He bought some old items sold in his home, a set of ancient books left by his ancestors, and a silver ingot collected by Cheng Peng.
The total cost was five hundred yuan, which was not a small amount, but he felt it was worth it.
They played by the stream at Red Maple Mountain for nearly four hours before they packed up and left.
After returning to the house, Lin Heng and Xiulan went to the mountain to take a look together.
In the sheep pen, since moving into the new pen, these sheep have become much easier to raise and no longer have to excrete feces frequently.
You can clean it when you want, or once every three or four days if you don’t want to. The ground will be a little dirty, but the suspended sheep pen will always be clean.
Lin Heng bought him an iron two-wheeled cart that could be used specifically for removing feces.
Now, the more than 20 ewes have basically become pregnant again and are carrying babies.
There were more than 20 ewes in last year's batch of lambs. They can be arranged for breeding when they come into heat again in May and June.
Black goats reproduce very quickly. Basically, they can reproduce at five months old and give birth to their first baby at ten months old.
Among the batch of lambs produced at the end of last year, Lin Heng had tied up his testicles with rubber bands. Now one can see that his testicles are gradually shrinking, and without blood flowing in, natural castration will be completed soon.
"I think this is worse than having surgery. The sheep must be in pain after being stuck like this for so many days." Xiulan looked at these little rams and felt a little sorry for them.
"It's the same actually. I just felt a little tense in the first two days, but I didn't feel anything afterwards." Lin Heng said with a smile.
After looking around, the two men left the sheepfold and went up the mountain.
The ginseng has grown and will bloom again this year. Now that most of the spring has passed, the spring honey is full and can be harvested.
After looking around the cabin, they went down the mountain and went home.
In the past few days, other crops have been planted, including fruits, vegetables and melons, leaving only rice.
These days, Father Lin has been busy cultivating the paddy fields, preparing for transplanting rice in May.
Unlike last year, Lin Heng plans to raise some rice fish this year, so he needs to raise the water level in the paddy fields higher.
The green shrimps were taken out of the shrimp pond one after another, and suitable female shrimps were selected and raised in the hatchery pond. He chose to buy male shrimps from fishermen and farmers in Heihe River.
They pair the large Black River prawns they catch with the prawns they farm at home.
But there is no rush for this matter, as long as the acquisition is completed before mid-May. Currently, he has just brought the news and offered a very high price, and many people are scrambling to catch shrimps for him.
On April 25, there was a heavy spring rain, moderate rain, which lasted for two days and two nights. This rain made the mountains completely green.
Looking up, there is green everywhere, and the toon trees on the mountain can be picked again.
After the rain, Lin Heng stayed at home to look after the children and asked Xiulan and Lin's mother to pick mushrooms for half a day.
In early spring, when the weather is cool, there are pine mushrooms, matsutake mushrooms, and morels.
Xiulan and Lin's mother picked up more than 20 kilograms of pine mushrooms, five or six kilograms of morels, and only found three matsutake mushrooms in their previous nest.
"The mushrooms are not good this year, not as many as last year." Xiulan shook her head while picking mushrooms.
"It seems that mushrooms also have good and bad years." Lin Heng said with a smile.
He didn't go to pick mushrooms not because he didn't want to go, but because Xiulan saw that the children had no time to go out and play, so she asked her to pick mushrooms to relax.
Taking care of children, especially young children, is also a very annoying thing, because children always have unlimited energy to run around and are unaware of danger, so adults must watch them all the time.
The accident happened when they were feeding the chickens a few days ago. Lin Luming was walking outside and grabbed a nettle leaf and cried for a long time.
"Although we didn't get many mushrooms, we got a lot of leeks. They are tender at this time, and we can make dumplings with meat." Xiulan said as she took out a pile of leeks at the bottom of the basket.
"This is good, the fried meat is also delicious." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.
At noon, they fried mushrooms and deer ear leeks, which tasted very good. They were wild delicacies with a special flavor.
"You two go pick them up tomorrow, and I'll look after the children. Son, you can always find some good things when you go up the mountain." Lin's mother said after dinner.
"Okay, then I'll go take a look." Lin Heng nodded. His luck came from Xiongba who was lying lazily in the yard basking in the sun.
They rested at home in the afternoon. Lin Heng was turning over and drying the Polygonatum sibiricum. It had been steamed in the morning and was almost dried now.
After nine steaming and nine dryings, Huangjing soaked in water can replenish Qi and enhance the body's immunity. People like them who live in the mountains always soak some medicinal herbs in water when drinking.
In summer, most of the herbs used for soaking in water are honeysuckle, selfheal, houttuynia cordata, etc., while in other seasons, different herbs are used for soaking in water.
