Chapter 133 Three-dimensional Planting
What Shen Lie said was right. The old lady and the women were particularly concerned about which areas to leave for growing vegetables, raising chickens and ducks, and walking paths.
Men may be better at farming, but when it comes to raising chickens and ducks, they are naturally not as good as the women in the family.
So we really need to listen to the opinions of old ladies and women on this matter.
Sang Luo didn't say anything, but just listened with a smile. The old ladies and aunts who wanted to fight for it and consider it were very thoughtful. Anyway, she was the youngest, so as long as there was no problem with the points discussed by everyone, it would be fine for her to listen quietly and not interrupt.
There is another thing here. The small waterfall in Yun Valley is located in the inner middle of the left side. The waterfall is over there, and the pool is over there. In order to facilitate water diversion, the paddy fields are also marked on that side accordingly. In order to avoid being conspicuous, except for digging canals along the side of the mountain, there will be no horizontal ridges. This means that when the Shi family, Lu family and Zhou family living over there come out of their caves, there are only a small path and endless fields around them.
The men and women in charge of the several families were also generous and had no objections. Isn't it just that there is a paddy field outside the door, and you have to go around the canyon for more than half a circle to get to your own vegetable garden and the place where you raise chickens and ducks? They chose the caves themselves, and there is nothing to say, especially the Lu family and the Zhou family. The largest caves are these two. Where else can they live?
The plots of land were quickly demarcated, and the entire canyon's arable area was divided into six parts. The nearby plots of land were selected according to the locations of each family's caves. Families with larger populations would be given a little more land. Of course, there couldn't be too much. The valley was not very big in general, and families with more people, such as the Zhou and Lu families, were given larger plots of land, so the plots were far away. The farthest one was as far as the outskirts of the canyon near the entrance.
Naturally, space was reserved at the entrance, and it was not entirely marked out as fields. More than half a meter of land was left on the right side of each plot for each family to arrange themselves, leaving some space for walking, and for growing vegetables, raising chickens, and drying things, which could be used economically at home.
Of course, if you want to dry things in this place, you have to cover it up, well, it’s camouflage, but that’s a story for another time.
Things have been agreed upon, boundary stones have been put in place, and the next step is to fell the trees. At this point, it is clear which trees need to be moved and which trees need to be left. In the areas not designated as fields, trees will not be felled, as they are the best cover to conceal traces. Chicken and duck coops can be built under the trees, providing shade and shelter from the rain. The only difference is that above the vegetable planting area, the trees can be pruned if necessary.
The men did the logging work, and Sang Luo took Shen An and Shen Ning to tidy up the cave.
We will be moving in at night, so among other things, the floor must be clean.
No one knows how long this cave has existed. The walls and ceiling are made of solid rock, but the ground is covered with thick loose soil. There are also fallen leaves that were probably blown into the cave by the wind and are now almost rotting into mud. These all need to be cleaned out.
There was only one shovel, which Sang Luo used, while Chen An and Shen Ning used a hoe and a small pointed hoe respectively. They put the loose soil cleared out into a dustpan and carried it out to dump it. When Sang Luo and Shen An each carried a dustpan of soil out, Chen An was wondering where to dump it. He saw his sister-in-law put down the things first and looked around outside their cave.
Well, the Shen family’s land happens to be just outside the cave entrance, so this entrance is their own territory.
Sang Luo chose a location a little further away from the cave entrance, and took a fancy to a depression between rocks on the mountain's vertical surface that was about 20 to 30 centimeters above the ground. Smilingly, she turned back, picked up the dustpan of soil she had brought out, and poured it into the depression, then used a shovel to level it.
Shen An came over, still a little confused at first: "Sister-in-law, what are you doing here?"
Sang Luo smiled at him and said, "Look, if we fill the soil up like this, it will be okay to plant a bunch of garlic, right?"
Shen An's eyes widened all of a sudden, and when he looked at the mountain wall outside the cave, he realized that vegetables could be grown everywhere!
"Sister-in-law, you are so smart. We can grow more vegetables this way."
After all, with about half a meter of land, you still have to leave space for walking, drying clothes, and raising chickens and ducks. There is actually not much extra land. Considering the land area in the valley, no matter how tightly it is distributed, it will not be enough to grow food whether you grow crops or vegetables.
But if the mountain is also used, it will be completely different!
He ran back, picked up his dustpan of soil, and poured the dirt at a chosen spot.
Seeing him like this, Sang Luo smiled and pointed to a depression not far from the other side of the cave entrance, saying, "Don't fall over there, I have another use for it."
