Druid's Country Retirement

On snowy days, drink hot soup.

Li Hongbing took out the tube bones specially reserved for killing pigs from the refrigerator.

Blanch the bloody smell with hot water, put it into the pressure cooker together with the onion, ginger, and garlic, and sprinkle a pinch of fine salt. No other spices are needed. The black pigs raised in the meadow eat grass that has been irrigated with the power of the source, and the meat quality is first-rate. , using spices is an insult to it.

Place the pressure cooker on the coal stove and cook slowly.

I reheated leftover rice in a steamer from yesterday's meal.

The vegetable garden was buried in snow, but Li Hongbing dug through the snow to find garlic sprouts, coriander, and radishes that were still green. Vegetables weighed down by snow are the most delicious, with a sweetness that cannot be found in the city.

Wash the garlic sprouts and coriander, cut into pieces, and use them as ingredients in rice.

Cut the radish into hob pieces. After fifteen minutes of beeping of the pressure cooker, Li Hongbing opened the lid, skimmed off the oil, added the radish and continued to simmer.

In the cold winter, we have to mention the traditional rural food, pickles.
In autumn, rural families will pickle various vegetables for winter consumption. There are many kinds of pickles, including sauerkraut, pickles, dried radish, etc. These pickles are not only delicious but also nutritious. They are a must-have on the winter table of rural families. Indispensable food.

Every time it's meal time, the family sits around the stove, and the table is filled with various pickles.

The Li family has a diligent daughter-in-law, so there will naturally be no shortage of pickles.

Li Hongbing opened the cellar cover, and a cold air that was even colder than outside hit Li Hongbing's face.

It was extremely cold in the cellar, as if time had been frozen in this cold corner. The walls were covered with frost, and white mist could be seen rising from the mouth with every breath.

Fortunately, when he first built the cellar, he specifically asked Sun Qiang to ensure waterproofing and ventilation. The air in the cellar was relatively fresh, without the smell of earth and moisture.

The only thing is that I ignored it.

The weather was so cold that the steps and ground were covered with a thin layer of frost, and a crisp cracking sound could be heard with every step.

It's okay to walk alone, but it will be troublesome if Shan Xing falls.

This year, we will use it for now. When next spring, Sun Qiang will have to rework and find a way to repair the cellar under the kitchen and install a freight elevator to make it easier to get up and down.

Follow the steps into the cellar.

The cellar, which I thought was quite spacious, now feels like it's really not enough.

The white wine and red wine given by Young Master Xu and Monkey occupied one-third, the rice wine made from mountain apricots and the kimchi and pickled vegetable jars took up one-third, and the remaining space was only enough to store winter vegetables.

Store winter vegetables! ! !

Only then did Li Hongbing react.

Damn it, why did I forget the winter vegetables?

The plan to store winter vegetables was originally on the agenda, but things have happened one after another recently, so I forgot about it.

Now it suddenly snowed again, which caught me off guard.

I wonder if the villagers have stored winter vegetables well, otherwise they can only eat pickles for one winter.

Arriving in front of rows of pickled vegetable jars, Li Hongbing saw cartoon vegetables drawn with chalk on the surface of the jars. Needless to say, the painting style was Anna's handiwork, as ugly as ever.

Pickled garlic sprouts, pickled cucumbers, pickled soy beans, spicy radish strips, pickled cabbage
I grabbed some of each, took it back to the kitchen, and added a few drops of sesame oil to the pickled vegetables. The red, yellow, green, and green colors made the pickles crisp and refreshing, making them a great addition to the meal.

Meals are ready.

Li Hongbing walked into the back room wearing an apron. Shan Xing was already awake, but he was unwilling to move. All the bones in his body seemed to be falling apart. He was exhausted and unable to exert himself.

"Myolie, get up and eat!"

Shan Xing looked at her man, feeling angry and happy at the same time. It was a mixed bag of emotions.

Come on, the Red Soldier brother actually knows so many ways to humiliate people, it's so bad!
Let’s talk about happiness. Brother Hongbing and the sisters-in-law in the village talk about it differently. When the sisters-in-law in the village talk about certain aspects, they are so angry that they scold their men for being useless. But Brother Hongbing is like a bull. Yes, I can't stop once I move, even if I beg for mercy.

"If you don't eat, you bad guy, you can't get up!"

"If you can't get up, let me give you a massage." Li Hongbing raised a playful smile on his lips.

When Shan Xing heard this, he didn't care about the pain in his bones. He quickly wrapped himself in the quilt and exposed his head, half coquettishly and half angry.

"Every time I talk about massage, it's not the same in the end. I don't want to get up. You bring the food to the room and I eat it in bed."

Seeing this, what else could Li Hongbing say.

He turned around and left the room. When he came back, he took the food and put it on the bedside table. "After you finish eating, put the bowl away. I'll wake the two girls up."

Ah!
Shan Xing continued to wrap herself up like a rice dumpling, and only after confirming that Li Hongbing was gone did she sit up with difficulty.

