Chapter 189 Discovering Medicinal Herbs
Master Jiang mused, “A brick and tile house is too expensive, but an adobe and tile house is fine.
This way we don’t have to renovate the roof every year.”
Everyone's eyes lit up.
Ahhh yes!
Although tiles are more expensive than bricks, tiles are larger. Especially when building a house, bricks are needed on all four sides, so a large number of tiles are needed. However, tiles only need to be laid on the roof, so the number required is greatly reduced!
Renovating the roof every year is a tiring, dirty and time-consuming job.
Standing on the roof, I was terrified for fear of stepping on the wooden strips. The thatch had become rotten and black after a year of wind, sun and rain, making it uncomfortable to live in or to lift it up and take it down.
And it happens every year, so even if you are careful, it is easy for leaks to occur here and there.
If you use tiles, all these problems will be solved!
"But Dad, we need bricks to build the stove and the kang, and we have to hire people. This expense is not small. Do we have enough money?" Jiang Datou asked.
The men's eyes dimmed.
They don’t know whether the village chief’s family has enough money, but they definitely don’t have enough!
Originally, the family had more than ten taels of silver in their savings. Following Aunt Shen Qing on the road, they earned several taels and shared another ten or so taels. They basically didn't spend any money on food along the way.
Even so, the family's total savings were only a little over thirty taels of silver.
The earliest grain harvest next year will be in autumn. A large family will need about 1,500 to 1,600 kilograms of grain from now until autumn. At the cheapest price of corn, four cents per kilogram, this would cost six or seven taels of silver.
If you want to buy oil and salt, you can buy only a few pounds of oil and add a few drops when cooking, but you absolutely cannot skimp on salt, it will cost you more than one or two taels of silver.
You need to hire a carpenter to make wooden tubs, barrels, and other daily necessities. You can cut the wood yourself in the mountains, but you must pay for the labor. You also need to buy a plow and various miscellaneous items...
And buy cotton cloth for winter clothes and bedding. I don’t know how much this will cost. Cloth has always been expensive, and cotton is not cheap either. In the past, you could still bear it when it was cold in Qili Village, but here, according to the Lei family, if you don’t keep warm in winter, you can really freeze to death!
So everyone needs to buy at least one set. I wonder if six or seven taels of silver is enough...
These fixed expenses take up more than half of the family’s savings!
Nowadays, there are also additional costs for bricks and labor for the stove and kang, but these two items must be paid for, while tiles are optional, so it is obvious which one can be saved.
"Oh, forget it, let's talk about it later."
I can't be without money, especially now that I only have expenses and no income, I feel extremely anxious.
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later."
The women were originally thinking that they couldn't bear to buy geese, so they might as well buy some chickens and ducks first. But when they heard Mr. Jiang say that he needed to buy bricks for the stove and kang, and also hire someone to build them, they sighed and gave up the idea of buying anything.
It will be the same if you buy some chicks and ducklings next year, they will just lay eggs a few months later.
And once Shen Qing's brush workshop is up and running and he starts to earn wages, life will be better.
The brush workshop must be erected...
"Auntie, I'll lead the donkey for you. You're tired after a day, so go home quickly." Feng Meng said excitedly.
Zhao Hu shouted, "I'll hold a torch to light the way for you!"
"Me too!"
A group of people were shouting, some were leading their donkeys, some were lighting torches, and the previous depressing atmosphere was gone.
Shen Qing followed a group of lively teenagers and felt heartbroken for a moment.
Most of these children are sixteen or seventeen years old and they often don’t have enough to eat, let alone meat.
During their escape, she only delivered a few meals of fried fish and exchanged lard for a few times, which was the best food they had in more than ten years.
I have always been grateful to her and would always rush to help her with any work she had to do.
The brush workshop must be set up quickly, it is the hope of the whole village!
A group of teenagers not only delivered the car, but also took the chickens, ducks and geese out of the cages on the car.
Jiang Xiangdong, Jiang Xiangnan and others in the house heard the noise and ran out. When they saw someone coming out, the teenagers greeted them one after another: "Auntie, we are going home!"
After saying that, he ran away without waiting for a reply.
"Mom, I'm going to feed the donkey. Are you tired? Come into the house and rest first." Jiang Xiangdong asked with concern.
Jiang Yu was making a fire and looked up and said, "Sister-in-law, I left some food. It will be warmed up in a while."
The river water is used to boil water in the stove on the other side.
Shen Qing had no time to reply, because the long-awaited familiar sound finally came to his mind: "Ding, 370 kilograms of fresh, pollution-free, pure wild astragalus detected, 21 kilograms, are you selling it?"
"Warm reminder, five pounds of dried astragalus can yield two pounds, and pure wild dried astragalus can yield one hundred and twenty-one pounds."
Unlike in the past, this time the mall also had a reminder. For Shen Qing, this reminder was very timely and important!
She quickly did the math in her head and figured out that fresh astragalus could fetch a total of 7,400 yuan;
Three hundred and seventy kilograms will be about one hundred and fifty kilograms after drying, and one hundred and twenty-one kilograms in total, which is eighteen thousand yuan!
The same batch of things, just sliced and dried, the income has doubled or more. Even a fool would know what to choose.
Shen Qing nodded without hesitation.
At the same time, suppressing his surging excitement, he looked at the boss and the others and asked casually, "What did you do today?"
Jiang Xiangnan, looking for praise, responded first: "Mom, we did a lot of things today!
Look at this house. We built it this morning. It was finished in just one morning. We are very skillful, aren't we? "
Shen Qing patiently praised: "Well, not bad, you work very efficiently, what about this afternoon?"
Speaking of the afternoon, Jiang Xiangnan said lazily: "In the afternoon, my eldest brother, fourth brother and youngest brother and I went to open up wasteland. Mom, you know how bad that piece of land is!
It would be fine if the ground was just covered with bushes, as it wouldn't be difficult to cut them with a hatchet, but I didn't expect there were so many roots underground!
It didn't take us long to mow two acres, but we spent the whole afternoon digging for roots and still didn't get much ground."
Jiang Xiangbei sighed, "My sister-in-law, aunt, and younger sister all helped pick up stones, but digging for roots took too much time. The whole family worked all afternoon to clear a few acres of land. When will it bloom?"
Only by digging out the roots can we allow donkeys and cows to plow the land. Now we are cultivating vegetable fields. The number of acres needed for vegetable fields is not large, so there is no need to worry. But there will still be dozens of acres next year. What should we do then?
If you delay, you will miss the spring plowing!
Shen Qing immediately grasped the key point and said, "Come on, take me to see the dug tree roots."
Astragalus prefers coolness, is cold-resistant and drought-resistant, but afraid of heat and waterlogging. It mostly grows in the north and is especially suitable for growing in fertile soil rich in leaf mold. This open space in the mountains is simply perfect for it!
There was no reminder last night because I didn’t dig into the mall, but today the mall reminded me as soon as the bosses dug it out.
With the mall’s reminder, she doesn’t have to worry about admitting her mistake.
Jiang Xiangnan was confused: "Mom, what are you looking at the tree roots for?"
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