Chapter 324: Final Construction, Roasted Whole Lamb
"Will it be possible to store water after drying it for a few days?"
Lin Hai said while looking at the small dam.
Sandie said, "If we want to store water, we need to put railings around it, otherwise it will be easy to get into trouble because of the deep water."
"We have to surround it, otherwise it's not safe." Father Lin nodded.
Lin Heng looked at everyone and said, "Third father and Lin Hai, come over tomorrow. Let's finish the last bit of work, have some roasted lamb, and prepare to kill the lame lamb at home."
Father Lin also said, "Yes, come over here and let's eat roast lamb."
"That's great." Lin Heng's father agreed with a smile.
After everything was packed up, everyone went back to eat.
The next morning, Lin Heng got up early, had breakfast and went down the mountain to check on the lame lamb. He caught it and put it on the scale and found it was only 24 kilograms, while the others weighed at least 30 kilograms.
"Are we going to kill it now?" Father Lin asked when he saw him bringing the sheep over.
Lin Heng nodded: "Let's kill them now, and then have Caiyun and the others string them into skewers, and we'll grill them and eat them this afternoon."
"Okay, I'll go back and get a basin to collect the sheep's blood." Father Lin nodded.
When he brought the basin, Brother Lin Heng also came over, and the three of them worked together to quickly drain the blood from the lamb.
Lai Fu, the blue wolfhound tied not far away, licked his lips excitedly, wanting to come over to drink blood.
When Lin Hai came over, he was shocked and said, "You guys are really quick. You've already peeled off the skin!"
"Of course." Lin Heng smiled and threw the sheepskin aside, then cut open the intestines and took out the internal organs. The job of cleaning was left to his mother and Caiyun.
Looking at the little mutton left, Father Lin said, "Son, do you think we should just build an earthen stove and roast the whole sheep? It's too troublesome to cut it up and skewer it."
"I think it's okay. Let's just have a whole roasted lamb." Lin Yue said with a smile.
Lin Heng nodded and said, "That's fine, but it's very troublesome to build a clay oven."
"It's not a big deal. Leave it to me and I'll build it." Lin Hai said, patting his chest.
"Okay, I'll leave it to you." Lin Heng nodded.
After cutting the mutton into some fancy shapes, he took it into the house, found a large basin, and marinated it with scallion, ginger water and rice wine.
Lin Hai found a place where he could dig up clay, and used the clay to build an earthen stove next to the vegetable field. This required building a conical oven that was nearly two meters high.
But after a while, Lin Wei, Lin Tao and others came running over. They were very interested in playing in the mud and started to work with Lin Hai.
Lin Heng and his team went up to the dam to work. They mainly did three things today. One was to build a small well higher up on the dam for drinking water.
The dam is used to raise fish, so there will be a lot of algae in the water, which is not very good for eating. For a well, you only need to dig a two-cubic-meter pit, then plaster the four walls with cement and install the water pipes.
The second thing is to build a railing, a blocking railing along both sides of the dam to prevent people or animals from falling into the water.
The third thing is the final treatment of the dam, which is to apply cement to the dam body.
"Let me dig the well." Lin Hengsan's father said with a smile.
"Then Dad, let's mix the cement first, and then build the railings together?" Lin Yue looked at his father and asked.
"Okay, your brother's wall-plastering skills are better than ours." Father Lin nodded in agreement.
After agreeing, the four of them started working separately. Lin Heng first helped his third father dig a well, and then waited for his father and eldest brother to mix the cement before plastering the wall.
This job was easy for him because he had worked there for a long time in his previous life, and the wall area was not very large, so plastering it did not require much effort.
It took him about two and a half hours to finish the wall plastering work. Standing further away, looking at it, the small dam looked quite realistic.
Because a small dam was built, the water level will rise by four and a half meters. When the water overflows, the height difference with the water below will be eight or nine meters, which can be regarded as an artificially created small waterfall landscape.
He couldn't wait to see the big and small dams filled with water.
He turned around to see the progress of his father and his team. They had just finished sawing the wood for the railing and were just starting to dig the hole. He looked around and decided to come over and build a few small docks by the water, which would be very convenient for fishing.
His third father has completed nearly half of the work, which is quite fast.
After taking one look, he went down the hill to see how the oven was being built, and when he came down he found that they had finished it and were just about to light the fire to make the charcoal.
"Brother Lin, do we look good?" Lin Hai asked with a smile.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded. The oven has a diameter of one meter at the bottom and another thirty centimeters at the top. The wall is more than ten centimeters thick. It looks pretty good.
