu Ni'er's words.

But what he was more puzzled was that it was a festival today, and with Wang Lixian's temper, how could he let this baby come to his house, but after a while, Wang Lixian also came, and he drove the car with Da Ni'er and unloaded him. Twenty or thirty watermelons.

   "Brother Xian, what are you doing? Just give one or two. How can Susu and I finish eating all that? There's a lot left over from what Liu Ni'er sent last time."

   Chen Ling was stunned when he saw so many watermelons, and didn't know what to say.

   "It's the festival, I'll give you more, and eat it when it's hot."

Wang Lixian smiled: "As you know, our family's land this year is down the slope, which is a depression. It rains heavily and the water from other people's wheat fields flows into our melon fields. It takes a lot of effort to get out of the queue, so it's not thanks to you and Jusheng to help."

   The two were talking, while Da Ni'er carried a basket and brought a basket of candied dates to Wang Susu's house for her to make rice dumplings.

   Then Chen Ling and Wang Susu sent the father and daughter away, and they went to deliver melons to Wang Jusheng's house.

It was still early. After Wang Lixian left, Chen Ling and his wife wrapped zongzi and watched the little dolls play grass fighting in the courtyard. It is an old custom to fight with herbs on the Dragon Boat Festival. The leaves are pinched in a thick stack in the hands, hooking each other with petioles, pulling hard, and the one who breaks is the loser.

Fresh leaves, with their green and brittle petioles, are often no match for the tenacity of sun-dried leaves, so Liu Ni'er held a leaf petiole that was sun-dried and shouted loudly, "I've beaten you all with this. , I'm the 'Old Red Squirrel' who is the king."

  There is no ventilation for ten miles, and the customs are very different.

  In some places, we use all kinds of grass to fight grass, and in some places, we use the petioles of various leaves, just like they are here, but they are all the same game.

   This year, the Dragon Boat Festival met Mai Shou, and no one would go to race dragon boats on the Jinshui River, and no one would invite an opera troupe.

   Dou Cao can also relieve boredom.

  Chen Ling's young couple laughed and watched them play. Now that the baby is not about to go, it's just the two of them at home, so it's better to be more lively.

   After playing around for a while, after ten o’clock, these skin babies all ran home. If they don’t leave and wait for their parents to call, then it will not be as simple as pulling their ears.

  Eat zongzi, boil salted duck eggs, and put some wormwood leaves at the door... This year's Dragon Boat Festival has passed.

  After the Dragon Boat Festival, the wheat harvest officially kicked off. As long as the family grows wheat, the whole family, young and old, will go into battle to grind sickles to the wheat fields.

It's time to go to work, but I can't hide the smile on my face. This is the joy of a bumper harvest. The wheat fields are full of people, and almost every family is a large group of people. After cutting it, Huang Chengcheng's wheat fell down, and all the small animals hiding in the wheat field had no place to hide, and rushed out desperately.

  Rabbits, hedgehogs, pheasants, and quails were flying and jumping around. Often someone was mowing the wheat and suddenly a fat rabbit jumped out from under their feet, so a group of people shouted and started to kick the rabbits as soon as they threw the sickle. The scene was really lively.

At noon, the men in groups of three and five sat on the floor under the shade of the trees next to the threshing field, drinking the large bowls of tea brought by the women, chatting idle, nothing more than talking about this year's wheat. It grows thick, and the arm is useless.

Chen Ling, Wang Lixian and Wang Jusheng were sitting together. Today, they came to help Wang Jusheng harvest wheat. The three of them were guarding a big watermelon that made everyone around them envious. Let the other people stare at each other one by one, their eyes go straight, and they keep gulping.

After eating the melon, and sitting for a while, Zhang Qiaoling hugged her head and brought a large basket of food to her. The three of them didn't care to wash their hands, so they used their chopsticks to stick a steamed bun, and started eating with a basket of stir-fried vegetables. For rice, one steamed bun can be eaten in four or five mouthfuls, and Chen Ling killed a full eight in one pot of steamed bun.

  Others were stunned. Wang Jusheng and Wang Jusheng had long been surprised. They only said that Chen Ling and Wang Lixian would go to the house for dinner at night, which is to invite a drink.

  Unfortunately, he didn't get his wish. Wang Lixian was busy selling melons and had to set off in the early morning, so it was postponed to the next time.

Not long after, Du Juan also came over to chat with them. In the morning, the woman was carrying her camera around, harvesting wheat. The good guy has really accumulated a lot of materials. These days, she has gained a lot in Chenwangzhuang, which is an explosion of inspiration. During this period, people are also in good spirits.

  Chen Ling asked her about the lynx, and she didn't hide it much, saying that some elders and friends of the lynx had an accident on the ancient business road in the deep mountains, and the lynx had to deal with it.

   Hearing this, Chen Ling didn't ask any more questions.

   "If you count yellow, you will cut... if you count yellow, you will cut..." The birds were still calling, urging the farmers to cut the wheat.

   Rumor has it that this bird has changed from human beings. It is said that there was a farmer who was rather naive. He would not cut the wheat when it turned yellow. In the end, unfortunately, there was a heavy rainstorm. All the wheat was soaked in the field, and the grains were not harvested. The farmer was so angry that he turned into a bird. Every year when the wheat harvest came, he kept calling day and night, reminding farmers that the wheat was flooded. When it is yellow, it is necessary to prepare for the harvest in advance.

  Although farmers know this truth, the bird still has to call until the end of the wheat harvest, until it bleeds out of its throat. At this time, you can listen to it again, and the call becomes "Cuckoo...Cuckoo...".

  Because it is time to plant buds after the summer harvest.

  A wheat harvest season, when Longkou took food, has passed, and new wheat straw stacks have also been erected outside the threshing field.

Everyone in the village is busy, only Chen Ling is very leisurely, leading two dogs on the ridge, chasing rabbits, chasing pheasants, the current Heiwa Xiaojin is not comparable to before, a proper hunter, no In half a day, there were several pheasants and rabbits at Chen Ling's feet, which made people greedy.

   Although there was a smile on his face, he was secretly scolding this lazy guy for not doing anything, just relying on these two dogs to be able to eat meat all at once.

What others don't know is that Chen Ling didn't actually do anything. After helping Wang Jusheng's family to collect wheat, he not only sent peanuts to the county town, but also planted spices such as peppercorns and cumin on the edge of his own fields. These things are not perennial. It is an annual, and it does not need to be cleaned at all. It is better to serve than fruit trees. Chen Ling has planted a lot of them.

   "The flood is more than a month away. After the flood, find something to do."

   "For the sake of future dolls, why don't you have some family heirloom skills?"

   Chen Ling pondered while walking in the harvested wheat stubble field. The creaking sound under his feet sounded strangely comfortable.

   In the next few days, the two dogs will get something every time they go out. There are chickens, ducks, rabbits and quails, and sometimes they come back with wild cats. Chen Ling and his wife are really tired of eating meat.

   But that's fine. What he didn't expect was that it was raining one day, and Heiwa didn't know where he came back with a shotgun.

   (end of this chapter)