Shen An looked in the direction of his sister-in-law's finger and nodded: "Okay!"
There is still plenty of room left!
Seeing that he was doing a good job and had chosen good places, Sang Luo smiled and continued to go in and clean the cave.
They cleared the soil back and forth, and all the mud was cleared onto the outside of the mountain wall. When necessary, Sang Luo picked up a few stones to build up a pile. If there was no suitable groove, she created it manually.
Everyone was cleaning the cave, and she was particularly eye-catching when she started to clean the outer wall. Chen Lie, Chen Dashan, and Wei Qinghe, who were carrying tree trunks with branches and leaves cut off, saw it. Chen Dashan laughed, "What are your sister-in-law and Xiao An busy with?"
Before Sang Luo could speak, Shen An had already answered with a smile.
"Brother Dashan, come and see, my sister-in-law has come up with a way to grow vegetables on this mountain wall!"
It was just a casual question at first, but upon hearing this, Chen Dashan was also curious. He and Shen Lie and Wei Qinghe put down the tree pole outside the cave and walked towards where Shen An was standing. When they got closer, they saw the place where Shen An was pointing. Needless to say, Shen Lie and Chen Dashan reacted!
Chen Dashan slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, why didn't I think of growing vegetables here!"
Then he praised Sang Luo: "Sister-in-law, you have a really sharp mind!"
Sang Luo poured the soil into the newly piled rocks while laughing: "I just remembered it when I was about to pour the soil. You guys are busy and don't have time to take care of it right now. Grandpa and grandma have been farming for many years. They have to figure it out as soon as they see the rocks."
It's not that she is so smart. It's not easy for people living in the city in later generations. If they want to eat vegetables grown by themselves, they have to use a lot of brains. A balcony can grow vegetables for the whole family, and three-dimensional planting plays a decisive role.
In the past, she only watched the video and knew that living in the mountains, there was no shortage of land for growing vegetables. Now that she was facing the same dilemma where she was going to live, she naturally thought of this method. She just changed her thinking by using the mountain as a flower stand and the rocks as flower pots.
"You are too modest. This method is good. There is enough sunlight, and it is not visible at all from above. I have to tell my family first and learn from them. When everyone goes out to carry soil tomorrow, we can carry more soil. As long as the mountain is not too high to climb, we can find a place to use it."
Chen Dashan said this and ran to the side.
Wei Qinghe didn't know how to farm, so he went over to take a few more looks. He thought that if he planted in this way, even if he planted vegetables, it would have quite a wild appeal. He immediately followed suit, praised the idea, and ran back to the cave where they were staying temporarily to tell Grandma Xu and the children about it.
Sang Luo thought that fertilizer fermentation had to be put on the agenda. If she had to do it like planting vegetables in Shili Village, with manure poured directly on top, her nose would suffer greatly.
The two men carrying the wood ran away. Chen Lie, a family member, finally spoke up: "We still need to cut down some more trees. It shouldn't take too long. Just cut down enough trees for the next few days. You just need to clean up the cave. Don't worry. I'll do the rest later."
Sang Luo nodded: "Okay, you don't have to rush, just go and do your work, my work here is all easy, not tiring."
Chen Lie went into the cave and took a look. Seeing his sister also helping to dig the soil and pick stones, he felt relieved. He turned around and went to carry the wood again. He wanted to get enough wood as soon as possible so that she could come over to help.
It took nearly an hour to clean up the loose soil, rotten leaves and some scattered stones in the cave. The ground was finally flattened. In some places, there were holes left by digging rocks. Sang Luo led the two children to fill them with fine soil and stomped them down. The cave looked much more comfortable.
After finishing this, Sang Luo took Chen Ning to the bottom of a sunken rock near the big cave and got some dry firewood. She also asked Old Lady Chen for some dried mugwort leaves, lit a few fires in the cave, threw some mugwort leaves in and let them burn.
Although the ground has been dug up with more than ten or twenty layers of soil and mud, there shouldn't be any bugs. But who cares whether there are bugs or not? It always helps to fumigate it.
She also called Chen An and Shen Ning to help her move stones and build a stove. During these days of clearing the wasteland, apart from the weeds and vegetables that were dried in the sun, the most common things they found were stones, in all shapes and sizes, which could be picked at will.
I moved dozens of pieces back at a time and built a temporary stove manually at a place at the entrance of the cave that was not exposed to rain. The only regret was that there was no yellow mud in this valley, so I could only use ordinary mud, and I didn't know if it would work.
