Chapter 226 Ditch
"When I came back this time, I saw the herd of sika deer migrating to the misty peaks behind. At night, there was wind blowing through the valley between the two mountains."
After Mu Xi finished saying this, Zhao Yeqing understood what he meant.
"Is it very windy?"
"It's very strong. This is one of the reasons why I drove at night when I came back this time. The wind in the col was so strong that the tarpaulin couldn't be propped up."
The wind he was talking about was not normal wind.
That is the summer monsoon.
In summer, strong winds often blow near Meishan, but they have not appeared since the ground cracked due to abnormal weather changes.
Because the province is located on the coast, it is particularly severely affected by the summer monsoon.
This summer monsoon is the prevailing wind that blows from the high-pressure area of the ocean to the low-pressure area of the continent. Every time it blows, it carries a large amount of water vapor, which is one of the reasons why Meishan has heavy rainfall.
Normally, the hot and rainy summer caused by the summer monsoon is very conducive to the growth of crops such as rice, but now all situations cannot be inferred by common sense, and we have to make plans early.
Zhao Yeqing: "Then we need to widen our drainage ditch and dig more ditches for drainage."
The summer monsoon has already arrived, and the closer a city is to the sea, the faster it will rain. This is only the first gust of wind for them, and there are no clouds in the sky yet, so there is still time to prepare for flood prevention.
Mu Xi lit a fire in the fire pit and said, "I'll make something to eat now, and then we'll set off back to Meishan. I'm afraid it will rain and I won't be able to go back."
This concern is very necessary. There is a small river in the valley. Once it rains heavily, the water level will rise and the way back will become even more difficult.
After lunch, Mu Xi took Xiaohong back to Meishan. Zhao Yeqing quickly took out the hoe and shovel, sharpened them and prepared to dig a ditch.
The heavy rains that caused landslides last year came suddenly without any warning.
Now that the monsoon has started, it may be even worse than last year.
Zhao Yeqing planned to widen the drainage ditch in addition to the field in front of the door, and also to dig the vegetable garden and pasture land on the meadow behind.
Not only do you have to dig, you also have to make cement.
Soil is easy to seep water, and earthen drainage ditches are still prone to waterlogging. Only those made of cement can the accumulated water be drained to the greatest extent.
Since she had to do it well, she couldn't be perfunctory. Zhao Yeqing took out a pen and paper and marked the length, slope and depth of the drainage ditch. Considering that she was the only one who could do the work, she dealt with the most important farmland area first.
It is not yet time to harvest peanuts, soybeans and rapeseed, and the cotton has just been planted, so the drainage of the fields must be done well.
After finalizing the construction drawings, Zhao Yeqing didn't care whether the sun was too strong and might burn his skin. He just grabbed his tools and started digging.
After digging drainage ditches around the farmland, she did not rush to dig the vegetable garden and pasture immediately, nor did she widen the drainage ditch. Instead, she first mixed cement and applied it around the farmland.
It takes a few days for the cement to dry, otherwise it will crack when soaked in water.
It took two days to dig the trench and apply cement.
On the third day, Zhao Yeqing felt a breeze blowing on the meadow, carrying with it the fragrance of the rapeseed flowers that were gradually blooming.
We need to speed up the process.
Sweet potatoes and rapeseed are harvested at about the same time, but potatoes can be harvested earlier.
She improved the drainage of the vegetable garden and after the drainage ditch in the vegetable garden and the ditch in the field were connected, she harvested the potatoes first.
Although the potatoes in a few rows may not seem like much, they filled the ground when they were harvested. Zhao Yeqing did not bother to weigh them and just threw them all into the cellar.
Also, the drainage of the pasture has not been done.
The pasture is quite far from home, and if we want to drain the water, we don’t know where the drainage ditch should go.
Zhao Yeqing was wondering whether to drain the water into the lake, but then he thought that if it continued to rain heavily, the water in the lake would probably rise.
There are bamboo rafts parked by the lake.
Zhao Yeqing now wishes he could split himself into a team.
They hurried to the lake, dragged the bamboo raft to a small hill near the lake, then returned to the pasture and began digging a ditch.
The beehives beside the pasture were still buzzing, as if the monsoon had also brought them a message. This time, the bees were obviously more restless than before.
There is also a constant stream of worker bees coming in and out to collect nectar, as if they are in a hurry to stockpile pollen to make honey.
Zhao Yeqing quickened his movements. At this time, animals and insects are more sensitive than humans.
It was impossible to finish digging around the pasture in one day, so when she continued to dig the next day, she brought the modified bamboo hat with her, intending to move the beehives next to the rapeseed field when she returned home at night.
Cement was used in the drainage ditches in the vegetable garden and fields, but not in the pasture. The family hadn't dug limestone for a long time, and if we moved it here and applied it, it would probably be too late to wait for it to dry.
Cumulus clouds have begun to appear in the sky today, and in the morning, there was a strong wind blowing on the meadow.
You can clearly feel the moist heat in the wind.
It seems that the sticky summer that we can feel every time the rainy season comes has begun again.
There is no time to apply cement, so I have to use other methods to deal with it first.
She went to the lake and dug up a few baskets of gravel and laid them in the ditch to speed up the flow of water.
The ditch is surrounded by newly excavated earth walls, which are most likely to collapse during heavy rains. In the past, farmland drainage canals were built by covering the soil with vegetation and using plant roots to stabilize the soil.
But now it was time to sharpen her sword at the last minute, so she could only compact the surrounding soil with force, hoping that her great strength would work a miracle.
I had breakfast in the morning and brought a box lunch with me.
The most delicious thing is to eat a box lunch in the field after finishing farm work.
After working from morning till night, we finally completed the drainage work, and the drainage ditch was extended to a small stream flowing into the lake.
When she returned home, she moved the beehive carefully. The bees inside were startled and flew out buzzing, struggling to get in outside the transparent plastic sheet in front of them.
Zhao Yeqing looked at the dense swarm of bees in front of him, and goose bumps covered his arms.
But we still can't be impatient. It is easy to have accidents when moving the beehives on a not-so-flat meadow. The honeycombs inside can fall off if we are not careful, causing the bee colony to waste several months' work.
Then her honey would be gone.
Even if the scene in front of her was crowded, she had to move back.
After moving to the side of the rapeseed field, she carefully opened the cover and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the beehives inside were normal.
I brushed off the bees on my body and went home, sitting down on the bench feeling exhausted.
I don’t know when Mu Xi will come back.
Zhao Yeqing estimated that if Mu Xi speeded up, he could make the trip back and forth within five days, but today is already the sixth day.
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