Chapter 314 Water-scarce Summer
As soon as Lin Heng came down, he saw his father taking the food to feed the cattle and sheep, so he went over to help.
"Ding-ling-ling!"
“Eating grass!!”
With the sound of bells and people shouting, all the cattle and sheep lying on the ground stood up and looked at the two people at the door.
Now they have formed a habit, and when they hear the bell and the call, they know there is food.
While feeding the grass, Father Lin turned his head and asked, "Do you feel that you have grown a lot?"
"Yes, they have grown a little." Lin Heng looked at the black goats fighting for grass. They looked cute and had grown a lot bigger.
There are three male goats that are obviously larger than the other goats. If nothing unexpected happens, the future head goat will be born from among them.
Thanks to good ventilation and the regular cleaning of feces and the sprinkling of disinfectant lime, the sheep are not suffering from any health problems for the time being.
Father Lin said, "I feel like I still need to go out for a run, otherwise I won't be healthy enough. This circle is too small."
"We can try releasing them on a small scale in a few days." Lin Heng said that it is good to let them out for a walk, which is indeed good for health.
After feeding the cattle and sheep, Lin Heng first went to check on the lamb with a broken leg. Its hind legs were no longer usable and it now walked on three legs.
"If you want to eat it, you can kill it." Father Lin said with a smile.
Lin Heng stood up and said, "Let's talk about it later. Don't worry. Maybe I can catch a muntjac in the mountains."
Taking a bundle of fresh grass, Lin Heng went down to the musk deer pen to take a look.
“Yo yo!”
As soon as he opened the door, the musk deer let out a frightened cry and jumped towards the corner.
"It's okay as long as you're alive." Lin Heng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw its condition. He threw the fodder in and drove back to the village.
After entering the yard, Fengshou made a friendly sound. Lin Heng glanced at it and said, "I'll make you food soon."
He went into the house and got some minced meat to cook with the leftover rice, then walked around the house.
Seeing the Panax notoginseng that Xiulan had carefully packed, he took it out and weighed it. After drying, it was 13.6 jin. And as he expected, it was all top grade and could be sold for about 700 yuan.
He prepared six pieces of Panax notoginseng weighing 3.6 jin, and ground them into Panax notoginseng powder for his family to drink. It is very beneficial to the human body, especially for those who are suffering from anemia.
However, this thing does not have as long a shelf life as ginseng and will go bad in two or three years, so Lin Heng plans to sell the remaining ten kilograms.
Not counting the money from the purchasing station and the 20,000 yuan saved in the house, he only had 500 yuan in his card. It could be said that he was very short of money.
I have to buy shrimp feed soon, which is another expense. The 20,000 yuan has to be used to buy a factory and a house to live in, and cannot be used for other purposes.
The only income, fresh shrimp, will not be received until October.
However, Lin Heng is not in a hurry. He moves forward step by step at his own pace of life and is not so eager for quick success.
After shoveling the feed, he went to the back mountain to feed the chickens and ducks, and then Lin Heng let them out to eat grass and other things outside during the day.
While Lin Heng was feeding the chickens, his sister-in-law Liu Juan was milking the cows. Suddenly she found that she could not milk today, so she hurried over to find Lin Heng.
"Lin Heng, why can't the cows produce milk? Are they sick?" Liu Juan was a little anxious because she was used to drinking milk.
Lin Heng was stunned at first, then he explained: "That should be the dry period. After giving birth in two months, the baby will start producing milk again."
The cow's belly has been getting bigger recently. The calf will be born in October, which is just over two months away.
Normally, the first two months after giving birth are a dry period, when no milk is produced. Lately, the milk supply has been decreasing, and he didn't expect that it would stop today.
"Is that so? Okay then." Liu Juan said somewhat disappointedly. She became anxious at the thought of not having milk to drink for the next two months.
With this cow, both she and her three children look much better than before. Now they are not used to it.
Lin Heng walked over and took another closer look, confirming that the dry period had arrived. He thought it would last for a while, but he didn't expect it to be over so soon.
There is no way around this. During this period, the cow's body is preparing for the newborn calves and will not produce milk.
But we need to feed the cows better and keep them in good health so that they can produce more milk in the future.
After pouring some silage to feed the cows, Lin Heng turned around and went home. The fact that the cows stopped producing milk did not mean that there was no milk to drink. When the milk production was very high before, the milk that could not be drunk was made into milk powder, and now it can be taken out and enjoyed.
After taking out the milk powder he had made earlier, Lin Heng went to look at the milk that had been poured into the tank to ferment five or six days ago.
When he opened it, he saw a thick layer of cream on the surface. This was the raw material for making butter. He scooped it up and put it into a basin, ready to take it to Red Maple Mountain to make butter.
