Crossing the green wheat ears

After doing this, the season has entered March, and every family has to prepare for spring plowing. Xi Mingwu also returned to Yangjiazhuang, because he was afraid that his elder brother's family would be too busy, so he also gave Xiyang and Xiyong I took it back.

When the family got busy, they didn't bother to grow seedlings of early-stubble vegetables. Now that the matter has come to an end, although the seedlings are later than last year, they can still be ahead of about half a month, so Xiyuan still got some.But Xiyuan didn't plant that much, half a month was too short, too many vegetables could not be consumed by the Jude Building, and in addition, some of the things used to build the house at home were piled up in the back garden, so there wasn't much space left.

"March [-]rd, Qumacai (scientific name Zhacai) pierces the sky", in March, the earth has completely thawed, everything begins to grow, and wild vegetables and weeds also show their green heads.Looking into the distance, the earth is already dotted with green.

In the wilderness in spring, the black land is vast and boundless, the trees emit green leaf buds, and various plants emerge to grow desperately.After a severe winter, not only plants, but also people cherish the warm spring. Life seems to wake up happily after sleeping for a whole winter.

Xiyuan has nothing to do now, the busy farming season has not yet started, and his father and grandfather have taken over all the work at home. Apart from teaching a few children homework, the rest of his time is very leisurely.

Sometimes when Xi Wei and Wei Cheng got in the mood, they had to take the pea pods out for a walk by themselves, which was called letting the donkey out.Xiyuan had to follow at this time, and a few little guys were playing in the front while holding the pea pods. When they reached the wild field, they put the donkey there to graze. Everyone, including Xiyuan, dug wild vegetables together.

The most common wild vegetables here are koji, shepherd's purse, mother-in-law, and occasionally small garlic or wormwood buds.

Qu Ma Cai is said to be able to remove internal heat, but its taste is a bit bitter, so is the mother-in-law, so children are more inclined to look for shepherd's purse. Shepherd's purse must be tender, and the old ones are not tasty.

One day they found a large area with shepherd's purse, so they dug up two baskets of shepherd's purse. Because the quantity was sufficient, they didn't just wash and dip the shepherd's purse in water as before, but blanch the shepherd's purse in water. Then chop it up, and put some of the oil residue left over from cooking oil during the Chinese New Year in it, and eat two steamed buns mixed with stuffing.

The freshly steamed buns, with the aroma of noodles, take a bite with your mouth, and the fragrance of shepherd's purse mixed with the meaty aroma of oily residue wafts out. It is even more delicious than the dumplings during the Chinese New Year.

After eating at home once, Xi Wei and Wei Chengcheng became interested, and the frequency of putting pea pods immediately increased, and the two little guys stopped digging other vegetables, and concentrated on looking for shepherd's purse, but they never Came across a large piece like that.Seeing the appearance of the two little guys, the adults in the family also felt distressed, so they used the shepherd's purse dug by the two children to make some dumplings for them. The adults let it in, and everyone had to taste them before eating.

As for the wormwood buds, some people don't like to eat them because they have a special taste, but Xiyuan likes them.Grandma puts some oil in the pot, chops the wormwood buds that have been blanched in water, puts them in the pot and fry them for a while, and then puts some sauce in them to make wormwood bud sauce; or put the blanched wormwood buds It can be eaten directly with dipping sauce; you can also put some meat in it to make dumplings.However, making dumplings requires white flour and meat, which is a waste of money, and basically they don’t know how to make them.

Xiyuan followed behind the donkey's buttocks, while the little guys in front of Xiwei cut the willow branches folded in their hands into small pieces with a blade, and then slowly twisted the bark in one direction with their hands, waiting for the branches inside and After the bark is separated, take out the branch carefully, and then gently scrape off the outermost old bark at the tip of the hollow bark with a blade, so that a willow whistle is ready, put the willow whistle in your mouth, Blowing hard will make a long or short, thick or thin sound.

Almost everyone in Liushao Village can do it. Walking on the road or in the village in Chunri, what I often hear is this short, out-of-melody whining sound.

Hearing from Xiyuan that the family would raise more chickens this year, Xiyuan's mother planned to save some eggs by herself, then buy some more, and use the kang to incubate the eggs herself.

