Fortunately, the period after the Spring Festival is the off-season for tourism, so Xiaohao's mother and Wang Xin's mother were able to help her with farm work.
Otherwise, Chen Hong wouldn't be able to finish pruning the fruit trees in a week.
After they hauled the cut branches home by the truckload, Chen Hong started tilling the land again.
Fortunately, we bought a rotary tiller last year, which allows the machine to fit into most of the corners of the orchard, and the three women are making good progress on their farm work.
Ten days later, all five families had finished applying base fertilizer and tilling their land, and those who needed to make ridges had made ridges according to the plan.
All that's left is to wait until the solar term arrives and the temperature stabilizes before we can start planting.
The old saying goes, "Plant early in autumn, plant late in spring!"
Early autumn plowing can turn the weeds in the field into the ground to compost, turn the underground pests to the surface to freeze and kill them, and let the land rest.
Late spring plowing is to wait for the grass seeds that have been dormant in the ground all winter to sprout and then turn them into the deep soil. This is equivalent to removing the grass once and also turning over the pests deep in the soil.
After finishing cultivating the land, Chen Hong secretly released a lot of shrimp and crab larvae into the aquaculture farm. Whether they could stay at the farm was not something she could worry about.
The village chief and several men in his family worked tirelessly at the breeding farm every day, and everyone became dark-skinned and thin.
Chen Hong couldn't help with anything else, so she could only "buy" a dozen boxes of fruit from the hotel, as well as a lot of pork and beef, and have Aunt Guo and the others stew them to give them some nutrition.
It was ten days later when Chen Hong returned to Jinan after finishing her spring plowing work.
When Yu Yang saw his mother come home, he was as excited as a quacking duck, chattering incessantly around his mother, telling her about the trivial things that happened during the past few days while his mother was away, and how he and his grandfather lived.
When Chen Hong's father saw his daughter return, he went home that afternoon. He was worried about leaving his wife to take care of the two children alone.
My eldest granddaughter is all grown up and doesn't need to be picked up or dropped off at school anymore, but I still have to prepare three meals a day on time.
Taking care of my one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter who is still unsteady on her feet is even more exhausting! The child needs to eat, drink, and poop, and I also have to keep a close eye on her walking and follow her everywhere.
The more she learns to walk, the more dependent she becomes. If she's out of sight for even a moment, something might go wrong!
The old man was worried about his family and left in a hurry.
Chen Hong told him not to take on any more renovation jobs!
My sister-in-law isn't home, so I'd better help my mom take care of the kids!
Life returned to normal. Chen Hong rested for a few days and then busied herself planting vegetables at the villa.
After the vegetables were planted, more work came in.
After more than a month of preparation, the parents' group had its first group activity.
After several days of discussion, the time, place, and method for taking the children on a spring outing were finally decided.
In the southern mountainous area of Jinan, tens of thousands of acres of apricot blossoms are in bloom. Parents have chosen a Saturday to take their children on a road trip to see the apricot blossoms and pick wild vegetables.
Sixteen parents responded, and the children's grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, a total of seven families traveling together.
This time, Grandma Fan, who lived in the same neighborhood as Chen Hong, and her granddaughter Jiang Meiyu hitched a ride with Chen Hong, forming a pair to travel together with the mother and daughter.
It was mid-March, a beautiful season when grass grows and birds sing, and the withered grass by the roadside was secretly turning green.
After coming off the national highway, we drove along the thirty-mile mountain road, with apricot trees planted in the yellow earth on both sides.
The apricot blossoms are in full bloom, a sea of pink and white, as beautiful and magnificent as rosy clouds.
They traveled in ten cars into the mountains, and because the mountain roads were narrow, they separated early on.
They each chose a scenic spot they thought was beautiful and then went to visit the apricot blossom groves in different villages.
Chen Hong brought a camera, and the clicking sound continued as she took many beautiful photos.
Jiang Meiyu and her granddaughter followed the mother and daughter throughout, and Chen Hong took many photos of them.
By this time, the villagers in the vicinity had already become aware of the need to receive tourists.
Chen Hong brought a lot of cooked food and bottled water in the car, intending to camp and have a picnic.
However, the wind was quite strong in the mountains in spring, and the apricot blossoms were mixed with dust, making even an apple gritty. Despite this, they were persuaded by the villagers' enthusiasm and went into the village at noon.
In the village Chen Hong chose, there were no formal farmhouse restaurants yet. A few villagers with business acumen were able to host a small number of tourists at their homes.
The villager Chen Hong found had a very clean house. She spent two hundred yuan to treat Jiang Meiyu and her granddaughter to a real farm-style meal.
To be honest, this villager surnamed Song is really honest. When asked to prepare two hundred yuan worth of food, Chen Hong thought it would just be stir-fried radish, cabbage, tofu, and peanuts!
Unexpectedly, they caught one of their own free-range roosters, killed it, and stewed it in a big pot.
Chen Hong thought to herself, "I've met a good family."
A free-range chicken like this weighs seven or eight pounds after slaughter, and if it were served in a restaurant, it would cost at least one hundred yuan per plate.
This chicken can fill three large platters, and it's pure chicken meat without any other ingredients.
A single chicken, once cooked, can sell for three hundred yuan.
Hearing that the Song couple were discussing going to the neighboring village, three miles away, to buy pig's head and ribs, Chen Hong quickly called out to Brother Song.
"Brother Song, there are only four of us, two adults and two children. We can't even finish this chicken. Please don't bother preparing any other meat or vegetables for us."
It's a waste for you to buy it; we don't even like it even though it's expensive. If you feel bad about it, please make us some more vegetarian dishes!
I think your toon sprouts are ready to eat. Fry some toon sprouts for me, and also prepare some wild vegetables.
Sister-in-law, didn't you dig up some bitter herbs and dandelions? Wash them clean, make some sauce, and let's eat vegetables with sauce!
Are the elm trees outside the wall yours? Steam some elm seed tofu for us, and we'll have a wild vegetable feast. That would be wonderful.
Spring is here, let's take the kids out for some fresh food!
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