The yogurt below the cream is of course useful, but it cannot be eaten directly because it contains too many bacteria.
Lin Heng poured it all into a bucket, preparing to take it all back to Hongfeng Mountain later.
After finishing these, he fed the harvest and picked some vegetables, fruits and melons. There were too many watermelons, so he just cut one and fed it to the chickens and ducks.
He gave one to a neighbor who was usually nice to him, and then gave three to Tian Yan, asking her to share them with the children in school.
Lin Heng came to Hongfeng Mountain, and his third father and cousin Lin Hai also came.
"What did you get? Milk?" Lin's mother asked as she looked at what he was carrying.
"This is fermented yogurt and cream. You can't eat it directly. I've been weaned from milk, and there has been no fresh milk in the past two months."
Lin Heng explained it to his mother.
"Is that so? Then we'll just drink milk powder. Feed the cows well these days." Lin's mother nodded.
"I know." Lin Heng nodded, said hello to Sandie and the others, then carried his things up the mountain.
On the mountain, Xiulan was boiling eggs. Seeing Lin Heng coming up with milk powder, she asked curiously, "Why did you bring the milk powder here?"
"Because the cows are weaned." Lin Heng explained again.
"I see, the milk powder tastes good too." Xiulan nodded.
After the eggs were cooked, Xiulan prepared the milk powder and the cold dishes, while Lin Heng poured the cream into the pot and boiled it.
The cream was stirred constantly during the production process, and by the time they finished breakfast, the originally white cream had turned into a translucent yellow and turned into oil.
"There's actually so much oil in milk." Xiulan was a little surprised.
"Yes, this stuff solidifies like lard when it gets cold, but it's called butter." Lin Heng explained while filtering it with gauze.
Xiulan came over to help and was a little curious: "How do you eat this? Can you cook it?"
Lin Heng smiled and said, "You can, but I don't recommend it because it has a milky flavor. It's better for making soup, steamed buns, popcorn, and frying steaks."
After pouring the butter into a glass bottle and letting it cool, Lin Heng began to pour the yogurt in the bucket into the pot and boil it.
It won't take long for the milk and whey in yogurt to separate just like tofu pudding.
After filtering out the whey, what remains is cheese, which is kneaded into small balls and flattened, then slowly baked over charcoal fire, and finally becomes a delicious cheese cake.
"You watch carefully, I'm going to go over to work." After the cheese pancakes were ready, Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and said.
"Go ahead." Xiulan nodded in agreement.
As soon as Lin Heng arrived at the dam repair site, Caiyun came up with a book. Lin Heng greeted her and went down the mountain to fetch materials.
Today's work is the same as yesterday, which is to expand the two sides of the dam and clear the stones inside.
Time passed quickly while working, and in the blink of an eye it was already noon. Lin Heng went back to rest, and Xiulan brought him a cheese cake: "It's already baked, and it tastes very good. You have great cooking skills."
"Of course." Lin Heng smiled and ate one. It was fragrant, glutinous and delicious, with a strong milky flavor.
"It's a pity there is no milk now, otherwise I would try it too." Xiulan said regretfully.
"There will be plenty of opportunities in the future." Lin Heng said, and then said, "Let's go downstairs and eat quickly, otherwise mom will call for help again."
Xiulan looked at him and said, "I think we should all eat here starting tomorrow. I'll do it. It's much cooler up here than down there."
Caiyun pulled Xiaoxia aside and agreed, "Yes, I also suggest doing it upstairs. It's much cooler here. You'll sweat a lot if you eat downstairs, and my sister-in-law is pregnant and it's hard for her to run up and down."
"Indeed, let's tell mom later." Lin Heng nodded.
When going downstairs to eat, Lin Heng told his mother about it, and she agreed on the spot. They would eat upstairs from now on, but she would cook it.
Lin Heng naturally had no objection to this. After lunch, he continued his previous work in the afternoon.
While he was working, Lin Yue looked at him and asked, "Brother, will you go check on the clamps and noose tomorrow morning?"
"Of course I'll go, otherwise it would be a waste." Lin Heng nodded.
"Then should we go at around five o'clock?" Lin Yue asked again.
Lin Heng agreed: "Okay, come to Hongfeng Mountain to find me then."
"No problem." Lin Yue said with a smile.
After finishing work in the afternoon, Lin Heng went to check on the male musk deer again and found that the gauze on its foot had fallen off, so he asked someone to hold it down for inspection.
"It's infected indeed." Lin Heng shook his head and got some iodine to disinfect.
He didn't bandage it this time because it would not heal easily if covered up, so he decided to disinfect it two or three times a day.
The next morning, Lin Heng got up early and set out with his elder brother to check the traps and hunt.
