Chapter 62 Weaving Willow Baskets
It's been too hot these past few days, so I've been eating mostly vegetarian food and haven't let the dogs eat with me.
Feeding them dog food separately, along with some milk powder, makes them quite happy.
The puppies have grown a bit bigger now, and they can open their eyes and start to waddle around the world.
Little Earth and Little Melon spent all day with their bellies pressed against the floor, listless and constantly sleeping.
The puppies, on the contrary, seemed unaffected by the heat, full of energy every day, crawling around everywhere.
Seeing that my little brothers and melons were suffering from the heat, I invited them to the summer resort I had just created.
The two dogs provided a great deal of emotional support.
They were clearly taken aback when they came in, stunned by the sudden coolness before them.
Then he comfortably lay down on the ground and refused to move.
I'm worried that the air conditioning in the basement might be too cold and not be good for the newly born little plant.
So they found a newly made small cotton mat and laid it on the ground.
The little goat, shameless as ever, assumed it was prepared for it by me and immediately climbed up.
Xiao Di looked at Xiao Gua speechlessly, then quietly lay down on a corner of the cotton mat.
Sometimes I feel like Xiaogua is really the kind of clueless, clueless man who doesn't know how to cherish his wife.
I looked at Xiaogua speechlessly, then opened the door and left the dark room.
They fished out the four puppies and carried them all into the dark room.
These four chubby little fleshy balls were spinning back and forth in my hands.
I was afraid these four little guys with poor eyesight would fall into the basement, so I put them directly on the kang (a heated brick bed).
They hummed and chirped as they observed the completely unfamiliar scene before them.
Xiao Di raised his eyelids slightly when he heard the puppy barking.
As soon as it saw me next to the puppy, it closed its eyes and fell asleep peacefully again.
"Stop yelling, your mother doesn't care about you anymore."
As I spoke, I picked the fattest puppy, pinned it down, and then gently rubbed its little belly with my hands.
It stopped barking, but it struggled to get up using its four little paws.
She's both clumsy and adorable.
I couldn't bear to see it struggle so much, so I manually flipped it over again.
The four puppies seemed exhausted from my antics, and they lay motionless on the bedding, fast asleep.
Four puppies were sleeping on the kang (a heated brick bed), and my little Di and Xiaogua, whom I raised with my own hands, were sleeping under the kang.
A sense of happiness welled up within me as I grew sleepy.
I lay down next to the four puppies.
I held them in my arms to prevent them from falling to the ground and getting hurt while I was asleep.
I slept very soundly, but woke up halfway through because I was cold.
My nose was a little cold from the cold, so I pulled the summer blanket over myself and continued to sleep.
I had only been asleep for less than an hour when I was woken up by the whimpering of the puppies.
I glanced at the time; it was 3 PM.
It's still early; it's not time for me to go to the fields to work yet.
The indoor temperature is cool now, so I covered the basement with wooden planks.
Pick up the puppy and put it on the ground, then let Xiaodi and Xiaogua take care of it.
He put on a long-sleeved jacket and a sun hat, took a sickle, and left home.
As soon as I stepped out of the house, a wave of heat hit me, and I immediately felt suffocated.
I quickened my pace, intending to go and return quickly.
Walk along the small earthen slope outside the courtyard to the outermost part, close to the village road.
There are several large willow trees here, with dense branches hanging down everywhere, and each trunk is as thick as three adults' waists.
Holding the willow branch in one hand, use the sickle in the other to cut it as far as possible from the root.
After cutting some branches off one willow tree, they went to cut branches off another.
You can't just pluck every tree you see; you can't kill the tree by plucking it.
In about twenty minutes, I collected a large bundle of willow branches, by which time I was drenched in sweat.
Carrying the willow branches home, he first stripped the willow leaves off the kitchen floor.
Then he carried a bunch of bare willow branches back to the darkroom.
As soon as I entered the darkroom, I was enveloped by a cool atmosphere, which felt incredibly refreshing.
When Little Di and Little Gua saw me come in, they wagged their tails excitedly.
Roll up the bedding and place the willow branches on the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed).
Then I went to the bookshelf and found the knitting encyclopedia, and began to study it carefully.
I'm going to weave a basket first, so I won't have to carry buckets of water when picking vegetables in the future.
Moreover, the vegetables in the basket can be rinsed directly at the well, and the basket can also drain water, which is more convenient.
While watching the tutorial, I marveled at the wisdom of our ancestors.
Once I felt I had seen enough, I started to get started.
But learning by watching and learning by doing are two different things.
As soon as I started weaving the base, problems arose one after another; the willow branches were completely unresponsive in my hands.
I either broke the willow twigs by using too much force, or I wove them at the wrong angle, resulting in a crooked shape.
After ruining two bundles of willow branches in a row, I gradually mastered some skills.
It wasn't until the third attempt that a decent base was finally made.
Then I looked up at the time and realized it was already six o'clock.
It took so long just to make the base.
I'd exhausted myself with all this, and my eyes were tired, so I put it aside and decided not to continue weaving.
Now that the sun has set, it's time to go out and stretch our muscles and get some exercise.
I took radish seeds and a hoe and headed to the vegetable garden on the mountain.
The outdoor temperature is much lower now than it was at noon.
While it wasn't exactly cool, it wasn't so bad that it made people feel extremely uncomfortable.
When I arrived at the vegetable garden, I swung the heavy iron pickaxe.
In the vegetable garden where the old seedlings had been pulled out, neat furrows were dug out.
The freshly turned soil exuded a damp fragrance.
I grabbed a handful of radish seeds and, imitating my grandmother, flicked my wrist lightly, causing the brown seeds to fall sparsely into the furrows like rain.
"I can't be too greedy," I muttered to myself, "If I sow too much, it won't grow properly."
In the spring, I kept pulling out the excess vegetable seedlings, but I couldn't finish them all, which left me with a slight lingering fear.
While sowing seeds, the feet must not rest.
Carefully, I used my feet to push the loose soil back into place on both sides of the furrow.
Don't tamp the soil down too hard with your feet, otherwise the seeds that sprout later may not be able to grow.
I planted until about seven o'clock, when it was getting dark. I had planted in several ponds, so I prepared to call it a day.
The vegetable garden is full of fruit trees, which are said to be apple trees, but most of them are actually crabapple trees.
The crabapples have grown quite large, but they haven't turned red yet, so they'll taste sour.
I tried to pick a few crabapples that were slightly redder, and put them in my pocket.
Then they walked a little further away and picked some plums.
Crabapples and plums can be saved for dinner as a snack, which is a good way to supplement vitamins.
Then I went to the potato field and pulled up two potato vines.
Dig under the potato vines, search the soil with your hands, and soon you'll find a bunch of small potatoes.
The potatoes are about the size of an egg now; they haven't reached their maximum size yet, but they're already edible.
I'm so hungry for potatoes, I can't wait for them to grow big before I want to eat some.
Eating them once or twice now and then shouldn't be considered a waste considering how many potatoes there are.
I only worked for an hour and wasn't very tired. I carried a bunch of fresh food and skipped home.
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