1983 Small Island, Starting From a Large Farmer

Chapter 7 Knocking on oysters to catch the tide

Li Duoyu stepped on the mud horse and got off the tidal flat.

The mud horse is also called the "sea bicycle". Here on Dandan Island, anyone who makes a living on the tidal flats usually has one at home.

Because his family cultivates oysters, the mud horse is larger than others. It looks like a small boat, with two or three compartments for loading seafood and transporting things.

Haven't used this thing for a long time, even at a young age, Li Duoyu was sweating when he slid the mud horse to the oyster breeding ground.

In the 1980s, oyster cultivation technology was still very backward, and there were two methods: the stone throwing method and the pillar method.

The throwing method is to fix sea oyster seedlings on rocks with cement, then throw them into the sea and let them grow on their own.

This farming method is relatively Buddhist, but the rate of bad seedlings is high, and once the mud covers the rocks and oysters, the whole army will be wiped out.

The pillar method is a popular breeding method nowadays. It is evolved on the basis of the stone sinking method. Cement pillars are inserted on the tidal flat, and then the seedlings are fixed on the cement pillars.

This way of farming is easier to take care of, and the oysters are less likely to be attacked by natural enemies.

Even in later generations, when the breeding technology was perfected, many old fishermen still used the column method to raise sea oysters.

But there are also many shortcomings. The pillars are inserted on the tidal flats. The surge of tides often causes the pillars to fall over or tilt, and then they need to be straightened manually.

 After arriving at the oyster breeding ground.

Li Duoyu started working. He straightened some rickety concrete pillars, picked up a conch that was eating oysters, and threw it onto the mud horse.

For oyster farmers, it is not as simple as raising them. They also have to guard against various natural enemies of oysters, such as conches, which love to eat oysters, and various crabs.

In addition to guarding against natural enemies, it is also necessary to eliminate various competitors and parasites, such as sea rainbows that like to compete with oysters for living space and barnacles that like to cling to oyster shells.

 In this era, farming is more difficult than fishing, which is why not many people are willing to engage in farming.

Li Duoyu knocked off some small rainbows attached to the stone pillars, and then started to knock the oysters.

In this era, because they have not yet experienced the baptism of biogenetic technology, the growth of sea oysters is quite random, and they are not very big. There is no such thing as diploidy or triploidy in later generations.

Li Duoyu knocked some larger oysters on a stone pillar, then moved to the next one and continued to repeat the previous process.

 Under the scorching sun.

Li Duoyu was very tired after weighing twenty or thirty kilograms.

 Lao Li, who was watching from the sidelines, was very surprised. He thought that Lao Si must have knocked randomly and just pretended to be two hundred pounds.

 He has thought up his lines and is ready to educate his son and make him give up the idea of ​​raising kelp.

  I don’t want to do things more meticulously than him.

Even details like holding up pillars, catching conches, and cleaning barnacles and rainbows are all done well.

And when you knock oysters, you don’t just knock them randomly. You pick big oysters and knock them.

This made him swallow the lines he had prepared in advance, but after thinking for a long time, he couldn't hold back a good word:

“My hands and feet are so slow. When the tide comes in, you won’t be able to knock two hundred catties. You push the cart and I’ll knock it.”

 Faced with Lao Li's "disdain".

Li Duoyu grinned. He already knew that this old man was a duplicitous guy. According to Chen Huiying's words, he obviously wanted to praise you in his heart, but "a dog's mouth can't spit out ivory."

 Besides, today is the tide.

The sea water has just receded, how can it rise so quickly?

The father and son went to work together, and it took them two or three hours to crack oysters, but they finished them in less than an hour.

 Lao Li sat on the bank, wrapped a cigarette, and asked, "Would you like one?"

Li Duoyu, who was covered in sweat, shook his head and said, "I won't smoke any more. Xiaoying is pregnant and it's not good for the child."

 “When did you become so good?”

 “You’re already very well-behaved, okay?”

 Lao Li was stunned for a while, but he felt happy in his heart. It seemed that Lao Si had really changed.

 In the past, I was always worried that he would go astray. Now he suddenly changed his temper and suddenly became the most stable among the brothers.

At this moment, Lao Li felt that the burden on his body was a little lighter. Next, it was the boss and the second child who had to worry about it.

The eldest son had a quarrel with the second son back then and was so angry that he went to work in Rongcheng. Now he is almost thirty and has not found a partner yet.

Although the second child has no money, he is still living a decent life, but this daughter-in-law is like a time bomb, exploding from time to time, making everyone miserable.

 Li Duoyu took a rest.

Looking at the oysters on the mud horse, although he knows the entire oyster farming technology, he even knows the rope hanging method and cage raising method, which can make the current oysters bigger and fatter.

But in the short term, he does not want to engage in oyster farming, because the cultivation cycle is long, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and most importantly, it lacks freshness preservation methods.

Even if they are grown and fattened, they will eventually be dried into dried oysters, which may not be much more expensive than the current dried oysters.

 Seeing that the tide has not yet risen.

Li Duoyu walked towards his mother who was asking for Xiaohai not far away.

 There are a lot of small seafood on the tidal flats.

They are all densely packed with holes. There are fiddler crabs holding up their big pincers in front of you, and there are jumping fish that keep jumping in front of you but you just can’t catch them.

There are also various kinds of mud snails, mud clams, razor clams, sea melon seeds, etc.

Li Duoyu came to the place where A Niang was begging for Xiao Hai. She was wearing a bamboo hat, carrying a bamboo fish basket with a lid on her back, and holding a **** in her right hand.

 When I saw this formation, I came here to catch the tide.



 Fishermen can judge the rise and fall of the tide based on their special habit of watching the tide, hence the name "Tide Watching".

Wangchao tastes much better than octopus. It is very suitable to be boiled and dipped in light soy pepper water. It tastes very delicious and fresh.

 If I remember correctly, in later generations, the price of a tide watcher could be sold for about 10 yuan. On the tidal flats, some old people made money by digging this.

 “Why are you here too?”

 Chen Huiying looked very surprised when she saw her son.

 The women who were begging for Xiaohai together also looked over after seeing Li Duoyu.

 In this era, there is a division of labor. Men pursue the sea and women pursue the small sea. Under normal circumstances, few men will follow women to pursue the small sea.

 Because it makes them feel embarrassed.

Li Duoyu, on the other hand, doesn't care about these secular eyes at all. I've lived into my second life, so I won't care about these messy rules.

After walking a few steps, Li Duoyu saw a coin-sized hole next to his feet, which was regularly swallowing sea water.

“Mom, give me the **** quickly.”

Chen Huiying looked at the fourth child in confusion. He had never been to the small sea before, so he didn't know how to catch the tide.

After passing the hoe, Chen Huiying warned: "Be careful, don't hit your feet."

"knew."

Li Duoyu quickly hit the small hole that swallowed sea water with a hoe. An octopus, covered in mud and snarling its claws, ran out. Unfortunately, it was hit by the **** and one or two of its legs were broken.

Li Duoyu picked it up and grinned:

“My skills are pretty good, I have two or two.”

This operation was so smooth that Chen Huiying was dumbfounded. What shocked her the most was that the fourth child was very good at finding holes.

 Digging is accurate.

 (End of this chapter)