They set out at five o'clock and came back at a little after ten o'clock. Lin Heng only caught a red squirrel and got nothing else.
In the following days, I mainly continued to repair the dam, checked the traps every morning, and usually stayed with Xiulan and Xiaoxia.
August came quietly in the busy and happy life. The last month of summer was very hot and humid. There was little rain this summer. The leaves of crops on many hillsides turned yellow, and the harvest was destined not to be very good.
Lin Heng's family was relatively lucky. The land on the mountain was planted with seedlings, so the roots were deep and they were not likely to die easily.
Because there was not much rain, there were fewer mushrooms than in previous years, and the flow of the Hongfeng Mountain creek was much smaller. In addition, there was water used for breeding bases and watering pastures, so there was basically no water flowing into the Shiban River.
The advantage of building a small dam becomes apparent at this time, as there will still be water available even in the dry season.
Xiulan's belly is getting bigger day by day, and now it is very obvious that she needs more and more care. Pregnant with twins is a lucky thing, but also a very difficult thing.
Fortunately, not only Lin Heng but also Caiyun helped to take care of him, so the situation was relatively good.
Before they knew it, they had been building the dam for ten days. Both sides had been completely widened, with an average width of six meters and a length of thirty meters. The area had basically been cleared, and when the dam outside was built in the future, the average water depth would reach three meters.
After finishing the work in the afternoon, Lin Hai asked, "Will you continue tomorrow?"
Lin Heng looked at the sky and said, "Let's take a few days off. It feels like it's going to rain. Let's start again after the rain."
The weather had started to get cloudy these days, so there was no need to rush. He also had to go to the city again to buy feed for the shrimp.
"That's great. I also have some farm work to do." Third father Lin Xutao nodded.
"Let's eat first, they should have finished cooking." Father Lin said to everyone.
Lin Heng and his elder brother haven't been very successful in hunting these days. Their best catch was a pheasant, and most of the time they return empty-handed.
On the contrary, he used some hooks set up on the edge of the soybean field and successfully caught two pheasants that were eating the soybeans. He made soup with one for Xiulan and fried the other for everyone to eat.
While eating, Lin Yue asked with a smile: "Brother, wild boars have been destroying corn and soybeans recently. How about we go and give it a try someday?"
"Let's wait a few days. After I buy some feed, I want to go to Sanchagou." Lin Heng smiled at his elder brother. Although there was not much meat left at home, he still wanted to look for ginseng first.
Lin Yue understood that he wanted to find ginseng, and immediately nodded and said, "That's fine."
You can go there to look for ginseng and hunt at the same time.
Mother Lin looked at the two of them and said, "Your uncle will be coming down in a couple of days. It seems that he is planning to ask you to go to Changping County to hunt black bears."
She and Caiyun had been to her eldest brother Lu Honghai's house two days ago and knew what he was planning.
"Then I guess I can't leave for the time being." Lin Heng spread his hands.
Mother Lin said, "He said he would help you build the dam first, and then we can talk about it."
"We'll talk about it when the time comes." Lin Heng was also very interested in hunting black bears. The black bear's entire body was a treasure and could be sold for two to three thousand yuan, which was incomparable to ordinary prey.
It was cool in the woods, and we ate and talked. By the time we finished eating and left, it was already eight o'clock. The sun had already set, and there was still a last bit of afterglow on the western ridge.
Xiulan leaned back in a rattan chair and watched, with mugwort incense burning beside her.
"Go back to the house quickly, and wait until you finish washing up before coming out again after dark." Lin Heng looked at her and said, there were too many mosquitoes at the moment and even incense couldn't keep them away.
Xiulan took his hand and stood up and said, "Go back to the house and sleep. It's not hot inside. Don't you have to go into the city tomorrow?"
"That's fine. It won't affect anything if I go into the city tomorrow." Lin Heng nodded and pulled her and Xiaoxia into the house.
"Dad, are you all going tomorrow?" Xiaoxia said immediately when she heard about going into the city.
"Mom won't go, but Dad will be back soon." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Then you have to come back soon!" Xiaoxia said reluctantly.
"Of course, my dear baby." Lin Heng said with a smile.
After helping Xiulan and Xiaoxia finish washing up, the three of them went to bed to rest. Lin Heng read a story to Xiaoxia with a flashlight, and she soon fell asleep in his arms.
Lin Heng turned off the flashlight, and Xiulan leaned against him and they both gradually fell asleep.
"Hey, honey, is there something outside?" Xiulan suddenly leaned close to Lin Heng's ear and said.
"I heard it too, on the roof." Lin Heng nodded, sat up, got dressed, and prepared to go out and take a look.
(End of this chapter)
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