Reborn in a small mountain village in 1991

Chapter 106 The Family Working Together

Xu Chunsheng chose to use sweet potato vines as silage mainly because the vines are stored in this way, retaining their nutrients completely, maintaining good palatability, and having a long shelf life, unlike hay which takes up a lot of space.

"Second brother, second brother, why do we have to dry the sweet potato vines before cutting them? Can't we just cut them and use them directly?"

Today, Xu Yaomei didn't have to go to school. She finished her homework at home before coming to the pig farm. Seeing her parents, older brother, and older sister all busy working, she came over to help.

These past few days, the yards of her house and the pig farm have been filled with drying sweet potato vines. Xu Yaomei initially thought that these sweet potato vines would be made into dried pig feed, just like before.

So she had never asked before. Today she learned that the sweet potato vines were to be fermented to feed the pigs. She couldn't help but wonder why they didn't just chop the sweet potato vines up.

"Because fresh sweet potato vines are easily damaged by dampness and rising temperatures, they last longer after being dried in the sun."

Xu Chunsheng explained it to Xu Yaomei in simple terms, because if he explained it in too complicated a way, Yaomei wouldn't understand.

The key to making silage is to reduce the moisture content to 65%-70% so that it can ferment well and is less likely to rot.

Fresh sweet potato vines have a high water content, and direct silage can easily lead to water accumulation. If the fermentation temperature is too high, bacteria can easily grow, resulting in a sour and smelly condition.

By drying the sweet potato vines until they wilt and soften, they become easier to chop and can be compacted more effectively, reducing air pockets within the vines.

In addition, proper moisture control can create a more favorable environment for fermentation, thus preserving the quality of sweet potato vines to a greater extent and preventing them from rotting due to waterlogging.

"Do pigs like to eat sweet potato vines like this?"

"Of course I like it! How could I not like it? Pigs like to eat everything."

"But when we use this to feed the pigs, we can't feed them too much at once, otherwise they'll get diarrhea."

Xu Chunsheng patiently explained each of Xu Yaomei's questions to her.

Sweet potato vines grown in silage have a high water content and low crude fiber content, as well as low protein and energy content. They need to be fed with corn and bran.

In addition, they should not be fed too much, because silage sweet potato vines are highly acidic, and feeding too much can easily cause bloating and diarrhea in pigs.

In addition, pregnant pigs, piglets, and sick pigs are not suitable for being fed sweet potato vines for silage.

Xu Yaomei handed Xu Chunsheng a bunch of sweet potato vines, her eyes sparkling: "Wow, brother, you know so much!"

Xu Chunsheng smiled as he took the sweet potato vines and placed them under the cleaver, cutting them into sections five or six centimeters long. He said to Xu Yaomei, "Isn't your brother amazing? I learned all of this from books. If you read more books, you can also learn a lot and become very capable."

Xu Yaomei felt a headache coming on when she heard the word "reading". She felt that reading school books was already very mentally taxing, and having to read other books was really too much for her.

"That's right, little sister, you should read more books. There's a wealth of knowledge in books." Books don't lie.

Xu's father was also chopping sweet potato vines with a guillotine, urging his youngest sister to study hard.

Even Xu's mother and eldest sister nodded in agreement, saying, "That's right, little sister should study hard so she can find a job later."

"You should learn from your third brother, get good grades, and go to university in a big city. We can also go to the big city with you and broaden our horizons."

Xu Yaomei's studies have always been a headache for the family. She completes her homework diligently every day, but she just can't guarantee the accuracy of her answers.

In other aspects, Xu Yaomei is practically the "perfect child" in the eyes of others. She doesn't need to be worried about by adults at all, and she will even take the initiative to help with chores and make her family happy.

Xu Chunsheng didn't necessarily want Xu Yaomei to have outstanding grades, nor was he trying to compete with others. Rather, he hoped that Xu Yaomei would have more choices in the future.

Of course, as long as she works hard enough, Xu Yaomei won't need to make any choices in the future; she can just live a happy life.

The group divided the work among themselves and got to their tasks.

Xu Chunsheng and his father kept chopping sweet potato vines, while Xu's mother and eldest sister used a sieve to collect the chopped sweet potato vines and pour them into the fermentation tank.

Each time a layer was laid, the eldest sister would take a wooden rammer down into the pool and compact the sweet potato vines little by little.

This is done to completely remove the air from between the sweet potato vines, creating an anaerobic environment that allows the lactic acid bacteria to ferment normally.

Another point is that compacting the sweet potato vines allows the fermentation tank to hold more, resulting in a better sealing effect and a longer shelf life.

