Chapter 639: The Weasel Greets the Chicken
The style of Gao Shouwang's photo album is similar to the one Gao Mingcheng made before. There are landscape photos, portrait photos, both individual photos and group photos.
After reading through the photo album from beginning to end, Gao Mingcheng had a general impression of Jinling during this period of time.
As he was flipping through the books, many beauties came over to watch with him, looking quite amazed.
Jinling was once a famous ancient capital, but during a special period, it suffered tremendous hardships.
But time will heal the wounds, and Jinling now looks like a new one.
Gao Mingcheng looked at the photo album, then asked Gao Shouwang with a smile what he did and what he ate in Jinling.
Gao Shouwang was waiting for him to ask, so he immediately gave him a brief account of what happened to his group in Jinling.
Finally, Gao Shouwang said with a lingering feeling: "This trip has broadened my horizons. I only knew Gaojia Village before, and at most I would go to the county town occasionally. This time, I went out and realized how big the world is!"
Gao Mingcheng smiled and thought, this trip made Gao Shouwang not only realize how big the world is, but because of his son, he also saw a world that ordinary people could not see.
After chatting for about ten minutes, Gao Mingcheng said goodbye and left.
"Uncle Shouwang, I'm going back to the village to shake honey today, so I won't delay any longer. I'll go back to work first."
Gao Mingcheng called out, opened the car door, and let Xuanyuemei get in holding little Xuxu first.
Gao Shouwang did not keep him for long, and just said, "Then take your time."
From Xing'an Mountains to Gaojia Village, it is very close and only takes a few minutes to drive. However, this time they did not stop at the old village, and the car drove directly to Niuweiling.
When the dogs in the house heard the noise, they came out one after another, wagging their tails enthusiastically and following the car to welcome their owner's return.
Little Xuxu stood on the seat, with his upper body leaning against the window, staring intently at the dog next to him. He grinned, waved his little hands, and said incoherently: "Dog~"
"This is Black Tiger. That one is an elf." Xuanyuemei pointed at the dogs outside and taught Xiao Xuxu to recognize dogs.
However, Xiao Xuxu is still young and has a limited vocabulary, so he can’t call the dogs’ names and just calls them “dogs”.
After Gao Mingcheng parked the car, he opened the door and carried little Xuxu out.
He looked around, planning to ask someone if they had any honey.
At this time, everyone was busy and Chen Dasong's family was not seen for a while. However, Xuanyu heard the noise of the car and came over here with Xiao Shitou.
"Second sister, Little Stone." Xuanyuemei laughed when she saw Xuanyueyu and Little Stone, and went to the back of the truck to get snacks for them.
Xuanyue bought some sweet and sour snacks that pregnant women like to eat, and also bought some egg cakes, mung bean cakes and other things, which she also shared with Xiao Shitou.
Manyu was holding a large bag of snacks, feeling happy, and immediately said, "Duomei, come to my house for lunch at noon!"
This is rare. Gao Mingcheng looked at Manyu with great surprise.
Xuanyu seldom invited them to her home for dinner, and they were not willing to eat at her place because Xuanyu's cooking skills were average and she cooked too slowly.
Xuanyumei didn't care about her second sister's meal and said, "Second sister, you can't stand the smell of oil smoke now, right?"
In the first few months of pregnancy, women are weak and have no appetite to eat or drink. They will even feel nauseous when they smell cooking fumes. Therefore, many women will lose several pounds in the first few months of pregnancy. Only after the early pregnancy symptoms are gone can they eat and drink with a good appetite and maintain their own weight and the nutrition of the fetus.
Many experienced people said: "When cooking, I cover my nose with a scarf, so I can't smell much fumes."
After hearing this, Xuanmei felt even more uneasy about the meal, so she declined to go.
However, she still gave her second sister a suggestion, saying, "Both rapeseed oil and tea oil have smells, and you can't stand the smell of these fumes now, so it's best to use lard to cook, as lard has a lighter smell."
Many Yu families grow beans and rapeseed. Every year when the frost falls, they will go to the mountains to get some tea seeds. If the quantity is small, they will simply sell them for money. If the quantity is large, they can send them to oil presses to make tea oil.
Therefore, their family consumes tea oil, tea seed oil and soybean oil throughout the year.
Xuanyu said, "Last time at the market, I asked your brother to buy some lard. We have been eating lard lately."
Gao Mingcheng watched them chatting for a while, so he asked if there was any honey shaking.
Beekeeping and honey extraction are the responsibility of Chen Duofu, but Xuanyu lives here and must know whether honey is extracted or not.
