1983 Small Island, Starting From a Large Farmer

Chapter 28 Cutting down trees

 The next day, after everyone woke up.

Li Yaoguo took Lao Li and Li Duoyu to see the casuarina planting land designated by the production brigade.

These casuarina trees are almost 20 years old, and each one is more than 20 centimeters thick.

Casuarina grows slowly, has a straight trunk, and is resistant to water and moisture. It is also known locally as a "thousand-year-old pine in the water" and is particularly suitable for piling on the seabed.

　　After a family cuts casuarina.

In order to complete the kelp culture raft before November, I just started to do it. I plan to cut down these casuarinas in the next few days.

He carried a bucket of red paint and marked the appropriate casuarinas. Then he could just cut down the marked trees.

 In later generations, wooden piles like this can be bought ready-made without having to make them yourself.

 The entire Lianjiang County is now in the initial exploration stage of marine aquaculture, and no one specializes in selling wooden stakes.

 So, you can only make wooden piles yourself.

Making wooden piles is not easy. You have to cut down the tree first, then cut the tree into small wooden piles of about 1.5 meters, and finally sharpen one end of the wooden pile to complete it.

If Li Duoyu wants to cultivate 30 acres of kelp, and if he wants to ensure that the stakes are not pulled out, he must drive at least two hundred wooden stakes to the seabed.

In this era of low mechanization, driving more than two hundred wooden piles is definitely a big project and requires a lot of help.

However, most of the things like hiring people have to rely on Lao Li. Li Duoyu just broke up with Agui's group of fair-weather friends and would not come to help him at all.

Even if the gang hadn't broken up, they were used to making quick money, drinking, eating, eating, playing cards all day long, and they probably wouldn't have come to help him chop down the trees.

 The people I know from my second brother's side are all pen holders in the production brigade, so they can't do such rough work.

 When Li Duoyu gave the mark number.

 Lao Li has already been active in the village. He has always smoked hand-rolled cigarettes. This time he spent a lot of money and bought seven or eight packs of Daqianmen from the supply and marketing cooperative.

He couldn't spit out ivory on weekdays. Today, when he saw his neighbor, he smiled and greeted him:

“Lao Hu, do you have any free time these two days? If so, please come and help me.”

 “Wang Po, is your old Chen here?”

 After running around the neighbors, we went to the fishing boat on the other side of the pier:

“Brother, you haven’t fished in the past two days. If there are more fish, you need to cut down some trees and drive piles. If you have time, come over and help.”

 Lao Li was active all morning, almost visiting his neighbors and relatives, and finally identified eight people who came to help.

They are Uncle Hu next door, Mrs. Wang’s husband Chen Sanyuan, four from the uncle’s family, two from the third uncle’s family, and two from the fourth aunt’s father-in-law’s family.

 Add the three members of their family.

 There are thirteen people in total.

That afternoon, a group of people went to the production brigade to pick up tools and set out for the pine forest.

 In this day and age, relatives are very important.

 Once something big happens, relatives will help together, and if there are many relatives, it will not be easy for others to bully you.

 Lao Li is the second oldest and has seven brothers and sisters in total. Li Duoyu’s cousins ​​and cousins ​​add up to more than fifty people.

To be exaggerated, if all the relatives were added together, they could form a company.

 It is also because of the prosperity of the population.

Old Li's family speaks with more weight on Dandan Island. This is one of the reasons why the second brother can be the accountant and deputy secretary of the brigade.

 Instead, relatives and neighbors are asked to help with work.

 Normally no money is given.

 If you really give it, they may not accept it, and they may even fall out with you.

However, there is an unwritten rule on Dandan Island, that is, when relatives and neighbors are asked to work, salty rice and egg drop soup must be cooked for everyone.

In these days, eating salted rice is considered a luxury. If you want to make a good pot of salted rice, you must not only have three layers of meat, but also mushrooms, dried Balang fish and dried clams.

