My 1995 Small Farm

   Chapter 218 Qingming snail

Today's visit to the mule market not only rode a few laps of horses, but also opened his eyes. Chen Ling felt very satisfied. When he left, he thought about it carefully and thought about it, and finally asked Laoba to take him again. I went to Erwazi's chicken farm to buy a few cages of hens.

  These hens are brought back and caged first, and they are nursed back to health while they lay eggs.

   After the farm is built, it will be released outside, with the original chickens at home. It will be easy to adapt to it, and the quality of the eggs can be improved. It takes a little time to save a little, and then it can be pulled to the market for sale.

  …

   On the ninth day of February, the first rain of spring arrived.

In the early morning, when I opened the door, a gust of cold air came on the way. The yard was wet, and the thin raindrops fell slantingly in the soft spring breeze, hitting the treetops and the tile roof, and a burst of sound was heard. The crisp sound of rain.

   Walking out of the house and outside the village, looking around, the fields and forests seem to be shrouded in a light gauze mist, the beauty is pure and ethereal.

The spring rain that just arrived, awakened the silence of the winter with warm and silky raindrops. Along the paths in the fields and on the ridges, you can already see the spring grass buds emerging thinly, just in the misty drizzle. A very faint and very faint new green is looming.

Chen Ling led the cow to walk in the drizzle of early spring. From time to time, he turned his back and let the cool and moist raindrops fall on his face, or bent over to grab a few young green grass buds and chewed them in his mouth, feeling that kind of feeling. A taste of spring with earthy fragrance.

   The first rain in the early spring made the laziness in his heart diluted.

  I was so excited that I didn't even have time to eat breakfast, so I brought an ox over to plow the field.

   Plows, hoods, and hoes have long been piled up in the grass shed outside the farm, so that they can be used whenever they want.

   "Worked the cow."

When he came to the field and put a plow on the little white cow, Chen Ling touched its big head: "Other cows are still playing around when you are as old as you, and you have been helping the family for more than half a year. alive..."

  Xiao Bai Niu seemed to sense his intentions, his big head lowered and rubbed his stomach, then he licked his hand, and grinned at him softly, as if urging him.

   Indeed, Xiaobai Niu likes to work on rainy days the most.

   "Go, go down."

In the light morning mist and the continuous spring rain, Chen Ling drove the cattle to plough the fields. He pressed the rake with his right hand, raised the whip with his left, and swung it gently. Naturally, the little white ox did not drive away with a whip, it was just to convey some instructions to it. .

   At this time, it took a leisurely step and pulled the plough with ease. Wherever it passed, the wet land left deep trenches, and the soil was opened and became soft.

   Now, Chen Ling is well-versed in doing this kind of farm work, and basically doesn't feel tired. After ploughing for nearly an hour, he stopped to take a break, drink water, and let the little white cow have a rest.

At this time, Wang Zhenzhen brought a group of little dolls and ran over, followed by a group of local dogs. Heiwa Xiaojin greeted him excitedly when he saw this. In the drizzle, I didn't mind that I was covered in mud, and laughed and laughed.

  Chen Ling ignored them and continued plowing after a short rest.

   Until the raindrops got bigger.

  The little dolls also ran back. Chen Ling looked at the time. It was time to go home for breakfast, so he put the plough and rake back into the grass shed, put on the hood and hat, and led the cow home.

  This cloak and hat were originally kept in the thatched hut in Dongtian. Chen Ling wore it twice in an emergency. Who knew it was very easy to use, or what kind of grass it was made of, so he took it out and used it all the time.

Now put on this mino coat, put on the bamboo hat, walk slowly in the rain curtain, breathe the moist and cool air in the morning, smell the fragrance of the soil, but feel a fresh breath unique to spring lingering in my heart, as if people are following Ethereal up.

   The little white cow is also very happy. It likes rainy days like this very much. Let the fine rain threads wet its whole body, and it is so comfortable that it can't stop calling softly.

   "The rich and noble went to the ground?"

   "Yeah, feed the pigs, auntie."

   "Well, feed the pigs, the piglets that your Uncle Yongsheng just credited, you have to remember to feed them every day, they eat a lot."

   "It's better to eat more. The price of pigs has risen rapidly this year. When the pigs are fat, they can be sold for money."

