This year, the educated youth team has acquired tractors and oxen and horses, which has led to many differences in their work methods compared to last year, mainly in the transportation of timber.

Originally, the logs were carried by hand, piled up, and then slid down the mountain through the ice ditch.

This process is time-consuming, laborious, and extremely dangerous; a single misstep can lead to a production accident.

Nowadays, mechanical timber collection and ox-and-horse harness timber collection are used, which are highly efficient, fast, save manpower, and are safer.

Sheng Xiping held a meeting with several key members and divided the educated youth team of about sixty people into several groups.

The logging team, led by Wang Jianshe, Guo Yongping, and Yu Shuaijun, with chainsaw assistants, was specifically tasked with felling trees.

After that, Zhang Zhijun and Pan Fusheng led a group of people to form a branch-cutting team, wielding axes to cut down branches.

The lumber-making team followed closely behind, using curved-handle saws to cut lumber, trying to make as long as possible and avoiding short pieces.

After timber processing, the next step is timber collection. Chen Weiguo and Sheng Xiping take turns driving tractors and using sleds to transport timber from the Dajianchang farm.

When using cattle and horse harnesses to collect timber, people walk on the left side of the harnesses, which is both safe and helps the cattle and horses sit on the slope.

After the sled comes to a stop on the mountain, the timber preparation team rolls the larger ends of the long timbers that need to be collected onto the sled and secures them.

Then the villagers would go down the mountain to the market to unload the goods at the lengchang, and then the people from the lengchang group would return them to the lengchang.

Tractor-driven timber collection involves securing logs to a pallet frame with locking straps and dragging them across the ground.

This method allows for the dragging of many logs at once, forming a fan-shaped pattern on the ground, hence the name "fan-shaped timber collection method."

However, this method causes great damage to seedlings, saplings, and trees to be preserved in the work area, so it is more suitable for clear-cutting.

For timber collection in work areas that combine harvesting and cultivation, tractors are required to stay on the collection road and collect timber one piece at a time, hoisting it onto the loading platform after the load is full and transporting it to the loading yard.

The chainsaw operator and tractor driver in the educated youth team were all newcomers who had just received their certifications this year.

At first, the factory was worried and specially arranged for the production manager and safety officer to be on-site to keep an eye on things.

Although Sheng Xiping and the others were novices, they were just as capable as the veterans when it came to work.

Young people have plenty of strength; they are not only steady but also fast at their work.

The production manager followed them for four or five days and found that the educated youth team worked very quickly and efficiently, so he immediately arranged for people from other work teams to come and learn from them.

The work procedures and methods of the educated youth teams were promoted in several work teams in the forest farm.

Working on the mountain was incredibly tedious and boring. The only time to relax and unwind was after dinner each evening, when everyone would gather at the canteen and chat and gossip.

In the blink of an eye, the work team has been working on the mountain for almost two months. Several snowfalls have occurred on the mountain, and the temperature is getting lower and lower.

In the mountains where temperatures drop to minus 30 or 40 degrees Celsius, forestry workers wear thick cotton-padded coats and trousers, leather hats, felt socks, and thick cotton-padded shoes.

Braving the wind and snow, shouting loud work songs, they felled tree after tree, then transported them out of the mountains to various places to support national construction.

The workers were working themselves to the bone on the mountain, while their families at home were on tenterhooks, hoping every day that their husbands and children would come down the mountain safely.

"Mom, the final exams are over, and the students are on holiday today. We'll probably have to wait another seven or eight days."

Didn't you say you wanted to make sticky rice cakes? Hurry up and soak the rice. It'll be perfect after soaking for a few days to grind the rice. I guess I'll be on holiday by then.

Yunfang, Yunfei, and I worked together, and the girls and I finished wrapping them all in one day.

On the afternoon of December 25th, after the elementary school final exams, Zhou Qinglan, heavily pregnant and supporting her lower back, pushed open the door and entered the house, speaking to Zhang Shuzhen.

Previously, Liu Yujiang had brought a lot of sticky cornmeal and sticky sorghum to the Sheng family, and Zhang Shuzhen said she wanted to save them to make sticky rice cakes.

This sticky rice cake is made by soaking various sticky grains, such as millet, corn, sorghum, and rice, in water for three to five days, and then sending them to the mill to be ground in a water mill.

Push the dough back and put it into a flour bag to drain the water. After it has drained to a certain extent, pour the dough out into a basin and knead it vigorously until it is elastic, soft and not sticky.

Then take a small ball of sticky dough, wrap it around red bean paste cooked with saccharin, and flatten it.

Place a griddle in a pot, heat the pot until dry, and once the griddle is hot, place the sticky hot spoon on the griddle and cook until done.

This job is very complicated and can't be done by one person alone.

Before the school holiday, Zhou Qinglan, Sheng Yunfang, and Sheng Yunfei didn't have time, so Zhang Shuzhen kept mentioning it but never soaked the rice, thinking she would wait until the school holiday was over.

Today, the school exams finally ended, and Zhou Qinglan immediately brought it up to her mother-in-law as soon as she entered the door.

"Perfect timing, before I give birth, I'll quickly wrap up the sticky fire bread."

Otherwise, after I give birth, you'll have to take care of me during my postpartum period and make sticky rice cakes; I won't have time for that."

As Zhou Qinglan spoke, she untied her scarf. The weather was incredibly cold at the end of December, and you had to be bundled up tightly when you went out.

"It's soaking. I started soaking the rice yesterday."

As soon as Zhang Shuzhen saw her daughter-in-law enter the door, she quickly grabbed a clean towel and went over to brush the snow off her daughter-in-law.

It's snowing again outside, and the snow is quite heavy. On the way from school to home, Zhou Qinglan's head and shoulders were covered with a thin layer of snow.

"How are you feeling today? Does your stomach hurt? Have you been experiencing tightness in your stomach?"

With only about ten days left until the due date, Zhang Shuzhen has been asking about her daughter-in-law every day, worried that since it's her first pregnancy and she has no experience, something might go wrong.

"Mom, I'm fine. Everything's great, and I don't feel any stomach pain. I'm just a little tired, but that's nothing."

Zhou Qinglan smiled and shook her head. Her pregnancy was indeed going well. Apart from the torment of vomiting in the early stages of pregnancy, the child had no other problems.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!