"Mother, can you incubate by yourself?" Xiyuan was a little worried. This is not like modern times, where there are thermometers and special incubators, but it is completely controlled and mediated by humans.

"Why not, I hatched all the chicks in our family before." Xiyuan Niang said, she felt that instead of spending money to buy chicken chicks, it would be better to hatch by herself to save money.

"Can it work?" Xiyuan looked at his mother suspiciously.

"It's okay, your mother has hatched several times." Xi Mingwen assured his daughter-in-law.

"Then try it, but don't incubate too many, you can just incubate a hundred, and let's buy some of the rest. If you can really incubate well, it will all be yours in the future." Xiyuan didn't want to discourage his mother's enthusiasm. , a compromise.

"Okay." Niang Xiyuan summed up that her house doesn't have that much space, so it's too much to deal with.

So, from that day on, Niang Xiyuan greeted the better daughters-in-law in the village, and if any family had eggs that could be sold to her, she would buy them at the normal price.

It will be enough in a few days. Niang Xiyuan is also a quick worker. She put a goose feather mat on the top of the kang at home, and put a small thin mattress on top of the mat. This is what Xi Wei used when he was a child. Put the mattress on top eggs, and then cover with a slightly thicker quilt.

Every day, Niang Xiyuan reached in to feel the temperature inside at any time. When she felt hot, she opened it to let it air out. When she felt that the temperature was not enough, she added a fire to the kang cave. When the chick was ready, she held the egg under the oil lamp at night. Take it, and pick out the widows among them.Sometimes in the middle of the night, I have to reach into the egg and touch it to see if it is cool or hot.

Seeing his mother so busy every day, Xiyuan was very emotional. It seems that people will fully mobilize their enthusiasm only when they see that life is moving forward.A new house was about to be built at home, his mother didn't say anything, but the high mood every day made people feel the joy in her heart.

In this way, I was usually busy with the work at home or in the vegetable garden, and ran back to see her hatched eggs after a period of time. After 21 or two days, I finally heard the sound of "duk-duk" in the eggshell. It was a little chicken It is pecking at the eggshell with its mouth.

Niang Xiyuan carefully put the noisy eggs in one place, and as soon as the chick broke out of its shell, she immediately put it into the basket next to the kang head. Suffocate.

The chicks just hatched are fluffy and make "chirp" sounds from time to time, so cute.Xi Wei and Wei Cheng couldn't put it down, even Xi Yuan couldn't help but took one and put it in his hand. The little chicken pecked at his hand with its small mouth, as if he was hungry and wanted to eat.

Xi Wei and Wei Cheng are very bad at rare chicks, but they also know that even if they like it, it is impossible for them to play with it.

On the third day, grandpa cleaned the warehouse, found a nest of little mice and killed them.Grandpa put the dead mouse on the wooden stake outside the barn, and when he turned around, he looked for the little mouse and it disappeared.Grandpa was still wondering, could it be that he had misremembered his age?

After tidying up the warehouse, Grandpa sat in the yard to rest. Grandpa Wang San happened to come over and wanted to borrow Xiyuan's pickaxe for use, so Grandpa told Grandpa Wang San about it.

"It's because you forgot where you put it, and you still don't admit it." Grandma was washing clothes in the yard at this time, and she continued after listening to Grandpa's words.

"No, I remember asking me to put it on the stake at the door." Grandpa was also uncertain.

"Hey, we are so old now that we forget things." Grandpa Wang San said with emotion, "I wanted to smoke a cigarette that day, and I searched for my pipe pot, but it was Zhuzi who told me later that I found out that the pipe pot was in the palm of my hand. holding it in."

"I'm old, I'm old." Grandpa couldn't help sighing.

"You said you, if you forget other things, you can forget it, and you can forget this too. You said that if you don't throw away the dead mouse, it won't taste good if you leave it at home for a long time?" Grandma said to grandpa.

"I thought I remembered it correctly, but I don't know why I can't find it?" Grandpa went the same way.

At this time, Wei Cheng and Xi Wei ran back from the outside, and they went to play with Cheng Nan with Zhu Zi.

"Xiaowei, Chengzi, were you two playing in the yard just now?" Grandma called them.