   "Haha, who knows what the price will be when it should be sold, it's just luck, and the Zhuangzi won't start work today."

   "I won't start work. It rained and had a day off."

   "That's fine, but stay home with your daughter-in-law."

   Entered the village, greeted the villagers who had breakfast and came out to feed pigs and livestock, all the way back home.

Wang Susu had already made breakfast. Simple white porridge, steamed buns, sauerkraut and pickles were placed on the table lightly. Chen Ling ate it slowly. Wang Susu pulled a chair and sat beside him, doing needlework in his hand. while talking to him.

  Compared with other men in the village, Chen Ling did less farm work, but when he put on his clothes, he didn't care at all.

   That is quite a waste of clothes and shoes.

  No, just after breakfast, Wang Susu took him to the house to paint shoes, and wanted to make some pairs of spring shoes for him.

  Because of the look of Chen Ling's shoes last fall, they can no longer be used.

   "It's strange, you are already twenty-four years old after the new year, why are your feet still growing? It seems to be a little longer." The little daughter-in-law muttered strangely.

  Chen Ling chuckled: "I'm just a virtual age."

   "Isn't it normal to run around twenty-three times?"

  The young couple was talking when Wang Zhenzhen rushed in carrying the fence and the fish basket covered in mud.

   "Sister, brother-in-law, look, I touched a lot of fish and shrimp, and we can make miscellaneous fish pot again in the afternoon."

  Wang Susu frowned when she saw her wet body: "Look at you, you're acting like a mud monkey again, did you run to Dayan Pond to play?"

   "Hey, we didn't go to Yantang, we went to Laohewan."

  Wang Zhenzhen smiled and showed them the fish and shrimp in the fish basket. In addition to the fish and shrimp, there were many snails.

   "These fish and shrimp are too small to eat, and the snails are quite fat. I'll touch some snails later, and I'll cook them for you in the afternoon..."

  Chen Ling took a look at the fish basket and shook his head.

   "Ah? Are snails delicious?"

   "Delicious, Qingming snails, fat geese, this Qingming snail, the Dragon Boat Festival shrimp is the best time to eat."

   Tomb-sweeping Day is just a few days away. At this time, the snails taste the most delicious, and the mussels are also the fattest time, which is not worse than eating fish and shrimp.

  Small snails and river mussels are best eaten in spring, especially before the Qingming Festival.

   This is because the leeches and parasites in the river before the Qingming Festival did not move frequently.

   At this time, the mussels are the cleanest, and the meat is the thickest, especially crispy and delicious.

   "Okay, go wash up and see how dirty your body is."

   Wang Susu felt uncomfortable looking at her sister's dirty, so she dragged her and walked out.

   "Don't, sister, I'll wash it myself later. You're pregnant with a baby, so rest well, don't worry about me."

   "Hey, I'm going to touch the snails with my brother-in-law, and come back and wash them."

   "What about the new paper that the teacher gave you?"

   "Write later in the afternoon."

  Wang Susu frowned. It rained lightly in the morning and the air was very fresh, so she promised to let her sister go out to play for a while, but she went crazy again.

   Chen Ling saw his daughter-in-law like this, so he smiled and said, "It's okay, let her play for a day, how can she study all day?"

  Wang Susu sighed softly, "Then go play, listen to your brother-in-law, rest your brain today."

   In fact, she is the easiest to soften up. She was afraid that her sister would play too wild, so she forced herself to be hard-hearted and forced her to study at home.

   Now that Chen Ling said this, she thought that her sister hadn't been out to play very much in a while, and she really shouldn't keep her at home anymore.

   I also let out a sigh of relief.

   No way, she couldn't help persuading her like this, especially Chen Ling persuaded her, two or three sentences would be effective.

At the beginning of the year, he even let him buy land, and I sometimes regret it, but when I look back on it, my husband is indeed a little different from others. If he wants to make money, it seems that there are always other people who can't think of a way. I don't think he is doing anything. I have saved nearly 100,000 yuan. No one else has this ability, so I simply don't think about it any more.

   "Brother-in-law, since these fish and shrimp can't be cooked, let's feed them to Harrier."

