The next morning, it was still a beautiful sunny day. After exercising in the morning, Lin Heng went to milk the cows as usual.
This is not an easy job. He has to do it himself when he is at home.
Now the calves have been isolated and kept in the cowshed on Hongfeng Mountain. Lin Heng has tried natural breeding with this cow once, but it was unsuccessful. He plans to breed it again when it comes into estrus again in a few days.
The first born cow is now being bred and is suspected to be pregnant, but it is not yet completely certain.
He plans to wait for the cow to produce milk. Now this cow can be eliminated. The life of a cow is very short and its milk production is now showing a downward trend.
Carrying the milk back to the house, Xiulan was frying buns. She had steamed them a few days ago and put them in the freezer, which made cooking in the morning much easier.
"Do you want to fry some cicada monkeys to eat?" Xiulan turned around and asked when she saw him come back.
"Give me a few. I'll get them. I'll also get some fresh meat for lunch." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Okay." Xiulan agreed, took the milk, looked at it and put it aside.
Lin Heng opened the freezer and took a look. He was a meat lover and had to eat some meat every day. If he didn't eat for three days, he would feel his mouth was tasteless and his whole body was uncomfortable.
"The meat has been almost eaten. We can kill another pig." Lin Heng flipped through the books and said to himself.
There is only about five pounds of wild animal meat left now, as the rest have been eaten. Only some bear oil and wolf oil are left, and the rest are some miscellaneous items that can be frozen or not. It should not be a problem to take them out and stuff them with a pig.
His family only slaughtered one New Year pig last year, and they were planning to slaughter the other one after the freezer was empty. Now it seems that it is time.
Last year's New Year pig is now more than two years old. If we don't kill it now, the meat will be bad because it is old. Besides, it is already fat and if we don't kill it, it will have to be fed and eat grain all the time.
After bringing over thirty cicada monkeys, Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and said, "I'll talk to dad later and ask him to find a good day to slaughter the pigs."
Xiulan looked up at him curiously: "Didn't you say you were going out to do something? How come you still have time to kill a pig?"
"I don't have to go out every day, but I do have time to kill a pig." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Xiulan nodded and said, "That's good. Mom actually wanted to kill it a long time ago. She felt that the big pig always robbed the little pig's feed."
Lin Heng added some fire, prepared breakfast with Xiulan, and then went to wake the children up.
"Oh, why did Xiaoxia wet the bed?" Xiulan was speechless when she touched Xiaoxia's quilt.
"You really wet the bed, Xiaoxia, get up quickly." Lin Heng called Xiaoxia. Bedwetting was not a big deal, but he admired her for being able to continue sleeping.
Xiaoxia woke up slowly, knowing that she had wet the bed, and covered her eyes in shame: "Xiaoxia, I won't wet the bed next time."
"Let me go wash your body and then put on your clothes. Next time you want to pee, just let someone know." Xiulan picked her up and said.
This was the first time Xiaoxia wet the bed this year, so no one blamed her.
After cleaning up Xiaoxia, they woke up their two sons. The youngest son, Lin Duheng, had also wet the bed, but luckily he had a diaper and did not wet the bed.
After breakfast, Lin Heng went to Hongfeng Mountain and told his father the news. When Lin's mother heard it, she immediately became happy: "Today is really a double happiness. Ten chicks have hatched from my nest, and that unpopular pig can be killed now."
She hated that pig very much, mainly because it was always causing trouble. Not only did it dig up the pigpen, it also bullied the two piglets that she had just caught this year.
"Then I'll find someone to pick a date." Lin's father said that in order to free up the freezer as soon as possible, they ate meat every day in the first half of the year and became a little fat.
Lin Heng nodded, chatted with his parents for a while, and went to feed the cattle and sheep together. Then he walked around the hillside and picked up two handfuls of mulberry wood ears.
Although it was sunny today, there was not much work to do. He looked at his father and said, "Dad, come with me to harvest honey. This is the first time we can harvest honey in summer."
"Okay." Father Lin nodded in agreement. He had nothing to do anyway, so he might as well go collect some honey.
They now have a total of five beehives, two on Hongfeng Mountain, two on the back mountain of Lin Heng's house, and one in Lin Heng's backyard.
There were supposed to be six boxes, but one box of bees didn't survive last winter and died.
They are now experienced in harvesting honey, and basically they won't get stung, so they finish harvesting quickly. Father Lin looked at the harvest and said happily, "These two boxes are good. We can get five or six kilograms of honey."
