As the saying goes: A clean winter solstice means a messy year.

The sun was shining brightly on the winter solstice this year, and it was so hot at noon that people had to take off their cotton jackets.

Sure enough, it was a gloomy day on New Year's Eve, and it looked like it was going to snow again.

Yesterday, Dad and Dahua dusted off every corner. This year, the first family in the village was slaughtering a pig. They bought 20 kilograms of pork, rubbed 10 kilograms with salt and put them in a jar, and the remaining 10 kilograms were prepared for the New Year.

The weather is cold, so meat and vegetables will not go bad. You can use pork to make a few dishes and heat them up during the Chinese New Year.

One is braised pork, with the meat wrapped in thick oil and red sauce. If you can’t finish it this time, you can steam it in a steamer for the next meal. The longer it is steamed, the more tender and flavorful it becomes.

The leftover broth can also be used to make dried bamboo shoots. At the beginning of spring, Dahua and his father went to the mountains to pick spring bamboo shoots, cut them into slices, blanched them in water, and then dried them.

The second one is stuffing meat with fried gluten or fried tofu. Chop the fat and lean meat into foam, add ginger, rice wine, soy sauce and salt, mix well, poke a hole in the fried gluten or fried tofu, stir it hollow and stuff the meat in, put it in a pot and cook for more than ten minutes.

The third one is egg dumplings, which are actually similar to the second one, except that the outer skin of this one is made of egg.

Making egg dumplings is a bit difficult. First, the tools are too large for ordinary iron pots, so you need to use an iron spoon that scoops boiling water from the pot. Second, the heat must be controlled well, as overheating will easily burn the egg skin.

Qiuhua moved the coal stove into the house and sat next to it on a small stool. Next to it were two pounds of minced meat, ten beaten eggs, and a small piece of lard.

Heat the iron spoon on the coal stove for a while, use chopsticks to pick up lard and wipe the iron spoon. When the lard is hot, pour a little egg liquid into the iron spoon, turn the handle of the iron spoon flexibly, and a round egg dumpling skin is ready.

Put some meat on top, lift up one side of the egg skin to cover it, press the edge firmly, turn it over, and an egg dumpling is ready.

With these three delicious dishes, you can have a great year.

Erhua will spend New Year's Eve in Tangli Village and return to Hetou Village on New Year's Day. Some of these dishes are also prepared for the two newlywed couples.

This was their first year after marriage, so their family took it very seriously.

Qiuhua was concentrating on her work. She only looked up to look outside after the last egg dumpling was placed on the plate.

Wow, it’s snowing so heavily!

Outside the house, there was a vast expanse of white, and the sky and the earth seemed to be filled with snow-white cotton. If you walked to the door and grabbed a few handfuls, you could probably sew a cotton jacket.

Qiuhua spent the whole afternoon sitting by the coal stove, feeling warm. Mom and Dad were frying pumpkin seeds by the stove, and Dahua and Xiaojuan were busy cleaning the house.

When the family is together, even if it snows heavily outside, the heart is calm and warm.

After finishing the work, it was not yet dinner time, so Mom brought the freshly fried pumpkin seeds to the table, and everyone took a bowl and poured tea. Dahua and Dad had proper tea, and everyone else scooped a spoonful of sugar into the tea.

I couldn’t even imagine this day before!

Dahua looked at the heavy snow outside, blew into the bowl, took a sip, and reached out to pick a pumpkin seed.

The pumpkin seeds were still hot, with steam coming out of them. He pinched them lightly with two fingers and put them in his mouth. He bit them with his teeth and licked them with his tongue, and the meat was in his mouth.

"Oh, the weather is so bad this year. I don't know how many of my camphor seedlings will be left in the spring."

Xiaojuan sipped the sugar water in the bowl and felt a little better in her mouth. Ever since she became pregnant, she has liked eating sweet things.

People say sour boys and spicy girls, so what is she like?

"Do your best and leave the rest to fate. There's no point in worrying. Relax and have a good New Year. When spring comes, go and plant half an acre. I believe you can do a good job."

Qiuhua nodded and said, "Sister-in-law is right. I believe you, too."

The two of them felt relieved and praised Dahua for feeling relaxed. He cracked a handful of pumpkin seeds with a smile on his face.

"I heard the county is going to build a forest farm. I wonder if they're hiring planters. I plan to go and ask after the New Year."

"Can't you just ask my dad about this? Why bother with that?"

Dahua looked at Xiaojuan lovingly. Her increasingly round face looked even more beautiful.

"I won't bother him with such a small matter. I'll go ask about it myself. Of course, we can't delay the tree planting in the village. We have to do both things together and do them well."

Xiaojuan held the bowl and drank, but her eyes were staring at Dahua. She originally liked Dahua's honesty and kindness, but now she felt that he was more capable and ambitious.

“Everyone in the village is looking forward to a good harvest every year, so I thought that every household would take the seedlings from me, and then pick out the strong ones to transplant after three months.

These good seedlings can be used as timber after being planted for a few years. The rest of the seedlings will grow for a year. When they reach half a meter, we can contact the city to collect them and the harvest will come.

We also need fruit trees, but it's best if they don't take up everyone's land. It's best to plant them on the hillside."

The whole family listened carefully to Dahua's plan, and Dad nodded repeatedly as he listened.

How could this be the same little monkey he used to chase and beat? He had thought through every detail so thoroughly!

"Okay, I agree with everything you said! I never thought you would consider this.

Our little hill doesn't produce much, it's really a waste. If we could plant some fruit trees, our descendants would all enjoy the benefits!"

Dad was so excited when he was talking that he didn't notice the saliva accumulating at the corners of his mouth.

"However, this matter needs to be decided at a village meeting. This mountain belongs to everyone."

Dahua's words made sense. My father nodded and said, "We must discuss it. We can only plant the crops after everyone agrees. But I'm confident that the villagers will agree. This will increase everyone's yield. Who wouldn't agree?"

This was the first time that the father and son had such a good chat.

Blood relationship is a very magical thing. Because the father and son have similar temperaments, if they don’t get along, they will be like fighting cocks. If they get along, they can understand each other tenfold if they talk three-tenths of the time.

"Have you decided what kind of fruit trees to plant on the mountain?" Dad felt a little unsatisfied after twisting the last pumpkin seed.

"Loquats, oranges, peaches, and bayberries can all be grown! Dad, could you give me some advice?"

When Dahua asked this question, his father suddenly felt that the burden on him was heavy. The fact that his son asked him for advice showed that he was convinced of his opinion.

"These three fruit trees are all good, and you can plant some of them. However, bayberry trees take up a lot of space, and bayberry trees are not easy to store, so you should plant fewer. Oranges are easy to store and the trees are not big, so you should plant more. Loquats and peaches are about the same."

The two of them talked back and forth, and no one else could get a word in, but everyone was listening with fascination.

As the sky gradually darkened, my mother lit a pair of red candles on the long table and three incense sticks. After they burned for a while, the ashes formed a flower.

The old man said that a flower in the ash indicates that the family will be prosperous!