These days, I'm digging in the dirt every day.
Qiao An'an no longer slept because of worries about the apocalypse; she basically fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
After breakfast the next day.
Qiao An'an, Gu Bei, and Chi Xiaoyu began harvesting potatoes under the direction of Gu Bei's grandfather.
Qiao An'an really didn't expect potatoes to be so productive.
Some of the potatoes that were pulled up had three potatoes, some had five, and the most had more than a dozen.
More than sixty plants yielded a harvest of over 300 jin (150 catties) of potatoes.
If we plant these crops in a cycle, would we still have to worry about not having enough food?
Qiao An'an immediately wanted to continue planting, but was stopped by Grandpa Gu Bei: "There's not enough land in front to plant many potatoes, and the ones that have just been harvested won't sprout. Why don't we wait a bit longer? If there's frost next month, we'll build greenhouses for the corn in the back. After the corn is harvested, we can plant potatoes, so we can have fresh potatoes to eat in the winter."
Grandpa Gu Bei directed them to put the harvested potatoes into the kitchen.
They were then instructed to collect chestnuts and persimmons.
Chestnuts are easier to harvest, and the chestnut trees were damaged when the yard was renovated before, so they didn't produce many chestnuts this year. I could only knock them down with a bamboo pole and get two or three pounds.
The persimmon tree is a bit tricky to manage. The tree is full of persimmons, some soft and some still hard, so you have to use a ladder to climb up and harvest them.
It took Qiao An'an and the others two hours to finish picking, and they collected a whole big basinful.
Then he picked out a few ripe ones and gave them to Gu Bei, Chi Xiaoyu, and Ya Ya to eat.
Qiao An'an helped Ya Ya peel off the top layer of skin and scooped it out for her to eat with a spoon.
Ya Ya took a bite: "Sweet!"
Grandpa Gu Bei laughed: "This isn't sweet enough, only dried persimmons are truly sweet."
Storing so many persimmons is a problem.
If they can be made into dried persimmons, they can be stored for a long time. Qiao An'an asked Grandpa Gu Bei, "Grandpa, do you know how to make dried persimmons?"
Grandpa Gu Bei said that making persimmon cakes is the simplest thing ever: "First, pick some hard persimmons, soak them in salt water for a while, and then peel off the persimmon skin. Remember, when peeling, you must not remove the persimmon cap, otherwise the oxygen will get in and the persimmon cake will spoil easily."
After peeling the persimmons, find a clean string and string them together. Be careful not to string two persimmons too close together, otherwise it will be difficult for them to circulate.
After stringing them together, place the persimmons in a well-ventilated place but out of direct sunlight to dry. They will become dried persimmons in about a week.
Qiao An'an asked in surprise, "Just... that simple?"
Grandpa Gu Bei replied, "It's that simple."
Qiao An'an, Gu Bei, and Chi Xiaoyu went to make persimmon cakes. Gu Bei's grandfather went to prepare lunch. The chicks in the chicken coop had grown to almost 2 pounds. There were three roosters and four hens among the seven chickens.
The hen was a little better off.
Three roosters fought every day for the position of the rooster in the coop. The red one was the most powerful. It beat one of the roosters so badly that it was afraid to come out to eat and was almost starving to death. The other rooster, although it dared to come out to eat, was pecked all over with injuries.
Grandpa Gu Bei plans to slaughter these two roosters today and make a chestnut chicken dish.
He explained to everyone that chickens are not usually very loud, but roosters crow very loudly. In another month, the roosters will start crowing. To prevent the roosters from crowing incessantly and attracting zombies in order to compete with each other, only one rooster can be left in a chicken coop.
Reducing the number of chickens can, to some extent, reduce the need for roosters to crow.
Moreover, there's a saying among chicken farmers: raise an odd number of chickens, not an even number.
In addition to these, Grandpa Gu Bei also made a small dark room for the rooster. He said that the rooster collar that prevents the rooster from crowing cannot completely stop the rooster from crowing, so this is a safer option.
Gu Bei thought this was too much trouble: "Why not just get rid of the rooster altogether? After all, hens will still lay eggs even without a rooster, right?"
Qiao An'an laughed: "Yes, but those eggs are just eggs."
Gu Bei was a little confused. What did he mean by "just an egg"? An egg is just an egg, isn't it? What else could it be?
When Grandpa Gu Bei finished cooking, Qiao An'an and the others had also finished making the persimmon cakes and hung them in a shady place. The strings of persimmon cakes looked quite nice.
Grandpa Gu Bei's chestnut chicken was a great success. Ya Ya especially loved the chestnuts in it. She ate five chestnuts and wanted more, but Grandpa Gu Bei stopped her: "Ya Ya can eat chicken and rice, but she can't eat any more chestnuts."
Ya Ya felt wronged and turned to her mother, asking, "Ya Ya loves chestnuts, why can't I eat them?"
Qiao An'an explained to Ya Ya, "Chestnuts are very hard to digest, and Grandpa was worried that Ya Ya would get a stomachache if she ate them. It's for Ya Ya's own good."
Although Ya Ya really wanted to eat chestnuts, she was afraid of getting a stomachache, so she ended up eating a big chicken leg instead.
After finishing their meal, Qiao An'an and the others continued digging the cellar. Grandpa Gu Bei also went down into the tunnel to check the stress points, examine the soil layers, and draw lines in suitable locations before letting Qiao An'an and the others start digging.
Qiao An'an and Gu Bei were in charge of digging.
Chi Xiaoyu took the leftovers to feed the miniature pigs, and at the same time went up the mountain to see if she could find any other supplies.
Having gained experience in digging tunnels, the digging of the cellar was much faster this time.
They dug the cellar in just three days.
Grandpa Gu Bei directed everyone to place the wood in fixed positions to support each corner, and then placed the crossbeams between the wood pieces, securing them firmly together using mortise and tenon joints.
Then everyone was asked to use clay to cover the wood and walls.
By the time all this was done, the sun was already setting.
Gu Bei helped Grandpa back to the ground, and Qiao An'an went to the backyard to clean the room where the little pig lived and scattered the pig manure in the cornfield.
Chi Xiaoyu went to inspect the mountain.
She didn't catch any prey today, but she found more than twenty wild eggs in the mountains, and she brought them back in a pot.
Grandpa Gu Bei looked at the basket of wild eggs with great joy: "I'll boil some eggs for Ya Ya tomorrow morning!"
Qiao An'an felt it was a waste to eat wild eggs: "Can't we hatch them and raise the pheasants?"
Grandpa Gu Bei said no: "Wild pheasants are hard to tame, let's eat them. Our chickens will start laying eggs after winter, and they can hatch chicks in the spring. Several tomatoes are ripe too, let's take a few tonight to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes."
Everyone agreed with the proposal.
Gu Bei led Ya Ya to water the vegetables planted in the yard.
Qiao An'an went to the stove to start a fire, Chi Xiaoyu went to wash and chop vegetables, and Grandpa Gu Bei took charge of the cooking. Soon, a table of fragrant dishes was ready.
The five people were about to eat when they heard the sound of cars coming from the street outside.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com