I fought hard until midnight last night, and my stomach was already growling with hunger.

When you pick up the rice soaked in bone soup, the rice absorbs the essence of the soup and becomes full and full of flavor. You can feel the rich aroma of meat and the deliciousness of bone marrow in every bite, and it complements the rice perfectly.

Coupled with the crisp and refreshing pickles, Shanxing forgot about his fatigue and started eating.

Li Hongbing came under the tree house, gathered a snowball, and smashed it on the window.

After smashing it several times, a colorful head appeared in the window.

If I read it correctly, it should be October.

"October, ask Anna to get up and eat!"

After a while, Anna and Nanny walked out of the stairs sleepily. They were still sleepy at first, but when they saw the thick snow and the dug walkway, they suddenly lost all sleep, and their eyes sparkled.

"Wow, wow, wow, tunnel fighting, tunnel fighting!!"

"Let's eat and fight in the tunnels!" Li Hongbing patted Anna on the head. "After dinner, I will take you to the village to play."

"Go to the village!" Anna's eyes brightened.

When the two girls ran to the kitchen, the animals walked out of the tree house with their heads lowered.

Seeing their appearance, Li Hongbing couldn't help but smile.

Various eye shadows, blushes and lipsticks appear on the animal's face.

When October saw her master smiling, she felt so aggrieved that she wanted to dive into the snowdrift, wearing blush, a bow, and a skirt around her neck.

The majestic king of the grassland has been completely disgraced.

The meerkats are all similar, but they have big hearts and look like they don't care.
Li Hongbing comforted him, "Okay, don't feel wronged. I'll get you food. If you don't want to live in the dog kennel, you can live in the tree house with Anna."

Living in a tree house, I continued to be tormented by my little master, living in a dog kennel, and shivering from the cold.

October is in tangle.

It’s really warm in the treehouse and there are snacks to eat.

If it really doesn't work, just do it, be thick-skinned, and get over it.

Not knowing that there would be so much inner drama in October, Li Hongbing brought bone soup to soak rice with carrots and shredded pork from the kitchen.

After feeding the animals.

Seeing Anna squatting under the eaves with a big bowl in her hand, snoring and eating, Nannan thought this eating posture was very handsome, and she imitated it. Li Hongbing's eyes turned black. If his sister-in-law saw her girl eating like this, she would be furious.

She has always emphasized that she should cultivate her daughter into a lady.

In this way, Anna continued to lead him.

I don’t know whether she will become a lady or not, but I can be sure that she will be a qualified man.

The collar of Anna's floral cotton-padded jacket was suddenly lifted, and Jiji's golden head popped up, looking at Li Hongbing and making a chirping sound.

Forgot about you little guy.

Since the beginning of winter, Gigi doesn't like to run around. Even Anna doesn't like to follow her to school. She often stays alone in the tree house or the old oak tree.

Li Hongbing brought carrots from the kitchen.

Seeing the food, Gigi got out of Anna's clothes, jumped to the ground, took the carrots and ate them.

Anna put down her chopsticks, frowned her little eyebrows, looked at the sparse snow falling in the sky, and asked worriedly.

"Dad, do you think the bear cub has anything to eat?"

Bear cub!

A few days ago, after the mother bear recovered from her injuries, she took her cubs back to the mountain, taking the cubs with her as well.

According to the mother bear's wishes, hibernation is one of the survival skills to be taught to the bear cubs. Even bear cubs with fewer hands must learn it.

Li Hongbing agreed with both hands. His original intention of adopting them was that they would be able to survive independently in the wild when they grew up. The human home was not their home.

But Anna didn't want to. When the bear cub left, she cried so hard that she couldn't leave him.

There are also leopard cubs. Because the mother leopard missed her children and refused to eat or drink, Captain Xu took her back to the city.

Faced with her daughter's worries, Li Hongbing scratched her hair.

"It's okay. The mother bear will take good care of the cub. The cub will come back in the spring. Hurry and eat, it's already cold!"

"Well, I want to eat a strong one and beat the bear cub when it comes back!" Anna picked up the bowl and wolfed it down again.

Li Hongbing was speechless after hearing this. The girl couldn't run away. She just hoped that the second child would not imitate her sister.

After the heavy snowfall, the mountainous area seems to have turned into a fairy tale world covered in snow.

Mountains, rivers, fields, meadows, and villages are all covered with thick snow, all pure white.

Li Hongbing, wearing a military coat, walked in front of the snow to clear the way, stopping from time to time to wait for the two little girls behind him who had fallen behind because of playing in the snow.

"Can you two hurry up and go into the village to play again?"

"I know, it's embarrassing!" Anna threw away the snowball in her hand and took her daughter to walk a few steps faster.

After a while.

The two girls saw a pheasant flying out of the snow again, and they raised branches and chased after it.

Li Hongbing found that taking them out was a very wrong decision.

