Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

Today is the Lantern Festival, so we have to celebrate at night. The lights should be on all night, and every household should light up the lights until midnight.

In addition to the Lantern Festival, today is also Xiaoxia's second birthday.

However, Lin Heng and Xiulan are not going to say it, otherwise they will have to trouble everyone to give red envelopes, which is really unnecessary.

Before dinner, everyone looked at the saplings and seeds in the house.

In addition to buying a large number of apples, grapes, and kiwis, Lin Heng also bought a small amount of sugar oranges, pear trees, plum trees, peach trees, apricot trees, and cherry trees, but the number is not large. They are bought and planted in front of and behind the house for their own consumption.

There are many varieties, and there is food for every season, which is a very happy thing.

Lin Heng pointed at the fruit trees and said with a smile: "Uncle, uncle and Sandie, you can take four or five of each seedling and plant them back. These are all good seedlings, much better than local fruits, and they are big and sweet."

Li Baiquan grinned and said: "I'm not polite."

After that, he went to pick some seedlings, wrapped them in plastic film and put them aside.

Sandie's family also took some without hesitation. Although the fruit trees were not very expensive, it was different with the travel expenses from Ancheng.

They were naturally very happy to take some back for free.

Lu Honghai smiled and said: "Lin Heng, I will just take two seedlings, give me a handful of ginseng seeds, I will go back and plant some."

"Okay uncle, I will grab some for you when you leave." Lin Heng smiled and nodded.

After taking a look at the remaining seedlings, he planned to plant them in the back mountain, close to his family and pick them whenever they want to eat.

When the time comes, cut down the trees on the back mountain, and wrap the stumps with some black film paper. The new branches that sprout out cannot photosynthesize, and they will die after a summer.

"It's time to eat." Lin's mother walked out of the house and said.

"Wash your hands and eat."

"Let's go to eat." Lin Heng also nodded. Today was the meal cooked by his eldest brother's family.

In the evening, two large tables of dishes were prepared, and rice wine dumplings were cooked. Rice wine and dumplings made the aftertaste of the New Year satisfying.

After dinner, Lin Heng and Xiulan took Xiaoxia back.

Xiaoxia played in the house for a while. Xiulan brought a small bowl of noodles and put it in front of Xiaoxia. Looking at her, she smiled and asked: "Xiaoxia, do you know what day it is today?"

"I know, Dad said today is the Lantern Festival." Xiaoxia raised her little hand and said quickly.

"Yes, but not completely." Xiulan nodded, and asked again: "Then Xiaoxia, do you know when you were born?"

Xiaoxia tilted her head and thought for a long time, shook her head, and couldn't think of it.

"You were born two years ago today. Today is not only the Lantern Festival, but also your birthday." Xiulan touched her face and said.

"After tonight, you will be two years old, and you are getting older and older." Lin Heng also smiled.

Hearing Lin Heng say this, Xiaoxia jumped up immediately: "Great, I'm grown up."

"Birthdays come with red envelopes and longevity noodles, come and eat them." Xiaoxia took out a red envelope and said with a smile.

"This is the birthday gift I bought for Xiaoxia."

Lin Heng took out a colorful small ball, a paper-cut painting, and a small Rubik's Cube and handed them to her with a smile.

These gifts were carefully selected by Lin Heng. Not only are they full of fun, but they can also exercise the coordination of hands and feet, which is beneficial to the intellectual development of children.

Xiaoxia was stunned to see so many gifts. It turns out that having a birthday is so good.

"Just give a kiss and say thank you and you can eat noodles." Xiulan said with a smile.

"Thank you, mom and dad."

Xiaoxia couldn't wait to play with the toys, kissed them on the face, and started to eat the longevity noodles.

Xiulan didn't cook much noodles, so Xiaoxia finished them in two bites. She crawled over and grabbed the small ball and started hitting it, giggling happily.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

"Open the door, son."

Just at this moment, Lin's mother knocked on the door.

"Mom, why are you here so late at night?"

Lin Heng opened the door and said with a smile.

Lin's mother snorted: "Of course I'm giving a red envelope to my precious granddaughter. Do you really think we don't know Xiaoxia's birthday?"

Xiaoxia's birthday is on the same day as the Lantern Festival, which is too easy to remember, but she didn't mention it during dinner.

After saying that, Lin's mother walked towards Xiaoxia: "Xiaoxia, here's a red envelope for you. I hope you will be healthy in the future."

"Thank you, grandma." Xiaoxia ran over with the ball. She was so happy to receive the red envelope and kissed her grandma on the face.

"Okay, okay." Lin's mother smiled happily.