"Ah? Ah!" The two little guys touched their heads together.

"Did you see where your grandfather put the dead rats he beat?" Grandma asked, this old man likes to forget things, so it's better to remember two small things clearly.

"Grandma, why are you looking for mice?" Xiyuan had just helped his mother put together the chicks. After three days, they were all ready. They laid a hundred eggs and hatched a total of 74. Yuan felt that his mother's craftsmanship was pretty good, and he worked hard for more than 20 days in vain.

"Your lord, I have nothing to do but have to clean up the warehouse. When I was cleaning up, I found a nest of small mice. He said he was killed and put them on a wooden stake outside. When he turned around, he couldn't find them. I said he forgot where he put them." I still don’t admit it.” Grandma went on rambling.

"You're really, then I can still remember wrongly, I remember clearly where the stake was placed." Grandpa argued.

"Yes, you let it go, where is the mouse?" Grandma gave Grandpa a white look.

"Then who knows why I don't have enough time to turn around!" Grandpa said without confidence.

"Yes, yes, dead mice can grow wings and fly." Grandma continued to argue with Grandpa.

"Xiaowei, weren't you and Chengzi in the yard just now? Grandma just asked you if you saw it, why didn't you answer?" Xiyuan saw that Xi Wei and Wei Cheng were lingering and trying to slip away, probably these two little ones The guy is up to no good.

"No, I didn't see it..." Xi Wei stammered softly.

"Didn't you see it?" Xi Yuan continued to ask.

"That, that..." Xi Wei hesitated for a long time, but finally he didn't say a word, and directly put his hand into his pocket, and took out a little mouse from it.

"Hey, kid, why did you put the mouse in your pocket?" Grandma stood up all of a sudden.

"Just took one?" Xiyuan continued to ask, did the child treat the little mouse as a pet?Xiyuan thought to himself.

Xi Wei took another one out of his pocket.

"Take out everything in your pocket." Xiyuan ordered, rats are not clean, what if they get some disease.

Xi Wei continued to take out from his pocket, three, four, five.

"No more?" Xiyuan asked.

Xi Wei patted his shriveled clothes pocket.

"Grandpa, do you remember how many shots you took?" Xiyuan asked Grandpa.

"I don't remember, there must be nine or ten, not just these few."

"Wei Cheng?!" Xiyuan looked at Wei Cheng and said.

Then Wei Cheng also took out his pockets, one, two, three, four, and patted his clothes pockets like Xi Wei when he was done, to prove that he had also taken out his own.

"These two kids are really funny. What do you think is wrong with the two of you, why are you still playing with dead mice?" Grandpa Wang San shook his head and smiled.

"That's all? Is there anything else that hasn't been taken out yet?" Xiyuan wanted to blow up the two of them, to see if they secretly hid one or two.

"No more." Xi Wei hesitated, and Xi Yuan knew something was wrong when he saw his expression.

"No, the number that I told Grandpa is not right." Xiyuan said with confidence.

"There's one more, and one more..." Everyone looked at Xi Wei.Xiyuan remained silent, waiting for the little guy to confess.

"I want Zhuzi, and I'll give it to Zhuzi." Xi Wei couldn't bear the pressure, so he had to do it honestly.

Grandpa Wang San: "...".

Now Grandpa Wang San couldn't sit still anymore, he got up immediately and took the pickaxe to leave.

"Is there anything else you haven't said?" Xiyuan asked again nervously.

"Give me one back to Cheng Nan." Wei Cheng added in a low voice beside him, brother or something, he is too discerning. Well, this idiom was taught by brother two days ago. He was surprised at the time, so thin and so small How can the fine hairs be seen clearly?Watching my brother interrogate the two of them today, it turns out that it is really possible!

"Third Grandpa, you can tell Cheng Nan's father on the way, and ask Uncle Cheng to bring Cheng Nan out too." Xiyuan shouted loudly to Third Grandpa Wang who had already walked out of the courtyard.

"Oh, I see." Grandpa Wang San also replied loudly.

So that afternoon, there were two little guys in the yard of the Xi family, squatting in front of the basin and rubbing their little gowns over and over again with their little hands. My brother said this was a punishment for them.