 One pot of rice costs a lot of money.

Since all the men were cutting down trees and cooking rice, Chen Huiying and Zhou Xiaoying naturally fell into the hands of Chen Huiying as the chef and Zhou Xiaoying as a helper.

 When mother-in-law and daughter-in-law work together, a few words of nagging are unavoidable. Zhou Xiaoying secretly went to sea yesterday, and she was severely taught by Chen Huiying. Finally, Chen Huiying looked at her growing belly and said seriously: "You guys, you haven't had that lately."

Hearing her mother talk about such a private issue, Zhou Xiaoying, who was helping to chop mustard greens, quickly shook her head: "No."

 “It’s better if you don’t have it.”

 Chen Huiying was frying salted rice and said: "Recently, I found that you and Duoyu didn't get up so early. I thought you didn't even sleep at night."

Zhou Xiaoying blushed and laughed a few times in embarrassment.

They really don’t have that, it’s just that Duoyu hasn’t been honest in any part of her body recently. She often wakes her up in the middle of the night, making her unable to sleep well.

Thinking of this, Zhou Xiaoying couldn't help but muttered: "I'm really going to annoy him to death."

“Xiaoying, what did you just say?”

“No, no, no, I mean, the child in my belly keeps kicking me, it’s very annoying.”

Chen Huiying looked surprised:

“He is so active, he must be a boy.”

 Meeting so many relatives at once.

 Li Duoyu was a little happy.

 After all, there are many people here, whom he has never seen again since he returned from the island country.

 The uncle got liver cancer because he drank too much fake wine.

 Leaved earlier than his father.

The uncle's cousins ​​also inherited his main business. They are all sailing boats. The youngest one specializes in offshore fishing and returns home once or twice a year.

 The family of three uncles and three aunts were fighting against smuggling.

 He vomited out more than half of the money he earned, and then followed the local smuggler to sneak into the beautiful country. From then on, he rarely contacted his relatives.

In the 1990s, my fourth uncle started eel farming and sold it to islanders. His children all bought houses in Rongcheng, and later started speculating in real estate, and they all made a good living.

More than a dozen old smokers, all holding cigarettes in their mouths.

 To cut down such trees, they usually use two hands to pull the saw. One person stands on one side, then holds the handle of the saw with both hands and starts pulling continuously.

 Two-hand sawing is very efficient.

And if the two of them cooperate, they will not get tired so easily. In less than one afternoon, more than ten people have planted more than thirty casuarina trees.

 The tractors of the production brigade were transported to the only sawmill on the island, and the masters there were asked to help saw the trunks into small wooden piles of about 1.5 meters.

 Originally this costs money.

But under the operation of the second brother, the master of the sawmill not only helped with sawing for free, but also helped with sharpening.

 Worked until about six o'clock in the evening that day.

　　Everyone just finished work and went to Li Duoyu’s house for dinner. Since the kitchen was too small, almost everyone stood on the courtyard to eat salted rice with their bowls in their hands.

 More than ten people worked all afternoon.

Everyone was hungry, their chests pressed against their backs. After seeing the delicious salty rice, some of them went to work. Everyone ate at least three bowls and drank one or two bowls of egg drop soup.

Li Duoyu ate two bowls of rice and went to find the most delicious thing in the whole pot of salted rice, which was the half-burnt layer of rice.

As a result, as soon as he entered the kitchen, he found that a mouse had already arrived first, holding a large piece of rice cake in his hand, and was gnawing with relish.

 After seeing Li Duoyu.

Little Fatty tore off a piece on the spot and said, "Uncle, do you want to eat rice crackers together?"

 After Li Duoyu took it.

He started to bite directly, and there was a crisp clicking sound, and the burnt and fragrant deliciousness swirled on his taste buds.

 Different from Li Haoran, for Li Duoyu, rice dumplings bring him more good memories.

 (End of this chapter)