Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

"That's it for now. Son, how much does it cost to hire an excavator?"

Father Lin asked curiously.

"I don't know. Calculated on a daily basis, we will definitely have to pull an earth truck by then. We can dump the excess soil at the bottom of the mountain where we dumped it before, and we can come out on a large flat land."

Lin Heng pointed to the place at the foot of the mountain where the soil had been poured before and said, sesame seeds are now planted on that ground and they are already mature.

That place was originally a pit of weeds and trees belonging to his family. Now there is still a lot of soil to fill in. Once it is completely filled in, it will be a flat land of more than two acres.

"It's better to do it on your own land. At least you spend money on building your own land. If you rent someone else's land and take it back after the construction is completed, it will be in vain." Lin's father said.

"When I have some free time in a few days, I'll go find someone to ask." Lin Heng nodded. The feed factory in the city currently doesn't have enough money, so let's use the money to renovate Hongfeng Mountain and expand the scale of breeding.

Otherwise, the more than 20,000 yuan left in your hands will become increasingly worthless. In fact, now you can start buying assets that will increase in price in the future. In fact, the domestic environment has been changing drastically year by year since this year.

"It's getting dark soon. You should hurry up and help drive the cattle and sheep back. Mom will eat the mosquitoes later." Xiulan said, looking at the two of them.

"Go right now."

Lin Heng nodded, took the slingshot and went to the mountains over there with his father.

"You're here now. If you don't come, you won't be able to see it."

Mother Lin said quickly when she saw them coming.

"The discussion has been delayed for a while." Lin Heng took the bell from Mother Lin's hand, looked at Xiong Ba and Lu Tong and shouted, "The cattle and sheep have gone home."

"Ouch!!"

The two dogs raised their heads and barked, then ran to the hillside to look for cattle and sheep.

"It's time to eat, it's time to eat!" At the same time, Lin Heng picked up the bell and shouted while shaking it.

Hearing the bells and shouts, the cattle and sheep immediately came over conditioned reflex, and with the dominant green eyes chasing them behind, the speed was not to mention how fast they were.

Lin Heng walked in front, Father Lin and Mother Lin walked behind, including Xiong Ba and Lu Tong's father and daughter. The cattle and sheep were quickly driven back.

Entering the clean cattle and sheep pen, everyone was vying to lick the salt bricks hanging in mid-air.

These cattle and sheep all habitually came to the pen where they were passing by. Only a few of them came randomly, led by the three big rams.

"Baaaah!!"

When Lin Heng pulled them out by their horns, these guys howled in dissatisfaction.

"You're going to get mad if you bark again." Lin Heng put him into the pen and gave him a kick. The guy was still unconvinced and rushed over to hit him, as if the majesty of the leader of the flock was inviolable.

Then Lin Heng beat him all the way to the corner of the sheepfold, shrinking his head and not daring to move.

They arranged the stray cattle and sheep back into their own pens, gave them some fodder mixed with hay and grass, and then retreated.

After washing his hands, Lin Heng said to Xiulan Caiyun: "Let's go back."

"You won't leave until you have eaten?" Mother Lin asked.

Lin Heng grinned: "I'm afraid you'll poison me."

"Get out, get out quickly." Mother Lin came over and slapped him twice.

Lin Heng smiled and said, "I'm kidding, Mom, I'll bring you a good thing later to honor you."

"No need, get out of here." Mother Lin snorted.

After saying a few words, Lin Heng and Xiulan Caiyun went home with their six children.

On the way home, Caiyun looked at Lin Heng and said, "Second brother, I think you can ask someone from Liu Ciwen's family to help with the work. Although his father is a bit stupid, he is very practical in his work."

"Okay, then I will go to his house tomorrow to help with the work." Lin Heng nodded. He knew that Caiyun was worried that Liu Ciwen had no money to go to school and therefore dropped out of school.

But in fact, Caiyun's worries are completely unnecessary. He has long thought that he would sponsor Liu Ciwen, but it's not time yet. When they graduate from junior high school next June and Liu Ciwen has no money to go to high school, he will offer to sponsor him. of.

"Thank you, second brother." Caiyun said quickly. She liked the second brother's attitude of agreeing without asking anything. Liu Ciwen was a very hard-working person, and she didn't want him to be unable to continue school because of lack of money.

"I originally wanted to find someone more honest." Lin Heng said.

At this time, Xiaoxia took Lin Heng's hand and didn't want to walk anymore, and said coquettishly: "Dad, I'm hungry."

"Then let me hug you. Your mother will do it when you get home." Lin Heng picked her up and said.