This is also one of the reasons why people living in the mountains are healthy. Some people eat very poorly but can live to be eighty or ninety years old. It is the medicines in the mountains that nourish their bodies subtly.
The next morning, Lin Heng took a bow and arrow and a bag and went up the mountain with Xiulan.
At this time, the leaves are green and the flowers are in full bloom. Walking in the mountains and forests is a real pleasure, and you feel like every cell in your body is relaxing.
Carrying a glass of water and some dry food, the two people and the dog walked and stopped in the woods, searching.
"Here's one."
"I have some here too."
When they found the mushrooms, they were happy together. When they couldn't find any, they complained together and tried to find the reason. Such days were beautiful and a little dreamy.
When there are no more utilitarianism and pursuits, you will feel relaxed even if you only do one thing a day in nature.
They didn't get home until two in the afternoon, and their harvest was indeed a little more than yesterday.
I got a lot of morels and pine mushrooms, but I didn't find any matsutake mushrooms. None of the previous nests had grown.
"Son, you can really pick up good stuff when you go up the mountain." Mother Lin said happily as she looked at the more than ten kilograms of morels.
"It's okay." Lin Heng walked into the house, hung up his bow and arrow, and drank a sip of tea.
The next few days were sunny. The beginning of summer had arrived, the wheat and rapeseed in the fields had all turned yellow, and every household was busy harvesting.
After the harvest, they are busy plowing the fields, drawing water and planting rice.
Lin Heng's family planted a lot of rapeseed and wheat in several muddy fields that did not have water all year round, and they were busy for a lot of time in the past few days.
After finishing the work, the Beginning of Summer had already passed. At this time of year, the cherries and loquats at home were ripe. Lin Heng picked a lot for the children and let them eat them for several days.
The strawberries at home were ripening one by one. Xiaoxia would check on them every day. When she picked the red ones, she would happily give them to her mother. She would not eat them all by herself, but would save up five for each of her children.
On May 8, Lin Heng went to the town on the other side of Heihe.
He went there with his eldest brother and mainly did two things. The first was to pull back the male prawns they had purchased, and the second was to buy eight big carps that were netted from the Heihe River.
After returning to Hongfeng Mountain, Lin Heng placed the male prawns he bought in a special pond and observed them for a while. If there were any problems, he would replace them with another batch. This matter could not be taken lightly.
"Dad, did you get back the branches and waterweed leaves you cut?"
Lin Heng looked at his father and asked.
Father Lin nodded: "It was cut at noon. If you want it, I'll bring it to you now."
"Let me help you." Lin Heng followed him out.
They put branches and water plants into a one-meter-deep pool, and then Lin Heng put eight big carp in.
There are five female carps weighing six kilograms and three male carps weighing more than three kilograms. They are all fish that are about to lay eggs. If they are placed in such a spawning pond, they will lay eggs within a day or two.
When Lin Heng came over the next morning, his father happily shouted to him, "Carp lay eggs so quickly. I went to take a look this morning and saw that the branches were full of carp eggs."
"Of course! These are fish that are about to lay eggs. Let's catch the fish now and raise them somewhere else, otherwise they might destroy the hatching of the eggs." Lin Heng said with a smile.
The carp eggs will hatch in seven days at most, and then they will grow a lot bigger after being fed for a month. At this time, the seedlings will have grown up, and the fish fry can be put in. By the time the millet is threshed, they will weigh two or three taels.
The rice fish is not big, but it tastes delicious. You can choose to eat it or keep it.
"Okay." Father Lin nodded with a smile and went into the house with Lin Heng.
Lin Heng took a look at the male shrimps and initially seemed to have no problems, but he would have to wait another two days to be safe.
All the carp were caught, and a big one was selected to keep for eating when planting rice, and the remaining ones were thrown into the grass carp pond.
"The grass carp can be sold this year. They won't grow much bigger." Father Lin said, looking at the grass carp pond.
"Yes, it can be sold. I will go buy two big grass carps and some grass carp seedlings in the next two days, and then raise them for next year."
Lin Heng looked at his father and said, his father was right, there was no need to raise these grass carps anymore.
"Is the one in this pond not okay?" Father Lin was curious.
"No, grass carp takes three or four years to lay eggs. This is not enough." Lin Heng shook his head.
Although these grass carps are now over ten pounds, it will still take some time before they spawn.
"I understand. Then you can only do it after planting the seedlings." Father Lin nodded.
They will plant rice seedlings the day after tomorrow. His eldest uncle, third uncle, third uncle's family, and his uncle's family will all come to help.
