Hearing his father's words, Lin Heng instinctively asked, "Have all the cows finished giving birth?"
Father Lin smiled and nodded: "Yes, the nine yellow cows successfully gave birth to nine calves, and the new dairy cow also gave birth to a calf. Originally there were 23 cows. If these nine grow up smoothly, there will be 32 cows."
Lin's mother also said: "In addition, six cows from the last batch can be bred this year. If nothing goes wrong, they will give birth to 15 calves next year."
"This is indeed very good news." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.
The cattle and sheep at home will be worth a lot of money in a few years, but by then he probably won't need the money anymore.
"What about the sheep?" he then asked.
"Only a few sheep have given birth, and most of them will give birth this month." Father Lin said.
"Recently, two sheep have been suffering from diarrhea, so your father and I killed them and froze them in the freezer." said Lin's mother.
"Diarrhea?" Lin Heng was puzzled. This should be an easily treatable disease.
"It can't be cured. Even after isolating him, feeding him hay and drinking some water soaked in Guanyin soil didn't help." said Lin's father.
"What about the other sheep?" Lin Heng asked again.
"The other sheep are fine. I guess they may have eaten something they shouldn't have eaten since we let them roam free recently," said Lin's mother.
"As long as the other sheep are fine." Lin Heng nodded.
Death is inevitable in breeding. Cattle and sheep are relatively hardy species, but pigs often die in large numbers.
"In addition, musk deer also gave birth. Five pregnant female musk deer gave birth to ten cubs, six males, five females and four females. Now only nine are alive. One female musk deer died inexplicably two days after it was born. The others are fine." Lin's mother said again.
"That's normal. With this calculation, including the nine cubs this year, there are a total of 27 musk deer in our family, right?" Lin Heng asked. He remembered the number of musk deer very clearly.
There were originally 18 heads, ten males and eight females, seven of which could produce musk and five were sexually mature and able to reproduce.
Father Lin thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Yes, with the nine born this year, there are 27 now. If all goes well, the number that can be bred this year will increase to seven, and two more will begin to turn into musk deer."
"This is also an industry." Lin Heng said with emotion.
He didn't have high hopes for this at first, but gradually found that breeding was going quite smoothly.
He knew that a large part of the credit was due to timely disinfection and prevention, otherwise it would be difficult to save the patient once he got sick.
"This thing still doesn't like to be treated like a sheep. I've been letting it run freely in the pen lately," said Lin's father.
"Then let's set up a special breeding farm in the future." Lin Heng said after thinking for a while.
While eating watermelon, he chatted with his parents and learned about the situation in the village these days.
Nowadays, every household in the village has planted at least a few acres of Astragalus, and because they are transplanted seedlings, the survival rate is very good.
The astragalus in their home has grown into small trees, and you can see the lush green color from afar.
The grass at home has been harvested once, and after the seedlings have grown, the rice flowers and fish fry have also been put in. Father Lin also scatters some feed from time to time.
After saying that, Lin Heng put on his straw hat and turned around inside and out. He really enjoyed looking around.
After looking at the fish pond and shrimp pond, he walked up the mountain along the cement road to look at the cattle, sheep and musk deer. When he reached the top of the mountain, he sat down in front of the cabin.
He looked at the dense woods in midsummer, felt the mountain breeze in the forest, and after resting for a while, he walked to the ginseng garden again.
The quantity of ginseng here is very stable, and at a glance you can tell that they are all ginseng that have borne fruit.
He is not in a hurry to sell the ginseng now. Let it grow freely. The longer it grows, the better the medicinal effect will be.
He is not afraid of being stolen because in two years he will surround the entire Red Maple Mountain with a wall and install an anti-theft net on top.
While walking around the ginseng garden, he also encountered a green snake and played with it in his hands for a while.
This kind of snake is not poisonous and has no peculiar smell. It is a kind of snake that he likes very much.
When he came to the ginseng garden to check on the bees, he discovered that there were two new boxes of bees in his garden. There were already four boxes of bees here.
"It looks like these are new bees harvested this year." Lin Heng said to himself.
Here bees are buzzing around, and large golden-ringed hornets are flying in the air to catch bees.
But Lin Heng didn't care. The bees that survived the competition would become stronger.
After reading it, he left and went down the path beside the mountain stream. On the way, he looked at the plum fish and the new astragalus.
When he was about to go down the mountain, he saw three hens with their chicks running around in the chicken farm looking for food. He counted them and found that there were 20 chicks in total. The hatching success rate was indeed higher than that of artificial hatching with light bulbs.
The chicken farm is surrounded by bird-proof nets. Eagles appear here from time to time, so we still have to be careful.
"Woof!"
