Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

On the way, Mu Xueli asked Wang An:

"Brother-in-law, what kind of wooden poles do we need?"

Wang An casually remarked:

"The longer the better, and it would be best if it were thinner. If it's too thick, it will be too heavy and might not stand up."

After Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli and Wang Li both nodded thoughtfully.

A dozen minutes later, the sled arrived at the red pine forest.

In comparison, ash, walnut, or yellow poplar wood are actually the best choices.

Because all three types of wood are hardwoods, extremely hard, much harder than red pine.

Unfortunately, all hardwoods grow extremely slowly.

Because no one takes care of them, most trees in the mountains, except for pine and poplar trees which tend to grow tall, have trunks that are only a few meters long, at most a dozen meters, and have many branches and forks. It is very difficult to find a long, thin, and sturdy trunk.

Therefore, pine is the preferred material for making triangular beams for building houses, as well as for erecting utility poles or television poles.

There's no other way; in the Lesser Khingan Mountains, pine trees are the most abundant, and they are straight and long. Moreover, pine wood is stronger, more durable, and more resistant to corrosion than poplar wood, so locals use pine wood the most.

Relatively speaking, Korean pine grows taller than larch and Scots pine, and has fewer branches than these two types of pine, so Korean pine is naturally the first choice among these three types of pine trees.

Not long after entering the red pine forest, Wang Li pointed to a red pine tree and shouted to Wang An:

"Fourth Brother, what do you think of this tree? I estimate it to be over 20 meters tall."

Wang An walked over, took one look, and immediately took a liking to it, saying happily:

“This tree is good, this tree is really good. You two should use it as a standard to find the right one. Don’t make it too thin, because it won’t be sturdy. Don’t make it too thick either, because it will be difficult to bring it home. Besides, even if you do bring it home, it won’t stand up.”

Wang An lit the chainsaw, looked up to observe the branches above the tree, checked the nearby trees for any obstructions, and then cut a triangular notch at the base of the tree. He then began sawing on the other side.

When Wang An saw the tree begin to sway, he shouted loudly:

"Down the mountain."

Although Wang An and his two companions did not see anyone else in the grove, they still had to shout the commands when releasing the trees, as was the custom for releasing trees.

The main concern is what if someone is hiding somewhere taking a dump or urinating? If they get hit by something, that would be a disaster.

After felling the tree, Wang An picked up a chainsaw and began to trim the branches.

Wang Li and Mu Xueli have also found other suitable red pine trees.

In this way, from finding suitable trees to placing them and pruning branches, Wang An and his two companions only took a little over forty minutes to prepare the four tree trunks to be used to make television poles.

They dragged the tree trunks out of the forest by horse, then harnessed them to a sled and loaded the trunks onto it. Wang An and his two companions then led the horses back home.

When Wang An and the other two arrived home, Wang Dazhu had already finished making all four TV stands, which were also four fishbone antennas.

Wang An and the other three men worked together to secure the television stand to one end of the television pole with nails and wooden boards. Wang An then connected the flat feeder wires to the fishbone antenna, and finally wrapped the joints with insulating tape. He then instructed Huang Zhong:
"Xiao Zhong, go to the warehouse and find the sledgehammer and chisel, and also find two shovels."

Afterwards, Wang An led Mu Xueli, Wang Li, and Huang Zhong to the backyard to dig a pit. The reason for digging a pit in the backyard was that the terrain there was higher, and these days, the higher the TV pole was erected, the better the signal.

Besides, Wang An also didn't want to put a TV pole next to the house because it was too tall and made of aluminum plates, so it was easy to attract lightning.

It's too dangerous!
When erecting a TV pole, it cannot be buried directly in the ground; instead, the pole must be able to rotate in place.

The purpose of doing this is to circle around in search of a signal.

That's right, you have to circle around to find the signal; otherwise, if the direction is wrong, the TV won't receive any programs.

Huang Zhong and Wang An were paired up; Huang Zhong held the chisel while Wang An swung the sledgehammer.

Mu Xueli and Wang Li were paired together. Sometimes Mu Xueli would swing the sledgehammer while Wang Li would hold the chisel, and sometimes Wang Li would swing the sledgehammer while Mu Xueli held the chisel.

And so, after nearly two hours of clanging and digging, the four men finally dug out two pits, each about 30 centimeters in diameter and 1.7 or 1.8 meters deep, totaling about two meters.

It has to be said that digging a hole in winter is a very time-consuming and laborious task.

After digging the pit, the villagers used the same method they used to erect utility poles to put the TV pole with the TV stand into the pit.

Back inside, Wang An connected the color TV to the flat feeder and turned on the power. He then directed everyone to shout and rotate the TV pole to find a signal.

That's right, it's the way of shouting and yelling, which is quite a characteristic of this era.

The operation involved having someone stand next to the TV pole, using a horizontal bar tied to it to rotate it, someone standing at the window to relay messages, and someone else standing in front of the TV to report whether there were any programs running.

Anyway, this job can't be done by one or two people.

Wang An told Wang Li and Mu Xueli how to turn the TV lever, and then Wang An put the color TV in the back room and started adjusting it.

To be honest, Wang An was just trying it out, because under normal circumstances, the television relay station in Xing'an Township does not broadcast television programs during the day.

Only county-level television relay stations, or those in the Xing'an Forest Farm area, will broadcast programs normally during the day.

To Wang An's utter surprise, whether it was because the TV stand in Wang An's house was set up very high, or because the signal from the relay station was relatively strong, Wang Li and Mu Xue only wandered around for a little over 10 minutes before a program appeared on the TV screen.

You can vaguely make out that the program on TV is a popular TV series in recent years - "The Mystery of Rose Fragrance".

The reason it was described as faint was because, as Wang An had predicted, the signal received by the television stand was not strong enough.

So the TV screen showed horizontal bars one minute and vertical bars the next, accompanied by static noise, which was very bad and greatly affected the viewing experience.

Even with such a ridiculous effect, Wang Yi, along with the sisters Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli, and Xiao Lai, who had been watching the spectacle, still clapped and cheered excitedly.

He excitedly shouted:

"We can watch TV now!!"

"We can watch TV now!!"

(End of this chapter)