The paddy fields of Lin Heng's family and his eldest brother's family together only have eight or nine acres of land, which can be completed by so many people in one day.
"Lin Heng, do you still want to go hunting this year?" Lin Heng's uncle asked while transplanting rice seedlings.
"Let's talk about it in winter. I won't hunt in summer." Lin Heng shook his head. If he wasn't particularly short of money, he would be too lazy to hunt in summer.
It is very difficult to preserve prey from hunting in the summer, and many prey often have cubs with them, so killing them causes great damage to the ecology.
"And my aunt is about to give birth, right?" Lin Heng asked with a smile.
"She's going to give birth soon, in June or July. I'm going to tell your mom that we're going to live in your old house for a month. It will be more convenient for us to go to the hospital if she gives birth. The mountain is too far and we won't be able to make it in time."
Lu Honghai nodded and said that he cherished the child so much that he finally had one. He did not plan to find a barefoot doctor to deliver the baby, but planned to give birth in the city. It would be best if the child was safe and sound.
Lin Heng nodded and said, "That's definitely no problem. The house is empty anyway, but we don't have time to take care of it. Uncle, you have to take care of it yourself, or find someone who can take it to the city."
He made things clear in advance to avoid any unpleasantness later.
"I know you are busy, don't worry about this." Lu Honghai said with a smile.
Lin Heng nodded and started chatting with them about other things.
The rice seedlings were planted in one day, and in the next two days they went to help the three families of their uncle, third uncle and younger uncle plant rice seedlings. In the countryside, most of the time, people just exchange work to help each other, and they don't talk about money or anything like that.
After the seedlings were planted, the spring farming work was considered finished. Lin Heng called his father and elder brother, and took Xiulan to go fishing in the Huangtan River.
To their disappointment, they changed five or six places in two days but failed to catch any big grass carp. The largest one was just a three-jin carp, and the rest were all crucian carp.
"Go online. I'm not going to tolerate them anymore." Lin Heng was so angry that he took out the sticky net he had prepared long ago.
After fishing for a while, I saw the net shaking, and sure enough, I caught a big grass carp.
"This one must be about 20 kilograms. Its belly is so big. It must be a female grass carp."
Xiulan said after taking the big fish off the sticky net.
"Yes, just get another male." Lin Heng nodded.
"I guess if we wait for half a day, it might be done." Father Lin said with a smile.
"I think so too." Lin Yue also said.
However, the three were disappointed. They spent a lot of effort to get the female grass carp back, but they could not catch the male grass carp, as if it was cursed. Then they caught a big grass carp weighing twelve pounds, which was also a female.
Finally, I heard that someone else had found it online, so I went to check it out, and when I found out it was a male, I bought it immediately.
When I got home, I dug a big puddle in the Slate River for them to lay their eggs.
Unlike carp, grass carp prefer flowing water to spawn. They find a small pond with a strong current to set up their spawning ground.
After the fish have finished laying eggs, take them back and put them in the hatching pond to hatch.
After finishing the grass carp eggs, we started to hatch and cultivate the shrimps. The carp eggs we hatched a few days ago have already hatched, and the fry have started to eat and are very active.
Although spring plowing has ended, their work is not over yet. They need to disinfect the shrimp pond, cultivate algae with fertilizer water again, and prepare a series of work.
Although we have only been raising shrimps for two years, the silver carp and bighead carp raised in the fish pond to clean up the water quality have already weighed more than ten kilograms.
Then I was busy for another half a month, and time quickly came to June.
That morning, Lin Heng had a rare rest and was at home drinking tea and watching fish with Xiulan.
At this time of year, the water lilies in the water begin to bloom, and the flowers of various colors are very beautiful.
"It's been a busy year. I have to give birth to grapes, apples, and fruits soon, and the cows are about to give birth."
Xiulan looked at him and said that Lin Heng had worked harder this year than last year and had hardly stopped since March.
"Yes, but I'm very happy to have you here." Lin Heng said with a smile.
The past two years are a good time to accumulate initial capital. It doesn’t matter if you are a little tired as long as you have your wife and children with you.
Time flies. My two sons are almost one and a half years old now. They run very fast. The three siblings are chattering in the yard all day long. Sometimes, when the three kids next door come along, it is really lively.
Xiulan is very tired taking care of them at home and doing some housework and other chores.
"Then take a good rest and have fun for the next two days." Xiulan said with a smile.
"Okay, let's have another barbecue tomorrow." Lin Heng said with a smile.
The two were talking happily when suddenly Lin's mother's voice came from the front: "Son, are you in the house? Something happened and we need your help." (End of this chapter)
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