“Awooooooooo!”
When he reached the warehouse, eight puppies came running over to play at his feet. After a while, a big yellow female dog came out from behind and lay down to look at them.
"Dad, is this the litter Xiongba gave birth to this year? Is this the Xiongba daughter I was talking about?"
Lin Heng looked at the dogs and asked.
All the dogs in last year's litter were placed at the breeding farm to guard it. There are currently five big dogs in Hongfeng Mountain. Except for the original fine dog Fengshou and blue wolf dog Laifu, the remaining three were carefully selected by him from the descendants of Xiongba.
The rest were all given away. Although dogs were not safe in these days, they were still very popular and every household had one.
Not only does his family have many red maple mountain dogs, but he also has three big dogs in the yard. Even if someone wants to do something bad, they have to think twice when they see these three dogs.
He attached great importance to safety. He not only reminded his wife and children that there were guns at home, but also a big and strong dog.
"Yes, this is the smartest one you picked last year. This year, we let Xiongba mate it. It gave birth to eight cubs in the first litter. They are this big in just fifteen days." Father Lin nodded.
"Not bad." Lin Heng squatted down and played with the dogs.
The puppies, which are only half a month old, weigh five or six kilograms. They are not afraid of people and look pretty. He thinks there will be some smart and good dogs among this batch.
All the dogs in their family are not neutered. Neutered dogs are not aggressive and are not suitable for guarding the house or hunting in the mountains.
Although they are not sterilized, not all of them will be allowed to breed. Male dogs currently have the right to mate, while female dogs are selected based on various data and good eugenics is selected.
After all, it would be difficult to feed them if there were too many of them.
"Dad, you and my mom come over for dinner tonight. Let's drink some wine."
After reading it, Lin Heng looked at his father and said.
"Okay, we'll come back after we feed the cattle, sheep, fish and shrimp in the afternoon." Father Lin nodded in agreement.
Lin Heng nodded and drove his sidecar back to the village. Many people in the village were more enthusiastic when they met and greeted him than before.
“Ouch!”
Before Lin Heng opened the door, Xiong Ba's excited voice was heard from inside.
"dad!"
"dad!"
“Dad, dad!”
Then the three children shouted one after another. When Lin Heng opened the door, they rushed over with the dog, hugged his legs, some said they missed him, and some complained to their sister and mother that they were beaten.
"Don't worry, don't worry, just talk slowly one by one." Lin Heng had no choice but to stop the car and squat down to listen to them talking. Fortunately, there was shade from the gate and it wasn't hot.
Xiulan also came out of the house with a visible smile on her face.
Only after talking to the children was he able to push the car into the house. After parking the car, he took out some of the things he bought and handed them to Xiulan. These were some daily necessities she asked him to buy two days ago.
"How many days will you stay this time?" Xiulan looked at him and asked with a smile.
"Now that everything is done, we can have some fun for a while. I'll take you back to my parents' home in a few days." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Hearing this, Xiulan immediately became happy: "That's good, there is a lot of mutton at home, we can grill it, and many fruits are ripe recently."
When she was used to Lin Heng being at home every day, she felt a little uncomfortable with his busy schedule in the past month. She felt uneasy and even too lazy to dress up.
Now that she heard that Lin Heng was done with his work, she suddenly became happy.
"No problem, I'll have fun with you guys for a while." Lin Heng said with a smile.
After entering the house, Lin Heng sat down and was fed by the children again. Even the three dogs at home came to join in the fun.
The children showed him the toys they made and the comic strips they drew, and would stick to him after receiving his praise.
After playing with them for half an hour, they finally ran aside and Lin Heng was able to sit next to Xiulan.
She was wearing a simple white short-sleeved shirt and black trousers today, with her hair tied up casually, but she looked unkempt and beautiful.
"Would you like some watermelon? There's ice-cold water in the well." Xiulan looked at him and asked.
"No, I just ate it at Hongfeng Mountain. If you want to eat it, I will kill it for you." Lin Heng said.
"Forget it, let's wait until the afternoon. The kids just had one this morning." Xiulan said.
Lin Heng nodded, drinking tea while listening to Xiulan. In addition to taking care of the children at home, she helped with farm work these days, picked some mushrooms on rainy days, made some delicious food or gadgets when she had nothing to do, and read some books.
After resting for a while, Lin Heng couldn't sit still anymore. He went to the backyard to check on his bonsai.
Seeing his expression, Xiulan said unhappily, "I water your precious bonsai every few days, so it won't die."
"Haha, thank you, wife." Lin Heng said with a smile.
These bonsai are indeed growing very well and are all doing well, as are the other plants in the backyard.
