"Oh my god! You are such an unlucky kid." Zhou Huaian shouted exaggeratedly, "It's almost the beginning of spring, and you haven't fermented the fertilizer yet. I think you don't want to cultivate the rice fields anymore!"
"I'm so busy, how can I think of fermenting manure?" Zhou Yiding glanced at him, "Don't act so arrogant in front of me, you still rely on your second dad and second grandfather to help you ferment manure!"
Zhou Huaian nodded honestly, "That's right!"
He thought of the small forest outside the wall of his yard. The two old men had dug two composting ponds there long ago. One was already full, and the other was only half full. He wondered when they dug such large ponds.
Zhou Yiding got a headache when he thought about the fertilizer. "Remember to remind me when you get back, otherwise she will ignore me again when she sees me."
Zhou Huaian glanced at him sideways, "You used to say I was a henpecked man, what are you now? An henpecked man!"
Zhou Yiding hit him, "What are you talking about! You kid, make it clear to me that I am principled. If she is right, I will listen and follow her. If she is wrong, my brother's ears are still hard, and there is no problem with putting two cigarettes!"
Zhou Huaian stopped and looked at him, "Tsk tsk! Today I finally understood what it means to let the wind get into the drum - to brag with all your might!"
"Go to hell!" Zhou Yiding smiled and kicked him, but Zhou Huaian dodged. "Oh no! Your kid seems a little weak! Did you purge too much yesterday?"
Zhou Yiding chased after him and said, "Stand up here and try to see if I am weak or not."
"Haha!" Zhou Huaian said without even turning his head, "You kid has picked the wrong person! You can't get anything out of it by looking for your brother!"
The two of them chased each other and ran towards the top of the mountain.
Although the weather had warmed up after the New Year, it was still a bit chilly in the mountains in the mornings, and the dew quickly soaked the surfaces of the two men's yellow rubber shoes.
A soft and pleasant "coo-coo-coo" sound came from the bushes in front. Zhou Huaian stopped, turned around and waved to Zhou Yiding.
Zhou Yiding stepped forward lightly, "What's going on? Have you found a beehive?"
Zhou Huaian took out his slingshot and pointed at the treetops, "Let's shoot a few turtledoves and bring them back to braise or stew them!"
Zhou Yiding looked at the slingshot in his hand and said, "Yo~ You've already prepared it!" He stretched out his hand to him and said, "I'll do it!"
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian handed him the slingshot and took out a few stones from his bag. "Can your kid do it?"
"If my boyhood skills don't work, then you, an old man, will be even less capable!" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him, put the stone in the leather bag of the slingshot, aimed at the turtledove on the branch, and released the slingshot.
There was a muffled "puff" sound, and the turtledove on the branch fell off.
"Not bad!" Zhou Huaian gave him a thumbs up and ran over to pick up the turtledove. "Let's go and take a look in front."
Most of the doves in the mountains here are spotted doves, scientifically known as spotted doves, and in some places they are called quail eagles or quail birds...
The male and female spotted doves are the same color, commonly known as "wild pigeons". They are about 30 cm long, similar in size to pigeons, and mainly feed on plant seeds.
The whole body is brown, with a slight pink tinge from the neck to the abdomen. The most noticeable thing is that the sides of its neck are black, with dense white spots, like many "pearls" scattered on the neck, which is the most prominent feature of this species, so it is named "Pearl Neck" turtledove.
The meat of turtledove is tender and delicious. It tastes sweet and is neutral in nature. It has the effects of replenishing qi, improving eyesight, and strengthening muscles and bones.
The two men went up and shot a few more turtledoves and two pheasants.
There are also Schefflera arborvitae, wild camellia, wild osmanthus, wild loquat flowers, wild mountain flowers, as well as clusters of sticky grass with white flowers and small golden wild chrysanthemums. Here and there, there are also impatient forsythias with small yellow flowers.
Spring is coming, it's time for rain, right? These wild flowers and trees in the mountains are in urgent need of rain to nourish them...
Zhou Huaian took him to the maple tree where the mark was left at a quarter past ten. The mark left by the knife had been covered by dead vines.
After pulling aside the vines, we saw the pile of rocks where the wild bees lived. "It's right there. Let's go and take a look."
Zhou Yiding asked Dahei and Dahuang to guard the basket and followed him forward. "Is it a wild bee or a small black bee?"
"Wild bees!" Zhou Huaian walked to the crevice that he had blocked last time, put down his backpack, pushed aside the dense bushes and dead grass, and saw bees flapping their wings and crawling in and out of the entrance. There were fewer bees than in the summer, but still quite a few.
Zhou Yiding also came forward to take a look, "No one should have been here."
Bees are more aggressive in winter, so the two men tidied up the bushes and dead grass at the entrance of the cave and put on bee hats.
Zhou Huaian dug away the mud blocking the cracks in the rocks, "Ding Ding Cat, take out the moxa stick and light it."
Yang Chunyan made the mugwort that she dried at home into thumb-thick mugwort sticks, which are much more convenient to use than the ones that were as thick as chopsticks.
"Okay!" Zhou Yiding took out the moxa stick, lit it, and moved to the entrance of the cave. After a while, swarms of bees flew out from the cracks in the rocks.
Zhou Huaian quickly opened the hole and saw the beehive inside. He counted them and turned his head excitedly, "There's stock, there are twelve honeycombs!"
"Good luck with the 12th month, good luck with the new business!" Zhou Yiding excitedly handed him the gloves, took out the wooden barrel from the backpack, and prepared to receive the honey combs.