After chatting for a while, before Lin's mother left, Lin Heng saw his eldest brother, younger uncle, and eldest uncle also came in with red envelopes.

"No, why are you all like this? It's unnecessary." Lin Heng helplessly spread his hands, how did he know everything?

"What's wrong? Can't I celebrate my granddaughter's birthday?" Li Honghai was tough. He not only took the red envelope, but also a shuttlecock made of golden rooster feathers. It was obvious that he had prepared it in advance.

"That's right, it's all our little thoughts. We didn't celebrate the first birthday before, so it's just right to give it now." Li Baiquan also said with a smile.

Lin Heng spread his hands, not knowing what to say. Xiaoxia was so happy to receive a lot of red envelopes that she jumped high.

The two called everyone into the house to have another meal, but they all left after giving the red envelopes one by one.

"Just give it, Xiaoxia is happy, and you can return it later."

Lin Heng said with a smile.

"It can only be like this." Xiulan also nodded.

Xiaoxia played for a while and then was taken into the house to sleep. Before going to bed, she opened all the red envelopes and deposited them into her piggy bank.

In addition to the money, there was also a rag doll with a bell that Caiyun gave her during the day. Caiyun made it herself, with Xiaoxia's name embroidered on it, and she spent a lot of thought on it.

When Xiaoxia sleeps, she holds her doll in her arms, and several little cloth dolls sleep on the same bed with her.

In the blink of an eye, the next morning, Lin Heng and Xiulan got up early to wash up and exercise.

The weather was a bit gloomy today, with a lot of dark clouds in the sky. After the exercise, I walked back to the mountains to feed the animals and milk the cows.

"hiss!!"

Hong Zao roared again and kicked the wall in dissatisfaction. For three days, it has been sleeping under the eaves. It can only eat a little bit of fresh grass every day, and the rest is all hay.

"You can move back today." Lin Heng looked at it a little embarrassed.

The original plan was to build a cattle pen as a prerequisite, but planting fruit trees is more important. These fruit trees are bare roots and cannot be left for a long time, otherwise the seedlings will have a high probability of dying.

Lin Heng temporarily got some corn stalks for the cows to eat, while Xiulan was busy milking the cows.

Boil the milk and call everyone over to drink it.

"Caiyun, do you need me to register this year?" Lin Heng looked at her and asked.

Caiyun finished drinking the milk and raised her head and said, "It's all fine, it's up to you, second brother."

"Then go ahead and I'll help plant the fruit trees. You can use the extra money to buy notebooks and pens." Lin Heng took out twenty yuan and handed it to her.

"This is too much, brother." Caiyun shook his head.

"Take it, buy whatever you need, live with dignity, your brother is not short of this money." Xiulan patted her hand and said with a smile.

"That's right, study hard so you can work for me." Lin Heng also smiled.

Both of them said this, Caiyun could only nod and accept it, and then went back to prepare for school.

After Lin Heng and others finished breakfast, they continued planting fruit trees. I got up early today. There are a thousand kiwi fruit trees in ten acres of land. They were finished in the morning.

All you need to do is plant. Depending on the weather, it won't be long before it rains, so you have to seize the time. After it comes back to life, we will slowly weed and fertilize later.

"It's finally done." Seeing that the kiwis were planted, Lin Yue felt at ease.

"How many years does it take for this thing to grow?" Li Shiwei asked curiously.

"Kiwi fruits and grapes will bear fruit next year, and they will reach high yields in three or four years. Apple trees will take four to five years to reach their peak fruiting period, and the next few decades will be their peak yield period."

Lin Heng said with a smile. What he chose at this time of year was very good. It will be almost ninety years before these fruit trees fully grow.

When the market economy is reformed, people's living standards improve, and market demand increases significantly, their fruits will just catch up with this time point, and they will have no worries about selling.

The Chinese medicinal materials he grows are also the same, and they can all be sold at very good prices when the time comes.

You won't make money by waiting until the market demands it. Only by preparing in advance can you stand at the forefront.

"It's not easy to plant crops on our mountain, otherwise we would have an orchard." Li Shiwei said with emotion.

There is nothing anyone can do about it. Planting and transporting fruit trees on the mountains is a big problem.

"Let's go back to eat. We have to plant seeds for Third Dad and the others in the afternoon." Lin Yue said with a smile.

Everyone nodded and walked back. During lunch, Lin Heng and his third father gave Xiaoxia a birthday red envelope and gave his mother a harsh slander, not telling them anything like this.

Lin Heng didn't stop him and asked Xiaoxia to accept it. It wouldn't be appropriate if everyone else took it and it wasn't his third father's.

