Druid's Country Retirement

Chapter 469 Farming
Rumors in rural areas are not only outrageous but even scary. Some gossips spread rumors that can destroy a family.

Chattering is an indispensable part of their lives. It is not an exaggeration to use words like this for them to catch rumors, add jealousy, laugh at others, and sow discord.

Three people become a tiger, four people become a gang, and five people can make the dead alive.

Especially at the entrance of each village, a group of uncles and aunties gathered around spontaneously when they had nothing to do, chatting while cracking melon seeds. It was a completely rural version of "Country Spies"

If someone in the village delivers food in the city, it will be passed around and said that they sell it in the city.

It is said that if a big girl is so anxious to get married before she gets married, she must be pregnant.After getting married, if you still don't have children after getting married, you must be infertile.

When I went out to work for several years and didn't come home, I would say that the person was dead.

All kinds of rumors can spread from their mouths. It seems that as long as other people's families are not having a good life, they should talk about it.

If you say it lightly, it will ruin your reputation; if you say it seriously, it will make your ancestors' graves emit black smoke.

Fortunately, Li Hongbing has great prestige in the village. The nicknames of village bully and forest bully are slapped one after another. No villager dares to gossip behind his back, but those tourists have no guarantee. There was a lot of publicity online.

"Laugh, you're still laughing, why are you crying for nothing!" Li Hongbing muttered angrily when he saw Shan Xing leaning against the door frame and laughing loudly.

It would be best not to go to the village in the past two days. Wait for this wave of tourists to leave and settle down for a few days. Then the next wave of tourists will come again, and the rumors will stop.

After complaining, Li Hongbing picked up the shovel and walked to the backyard of the warehouse.

"Brother, what are you doing!" Shan Xing squinted his eyes.

Li Hongbing didn't look back, "I can't go out anyway, so I'll just turn up the boiler today and see the effect."

The boiler room is a separate room at the back of the warehouse, with an area of ​​about thirty square meters, and is separated by a brick wall in the middle.

Coal and wood are stored outside, and the boiler is inside.

The coal piled outside was, as the young coal seller said, all high-quality anthracite. The coal was large, hard in texture, and had a metallic luster on the surface.

I remember buying 20 tons of coal at that time. There were at least [-] tons of coal piled up to the roof of the outhouse. I don’t know if Wanda distributed the rest to the elderly in the village.

If it happens, take the time to check it out and remind you how to use it. Don’t burn coals at home with the windows closed and burn yourself away.

Walking into the boiler room, what was inside was an iron cabinet as tall as a person and two meters wide, connected by several thick black pipes, and a chimney going through the roof.

Li Hongbing took down the operation manual hanging on the wall.

Just flip through a few pages and you'll basically know how to use it.

They are all fool-proof operations. The first step is to check whether the burner and related accessories and pipes are complete and in good condition. If there are no abnormalities, you can proceed to the second step to fill the boiler with water.

The water inlet valve is open.

The pipes in the iron cabinet made the sound of water filling.

The third step is to open the opening and shovel the coal into the combustion chamber.

Step [-]: Click the igniter to start ignition.

Li Hongbing pressed the red switch and heard an explosion in the combustion chamber. Through the brown glass of the fire viewing port, he could see a raging fire burning in the combustion chamber. The coal in the boiler combustion chamber was ignited, and at the same time, heat was transferred to the boiler pipes, heating Cold water in the pipes.

After completing a set of procedures, Li Hongbing watched the temperature gauge slowly rise. He controlled the outlet water temperature at about 50 degrees, so that the indoor temperature could basically reach above 22 degrees. In winter, this temperature can be controlled up or down as needed.

Now just wait for the radiator installed in the old house to heat up.

By the way, the kennel is also equipped with a set of radiators, so even if it snows, the wolfdogs don’t have to worry about getting cold, not to mention there are a group of meerkats at home who are extremely cold-sensitive.

"Brother, it's hot in the main room!" Shan Xing ran into the boiler room in surprise.

"It's hot now. There are radiators and hot water pipes not only in the main room, but also in the kitchen. In the future, you can wash vegetables and take hot water for bathing in winter." Li Hongbing patted the big guy next to him.

Amazing!
Although Shan Xing didn't quite understand it, he could feel the power of this large iron cabinet boiler.

It's not very cold in the forest area after winter, especially after it snows. It's so cold that your ears can freeze off.

Heating depends entirely on the brazier. There is no difference between entering the bed and using the ice cellar, let alone washing vegetables and cooking. Although the well water is not very cold, it still feels like being pricked by an ice needle when you put your hand in it.

Now that we have a boiler, we can use hot water whenever we want in winter, which makes me happy just thinking about it.

Suddenly, Shan Xing remembered something and said quickly.

"By the way, Aunt Gangjinhua told me to go to the vegetable garden to peel sweet potatoes this afternoon."

"Peer sweet potatoes, got it!" Li Hongbing nodded, picked up a shovel and put a few shovels of coal into the boiler, "Let's go back to the house to cook. Once the silly boy is gone, I have to do everything by myself. It's very tiring."