Lin Wei said happily: "Then let's light a fire and roast the mutton in a while, Second Father."
"I just came down to marinate the mutton." Lin Heng nodded with a smile. He went into the house to marinate the mutton again. The sheep's internal organs had already been cleaned and hung on the wall.
Remove the original onion and ginger. This time, the marinating is mainly to add some seasonings, such as soy sauce, salt, and pepper powder. The barbecue ingredients will be added after the barbecue is finished.
After marinating, he got two iron wires and passed them through the ribs, ready to put them in the oven later.
Over at the earthen oven, Lin Hai had already started the fire, and thick smoke was rising. Even if the oven was made of clay, it would crack, but it didn't matter, it wouldn't affect its use.
After the firewood was burned out and the charcoal was ignited, Lin Heng took the roasted lamb and took a steel bar and hung it in the stove. He then covered it with a pot lid and began roasting.
Just add some charcoal fire from time to time during the remaining time.
After finishing this, he took Lin Hai and his two nephews up the mountain. After reaching the mountain, Lin Hai helped his father dig a well, and Lin Heng helped install the railings.
It was not until lunchtime that the foundation pit for the railing columns was initially completed, and the well was completed very quickly.
We didn't have the roasted whole lamb for lunch because it wasn't ready yet. We'll call everyone over to eat it in the afternoon. But there were lamb offal, which tasted pretty good.
After lunch, they continued their previous work. Lin Heng applied cement to the dug well and left some small holes for water to seep in.
Then the railings were installed, and finally the remaining sand and gravel were spread on the shore near the cabin to harden the ground to avoid inconvenience when fishing.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the entire small dam was completely completed.
"Looking at it this way, the dam looks pretty nice." Lin Hai said with a smile.
"Lin Heng, what kind of fish are you going to raise in here?" Sandie looked at him and asked.
"Maybe it's bream or mandarin fish, but it hasn't been confirmed yet." Lin Heng said. He planned to use this dam to try to breed bream because the water temperature was still very low at the top of the mountain.
"I'm afraid this fish is difficult to raise." Sandie said. The plum fish would die almost immediately if it was caught alive from the water. He had experience with this.
"It's hard to raise, so I'll give it a try." Lin Heng nodded and said, "Let's go and have a rest first, and then we'll prepare to eat the roasted whole lamb."
"good!"
Lin Wei and others beside him jumped up happily: "Great, let's eat roasted whole lamb!!"
Everyone returned to the cabin and ate a watermelon to cool off. Then Lin Heng paid them their wages, but this time Sandie and Lin Hai refused no matter what, because they felt that this was just normal help and there was no need to talk about money.
If they didn't want it, his elder brother and father naturally wouldn't accept it either.
Lin Heng spread his hands helplessly and said with a smile: "Since no one wants it, then wash your face quickly. We are going to eat the roasted whole lamb."
"No rush, let's go back and take a shower and change clothes before coming back." said Sandie.
"Yes, I want to go back and take a shower too." Lin Yue nodded.
Lin Heng looked at everyone and said, "That's fine too. Come over soon. Don't make me go to their houses to call them."
Only after getting their assurance did Lin Heng let them go with peace of mind.
After they left, Lin Heng looked at his wife and said, "Xiu Lan, find me a set of clothes. I'm going to take a shower."
"I've found it, it's on the bed." Xiulan said, pointing at the clothes on the bed.
Lin Heng walked over to get his clothes, took some soap and laundry detergent and went to the stream at the foot of the mountain. He found a pool of water, stripped down to his underwear and took a good bath.
The workload these past few days has been quite heavy, and soaking in the cool stream water is particularly comfortable.
After taking a bath, he washed his clothes and went up the mountain.
"Xiaoxia, what are you doing!"
As soon as he went up the mountain, Lin Heng saw Xiaoxia playing next to the newly applied cement. She was making footprints and handprints on the wet cement.
"Beep~"
Xiaoxia seemed to realize that this was not right, and looked at her timidly with her big eyes.
Lin Heng looked at her and said, "Don't do it quietly, or your mother will spank you again if she finds out."
"I was wrong, Dad. Please don't tell Mom." Xiaoxia ran over and wanted to act coquettishly.
Lin Heng grabbed her little hand and washed it by the water, then led her back: "Don't do it next time, I won't tell your mother."
Lin Heng rubbed her little head. It was not a big deal. Leaving a small handprint was also a special mark.
"Okay!" Xiaoxia nodded in agreement.
Lin Heng asked her why she went there, and found out that Lin Wei took her there, and then they ran away without a trace, leaving her alone.