Zhou Huaian put on his gloves, pulled out the dagger from the leather holster on his waist, carefully cut off a piece of honeycomb and handed it to Zhou Yiding, "Cut off the bee pupae. I widened this hive in June, and it can still accommodate many bees."
Zhou Yiding carefully cut off the honey comb with a dagger and placed it on the urea bag. He took a deep breath of the refreshing nectar fragrance and said, "Ba Shi, this honey smells better than in summer."
Zhou Huaian: "Of course, why do they say that winter honey is the best among all the honeys of different seasons?"
Zhou Yiding looked at the pollen combs and said, "There's quite a bit of pollen in there. It looks like the nectar source here is pretty good!"
Zhou Huaian cut off another row of honey combs and said, "I saw it when I came here. There are still many wild flowers here."
Zhou Yiding put the honey comb into the bucket and took the piece he handed over. "This piece is good. It's all capped honey. The previous piece still had a little more pollen. I'll leave them a little honey comb later. It should be enough for them to eat, right?"
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, "I originally planned to keep three pieces, so I'll keep two, just in case we encounter a late spring cold snap!"
Zhou Yiding smiled and nodded, "That's true. If you starve to death, you won't have anything to pay for it!"
Zhou Huaian cut ten honey combs, and put the cut pupae and pollen combs back into the beehive. The two took off their gloves and sealed the hole.
Zhou Yiding carried the wooden barrel to the roadside, took off the beehive cap and put it away. "Youngest, winter honey is much thicker than the honey we harvested in autumn. I'm afraid it will take two days to filter out all the honey."
"It's still not too late to filter it out slowly before sending it." Zhou Huaian opened the lid, broke off a little honey and put it in his mouth, "Ba Shi!"
"It smells so good!" Zhou Yiding also ate a piece. "Let's go check out the wild chrysanthemums?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Well! Let's go to the bee trap first. If there's none, go to the bamboo forest. I remember there's a nest there."
Zhou Yiding's eyes lit up. "Are you talking about the bamboo forest where we caught a few bamboo rats two years ago?"
Zhou Huaian picked up the basket and walked back, "That's it. Chunyan and I were originally planning to go dig winter bamboo shoots, but we forgot about it because we were busy collecting truffles. We even forgot to dig Imperata ulmoides roots."
Zhou Yiding followed him and said, "If we don't go today, let's go to the bamboo forest tomorrow and catch two bamboo rats to eat!"
Zhou Huaian felt a headache when he thought about digging bamboo rat holes two years ago. "Digging bamboo rat holes is so tiring. I have to use something to smoke them out."
Zhou Yiding suddenly had an idea. "Let's use the same stinking wormwood as last time. Even the wild hog badger came out. It would be strange if bamboo rats didn't come out!"
"That's true!" Zhou Huaian made plans with him, and the two of them chatted and laughed as they walked towards the forest where wild chrysanthemums were blooming.
…
After Yang Chunyan finished her housework, washed and hung up the clothes, she had some free time.
When I walked to the gate of the courtyard, I saw Zhou Xiaoqian and her sisters playing shuttlecock outside, so I walked over.
Zhou Xiaolin ran over with a shuttlecock in her hand and grabbed her, "Aunt, my sister won't teach me how to play shuttlecock."
Zhou Xiaoru turned her head and said, "I taught her. She can't stand steadily on one foot, how can she kick?"
Yang Chunyan took the shuttlecock and looked at it. "Who made this for Xiaolin? It's so beautiful!"
She thinks the shuttlecock of this era is still the most beautiful. The base is made of a few small pieces of cloth with floral patterns in different colors and a copper coin.
After sewing, a circle of petal patterns is carefully sewn on the edge of the base, and then a section of goose feather tube is cut into a cross opening and sewn on the base, and then a few colorful rooster feathers are inserted, and the shuttlecock is ready.
It doesn't feel like the rubber base sold on street stalls in later generations. Although it has good elasticity, it has poor stability when kicked too hard.
"Grandma made it, and so did my sisters!" Zhou Xiaolin took the shuttlecock and went to find her sister.
Zhang Xiuxiang led the listless Zhou Jiakang out of the yard. Yang Chunyan looked at the mother and son and asked, "What's wrong? You caught a cold on New Year's Day?"
Zhou Jiakang cried, "I have diarrhea and my stomach hurts."
Zhang Xiuxiang said worriedly, "I don't know what he ate. He had diarrhea on the first night of the New Year. I cooked some patchouli water for him to drink, and he felt better. But he had diarrhea again yesterday. Today, his stool was red, like something scraped out of the small intestine."
Yang Chunyan remembered a folk remedy she had learned from Wang Zhen. She went to the ditch to look for it and said to Zhang Xiuxiang, "Sister-in-law, pull up a handful of Eclipta prostrata from the ditch, remove the roots and wash them clean."
Zhang Xiuxiang took a look and asked, "What's the use of this thing?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Boil some water for Jiakang to drink, it will stop his diarrhea."
"Really?" Zhang Xiuxiang said as she straddled the ditch, pulled up some water, and squatted beside it to clean it up.
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Yes! Go back and add sugar to boil water for him to drink."
Zhang Xiuxiang looked at her hand and said, "I don't know why, but when this thing is broken, the juice that comes out is pitch black!"
Yang Chunyan: "We call it Eclipta prostrata, but its scientific name is Eclipta prostrata. I heard that people in the past used to pick it and make juice to dye their hair!"
Zhang Xiuxiang said after hearing this: "Wait until Jiakang drinks it, let's get some back and dye it for mom to try." (End of this chapter)
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