Xu Yaomei was busy like a spinning top in the courtyard, helping to pass sweet potato vines and helping her mother put the broken vines into a dustpan.

Now, she's squatting by the fermentation tank, constantly cheering on her older sister: "Go, big sister! Go, big sister!"

The older sister smiled and looked up, telling her to squat further back: "Step back a little, don't get too close to the pool."

As Xu's mother turned around with a basket of sweet potato vines, she saw Xu Yaomei squatting by the fermentation tank. She was so frightened that she didn't dare to make a sound, afraid of scaring Xu Yaomei.

She quickly went over and pulled Xu Yaomei away a little: "Oh my, my little one, that's such a high step, what if you fall down? It's so scary!"

After saying that, she gently patted Xu Yaomei's buttocks twice.

Xu Yaomei pouted, covered her bottom with both hands, and looked at her mother with wide eyes: "Mom, I was wrong, I won't do it again next time."

Seeing her daughter's expression, Xu's mother's heart melted, but her face remained stern: "Remember? How did I teach you before? Which places you can't go?"

Xu Yaomei sniffed and mumbled, "I can't go to the riverbank, I can't go to the woods, I can't go to high places—"

Xu Chunsheng carried over a basket of sweet potato vines, his face somewhat dark: "You can't just remember it, you have to be able to do it. Putting aside everything else, if you get hurt, you'll be the one suffering the pain, right?"

"Xu Chunsheng was also frightened by Xu Yaomei just now. This pool is two meters deep. If someone really falls in, it would be very dangerous."

This also reminded Xu Chunsheng that he needed to build a fence around the pigsty. Although no one else would come to the pig farm on weekdays, his family would come to check on the pigsty every day. Building an extra fence would provide an extra layer of protection.

Hearing Xu Chunsheng's words, Xu Yaomei realized her mistake, but she also felt a little wronged. She pouted, buried her head in her mother's arms, and didn't want to talk to Xu Chunsheng.

She muttered to herself, "My brother scolded me, so I don't like him today."

Xu Chunsheng was too far away to hear clearly, but his mother, who was holding her, heard it clearly and smiled helplessly: "Alright, alright, little sister, be good. Brother wasn't scolding you. Brother was just worried about you."

Xu Chunsheng heard him clearly this time, and reached out and curled his index finger to tap the little girl's head: "I'm not only going to scold you, I'm going to hit you too."

"Ugh, brother, you're so mean! I still love big sister the most."

After Xu Yaomei finished speaking, she broke free from her mother's arms, wiggled her short legs, and ran down the slope left by the fermentation tank. She grabbed her eldest sister's leg and complained to her, "Big sister, second brother scolded me, please help me beat him up! Humph."

After saying that, Xu Yaomei made a face at Xu Chunsheng above.

Before she could even finish dressing up, her older sister gently pulled the corners of her mouth apart with her hand: "I'll help you deal with your brother later, but I'll deal with you first."

"Look up, isn't this pool taller than you? It's twice your height! If you fell in and landed on the concrete, it would hurt so much!"

"Our little sister is so pretty and cute. If she falls and gets hurt, she'll have an ugly scar on her face, which won't look good."

""

The eldest sister teased Xu Yaomei, who usually paid the most attention to her appearance. She would wear different hair accessories to school every day and make sure they matched her clothes.

Other kids of this age are always climbing trees to steal bird eggs or going down into ditches to catch crabs; they can't even stay still for ten minutes during recess.

Only Xu Yaomei would take out her sketchbook during the ten-minute break between classes and draw clothes and patterns that she thought were pretty.

With this skill, Xu Yaomei has already gained a group of female fans in Chunxiao.

Sometimes when Xiaowei wanted to play with other boys, Xu Yaomei wouldn't allow him to go. She insisted that Xiaowei choose the picture he thought was nice from the pictures she drew, and then Xu Yaomei would eliminate Xiaowei's options and pick the picture she liked.

So when she heard her older sister say that she might have a scar after falling, Xu Yaomei didn't feel wronged at all and immediately promised, "I, Xu Yaomei, swear to God that I will definitely not let myself have a scar!"

No one knows where Xu Yaomei learned it, but it made her older sister and Xu Chunsheng, who had just come down, laugh uncontrollably: "Alright, alright, we know our little sister loves to be pretty. Hurry up and go up, your older sister has to work. Be careful, or the rammer might hit our little sister's pretty face."

"Sis, you take a break, I'll do the pressing."

Tamp down sweet potato vines may seem simple, but it's actually quite a laborious task. The weight of the wooden rammer is uncertain, so each strike requires a lot of force, pressing down layer by layer, which is extremely time-consuming and laborious.

"Okay, call me when you get tired, and I'll take over."