Lin Wei and others chased Xiaoxia to play with the ball and ran around in the yard.

After dinner, they went to Lin Hengsan's father's house in the afternoon and planted a thousand one-year kiwi fruit seedlings bought by Lin Hai.

The land is right on the roadside, so you don’t have to travel far and it can be planted quickly.

It was done at five o'clock in the afternoon. After finishing it, Li Baiquan smiled and said: "I won't eat anymore, go back."

"That's impossible. We have to finish eating before we talk." Lin Hai ran over and held him back.

It was impossible to walk away, so we were left to eat in the end. It was dark after dinner, so the two had to stay at Lin Heng's house and leave early the next morning.

After dinner in the morning, Lin Heng also drove to the town, bought some black film paper, and then brought back a few bags of fertilizer that Li Chengguo sent.

"Dad, you guys did it pretty fast."

When Lin Heng came back, he found that his father, brother and uncle had finished sawing the trees in the back hill and started to build a fence.

"There is a diesel saw." Father Lin said with a smile.

"Then let me wrap the roots."

Lin Heng said something and wrapped all the tree roots in the fence with black film paper.

They have continued to expand the back mountain and now have two acres of land, with a slope of about thirty or forty.

After finishing, they planted thirty fruit trees here, three or four of each type.

There are still more than a hundred pear trees left in the house. Peach trees, plum trees, apricot trees and the like were bought infrequently, and there are only a dozen or so left.

This is also easy to deal with. Afterwards, it will be planted on the edge of Hongfeng Mountain to stabilize the soil, and the excess will be given to the villagers as a favor.

After planting the fruit trees in the morning, his uncle returned home with saplings and ginseng seeds in the afternoon. Lin Heng, his father and his elder brother continued to build a cowshed for the cows.

The cowshed is still made of wood, and it is a fenced cowshed instead of a fully enclosed one.

The advantage of this kind of room is that it is very ventilated, so Mr. Niu is less likely to get sick. There is also a fence to protect you from the wind when you lie down at night.

The ceiling above is still nailed with wooden boards, and then covered with multiple layers of film paper for waterproofing, and a layer of straw is added on the outside to prevent the film paper from weathering.

Whether it is a cowshed or a horseshed, or a pen for other livestock, they are all built behind Lin's father's house. Lin Heng didn't build these behind his yard.

It's not a problem of feces odor. They are not far from the Shiban River and the wind is strong all year round. In fact, there is not much odor, and it can't be smelled in the yard at all.

The main reason is that there is a well behind Lin Heng's house. Although it is groundwater, the feces water that penetrates into the ground has been filtered clean. But for his own comfort and safety, he didn't build a livestock pen behind.

And the slope behind his parents' old house is gentler, so it is more convenient to build a cowshed and horse pen.

"Finally it's done."

At around four o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Heng breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's really tiring." Lin Yue sat down next to him.

It took the three of them more than four hours to finish the work. The new cowshed is six meters long, three meters wide, and eighteen square meters in size.

There are three compartments inside, one cow in each compartment, to prevent the cows and calves from being together. The newly weaned calves are very restless.

There is another compartment just for stacking hay, or raising calves when they have calves in the future.

"Let's go, let's go and get the cows. Hongzao has been living under the eaves for several days." Lin Heng stood up and said.

"Don't we need to look for a good day?" Lin's father asked.

"Today is a good day." Lin Heng waved his hand.

He pulled the big cow, and the eldest brother pulled the little cow, and they moved them to a new home.

"Moo~~"

As soon as the two cows arrived at the new home, the big yellow cow in the cowshed not far away made a loud cry.

"Why are you screaming? You have been castrated for many years."

Lin Heng glanced at them and gave the cows some more hay. This grid is three meters long and two meters wide, which is enough for a cow.

"I will work hard to cut grass for the cows in the future. There are more and more livestock at home."

Father Lin sighed as he looked at the livestock in the back mountain. Now his family has three cows, a horse, a sheep, and two musk deer, all of which are big grass eaters.

But he is happy and sad, which shows that his family is rich, which was unthinkable last year.

"Wait a few days, you can find a few trees on the edge of the land, cut them down and burn them, and then plant the grass I bought, so you don't have to cut grass everywhere. These high-quality grasses grow fast and are nutritious." Lin Heng smiled.

"I know, I just sighed." Father Lin smiled honestly. He was in Versailles. Other families don't have this kind of trouble these days.

"Let's go, go home." Lin Heng hugged his father and eldest brother's necks and hung in the air.

On the way back, Father Lin asked again: "By the way, son, when will you plant those Chinese medicinal herbs, and when will the work on Hongfeng Mountain start?"