Lin Heng also smiled and said, "Including the honey in the house, I estimate that there will be more than ten kilograms of pure honey after it is extracted."
Raising bees is a very dangerous thing. He was stung many times in the past, but now he has basically learned it. It can be considered a skill. Raising some bees himself, not to mention selling them, at least he can eat pure and good honey.
Father Lin said regretfully, "This year's luck is not good. Two groups of wild bees came to the village and were taken away by the Wang family. That guy wanders around the village every day and finds honey as soon as it is found."
"It's okay. We don't rely on these few bees to make money." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Haha, that's true. We just feed ourselves, not like him who has to sell."
Father Lin smiled happily. Their family was now considered a wealthy family in the village and they didn't care about the money from selling honey.
After collecting the honey here, Lin Heng went to the mountain behind the house with his father to harvest the honey.
"Xiu Lan, there is a bumper honey harvest this year." After returning to the house, Lin Heng first gave her the honey he had harvested.
"There are so many! The color of this honey is so beautiful." Xiulan said in surprise after taking it and looking at it.
This honey is orange-red in color and looks better than ordinary honey.
"It should be caused by the collection of ginseng nectar." Lin Heng explained. In previous years, the color was light yellow. The only difference this year was that ginseng was in bloom, and they collected a lot of ginseng nectar.
"Then I have to pack it separately, which is probably unusual." Xiulan said immediately.
Lin Heng and his father sat down and drank some water. While it was still morning, they hurried to the backyard to harvest honey. They harvested more than ten kilograms of honey from the backyard and the back mountain.
After they took it back and filtered it all out, they found eight kilograms of pure honey, which was a good harvest.
"You can sell this honey. We still have plenty at home." Xiulan said to Lin Heng.
"Yes, it's a lot. We can't finish it all ourselves, and we've already given it away once." Lin's father also said.
Lin HengLin Heng shook his head and said, "Don't sell it for now. I'll go to the city in a few days and buy a few large glass jars to store them in. I'll sell them later."
Honey is a valuable commodity, so it’s not cost-effective to sell it now. Let’s wait and sell it later.
"That's fine." Xiulan nodded and had no objection to it.
After filtering the honey, Lin Heng boiled and melted the beeswax, filtered it again, and stored it there.
The sun is still very strong at noon in summer. Today the soil is basically dried, and the mushrooms are also thoroughly dried after a day of drying.
Lin Heng and his elder brother went to the village committee in the afternoon, while Xiulan prepared the marinade for braised pig offal. Because it was summer and they were slaughtering pigs, it had to be done within one day, otherwise it would go bad.
She has to prepare braised pig offal and pig heads on the same day.
"Wife, I have already made an agreement with my eldest brother today. I will go out tomorrow and start collecting old things."
Lin Heng and Xiulan talked about this while having dinner in the evening.
He said that the way to make a lot of money was to use money to buy a batch of old items. There were still many antiques in the village in this era. He planned to buy some of them at high prices and then take them to Ancheng to exchange for money.
Then he used the money to open a feed factory and buy trucks.
It is not easy to get a loan at this point in time, and he had thought of this method a long time ago, including the collection of antiques at home.
Maybe he would be lucky enough to get something good, and the money from selling it would be enough to start a pig farm.
"Which village are we going to tomorrow?" Xiulan asked curiously.
"Let's first take a look at our village, Shimen Village and Baima Village, and then go to other villages." Lin Heng said while eating.
He has already prepared the loudspeaker and cash, and when the time comes, he and his elder brother will go with him to make the purchase.
"Okay, just be careful." Xiulan nodded.
The two chatted for a while, and Xiaoxia said, "Dad, I want to eat fish balls."
"There are no fish balls now. I will go fishing and make fish balls for you in a few days." Lin Heng rubbed her head and said.
"Hurry up and finish the rice in your bowl. You are not allowed to sleep until you finish it." Xiulan was very strict.
She knew that this was a sign that Xiaoxia would not be able to finish her meal, as she had eaten a lot of snacks in the afternoon.
"I can finish it." Xiaoxia said with a smile, and she actually finished it bite by bite, which was a little beyond Lin Heng's expectations.
The next morning, golden sunlight could be seen early, indicating that today would be another beautiful sunny day.
After breakfast, Lin Heng took the money and the horn and drove out. Lin Yue took out the double-barreled shotgun, got in the car and said, "Let's go."
"Okay, let's go to Shimen Village first."
Lin Heng nodded, drove there and soon arrived at Shimen Village.