Sure enough, Xuanyu said, "They haven't shaken the honey yet, but I heard them say they will probably be preparing to shake the honey in the next day or two."
Gao Mingcheng nodded. It was about the same as he expected.
Okay, since you haven’t shaken the honey yet, let’s get ready to work!
Gao Mingcheng carried Xiao Xuxu back to his yard and let Xiao Xuxu play in a shady place by himself. He then moved the honey extractor and plastic bottles to the yard and prepared to clean them.
It is worth mentioning that I now have two honey extractors at home.
The first honey shaking machine was made by a carpenter named Cheng Hanjunling from Gaoming. It looked like a large wooden barrel with a simple honey shaking machine installed inside. After the beehive was installed on it, the centrifugal force could be used to shake the honey into the barrel.
The structure of the honey extractor is not complicated, and it is easy to make as long as you know the principle.
However, as the number of bees increased, one honey extractor was no longer enough, so Gao Mingcheng asked Chen Duofu to buy another one and he would reimburse the bill later.
This new one is in the shape of a wooden barrel.
The honey extractors of later generations were basically made of stainless steel, but stainless steel was a rare item at that time. If ordinary people wanted to buy stainless steel, they had to wait until the mid-to-late 1990s!
As for the ironware made by the blacksmith, it is easy to rust and needs to be carefully maintained.
Gao Mingcheng took out the bucket and was responsible for drawing water from the well, while Xuanyuemei was responsible for cleaning the honey extractor and bottles.
The honey extractor needs to be washed before and after use. Now that the weather is good, after washing it, put it in the sun and it will dry quickly.
When Xuanyimei was washing things, Xuanyiyu also helped to wash. She received a lot of things from Xuanyimei. She originally wanted to invite them to her home for dinner, but they refused.
"Xiao Shitou, take Xiao Xuxu out to play, don't let him fall!" Xuanyu reminded and asked Xiao Shitou to take Xiao Xuxu out to play.
Xiao Shitou is also well-behaved. He plays obediently with Xiao Xuxu. They play in the main room and the yard. It is relatively safe here. They just need to be careful not to get close to the well.
After Gao Mingcheng fetched the water, he said he would go find Chen Dasong and his son, and prepare to call a few more people to help with the honey shaking process, so as to finish the process within one day.
Xuanyu said that they were working in Xiaofushan, so Gao Mingcheng went to Xiaofushan.
As soon as I reached the pond, I saw Zhang Chengyuan carrying water.
"Brother." Gao Mingcheng greeted.
Zhang Chengyuan nodded and continued to carry water into the mountains.
After the fruit trees are planted, they don't need much watering. Zhang Chengyuan came specially to fetch water to water the soybean seedlings.
Before, Gao Mingcheng slapped his forehead and thought that the distance between the fruit trees was too large, and the fruit trees had not yet fully grown, so he suggested planting some soybeans in these distances.
Soybeans are drought-resistant and like dry conditions. They are the best crop to plant after land reclamation. After planting a few crops of soybeans, the land will become fertile.
However, being drought-resistant and liking dryness is one thing, and needing water is another. The sun has been quite hot these days, and Zhang Chengyuan found that the bean sprouts were a little wilted, so he decided to water them.
Gao Mingcheng felt that it was very hard work when he saw Zhang Chengyuan carrying water up the mountain and watering the bean sprouts. In the absence of mechanized planting, he should do less impulsive work in the future!
Gao Mingcheng showed an embarrassed expression and walked towards the area where peaches were planted.
His peaches ripen from late June to mid-July. It is only mid-June now and they still look a little green, but on the sunny side of the peaches, some of them have already shown a hint of red, and even the tips of the peaches are faintly red.
This means that although it is not fully ripe, it is still edible.
And it tastes crispy and sweet!
Gao Mingcheng strode over, stopped under a peach tree, then reached out and picked a peach with a red tip. He had been eyeing this peach for a long time!
Although it is a variety of peach, there is still fuzz on the surface of the peach, but it is better than the hairy peach.
Gao Mingcheng didn't care. He wiped the peach on his clothes, then bit off the tip of the peach and spit it out.
Since I was a child, the elders in the village told me that you should not eat the tip of a peach, otherwise red blisters will grow on your body. Those blisters will look like the tip of the peach and will be very itchy.
Although Gao Mingcheng later found out that there was no necessary connection between growing lumps and eating peach tips, the habit had already been formed and it was difficult to change it.
After Gao Mingcheng spit out the peach tip, he could eat the peach flesh in big mouthfuls. The peach that was not fully ripe was indeed crispy and sweet, and very refreshing to eat.