The little turtles in the wooden basin are catching fish to eat, the lotus leaves in the fish pond are emerald green and the lotus flowers are bright, the fat koi are playing under the lotus leaves, and the bunches of grapes under the grape rack are particularly beautiful and are not far from ripening.
With Xiulan around, the house was indeed tidy, and there wasn't even a weed to be seen in the backyard.
Then Lin Heng opened the backyard door again. He originally wanted to see what was going on in the orchard on the back mountain, but as soon as he opened it, he saw a hen with six chicks digging in the soil.
"Hey, we have chicken hens here too." Lin Heng said in surprise.
"Didn't I tell you before that the chicken was lost? It turned out to come back by itself a few days ago, bringing a brood of chicks with it. We don't need artificial incubation this year." Xiulan said with a smile.
"It seems that we are lucky this year. All four chickens have come to hatch." Lin Heng nodded.
After looking at the chickens, he looked at the fruit trees and bonsai before going back into the house.
"You haven't had lunch yet, what do you want to eat?" Xiulan looked at him and asked after returning to the room.
"Let's have some simple cold noodles, and then we'll cook some dishes and drink some wine in the evening." Lin Heng replied.
"Okay." Xiulan nodded and went to pick a few cucumbers.
Lin Heng helped to light the fire. The cold cucumber shreds were made separately and a little sugar was added to make it slightly sweet. The children especially liked it.
Cold noodles are just noodles that have been boiled in cold water and then topped with vinegar soup, garlic and chili. They taste delicious.
"It's so nice to be at home." Lin Heng sighed while eating noodles. He thought Xiulan's cooking was more to his taste.
"Then eat more. The rest are yours." Xiulan said, pointing to the remaining noodles in the bowl.
"I can never finish it. If I eat too much, I'll be turned into a pig." Lin Heng smiled and shook his head. However, in the countryside, leftovers will not be wasted because there are various animals to help eat.
"You'd better eat more. I still want you even if you become as fat as a pig." Xiulan put some food in his bowl for him. She was really worried that some unscrupulous woman would seduce Lin Heng seeing the look on his face.
Lin Heng looked helpless on the surface, but he was happy in his heart. He ate more than half and fed the rest to the dog.
The three dogs in my house are all very well behaved. They will only eat when fed and they don’t guard their food.
Of course, those that guard their food generally don’t grow big.
After dinner, he stayed at home and didn't want to go out even though the sun was shining brightly outside.
The house is very cool. The earthen walls are heat-insulating and there is insulation cotton on the roof. It is not hot when I turn on the electric fan. It is very comfortable to live in.
He took out the mutton to thaw it, gave the lamb chops to Xiulan to make cumin lamb chops in the evening, and then just cooked one more.
What surprised him was that Xiulan had already skewered the lamb and was waiting for him to come back for barbecue.
He went to tell his eldest brother, and then started preparing dinner early with Xiulan. When the sun went down, Lin's mother also came to help, and by seven o'clock a large table of food was ready.
"Today is another day for eating meat and getting full." Liu Juan came over and sat down with a smile.
"What delicious mutton!" Lin Wei drooled as he looked at the lamb chops.
"Everyone sit down and let's eat." Lin Heng said with a smile.
No one was polite. They were all family, so once everyone was present, they started eating and drinking.
While eating and drinking and chatting, Lin Yue smiled and said, "I didn't have time to hunt this summer, so there was no game at all."
"It's okay, we can go hunting in the fall." Lin Heng said with a smile.
He will definitely go hunting this year, because it will be difficult to hunt in the country after this year.
Although there were still many hunters in the mountains until 2,000 years ago, he couldn't do that.
"Let's go to the mountains to dig medicinal herbs in August." Father Lin said after taking a bite of stewed mutton.
"Sure." Lin Heng nodded. Digging medicinal herbs is also a very interesting thing.
As he spoke, he picked up another large piece of mutton for Xiulan.
The meal lasted until after eight o'clock, and everyone felt a little full after the meal.
Lin Heng and Xiulan cleaned up the dishes, and the children had washed themselves. With Xiaoxia as the evening supervisor, the two younger brothers were very good at washing their faces, hands and feet.
They simply washed up and went back to the house. He stayed downstairs for five days this time, and the children missed him very much, so they asked him to catch up on the stories they had heard in the past five days.
But he only got to the second one and they all fell asleep like the piglets.
He covered them with a thin quilt, pulled the mosquito net, and went to bed.
As soon as he lay down, Xiulan came over, put her little arms around his neck, and began to tell him how much she missed him.
"Hubby, I miss you so much!"
Xiulan whispered in his ear.
Lin Heng didn't say anything, but directly covered her pink lips and answered with his action.
(End of this chapter)
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