   Walking out the door, Wang Zhenzhen carried the fish basket and raised his head to look at the toon tree outside the courtyard.

   "The Harrier doesn't eat fish and shrimp. If you feed it fish, you might as well feed it mice."

  Chen Ling said, and as soon as he opened his mouth and whistled, a gray-brown yellow-clawed falcon emerged from the magpie nest of the toon tree, passed through the heavy rain curtain, and hovered on Chen Ling's shoulder.

   is the original female Harrier.

   After Chen Ling's winter food temptation, the Harrier finally got close to him, and came out when it was time to eat.

The main reason is that during the feeding period, Chen Ling not only fed it birds, but also fed it to drink the spiritual water of the cave. Who is hostile, who is not hostile.

   is no longer as frightened when encountering people as before, like a frightened bird.

   "Aren't you going to eat?"

  Wang Zhenzhen picked up a small fish and put his feet up in front of Harrier. Harrier didn't even look at it, and he leaned on Chen Ling's shoulder and leaned against his ear.

   "I really don't eat it."

   "It's fine if you don't eat the harriers, go and feed them to the chickens, the chickens eat them, and the fish, shrimp, and snails will be given to them. Let's catch them in the river later." Chen Ling pointed to a few cages of old hens that he had just bought yesterday, and said.

"okay."

  Wang Zhenzhen didn't care if it was raining, so he ran over with the fish basket to feed the chickens.

   then turned around and shouted, "Brother-in-law, do you want to feed the pigeons?"

   "If you don't feed it, the pigeons don't eat fish, they eat food." Seeing that his sister-in-law was going to feed the chickens, Chen Ling walked into the kitchen and fed the Harrier two mouthfuls of spiritual water.

   After feeding, let the Harrier return to the nest, and scoop the diluted spiritual water with a ladle to add water to the chickens in the chicken coop.

   For most of last year, he not only had nothing to do, but also observed and groped in and out of the cave when he was free at home.

   Then he found that with the daily drinking of spiritual water, the effect on him and Wang Susu was gradually becoming less obvious.

   And since poultry and livestock have not been allowed to drink, they only drink diluted spiritual water, and they are not fed every day, so it has always been effective.

   They looked like Heiwa and Xiaojin. When they were first picked up, they opened their eyes after drinking two sips of spiritual water.

   But drinking them frequently for more than half a year last year didn’t make them any more evil.

   The same goes for the little white cow.

   After all, this thing is the most obvious effect at the beginning.

   The same applies to plants and crops.

  Two liters of spiritual water is effective, two liters of spiritual water can make crops harvest, rejuvenate dead trees, and make fruit trees full of fruit, but it cannot make small saplings grow into towering trees all at once.

   Of course, this is in the outside world, when the spiritual water is taken out of the cave and used by the outside world.

  Be better on cave days.

  The branches of the cuttings can also grow, but they still cannot grow into towering trees, and it still depends on time to continue to grow.

   This is what Chen Ling discovered last year on the spiritual water in the cave.

   Other aspects still need to continue to spend time to explore.

   "Brother-in-law, look, that male pigeon dares to beat the female pigeon." Chen Ling filled the chicken coop with water, and Wang Zhenzhen pointed to the direction of the pigeon nest to show him.

At this time, the rain was getting lighter, and the female pigeon came out of the nest to breathe the fresh air, but the male pigeon, which was still thin, cooed, flapped its wings to stop the female pigeon, and drove it into the nest again. .

   is a wild pigeon whose head was bald before, forming a pair with the female pigeon at home.

  Wang Zhenzhen also knows that this male pigeon has been bullied all the time, and now it seems like he is teaching the female pigeon a lesson, which is very strange.

   "Don't worry about them, it's not a fight, it's about to lay eggs, chasing eggs." Chen Ling glanced at them and ignored them.

  Egg chasing is a frequent act of male pigeons within three or four days after the mating of pigeons is completed.

   means that the male pigeon drives the female pigeon into the nest, which means that the daughter-in-law is driven into the nest to lay eggs.

  Otherwise it is too dangerous for the pigeon eggs to lay outside the nest.

  After the domestication of wild pigeons is completed, as the environment becomes more comfortable, they will also become more frequent in laying eggs.