Shan Xing took Li Hongbing's arm and said, "You are the most idle person in our village. In the past, you were just a second-rate person."

"You're a second-rate guy, right? Look at how I'm a second-rate guy."

The two walked into the kitchen flirtingly.

Needless to say, once the boiler started burning, the room became much warmer, and I covered my forehead with sweat while wearing a thick coat.

Anna didn't come home at noon, so the two of them settled for a simple bowl of noodles with the leftovers from last night.

As soon as the heater is on, people become lazy. After lunch, Li Hongbing was just leaning on the bedside to take a nap when he was woken up by Shan Xing.

"Brother, it's time to go to the ground!"

Li Hongbing pretended not to hear and continued to sleep deeply. In the end, he couldn't stand the apricot grinding and soaking, so he had no choice but to get up and splash his face with cold well water. He immediately became energetic.

When the sun comes out in the afternoon, the temperature becomes much warmer.

The meerkat group also dared to leave their nests and play in the yard. When they saw Li Hongbing, they quickly chirped and came closer.

Jian Shanxing picked up the bamboo basket and shoulder pole from under the eaves. Li Hongbing had suffered the disadvantage of carrying a shoulder pole before, "Don't pick it up. Let's drive to the vegetable field. There are ready-made carts and we don't need them. A load of sweet potatoes is heavy."

It only takes two steps to drive to the vegetable field.

Shan Xing's understanding of Li Hongbing's laziness deepened.

"Children, follow my father on the expedition." Li Hongbing picked up the hoe and imitated Sun Wukong and swung the stick for a while, almost killing the meerkat.

It has to be said that the Delica is worthy of being called an off-road vehicle in a van. It has a modified and raised chassis and large-sized off-road tires. It has no difficulty on hillside mud roads and it can rush all the way to the vegetable field.

The working villagers were stunned for a moment.

Everyone naturally knows this car. It is Village Chief Li’s pet peeve, and others only dare to look at it.

Li Hongbing got out of the car, opened the door and took out a hoe. The meerkats jumped out of the car and squealed excitedly when they saw the vegetables.

"Red Soldier, why are you here?" Uncle Nude came over with a gentle young man, who obediently called out "Mr. Li."

"Are you sent by the company to station in the village?" Li Hongbing's eyes fell on this young man.

The young man quickly replied, "Yes, I will be stationed in the village this month." "How is it, are you used to living there?" Li Hongbing asked with a smile.

Uncle Muddle-headed took over halfway, "If you're not used to it, Xiao Chen will live in my house. I'll provide him with good food and drink, and he'll still be hungry."

The young man blushed a little. He looked like he had just stepped into society and had not yet learned how to deal with the world.

"This is a rare opportunity. Learn from Uncle Fu. He is very knowledgeable about farming!" Li Hongbing patted the young man on the shoulder, picked up the hoe and walked down the field. "Uncle, how many acres of sweet potatoes will be harvested today?"

"Not much, we only planted 40 acres." Uncle Nude replied casually.

Li Hongbing tilted his feet and almost fell into the vegetable field. He turned back to look at Uncle Muzhu, who was serious.

40 acres is not enough!
Just think about how long it will take to dig 3 acres if only 4 acres or 40 acres are enough.

play too!

Just as he was about to give up, Shan Xing grabbed his arm and dragged him forcefully into the sweet potato field.

"Myolie, I remember Wanda said that if the village committee came to see me for something, I would go and come back."

"Well, that's not Wanda." Shan Xing raised his hand and pointed at a group of people picking up sweet potatoes not far ahead.

"!!!" Li Hongbing was speechless. It was really Fang Wanda. Not only was he working, but Chunsheng, Hongqi, and Jianjun were also working. There were piles of sweet potatoes behind him.

"Brother, here we come!" Xiucai turned his head and saw the reluctant Li Hongbing, and greeted him loudly with a smile on his face.

When the others heard the shouting, they all put down what they were doing, turned around and looked at Li Hongbing and laughed. The smile was full of bad humor and schadenfreude.

dog into.

Everyone is laughing at themselves.

Li Hongbing had a straight face and took vaccinations in advance, "Whoever dares to mention female tourists, I will strip them naked and parade them around. Believe it or not."

"Believe it, believe it! Brother Red Soldier is mighty, Brother Red Soldier is domineering." Li Hongqi agreed with a strange tone.

Fuck your grandma.

Li Hongbing threw away his hoe, grabbed a sweet potato on the ground and threw it at it.

Whoops!

After a scream, Li Hongqi fell to the ground holding his chest, while the others burst into laughter.

"I'll let you have a bad mouth!" Li Hongbing smacked the dirt in his hand angrily, picked up the hoe and came to a few people.

The freshly turned soil exudes a unique smell of the earth, mixed with the sweetness of dug sweet potatoes, and mixed with the withered smell of vegetation exposed to the warm autumn sun, which is a bit intoxicating.

Looking at the piles of sweet potatoes dug out.

Li Hongbing recalled that when he was a child, in Caogou Village, in addition to corn, a lot of sweet potatoes were planted as autumn crops. Since rice and noodles were scarce, sweet potatoes became one of the staple foods.