When he arrived at the center of the village, he stopped the car, took out a loud speaker and shouted: "We are buying things. We are buying antiques at high prices."
As he shouted a few times, people soon gathered around and recognized them: "You are Lin Heng from Red Maple Village, right? Are you here to collect antiques and old items?"
"Yes, you can buy some for money. Anyone who has good things can bring them out. If the things are good, the price will be good. Old coins, silver ingots, antique dishes, and so on are all fine."
Lin Heng agreed with a smile.
"I have an ancient bowl at home. Do you want it?" Soon someone brought a blue and white porcelain bowl to Lin Heng to see.
Lin Heng didn't know much about antiques. Even after reading some books, he still didn't fully understand them. He took a look and gave a price: "I can give you eight dollars for this thing."
"Eight dollars? That's fine. You can take it." Upon hearing the price, the owner happily sold it.
After a while, some people started to take out some things they thought were old to sell. Lin Heng could tell at a glance that some of them were fake, so he naturally wouldn't take them.
I spent a morning here and collected ten antique bowls and plates, as well as a dozen antique copper coins.
"What do you think of these things?" Lin Yue asked on the way back to Hongfeng Village.
Lin Heng shook his head: "I don't think so. The best ones are probably from the Qing Dynasty."
Lin Yue said: "You have spent a lot of money. It seems not worth it to do this. If they are all fake, you will lose a lot."
"That's not necessary." Lin Heng shook his head. He must have thought about this issue before he dared to do so.
When he returned to the village at noon, Lin Heng directly asked the village party secretary to use the village committee's loudspeaker to publicize for him.
Everyone is poor now, and when they hear that they can exchange these things, which may be antiques, for money, most of them want to give it a try.
There are more people in Hongfeng Village, and many people come here. Each of them identifies the price and gives the price they think is good.
He had originally planned to go to Baima Village in the afternoon, but he missed the time because many people in the village brought bottles and jars to him to see.
This put him in a difficult position, but he didn't lack the money, so he bought all the things he thought were good.
In the evening, when Lin Heng was having dinner, Zhang Zhigen came over, carrying a few porcelain bottles and a bag of copper coins, and said, "Lin Heng, what do you think of this?"
"Not bad. A porcelain bottle can be given as twenty yuan. Copper coins are worthless." Lin Heng looked at it and said.
Zhang Zhigen shook his head: "It's too cheap. This bottle should be at least two hundred. What I have is much better than what other people in the village have."
Lin Heng took another look. He knew that Zhang Zhigen had a lot of antiques at home, many of which were passed down from his ancestors. He had even used these things to exchange for deer penises with him before.
"This is too expensive." Lin Heng shook his head.
"It's really not expensive." Zhang Zhigen looked at him and said.
The two chatted and argued slowly, and finally Zhang Zhigen said something, and Lin Heng bought the item for one hundred and fifty yuan.
But he only took one.
For the next period of time, Lin Heng and his elder brother went to the surrounding villages every day to collect some things they thought were good.
Not only did he collect a lot of Yuan Datou coins, but he also collected a lot of other kinds of antiques, so much so that the second floor of his house was full of space.
He was very sure about some of these things because he knew the sources. Some of them used to be hidden by landlords in his family, and now he had collected them all.
On July 16th of the Gregorian calendar, his family slaughtered a pig.
Because we were not busy, we did not start before dawn like during Chinese New Year. We pulled the pig out at around nine o'clock, and it was already eleven o'clock when we finished cutting the meat.
This time, all the meat was put into the freezer, and the braised offal and pig heads also started to be braised in the afternoon.
This pig was very happy when it was slaughtered. It ate two tons of food at noon and in the afternoon. Pigs fed with grain, grass and acorns are different.
"Let's make some barbecued pork in a few days." Lin Heng said after dinner in the evening. This pork is perfect for barbecue.
"Okay, I like going out for barbecue." Xiaoxia cheered.
“I like it, I like it!”
There were two little guys behind him who echoed him.
"Then let's find a time when it's not so hot to have a barbecue, and I'll make some sweet wine to drink cold." Xiulan said.
"Then wait until I collect some more antiques, and then find a nice day to eat it, and then we can celebrate." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"How many more antiques are you going to collect?" Xiulan looked at him and asked. He has already spent more than three thousand yuan on collecting antiques recently, which is not a small amount of money.
And the shabby-looking bottles and jars made her a little worried.
"I'll charge you another two thousand yuan. Don't worry, I know my limits." Lin Heng said, pressing her shoulders. (End of this chapter)
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