The Sheng family members were so amused by these two clowns that they laughed until they finally quieted down.
Zhang Shuzhen said that she would stew the lynx meat that evening, and also that the badger oil hadn't been rendered yet. After laughing enough, she went out from the inner room to attend to her own business.
Zhou Qinglan also came out; the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, one watched the pot simmering meat, and the other rendered oil.
I was busy until almost nine o'clock. The badger oil was rendered and put into a small basin. It will be bottled tomorrow morning.
The civet meat has been simmering for quite a while. I threw two pieces of meat into the bottom of the pot and left it to simmer overnight. It will be mushy by tomorrow morning.
The next morning, Zhang Shuzhen got up early, opened the pot, and scooped out the civet meat.
This wild civet has garlic-clove-like meat, which is very firm. After stewing it overnight, it became tender and soft, and I just used a knife to shave it off the bone.
Then cut it into small pieces, add more scallions and dried chili peppers, stir-fry it, and it tastes pretty good too.
There are ten people in the family. Apart from the pregnant woman Zhou Qinglan, the baby Sheng Xinhua, and the cook Zhang Shuzhen, the other seven all go up the mountain to work and all have to bring their own meals.
So in the morning, I not only have to make breakfast, but also prepare meals for seven people to take up the mountain.
Thankfully, we made a batch of pancakes at home recently, so it's still more convenient to bring lunch.
While they were cooking porridge and steaming pancakes, Zhang Shuzhen took a large stack of pancakes from the vat, dusted them off, and let them sit for a while.
Once the pancakes are thoroughly cooked, stack them one by one and wrap each one in a white cloth. This is for them to take as their lunch.
The wild leopard meat is cooked. Find a few lunch boxes, put pickled vegetables in one end and meat in the other end of each lunch box.
Then we went to the vegetable garden and picked a big bunch of scallions, peeled and washed them, and gave some to everyone to take with them.
The food that Sheng Xitai and his classmates brought that day caused quite a stir among their classmates.
At lunchtime, many people gathered around Sheng Xitai, watching him eat meat with longing.
Although Sheng Xitai loved to eat, he wasn't stingy. So he called over his classmates who he got along well with and gave each of them a piece of meat so they could also satisfy their cravings.
This won over another group of underlings.
The result of being so generous was that in the end, only three pieces of meat were left in the lunchbox.
Sheng Xitai held the lunchbox, looking at the few pieces of meat inside, feeling like crying but having no tears.
"What? Regretting it now?"
If you have something delicious but don't want to share it, find a secluded spot to eat it. Since you've already shared it, don't regret it later.
At this moment, Sheng Xiping came over with his lunchbox and transferred most of the meat into Sheng Xitai's lunchbox.
"Big brother, you've given me this, what are you going to eat?" Sheng Xitai looked up at his brother and asked.
"Didn't Mom bring us some pickled vegetables and green onions? Why can't we make do with this?"
Besides, I still have some meat left, enough for us to eat.
Sheng Xiping smiled and ruffled his younger brother's buzz cut, then pulled him to sit down, and the two brothers ate together.
Those children who had eaten a piece of meat and were still not satisfied dared not approach Sheng Xitai after seeing Sheng Xiping. They continued to eat their flatbreads and pickled vegetables on their own.
The reforestation effort, which lasted for half a month, finally came to an end amidst chaos.
The next month will be a lull in forestry production.
Of course, the diligent will not be idle either, because the annual season for collecting cow hair has begun.
For Sheng Xiping, this time of year is not only a good time to collect cow hair, but also the best season to hunt deer and obtain deer antlers.
Deer are agile and good runners, and generally speaking, it is very difficult to catch them, whether by hunting with runners or dogs.
The usual way to deal with deer is to dig deer pits, which are traps or snares. Of course, there are other methods, such as poisoning.
Digging deer burrows is too much trouble, and setting traps doesn't guarantee you'll catch any prey. In comparison, using poison is actually a safer option.
However, the kind of medicine used to poison deer was not available at Qianchuan Forest Farm, and Sheng Xiping could not find it. So the only method he could use was to dig salt pits.
How did the place name "Dajianchang" come about?
In the past, hunters would dig deer enclosures in nearby ditches and spread salt to lure deer into the enclosure. Over time, the soil in the enclosure became saline-alkali soil, hence the name Dajianchang Village (Big Alkali Field Village).
Mountain animals are generally deficient in salt, especially after a winter of heavy snow cover, when they cannot find exposed saline-alkali soil and are extremely deficient in salt.
Why did wolf packs used to frequent villages in winter? One reason is that they were deficient in salt.
In the past, the population was sparse, and people living in the mountains didn't care much about hygiene. They would just take the water from washing dishes out and pour it out.
If you keep pouring water into the same spot, it will eventually freeze into a block of ice or an ice pillar.
When wolves are deficient in salt, they will seek out these icy lumps to lick.
Compared to wolves, deer prefer salt and will graze on moss and lichen in saline-alkali lands during spring and summer.
Hunters also take advantage of deer's fondness for salt to set traps and snares to lure them in and harvest their valuable antlers.
"Second brother, third brother, help me make some feet. Let's prepare a few more. Tomorrow you two come with me to dig salt pits. I know where the deer trails are."
Sheng Xiping rummaged through the storeroom and found some wood, then called on Sheng Xi'an and Sheng Xikang for help.
The antlers of a male deer can sell for several hundred yuan, which is much more profitable than gathering cattle hair. It doesn't matter if you miss a day or two of gathering cattle hair.
Sheng Xi'an was in the educated youth team, and there was no work to do at this time of year. Although Sheng Xikang was in the first year of high school, the school was not very strict and he didn't teach many classes properly.
Modern education is mostly practice-oriented. In rural areas, teachers are generally taught how to farm, while in forest farms, there is a course that specifically teaches forestry knowledge.
Moreover, students were frequently sent up the mountain to do manual labor, so academic classes actually didn't take up much of their time.
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