Stop and go along the way.

Come to the village.

The scene in my mind of the village being blocked by heavy snow did not appear. Instead, the snow in the village roads and alleys was shoveled to both sides of the road. It seemed that Jianjun and the others had begun to organize the villagers to clear the snow.

Along the cleared village lane, it wasn't long before I heard bursts of laughter and laughter from the direction of the small square at the entrance of the village.

"Hey, Uncle Hongbing, why are you here? We also said that after we clean up the small square, we will clean up the mountain road." Dakui carried the shovel and saw Li Hongbing coming out of the village alley.

The villagers who were busy clearing the snow stopped what they were doing and said hello one after another.

"Okay, I'm worried that the village will be covered in snow." Li Hongbing responded with a smile. He glanced around and saw that all the villagers who were basically able to work were here, as well as some unfamiliar faces, who should be tenants of the B&B hut.

The efficiency of the village committee is still acceptable.

It can run on its own without opening your mouth.

Tie Zhu picked up two baskets of snow, "Hey, Lao Gen and Shui Sheng haven't spoken yet. In two days, Jianjun and Xiucai will get married. If the snow can't be cleared away, how can we have a banquet!"

What!
Li Hongbing laughed dumbly.

The co-authorship was just wishful thinking, and I overestimated their consciousness. I worked on it for a long time, and it was just for the sake of getting married.

"Where are Jianjun and Xiucai?"

"We are preparing to get married at home. By the way, Uncle Hong Bing, we have agreed in advance that this great guest is you." Shuisheng grinned happily from ear to ear and took out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Lao Gen, ask us to help you make red plums. Uncle Hongbing, you can make red pomegranates." Sharp-eyed Li Defa saw the cigarette box and laughed and cursed.

"Go, go, Hongtashan, you guys can't get used to it." Shuisheng blushed and argued forcefully.

As the saying goes, "A long drought brings nectar, meeting an old friend in a foreign land, the night of flowers and candles in the wedding room, and the time when the gold medal is named." Among them, marriage is a great joyous event in life, and our country is another country that respects traditional customs.

Although times are progressing, ideas have changed a lot, some customs and habits are changing, and some cannot be changed.

Especially in rural weddings, some customs are the same in many places. Not only the family holding the wedding attaches great importance to it, but also the relatives and friends who will come to help. In the forest area, there are four types of people who must be present on the wedding day. If there is one If the kind person is absent, then the main family will be ridiculed by the villagers.

The first is matchmaking. Matchmaking is a special profession. For example, in today's dating agencies, free love is popular. But it is different in rural areas. Rural areas still maintain a tradition that matchmakers are needed to help introduce partners, which is the old saying "matchmaker's words" .

The second is the Dazhike. The Dazhike is like the master of ceremonies. People with high moral standards in the village are welcomed and sent to serve as organizers, greet the people in charge, and guide the overall situation. If the Dazhike's portion is not large enough, the relatives and friends attending the banquet will feel that the host's family is not good enough. , cannot stand in the village.

The third is the general manager. Generally, the village has a special wedding and funeral committee. These people are obliged to help the villagers control some things. During the wedding, the host family is usually busy and has no way to take care of some trivial matters, such as the reception. Guests, buy some banquets and arrange various matters.

The fourth is the messenger. Before getting married in rural areas, invitations need to be sent out. In the past, there were no such complete communication facilities, and people needed to deliver them. Of course, even if there are mobile phones now, the messenger must have them. The messenger is like a postman. It is the obligation to send the invitation to the home of relatives and friends of the host family. No matter how far the journey is or how difficult the road is, the sender must deliver it.
Li Hongbing took the cigarette and said with a smile, "Okay, a great intellectual guest is a great intellectual guest."

"Uncle Hong Bing, you can't just be a distinguished guest for the scholar, and you can't pull me away from my family's founding army!" Lao Gen saw that the most virtuous and respected person in the village was invited away by Shui Sheng, and his own son was also getting married. Who didn't know that Uncle Hong Bing was in the village? , and even the highest status in the entire forest area. A few days ago, the mayor of the town and the big boss of the province personally visited him.

If you can invite him to be a distinguished guest, your face will be bright when you tell people about it.

"I made a promise first. Jianjun hasn't said anything about getting married yet." Shui Sheng was also anxious. No matter how good the relationship was, his son's marriage was a top priority and no one could mess with it.

Seeing that the two of them were about to choke, Li Hongbing quickly walked to the middle.

Trying to level a bowl of water is not an easy task.

The same is true for great intellectuals. The palms of their hands and the backs of their hands are all of their own.

Fortunately, Jianjun and Xiucai got married together, so there was no delay.

"I'll take it for granted. We're getting married together anyway. Relatives and friends outside can't go into the mountains on this snowy day. They're all members of our own family. Why do we divide them so carefully?"

"No more arguing. Let's clear the snow quickly. We will go to the village committee later to discuss what to do."

(End of this chapter)