During the busy farming season in autumn, in addition to harvesting corn, harvesting sweet potatoes is also the main farm work.

As the old saying goes, one season of sweet potatoes is enough for half the year.

Especially when sweet potatoes are harvested, three meals a day are sweet potatoes: steamed sweet potatoes in the morning, sweet potato bran grits at noon, and sweet potato paste soup in the evening.

After eating, I farted loudly and smelly, and I scraped my intestines after eating.

It can be said that Li Hongbing hates two kinds of food, one is sweet potatoes and the other is potatoes, and his father has been afraid of them since he was a child. In addition to the sweet potatoes and potatoes that he hates the most, he also adds radish, cabbage, and pumpkin. Until now, even at his age, he still hates them. I like to eat greasy and fat meat, and the smell of those five dishes will make me sick to my stomach.

At that time, there was little food and water, and I would get hungry quickly no matter what I ate. Only dried sweet potatoes could fill my stomach.

Because dried sweet potatoes are not only food, but also one of the few snacks.

When I go to school, I carry a handful of dried sweet potatoes in my pocket, which are chewy and filling. I can also use the dried sweet potatoes to exchange for candy wrappers and decals from my classmates.

After school, I went to dig sweet potatoes in the fields with my friends in the village, and then made a fire to roast them and share them together. The taste was very beautiful no matter when I think about it, but no matter how much I miss it, I can't go back to the beauty of the past. Intertwined with the current nostalgia, it is the most unforgettable time in life.

Time passed, and more than ten years later, there were vendors selling roasted sweet potatoes in the streets and alleys. Li Hongbing also stopped for this. The sweet potatoes were very sweet, but they were no longer the familiar taste.
After reminiscing, Li Hongbing picked up a sweet potato again and threw it to the group of meerkats following him. The meerkats who grabbed the sweet potato used their claws to scrape off the dirt on the skin and ate it. A rich sweet potato fragrance wafted up, but they did not grab the sweet potato. The meerkat looked at Li Hongbing eagerly.

"If you want to eat, go dig it yourself. There are a lot of them in the ground!" Li Hong pointed to the sweet potato field. The meerkat group immediately dispersed, using their noses to smell the sweet potatoes in the soil. After finding them, they quickly dug the soil with their paws and were excited to dig out the sweet potatoes. Chirping.

After settling the meerkat group, Li Hongbing looked at the sweet potato pile and said, "Uncle Confused, how is the sweet potato harvest going?"

Uncle Dazed grinned and gave a thumbs up, "What a great harvest. I've never seen sweet potatoes grow so well. In previous years, our wasteland could harvest a thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes from one acre. Now I guess. One acre of land can produce at least 6000 kilograms, dear, they are as big as the others."

More than 6000 catties!

Li Hongbing was frightened by such a high yield per mu. One mu of land weighs 6000 kilograms, so 40 acres weighs more than 2 kilograms.

"Xiao Chen, can you digest so many sweet potatoes?"

The gentle young man nodded quickly, with an indescribably arrogant look on his face, "Mr. Li, before the harvest, our company has already publicized it in advance. We don't have to worry about selling oak vegetables, but we are afraid that the yield is not high enough. For sweet potatoes, It’s not enough to sell for two days.”

Our company!

I like this title.

Li Hongbing smiled, picked up the hoe, and looked at everyone, "It's time to work, everyone is lazy, right?"

"Don't dig blindly!" Uncle Muzhu quickly took the hoe from Li Hongbing's hand and complained, "You kid, how can you use a hoe to dig sweet potatoes? How many sweet potatoes will be dug up with one hoe?"

Ah!
Li Hongbing was confused. When he was a child, he seemed to have watched adults dig sweet potatoes with hoes.

"Brother, I won't be able to catch you." Hong Qi even proudly pulled out a rake from the sweet potato vine, "Come on, show your skills to our Red Soldier brother."

Several other people picked up the sickle with a smile, first cut off the sweet potato seedlings that were entangled with each other, then rolled them into a big ball and dragged them away, and then pulled up the hemp rope tied to the rake. Hongqi supported the rake and shouted "Drive" .

"Li Hongqi, who is like a dog, treats us as cattle envoys!"

"If you call me again, I'll beat you up like a turtle grandson."

"Believe it or not we plowed you."

Several people cursed one after another, and Li Hongqi hurriedly apologized in a low voice, saying that he had said it smoothly!

Li Hongbing laughed and shook his head.

After reorganizing the team, Xiucai, Jianjun, Shengli, and Wanda pulled the hemp rope and moved forward hard. The rake was buried deeply in the ground. As it moved forward slowly, the big fat sweet potatoes hidden in the soil began to bloom. After being dug out, a row of sweet potatoes was turned over, and a large number of sweet potatoes were scattered on the ground.

"Did you see? There are so many pieces here. How long can you use a hoe to dig them out?" Uncle Muse bent down to pick up the sweet potatoes and threw them into the sweet potato pile.

Li Hongbing was so ashamed that he had not been to the fields for more than 20 years. Indeed, he had almost forgotten many farm tasks. He quickly rolled up his sleeves and joined the procession of picking sweet potatoes.

(End of this chapter)