Chapter 87 Sheep Manure Fertilizer

Zhao Yeqing grabbed a handful of rice he brought back from the mountain and scattered it on the ground to comfort the wounded heart of the hen.

I took Dahuang and the three puppies to introduce the new rabbits and chickens in the house, and only after making sure that they would not kill each other again did I continue to build the shed with peace of mind.

The land behind the house didn't have many weeds because it was frequently visited, so it wasn't difficult to deal with. In less than an hour, Mu Xi had turned over the land.

Zhao Yeqing left the task of building the greenhouse to him and went back to the house to prepare the vegetable seeds.

The seeds are a little delicate in the germination stage, so Zhao Yeqing plans to grow the seedlings in the house first and then sow them in the ground.

She used to have a seedling box at home, but now conditions are limited, so she split the remaining bamboo from making the cooling equipment, filled the groove in the middle of the bamboo with soil mixed with fertilizer, and drilled a few holes to facilitate drainage and avoid root rot.

Bamboo itself has nodes, which are just right for separating several types of seeds. Zhao Yeqing sowed the seeds separately in bamboo seedling pots, watered them thoroughly and waited for them to germinate.

The family used to compost kitchen waste, but now they no longer have the conditions to do so. The couple can’t even eat fresh vegetables now, and there is no such thing as kitchen waste.

Fortunately, there are more than a dozen fertilizer suppliers in the sheep pen.

When they first arrived, Mu Xi piled the sheep manure aside when he cleaned the sheep pen for the first time. Now it's all dealt with.

Sheep manure needs to be composted before use. Animal manure that has not been composted is prone to root burns and insect infestation.

Zhao Yeqing said something to Mu Xi and headed into the woods.

Like food waste composting, manure also requires carbon elements to mature, namely hay straw or dead leaves.

In the high temperature of over 40 degrees, these things are not scarce.

The woods near the meadow area are not evergreen broad-leaved forests like those in the south, but mostly deciduous broad-leaved forests.

The forest was a little more lively than the grassland. Zhao Yeqing tiptoed and caught several cicadas.

She remembered a saying in the summers of the past: If you catch the cicada, you have caught the summer.

But now she was numbed by the heat and just wanted to take all those summer days back to feed the chickens.

Walking anywhere in the woods, the ground is covered with birch leaves.

The birch tree is cold-resistant but not heat-resistant. The birch trees should have green leaves in summer, but now, even though the weather has not yet entered summer, the leaves are all over the ground.

The birch forest is very beautiful, with gray-white bark and branches with green and yellow leaves.

The yellow leaves stayed on the tree for too long and then swirled down.

The dead leaves were very light, and Zhao Yeqing packed them hard in the backpack, so a full basket didn't feel heavy on his back.

After carrying the leaves back and forth several times, I mixed the leaves with sheep manure, sprinkled water on them, covered them with plastic film, and maintained the humidity at around 50 percent.

It takes time for sheep manure to ferment. Zhao Yeqing looked around the house for work that needed to be done and saw that there were no goats in the sheepfold that needed to be shorn.

This was the life she least wanted to face.

Mu Xi finished setting up the shed and came over. Looking at her expression, one could tell that she was very troubled by the sheep's wool. She went back to the tool room, got a pair of scissors and went into the sheep pen.

You have to catch them one by one and shear their fur.

When sheep are caught, they are grabbed by the neck and throat; when goats are caught, they are grabbed by the two horns.

The trained sheep were very docile, and Mu Xi gently laid it down on the ground without it struggling at all.

Goat hair is different from sheep wool. Sheep wool is curly, while goat wool is long and straight.

In terms of the value of wool, goats are much more expensive than sheep. What is expensive is not the long, straight white wool, but the cashmere underneath.

Goat cashmere is not as thick as sheep wool, so shaving is relatively easy. However, both of them were inexperienced and afraid of scratching the sheep, so they moved very carefully, and their efficiency was not very high.

The wool is shaved off in pieces, and there is a lot of dirt in it that needs to be removed manually.

It took Mu Xi three days to shave the seven goats and four days to clean them. He felt Zhao Yeqing's pain firsthand.

Seeing that Mu Xi was more efficient than himself, Zhao Yeqing patted him on the shoulder and said, "From now on, this great and arduous task will be handed over to you."

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The sheep manure was composted for a week and stirred several times in the middle. Zhao Yeqing picked up the sheep manure particles and crushed them in his hand with a light squeeze.

She took a shovel and stirred it again. She saw a lot of white substance in the sheep dung pile, as if it was moldy. This was the fermentation of the bacteria in the sheep dung. After waiting for another week, it would be almost ready for use.

Zhao Yeqing returned to the house and tore off the plastic film that covered the bamboo seedling pots to retain moisture. The vegetable seedlings underneath all emerged lushly.

The seedlings grew too densely and needed to be thinned out. She was reluctant to throw away or feed the chickens the thinned seedlings as she had done before at home.

She hasn't had fresh vegetables for almost a month.

The thinned seedlings were gently placed aside. The bamboo seedling pot was very long and half of it was not used.

Zhao Yeqing filled this half with soil with fertilizer and carefully planted the seedlings.

After the sheep manure is decomposed, the seedlings can be transplanted into the field.

Mu Xi walked into the house from outside. He lived at the foot of the mountain last night and just came back from the mountain early in the morning carrying things.

The rice at home was almost eaten up, so he went down the mountain yesterday to take out the millet from the village barn to grind new rice. He was delayed and only came back today.

The villagers had some rice that was infested with insects at home, so Mu Xi carried some back and used it to feed the chickens.

Zhao Yeqing was very relieved to see that there was no more chaos in the yard.

Recently, I often take a few puppies to play on the grass near my home, and the puppies have become much more lively.

Xiaohua's front leg was broken, but she held it in front of her and ran very fast on three legs. She was the most lively among the puppies.

"Xiaohua!"

"Woof!"

Xiaohua already understood its own name. When it heard Zhao Yeqing calling it, it stuck out its tongue, grinned, and rushed over with a smile.

Zhao Yeqing stuffed a piece of dried meat into its mouth. Seeing the snacks, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hei also ran over, wagging their tails.

After feeding a few small ones, she did not ignore Dawang. She walked over to feed it snacks, touched its head, and sat with it under the eaves looking at the meadow outside.

Originally, the sheep should have been herded in the morning, but now the sun is too strong, so Dahuang can only start grazing in the afternoon when the sun is blocked by the mountain.

Sheep also need to eat grass in the morning.

A few days ago, when Mu Xi was cleaning the cashmere, Zhao Yeqing went outside to cut grass for a few days, and now it was almost finished.

When Dahuang went out to graze, she also had to go out to cut grass.

She now knew what the area surrounded by wire that she and Mu Xi had seen on the meadow was used for.

From the old man’s notes, I saw that those areas were called Cao Kulun, which is a transliteration of Mongolian and means grass circle.

It means enclosing grassland within a certain range and cultivating forage grass inside.

This can increase forage production and prevent overgrazing, and is also a good source of transitional fodder when forage is scarce in winter and spring.

When the sun was setting, Zhao Yeqing and Mu Xi followed Da Huang out.

In addition to mowing the lawn, they also need to investigate how many grass circles there are around.