If you wait a few days before picking them, they will be sweeter.
Gao Mingcheng ate a peach in just two bites and was satisfied with the quality of this year's peaches. These peach trees also produced fruits sporadically last year, but those fruits were not as big as this year's and the quality was not as good.
Next to the peach orchard is the pear orchard.
The Golden Autumn Pear and Green Crown Pear are now hanging on the treetops, facing the wind and basking in the sunshine.
These pears look as big as a child's fist, but it will take another month for them to mature.
Gao Mingcheng walked around here and only ate one peach, because most of the peaches were not ripe yet. They were just small green fruits, and even the smell was green and astringent, not sweet.
Gao Mingcheng didn't see the Chen family father and son here, so he held his breath and shouted loudly: "Uncle Chen! Good luck! Good luck!"
His voice spread over Xiaofu Mountain, faded away little by little, and then turned into a faint echo.
"Hey! Here!" Not long after, Gao Mingcheng heard Chen Dasong's reply. He identified the direction and walked towards that direction.
It's over there in the orange grove.
The orange flowers had withered long ago, and small green oranges had grown out at this time. Chen Dasong, his two sons, were thinning the fruits.
In addition to thinning the fruit, they also pay attention to whether there are scattered eggs on the ground.
Because the orange grove is close to the chicken coop, the chickens usually move around on the small hill, but sometimes they go farther away. These chickens that go farther are likely to lay eggs anywhere.
Gao Mingcheng ran all the way and soon found Chen Dasong and the others.
Seeing him coming, Chen Dasong immediately said, "Ming Cheng, there was a weasel in the chicken coop last night!"
The most famous saying about the weasel is: The weasel pays a New Year's visit to the chicken, but he has no good intentions!
When Gao Mingcheng heard about the weasel, he immediately asked what damage had been done to the chicken coop.
Chen Dasong smiled and said, "The five dogs in my family are all good dogs. Before the weasel could kill the chicken, Black Tiger and his friends found it and chased it away. After a while, I saw Black Tiger coming back with the weasel in his mouth."
Speaking of dogs, Chen Dasong said, "Mingcheng, if Dahuang gets pregnant again, can you give me a puppy to raise? If we raise a dog, weasels and foxes won't be able to come to our house and steal our chickens."
Chen Dasong wanted to raise a puppy, so Gao Mingcheng naturally agreed. However, his agreement was useless because he had to wait until Dahuang became pregnant again.
Fortunately, Chen Dasong was not in a hurry. In order to hold a wedding banquet for his eldest son, he had almost killed all the chickens in his family. He also had to build a house in the second half of the year and had no time to raise a dog.
After briefly discussing the topic of the puppies, Chen Dasong said that he had already skinned the weasel.
Gao Mingcheng said immediately: "The skin of the weasel can be made into leather clothes, and the hair of the tail can be made into brushes. They are quite valuable, but the hair in summer is not valuable. You have to wait until winter comes."
After hearing this, Chen Dasong felt it was a pity.
As they talked, Gao Mingcheng also joined in the fruit thinning. The oranges at this time had just grown and were only a little big, so it was hard to tell the good from the bad. But if they grew too densely, they could be picked first.
Wait until they are bigger, then pick off the obvious inferior fruits.
Gao Mingcheng picked some fruits and then remembered his main purpose for today: "Oh, I came back today to prepare to shake honey. The honey shaker and bottles have been washed and dried. We will go to shake the honey first. After the honey is shaken, I have to go to Guangzhou."
Chen Duofu said immediately: "I checked the beehives a few days ago, and the honey inside is almost ready. OK, I'll go back and get the things, and then I'll take you to shake the honey."
Chen Duofu is not as skilled and courageous as Gao Mingcheng. Every time he shakes the honey, he has to be fully armed and protect his head, face and hands before he can shake the honey.
After several people went down the mountain, Chen Duofu walked forward quickly. He went back to his home first, put on long-sleeved shirts and long pants, and also put on socks, tucking his trouser legs into the socks, and then put on a pair of single-layer Liberation shoes.
Then use a cloth to cover your head, face and neck, and finally put on gloves.
After getting dressed, Chen Duofu took Gao Mingcheng and others to the location where the beehives were placed.
Chen Duofu has limited physical strength, unlike Gao Mingcheng who used to move the beehives to the mountains when he felt like it. Under his care, the beehives are generally kept at the foot and midway up Niuweiling Mountain.
When the fruit trees in Xiaofushan are in bloom, a few beehives will be moved over to collect honey.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