Lin Heng hung his clothes on the rope, sat down on the bench next to Xiulan, picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea, and asked, "Where are Caiyun's mother and the others?"
"I went downstairs to braise the lamb offal. The braised soup from last time is still here." Xiulan replied.
Lin Heng nodded, drank a sip of tea, and asked again: "Are the barbecue ingredients ready?"
"Of course, I also made some cold dishes, dried fish and fried shrimps." She said, and went into the house to get a small bowl of shrimps for him, "Try it, these are the shrimps you raised."
The first impression of this farmed shrimp is that it is neatly arranged, unlike the wild-caught shrimps which are of different sizes. After frying, it is golden and crispy, and it smells delicious.
Because the shrimp thread had been removed, Lin Heng could put the whole shrimp in his mouth and eat it. It was so fresh and fragrant that it felt like he was swallowing his tongue.
"It's delicious, but it's hard to remove the shell." Lin Heng said with emotion.
"You ordered me, didn't you?" Xiulan glanced at him, stretched out her hand to peel two shrimps and stuffed them into his mouth, saying, "Eat them now."
"Thank you, wife."
Lin Heng grinned and sucked his wife's fingers together.
Xiulan shook her hands in disgust and peeled two more.
"No, no, I'll peel it for you. Mom will beat me if she sees it."
He said with a smile, peeled two and fed them to her.
"It seems you are feeding me because you are afraid of mom. I won't eat it."
Xiulan blinked, closed her mouth and stopped eating, but continued to peel shrimp with her hands.
"You have to eat it whether you want to or not." Lin Heng snorted and stuffed the shrimp into her mouth, squeezing her tender red lips and deforming them.
As the two of them were competing, Lin Heng suddenly reached out and tickled her, then put the shrimp into her mouth.
"You are so bad!" Xiulan hit him.
After a little fuss, Lin Heng stopped her from peeling it. He felt that it would be more crispy and delicious if eaten with the shell.
The two of them ate some and left the rest for Xiaoxia who came over.
After his elder brother and the others had finished their shower and came over, Lin Heng went downstairs to get the roasted mutton out of the oven. After cutting it up, he sprinkled barbecue seasoning on it and placed it on a large plate.
Add some other dishes and you can eat when everyone is present.
"It smells so good." Lin Wei and others started drooling before they even started eating.
Even Lin Hengsan's mother Li Xue couldn't bear it anymore. She was lucky to have some bacon on a normal day, and this whole roasted lamb was something she would never even dream of.
She was jealous and envious of Lin Heng, and a little afraid of him. At this moment, she was talking about village gossip with Caiyun and Xiulan, but her eyes were always on the mutton.
"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's start eating."
Lin Heng waited for his father to come over, then announced with a smile that he would give each person a piece of mutton, and then the party officially began.
The men drank yellow wine and the women drank rice wine.
“It smells so good!”
“This is the best meat I’ve ever eaten!”
Lin Wei and Lin Tao's mouths were full of oil and they kept praising the food.
"It's really delicious. The lamb meat is so tender that you can even bite off the ribs and eat them directly." Lin Hai also praised.
The others spoke less, but they never stopped talking and drank less than usual.
This roasted lamb is so delicious. It is chewy but not too chewy. Most of the bones are soft, and the lamb smell is not as strong as that of an adult sheep.
Drinking rice wine and eating roasted lamb, you can also see the beautiful sunset at this dusk, and everyone has a happy smile on their face.
The two dogs, Xiongba and Fengshou, were also waiting here, and they were scrambling to eat the bone.
"I can't eat anymore. I'm so full." Xiulan shook her head and handed the remaining half of the meat to Lin Heng.
Lin Heng picked out meat from the lamb legs for her, but there was too much.
"Then would you like some more shrimp?" Lin Heng asked with a smile.
"Give me that piece of cantaloupe." said Xiulan.
"Okay." Lin Heng gave her a piece of melon and then finished the rest of the mutton.
The middle-class man ate for two hours and his fighting ability was still good. He finished all the food without any leftovers.
After a sumptuous dinner, everyone felt satisfied and full. Eating enough meat was a very rare thing in this era.
Finally, everyone helped to clean up the dishes and the venue, and then went home.
Lin Heng leaned on the rattan chair and looked through the trees at the last bit of red clouds in the west. He turned to Xiulan and said, "Now, the construction of our Red Maple Mountain is considered to be preliminarily completed."
This water storage dam is a very important part of the construction of Hongfeng Mountain.
(End of this chapter)
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