Except in winter, as long as the nutrition can keep up, you can mate and lay eggs every month. When a male pigeon and a female pigeon are paired once, they can lay eggs in half a month, and it takes another half a month to incubate the eggs. It takes about a month and a half to lay eggs. Nest of pigeons.

Now there are not only this pair of pigeons in the house, but the other two pairs have also finished mating. I don't know if they succeeded or not. Anyway, the male pigeons are often chasing eggs these days, and they keep catching thatch and twigs in the nest. Chen Ling noticed it long ago. .

   "Let's go, really, grab the guy and touch the snails."

"I'm coming."

  Chen Ling took the fish basket, put on a bucket hat, and the little girl put on a straw hat, and the two rushed to Laohewan.

The water in Laohewan hasn't fully risen yet. The river is shallow, with thin raindrops splashing on the water surface one by one. The rain is getting smaller and slower. The ripples are not dense, but the ding The ding dong dong sound is very pleasant.

  The two rolled up their trouser legs, put their hands into the river, and began to touch the snails and pick up mussels.

   After a while, the little kids who were still running wildly in the wheat fields also came over with a giggle, went down into the river, groped back and forth, and later even the adults who were wandering in the fields came.

  Chen Ling and the others came early, and they quickly caught two full fish baskets, ready to go back. Other adults and children were still digging in the mud at the bottom of the river.

   "Uncle Fugui, little aunt, look, my mussel is not big, it's almost bigger than the mouth of a bowl."

   Pig Baby held a big river mussel and handed it to Chen Ling, "Uncle Fugui, here it is."

   "It's really big, uncle doesn't want it, you can go back and keep it as a baby. If you raise it to the size of a washbasin, you can do laundry and cook for you as a daughter-in-law."

   "Is it true, Uncle Rich? You didn't fool me, did you?"

   "I didn't fool you. When have I ever fooled anyone, go back and ask your mother if you don't believe me."

  Chen Ling smiled and led Wang Zhenzhen home.

   Pig baby and Liu Nier are pretty good for their age, at least they are sensible.

   Komori of Yuqiang's family, that guy is only five or six years old and called lawless.

   It was they who surprised the donkey two days ago, but Komori was beaten a few times last year, and this year he was much more honest, so he didn't follow him, or else he would be chained by Chen Yuqiang and locked in the firewood room.

  No longer bothering about the group of little kids, Chen Ling brought Wang Zhenzhen home, washed the snails and mussels repeatedly, and poured them into white wine and salt.

   This is repeated several times after cleaning.

  The mussels are shelled and the gills are removed, and the snails are trimmed off the tails.

  Then I heated the oil in a pot, first burned the river mussels, shredded the river mussels, deep-fried them, and then stir-fried them with onion, ginger, garlic, and chili. If this thing is delicious, you need to put more chili, and more oil and salt.

   This is not challenging for Chen Ling, and it didn't take much effort, and the fragrant stir-fried mussels came out of the pot.

   Then came the snails, which are a little more difficult to handle than the river mussels, but the steps are basically the same as those for stir-frying the river mussels, and a pot full of them was quickly burned.

   When it was time for lunch at noon, the fragrance filled the entire courtyard.

This thing is very cold, so Wang Susu can't eat too much. He only tasted a small piece, and only felt that the mussel meat was very smooth and tender, fat, and very chewy. It was spicy and refreshing in the mouth. dinner.

   As for the snails, she didn't eat them. She just watched her sister keep picking and putting bamboo sticks into her mouth. She ate two bowls of rice, which must be unpalatable.

Not to mention Wang Zhenzhen, Chen Ling was sweating profusely, and after finishing the rice in the bowl, he exhaled a few rough breaths: "Ah, it's really exciting, it would be even better if there were two more beers, but it's a pity that Cui Lai Zi this year Haven't had time to stock up yet."

  The beer and draft beer in Cui Laizi Club are all imported from the brewery in Huangni Town. Huangni Town is not far away, and the beer is relatively cheap, which is very popular with the locals.

   "Aren't you going to Huangni Town next month to find Han Chuang for the temple fair? Just buy some if you want to drink."

   Wang Susu said.

  Chen Ling is right when he thinks about it, just think about buying something to go to the temple fair in Huangni Town next month.

  —

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   (end of this chapter)