"She just wants to be hugged." Xiulan smiled.

Xiaoxia huddled in her father's arms and remained silent, making Lin Tao next to her look like she missed her father.

As soon as I returned to the village, I met an uncle who was harvesting corn. When he saw Lin Heng, he smiled and said, "Hey, Boss Lin, come in and have a drink of water."

Lin Heng waved his hand: "No, no, your corn harvest this year is pretty good."

He wasn't very familiar with this uncle, and he kind of forgot which family he belonged to.

The uncle grinned and said: "Thanks to the seeds you bought, although it is not as much as your family harvested last year, it can still produce 800 kilograms per acre."

With such a bumper harvest, he was naturally happy. Even though Lin Heng made some of their money by selling seeds, most people were still grateful.

"That's good." Lin Heng smiled and nodded.

After refusing to go to the uncle's house to drink water, Lin Heng continued walking home.

He met many people on the road, some asked him where he caught the roe deer this time, and some were grateful to him for the good harvest like the uncle just now.

Now that grain production is much higher than before, everyone is full and can look forward to eating well, and life will get better and better.

Lin Heng didn't stay long and sent his three nephews back to his eldest brother's house, and they returned home.

In the evening, Xiulan cut some braised pork and made some noodles. Lin Heng drank some rice wine and fell asleep comfortably.

Early the next morning, he woke up and found that it was drizzling outside.

"It's raining well. It's cooler and we can pick August melons." Lin Heng turned to look at Xiulan and said.

"Then let's go after breakfast." Xiulan said with a smile.

After getting up and exercising and having breakfast, Xiulan first fed the children and then prepared a lot of complementary foods for them. As they grew older, the types of complementary foods became more and more abundant.

After feeding the child, Caiyun studied at home and helped look after the child.

This time Lin Heng and Xiulan took plastic buckets with lids, and each of them put one in the basket.

Carrying buckets, they braved the drizzle and went to Shibadang Valley. There were many August melons here. The low ones were hooked down, and the high ones were cut down to let them fall down.

After picking the August melon, Xiulan broke it open, took out the nuts and put them in a plastic bucket, and threw away the peel.

The peel of an August melon takes up at least half the volume and weight, so it can hold more after processing.

When you take it back, you can cook it directly to make jam, so you don’t have to worry about spoilage or anything.

One morning, the two of them picked hundreds of August melons on both sides of Shibadang Valley. These melons are very abundant near the water, and there are often more than a dozen on a single vine.

"That should be enough, right?"

At half past ten, Lin Heng looked at the two filled plastic buckets and said, the pulp alone can weigh sixty or seventy pounds.

Xiulan nodded: "That's enough. Just pick a few more and give them to my daughter."

Lin Heng nodded and went back to look at the walnut tree where Wenwan pecans were found last year. As expected, he found several more good Wenwan pecans.

"Do you want any wild plums over there?" Xiulan said on the way home, pointing to a red plum tree not far away.

"Go and have a look."

Lin Heng said something, and the two of them put down their things and went to the tree together. They picked one and tasted it. Both of them felt like their teeth had been sore.

However, I still picked some and put them back into the cooked jam, which can add some sourness and make the August melon jam less sweet.

When she got home, Xiulan cleaned the pot three times and started making jam.

Lin Heng helped her stoke the fire, and while making jam, Xiulan made lunch.

For lunch we made noodles, and the whistle was the simplest sauerkraut. Although it was simple, it tasted very good.

After lunch, he went to help his father harvest corn.

Although it is raining lightly, the corn must still be harvested, otherwise it will be destroyed by wild boars.

In the afternoon, they harvested some corn, and deliberately left the field that had been eaten by wild boars unharvested. Lin Heng planted a few traps nearby. If these wild boars come again, he will teach them a profound lesson.

Lin Heng returned home after harvesting the corn. Xiulan had already prepared the jam and put it on the table. There were 6 bottles of August melon jam. One bottle weighed one kilogram. On average, ten kilograms of pulp made one kilogram of jam.

There is also a bottle of autumn pear paste, which is made from the uneaten pears from the past few days mixed with some thick-skinned pears picked in the village.

But she didn't eat jam at night. Xiulan fried roe deer meat, cut some braised meat, made four dishes and one soup, and ate rice.

The next day, she had steamed taro for breakfast, crushed it and ate it with jam. Xiaoxia liked it very much, and her two sons also ate some.

It rained a little heavier today, and the pattering rain was much heavier than yesterday, making it impossible to harvest corn.

Lin Heng ate breakfast and played with Wenwan walnuts. The two best pairs of Wenwan walnuts harvested last year had already been plated with some pulp.