The three cousins of the Xu family next door had almost finished cleaning the ground in the cave. When they came out to dump the soil, they saw Shen An and Shen Ning busy at the entrance of the cave. They ran over and saw that it was Sang Luo who was leading them to build a temporary stove. After looking at the stones they had chosen, the three siblings also ran to the area where the stones were piled and started to mess with the stones at the entrance of their own cave.
Mrs. Chen and Qin Fangniang worked efficiently, and with the help of the young boy Chen Ershan, they lit a fire in the cave to smoke mugwort, and brought some dried mugwort leaves to Old Madam Xu.
Seeing that Sang Luo was already building the stove, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law took Chen Ershan and Chen Xiaoya to collect stones. Sang Luo's stove was not yet built, and Chen Lie came back holding a clean stone slab.
"Grandma Chen and Aunt Youtian found two pieces and asked Ershan to call me to bring one back. I'm afraid I won't have time to make furniture these days, so I'll use this one first to put some things on it and use it as a table when eating. I'll move it out when I find furniture."
Sang Luo was very happy. She looked at the stone slab, which was about the size of a bedside table. It was not really called a stone slab because it was very thick. One side was flat and the other side was no different from ordinary stone. The shape was not very good, but it was very heavy. No wonder Qin Fangniang bypassed her and directly asked Chen Ershan to call Chen Lie.
She, Shen An and Shen Ning together couldn't lift it.
"This is great! We can use it today. Put it here." Pointing to a place for Chen Lie to put down the stone, she turned around and picked out a few stones that were originally picked up at the entrance of the cave to build the stove, and tried to put them under the stone slab to make it stable.
Chen Lie also went to pick up two stones and tried to see which one would be more suitable. Together, the two of them leveled the small table in no time.
Sang Luo pushed it with her hand and laughed: "It's quite stable."
Chen Lie looked around the cave. The ground was cleaned up, several fires were lit, a simple stone table was set up, and a stove was being built. He took the unused stones to the cave entrance and said, "I'm almost done felling trees over there. I just need to carry a few more loads. Think of anything that's urgent today, and we'll do it later."
Sang Luo's eyes lit up: "Besides making doors, do you have time to do anything else?"
Chen Lie nodded as a matter of course: "It's still early now, and the door is also simple. We can use it for a few days. The wood also needs to be dried. After I have transported all the food, we will tidy up the cave and make a real door then."
If you have time, that would be great.
"Come with me!"
He walked out of the cave first, walked to the left for more than half a foot, and stopped: "Here, see if you can make a clean room. You don't need to put a bathtub, but just a toilet."
Shen Lie was stunned at first, and then he reacted.
How could he forget that they had built a temporary toilet on the outskirts of the valley when they first came in. With Sang Luo's obsession with cleanliness, she would probably suffer every time she went to the toilet. Moreover, now that they had moved to the middle of the canyon, it was so far away from the outskirts. It was okay during the day, but it was indeed inconvenient at night.
"Blame me. I didn't expect this."
Looking at the place chosen by Sang Luo, it is a naturally concave location with rugged mountain walls, but it is really good. First, it is of suitable size. It is not enough for living, but it is enough to put a toilet or make a bathroom. The best thing is that this naturally concave location is surrounded on three sides and has a roof on top. It only needs a wall outside to cover it to form an enclosed space.
"How about it, can you change it today?"
The area that can be renovated is about one and a half square meters, and it happens to be on their own land, what a great thing.
Chen Lie nodded: "Okay, this place is good, we can make a narrow wooden wall and a door and use it directly. The tree is almost cut down, I will come back and start working soon, it's okay to move quickly."
Sang Luo's eyes lit up: "Then I'll clean the floor first."
Here she thought of something else, and almost stopped herself from saying it. Seeing Chen Lie looking at her, waiting for the next words, Sang Luo hurriedly smiled and said, "It's okay, that's it, go on with your work."
Chen Lie saw that she clearly had something to say just now, but seeing that Sang Luo changed her tone, he did not ask any more questions and nodded: "Then I will continue to cut down trees. Call me if there is anything you can't handle yourself."
Sang Luo smiled and sent the person away. When the person walked a little further away, she closed her eyes, raised her hand and pinched her cheek hard.
It was a close call. I almost asked Chen Lie if he could hoop a wooden barrel.
The wooden barrel, of course, was not a bucket for carrying water. That bucket was brought with us. What was missing now was a toilet…
After all, we are fleeing, who can bring this thing with them?
But let her ask a young man, especially when they seem to be of the same age now, "Can you be a toilet boy?"
Sang Luo felt suffocated just thinking about it. How embarrassing that would be. She dared not think about it.
It would be great if we could build a clean room today. She should do the job herself. She is too shy to do it.
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