The eldest sister took Xu Yaomei's hand and walked up the slope, asking her about trivial matters such as whether she had finished her homework and whether the door was locked.

Xu Chunsheng picked up a wooden rammer and pressed the sweet potato vines down firmly, one stroke at a time. Before long, fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his arms began to ache.

"Phew~"

Xu Chunsheng straightened up, looked at the compacted sweet potato vines in front of him, and rubbed his back and arms: "Thank goodness I'm young!"

Xu Chunsheng stepped out of the fermentation tank, poured himself a bowl of tea, and gulped it down in two mouthfuls: "Ah, that feels good!"

In the courtyard, the eldest sister took over Xu Chunsheng's place and sat there chopping sweet potato vines. The family worked for a long time, but the sweet potato vines in the courtyard did not look any less.

It would take twelve or thirteen tons of sweet potato vines to fill this pool, and it would take several people working around the clock for four or five days to finish the job.

While they were considering whether to hire someone to help with the work, Xiaowei's mother arrived at the Xu family's pig farm alone.

Xiao Wei's mother greeted the group, saying, "You've already started cutting sweet potato vines! I was just saying I'd come and see when you'd start packing the vines to help out, but I didn't expect you'd already started."

After saying that, she picked up the dustpan from the ground and started helping with the work.

Mother Xu quickly pulled her aside: "Sister Fang, sit down and rest for a while. There's plenty of work to do, no need to rush."

"Where's Xiaowei?"

"Xiaowei is at home. I was thinking that if you're busy here, I won't go back for lunch. I'll cook lunch for his grandfather at home."

When the Xu family collected pig feed last time, Xiaowei's mother also came to help, but Xiaowei was at school at that time.

Xiaowei's mother would come to help out every morning when it was cool, and then go home to feed her father-in-law when it got hot. She would come back to help out again in the afternoon.

Because of these things, the Xu family was willing to help Xiaowei's family from time to time.

He even told Xiaowei's mother that if it rained heavily after school, Xiaowei should stay at Xu Chunsheng's house for the night, so that Xiaowei's mother wouldn't have to worry about waiting for her son to come home.

Therefore, Xiaowei's mother always felt indebted to the Xu family, and would occasionally save up some eggs and fruit from her own fruit trees to send to them.

Moreover, whenever she heard that the Xu family had something to do, she would take the initiative to help.

Xiaowei's mother's sincerity had long since dispelled the initial awkwardness and distance between the Xu family members, and they had become much closer to each other.

With Xiaowei's mother's help, the group worked even faster. Xu Chunsheng and his father took turns doing the more strenuous work of tamping down the sweet potato vines, while leaving the easier task of chopping the sweet potato vines to the ladies.

Xu Chunsheng also found a knife and a wooden board that he used to chop pig feed in the house and slowly chopped the sweet potato vines.

After working for a while longer, Xu's mother couldn't take it anymore. She simply told them, "You guys keep working, I'm going back to make lunch. Sister Fang, you should rest for a bit too, and come over to eat with them later."

.

Xiao Wei's mother nodded: "Okay, your cooking is so good, I'm sure I'll eat two extra bowls of rice later."

After Xu's mother left, the group chatted about everyday things while working, and time passed quite quickly.

Seeing that it was almost time, Xu's father poured the sweet potato vines from the basket into the pond and called to Xu Chunsheng below, "Erwa, finish pressing these and then we'll stop. It's about time to go back for dinner."

Xu Chunsheng replied without looking up, "Okay, you guys go first, I'll come later."

The lunch today was exceptionally lavish.

In the very center was a bowl overflowing with twice-cooked pork, along with a simmered broth. Some fresh greens and pumpkins picked from the field were also added to the pot, along with a stir-fried egg dish and two other home-style side dishes. The table was laden with food, partly to thank Xiaowei's mother for her help, and partly because Xu's mother felt that the family had worked hard all day and deserved some good food to nourish them.

Xu Yaomei approached the table, her eyes lighting up as she inhaled the aroma of the food, a smile playing on her lips.

She stared at the glistening, tempting twice-cooked pork, then at the golden scrambled eggs, her mouth watering. She stood obediently to the side, waiting for dinner to be served.

Seeing this, Xu's mother smiled and patted her youngest sister's head: "Are you craving it? Don't rush, we'll start eating once everyone is seated."

Xu Chunsheng wiped the sweat from his face and sat down at the table: "The dishes are so plentiful today. All the hard work this morning was worth it. Thank you for coming to help, Auntie."

Xiao Wei's mother waved her hands repeatedly: "It's just a little bit of work, it's not hard at all. I'll definitely come if you need me."