The rain subsided a bit at noon, so Lin Heng asked his elder brother to go look at the clips together, but unfortunately nothing was gained.

Because it rained and I didn’t worry about hurting others, I just kept raining, hoping to catch a wild boar.

The autumn rain continued until the 28th. This morning, Lin Heng went to retrieve the clip. After several days of rain, he found nothing. The wild boar seemed to know that there was a trap here.

At noon, Xiulan and the others went to pick up fungi. The weather was getting cooler at this time. There were mainly three types of fungi: pine fungus, egg fungus, and broom fungus. Occasionally, some oyster mushrooms and chanterelles could also be seen.

Xiulan and Caiyun picked up more than 20 kilograms of pine fungi and two egg fungi in the morning. Mother Lin picked up fifteen or sixteen kilograms of pine fungi alone.

Lin Heng is happy that he can finally eat bacon and stir-fried mushrooms again. No matter how many times he eats it, he never gets tired of it and it is always delicious.

In the afternoon, Lin Heng continued to help harvest corn, and also asked Liu Ciwen's father and third father to come to his house to help with work, and they were paid one yuan a day.

With their participation, the corn was collected in one day, braided and hung up to cool.

The next job of the two of them was to help dig up the astragalus in the apple orchard and loosen the soil in the orchard. This year, the apple tree has grown to more than two meters high, and the main trunk is as thick as an adult's wrist.

In the blink of an eye, September 1st came and Caiyun went to school. It was difficult for Xiulan to take care of three children by herself and do other things.

Liu Ciwen's father, Third Dad, under the leadership of Father Lin and Mother Lin, first cut the astragalus plants. After drying, they could produce twelve or three kilograms of seeds from one acre of land, but only one hundred kilograms of seeds were harvested from eight acres of land.

After the seeds were planted, Lin Heng gave the plants to them. They took them back and used them to feed the cattle. What they couldn't use was thrown away and left to rot in compost.

After harvesting the astragalus seeds in the apple orchard, they went back temporarily. They were busy harvesting rice at home and had no time to work for the Lin Heng family.

Lin Heng's family will also start harvesting rice recently, but the rice has not been harvested yet. On the morning of September 3rd, Mother Lin was having breakfast, and she ran over: "Son, three ewes in a row are giving birth. Come here and help."

"Okay, I'll be there right away." Lin Heng nodded, drank the milk in one gulp, held the potato cake in his hand, and walked out.

"Are you coming back for lunch?" Xiulan asked.

"Come back, I'll be back in a minute."

Lin Heng replied.

After driving to Hongfeng Mountain with Mother Lin, Lin Heng quickly went to the sheepfold to help.

When he came over, Father Lin had already moved a pregnant ewe to a clean, grass-covered compartment.

"There are still two more. Their amniotic water has broken and they are giving birth." Lin's father pointed to the cubicle next to him and said.

"Understood."

Lin Heng nodded, put on the reservoir and protective clothing, and walked over directly to pick up the laboring ewe and put it into the grassed pen next door.

After putting them away, Lin Heng observed the other ewes again and felt relieved after making sure that none were in labor.

Then I came over to check on the production status of these three black goats.

"It looks like they were all delivered naturally. We don't need any help." Father Lin said from the side, because at this moment, he could already see half of the lamb born.

"Well, there should be no problem with these three heads." Lin Heng nodded.

If there is a problem, the one he bought contains oxytocin, which can be used to induce labor.

"Do you think the sheepfold can be arranged like this?" Father Lin pointed at the sheepfold and said.

In addition to the three stalls for cattle, there are seven empty stalls here.

Two compartments were taken out to temporarily hold the twenty-five non-pregnant sheep. There were three male black goats, the rams and the non-pregnant ewes.

One of the remaining five compartments is used as a place for giving birth, and six pregnant ewes are placed in each of the remaining four compartments. There is an extra compartment for one, so all 25 are put there.

After the birth is over, the farrowing compartment will be useless and can also be used for herding sheep. At that time, there will be just enough room for five ewes and their respective lambs in one compartment.

Lin Heng looked at Father Lin's arrangement, nodded and said: "No problem, it's just that we have to come over recently to add nutrition to the sheep."

Father Lin nodded: "I've already given it a meal, and feed it a meal of cooked corn mush every day. But we have to thresh millet in the next two days, so you can only come over and help watch over it."

"Just leave it to me." Lin Heng nodded in agreement.

After saying that, the two of them quietly watched the ewes giving birth, looking forward to how many babies the first batch of ewes would give birth to. It was said that the black goat's ability to give birth to babies was very good.