Chapter 188 After Winter

The temperature required for growing sweet potato seedlings is relatively high, and it is best to plant them before the vernal equinox. Under normal circumstances, the temperature during the vernal equinox is about thirteen degrees.

The temperature has reached three or four degrees recently. At the current rate of warming, it will reach ten degrees in about a month.

The sweet potato seedling raising period is nearly one and a half months. If you prepare now, it should be almost time for planting.

Potatoes are not so particular. As long as the ground temperature is above five degrees, they will sprout, and the sprouts can emerge from the ground as long as the ground temperature is above ten degrees.

There is still about ten centimeters of snow now. As long as the weather is good, it will melt completely soon.

There are a lot of things to do in the early spring, and the two of them have filled their schedules with so much work that they have almost no time to rest.

Zhao Yeqing didn't know whether he should plant according to the sowing time in the north or the south.

Considering the current temperature, it is more appropriate to plant according to the northern time, as there will be more time and the seeds can be sown about a month later.

But she was also afraid that the temperature would suddenly rise for a long time like last year. If the temperature continued to rise as before, this late month might lead to a significant reduction in production.

She was too greedy and wanted to plant too many things. In addition to the wheat and rice she had originally planned, she also wanted to plant soybeans and rapeseed. There was no glutinous rice left at home, so she wanted to plant some.

These are crops that can be prepared for planting in early spring, and corn also needs to be planted in late spring.

Since she has wheat and rice, she doesn't have to eat corn. It's just that the chickens, sheep, and cows at home will grow better if they have corn as concentrated feed.

If you are too lazy to take care of it, you can harvest the corn before it matures, crush it together with the stalks, and feed it directly to cattle and sheep or make it into silage, which is also a particularly good raw material.

"Since the snow hasn't completely melted yet, we can go check out the meadows and see where we can grow rice."

The site for growing rice has to be close to a water source. Otherwise, it would be necessary to cut a lot of bamboo to divert water over long distances, which would not only increase manpower, but would also be easily damaged by animals and would require frequent repairs, which would also be troublesome.

The two of them took Xiaohong to the meadow and brought along a few dogs from their home.

Huhu and Xuebing have not returned home for the past two days. After the temperature started to get warmer, the two of them sometimes would not come back every day. Ever since a lynx appeared in the house, the two of them chased it out and have been returning home less and less frequently.

The last time I saw you at home was two days ago.

Seeing that she was a little depressed, Mu Xi softened his voice and said, "Don't worry, the two have been hunting outside for so long without any problems. Maybe they have just grown up."

Zhao Yeqing was stunned when she heard this. She calculated the time and it seemed to be true.

A year and a half has passed since I picked up the two cubs. The clouded leopard has become an adult at eighteen months old.

She felt as if she had suddenly discovered that her eighteen-year-old daughter was in love.

Don’t tell me how I feel, it’s quite complicated.

Then I thought again, generally speaking, leopards will leave their mothers when they are about two years old. Could this be a sign?

Thinking about it this way, I feel even more depressed.

Although I was mentally prepared when I brought the two cats home, I still felt a little reluctant for a moment.

However, there was still half a year to adapt. She adjusted her mindset and looked at the group of dogs running around her feet. Her wounded heart was instantly comforted.

It turns out that this world cannot exist without puppies!

The two of them staggered to the original wheat field. The snow in this area was originally thin, and now it has melted to only a thin layer.

The wheat seedlings underneath that had been frozen to death were exposed.

My heart, which had just recovered, was instantly blocked again.

She suddenly remembered a sentence from her Chinese textbook when she was a child: "I love this land deeply."

But in reality, there are very few farmers who truly love the land.

Zhao Yeqing squatted beside the wheat field, gently stroking the frozen wheat seedlings.

There are many real farmers around her, working hard in the fields. They cannot see the pastoral idyll, but only endless farm work and sweat.

Her grandparents didn’t farm, so when she was a child, they took her down the mountain. She once asked an uncle who was sitting by the field to rest, “Is farming fun?”

She vaguely remembered that the other party seemed to have heard a joke, and laughed twice, and the gust of air shook off the cigarette ash that had not yet been shaken off, and then she got the reply,

"There's nothing fun about farming."

It’s not that it’s fun, nor that it’s not fun, but I have never thought that farming is something that can be related to entertainment.

Farming is about food and clothing, survival, and relying on the weather for food.

Just like now, she saw the wheat seedlings that she had carefully cared for, but could not withstand the natural disaster and were frozen.

There was nothing I could do but sigh, then pick up the hoe and continue farming.

Suddenly, Mu Xi grabbed her hand, pulled her up from the ground, and pointed to a corner of the grassland next to her.

"Look, there are still a few trees blooming."

Zhao Yeqing saw a few alfalfa plants breaking through the thin snow on the forage field. They swayed gently in the breeze and blossomed with small purple flowers.

The depression in her chest suddenly dissipated.

"Let's go! Let's go to the front and take a look!"

In the winter in the south, the wind blows from the north, bringing a cool breeze that makes people feel refreshed.

It hadn't snowed for a long time, and there were many animal footprints uncovered on the unmelted snow on the ground.

There are quite a lot of varieties, from all families and genera.

The largest group of animals seem to be deer.

"The deer hoof prints are not very far apart, and they were all walking at a normal pace. There shouldn't be any wolves there."

If there were a threat like a wolf pack, the distance between the deer's footprints would not be just a few dozen centimeters when they run.

Unlike the endless white snow before, although there is still snow now, the meadow is full of traces of being opened up by animals.

Zhao Yeqing found a place with the most deer feces. The snow here had been cleared away, revealing the bare grass underneath.

Not completely bare either.

At the very bottom there is a cold-resistant variety of grass that has quietly poked its head out. It is not very tall, only about one centimeter, and the deer cannot eat it at this length.

The dogs were sniffing the ground, and suddenly Da Huang ran forward.

Her first reaction was to wonder if the dogs had smelled fresh deer dung and were running forward to chase the deer.

The two of them ran after him, and Zhao Yeqing called out twice, "Da Huang!"

The big yellow head in front looked forward and stopped reluctantly.

Seeing that she was approaching, he ran forward again.

The two men could only chase after them. After running two hundred meters, the dogs stopped.

Zhao Yeqing raised his eyes and saw a brown and yellow animal appearing in front of him. It was standing with two teeth bared, its hands raised in front of it, looking at them curiously.