The main reason is that I didn't expect to stay out for so long this time, and I hadn't been making dry food for the dogs much recently, which led to them running out of food.
Just porridge isn't enough; the dogs get a lot of exercise every day and will definitely get hungry quickly.
Xu Han took out some potatoes, washed them, and put them in the earthenware pot to continue cooking.
I'll also boil the potatoes for tomorrow morning; adding some meat broth and eating them together would be nice.
After eating, the two rested. They planned to get up early the next day and travel, arriving home around lunchtime.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Lu Chuan got up, boiled some water, put it into a bamboo tube, and added the potatoes he had cooked the day before to the pot, heating them up slightly before feeding them to the dogs.
When Xu Han got up, Lu Chuan had already packed his things and was just waiting for Xu Han to put them into his spatial storage.
It was too cold, and Xu Han didn't want to get up at all. She dawdled and procrastinated, which is why it took her so long to get ready. It was already broad daylight by then.
Xu Han first took out two zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), two eggs, two bowls of porridge, and some pickled vegetables from her space.
After setting out breakfast, I took out some bone broth from my storage space and poured it into the mashed potatoes that Lu Chuan had prepared for the dogs.
After finishing my meal, I put the food back into my storage space and started heading home.
By noon, I had finally arrived home. I had been away from home for over ten days, and the house was covered in a layer of dust.
As soon as the two entered the house, they went to the backyard to check on the chickens, ducks, and geese!
Thankfully, they're all still alive, though they've gotten a bit dirty.
Lu Chuan cleaned the enclosure, changed the water, added food, and then herded them all back inside.
I cleaned up the area where the chickens, ducks, and geese lived inside the enclosure, rinsed the stone slabs with water, and smoothed out the disturbed mounds of dirt and earthworms. Only then was the backyard truly clean.
Xu Han went straight to the vegetable garden as soon as she got back. The frost had fallen while she was away for the past few days, damaging the leaves of the chili peppers and tomatoes.
Thankfully I came back in time, otherwise these peppers and tomatoes would have been useless.
Xu Han picked all the chili peppers off the branches with a basket and put them all in the basket. When she had time, she washed them, pickled them with salt, and used them to stew eggs.
The ripe tomatoes were all picked off, and the branches that had been damaged by frost were all pulled off and discarded, since they couldn't grow any more anyway.
Xu Han had just finished picking vegetables when Lu Chuan swept the front yard clean.
It was autumn, the season when leaves fall, and the yard was covered with a thick layer of leaves, which would take quite a while to clean up.
"Should we pull them all out?" Lu Chuan asked.
“Yes, pull them all out! They’ve already been hit by frost, they won’t grow well,” Xu Han said.
"Okay, I'll take care of these. You go and rest for a while!"
"Let's stop for now, let's eat lunch first, and then we'll do it later."
"Okay, let's have lunch first."
So the two of them went to the front yard to have lunch.
The house was covered in dust, so Lu Chuan moved the table to the yard and ate lunch while basking in the sun.
After lunch, Lu Chuan went to the backyard to clean the vegetable garden, while Xu Han went to make dry food for the dogs.
First, I took some black flour and started to knead the dough. I kneaded four wooden basins full of dough at once.
Because there was too much dough, it would definitely overflow when it rose, so Xu Han put some more into other bowls to prevent it from spreading everywhere.
After kneading the dough, I tidied up the kitchen as well. I wiped and washed the stove, dishes, and utensils. After being away from home for a few days, it felt like no one had lived there for ages.
After tidying up the kitchen, I turned around and went into the main room, where I did another round of fuss.
Lu Chuan had already tidied up the vegetable garden in the backyard and even turned over the soil.
It's getting cold, and the ground will soon freeze. After turning it over, leave it there, and any insect eggs or other debris in the ground will freeze to death. The soil will also become very loose.
Xu Han had finished tidying up the house. After all that fuss, both of them were sweating a little. Xu Han poured some warm water and handed it to Lu Chuan.
"Take a break! We'll get busy tomorrow!" Xu Han said.
"I see there's already frost. Shouldn't we harvest the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and radishes outside?"
"It's time to harvest. Let's start harvesting tomorrow! We don't want it to freeze if we delay any longer."
“Okay, let’s start harvesting tomorrow. We won’t deal with the cattle and sheep yet; we’ll deal with them slowly after we finish the work in the fields in a few days,” Lu Chuan said.
"That's all we can do. Time to get busy again."
The two rested for a while, and it was getting dark again. It was getting dark earlier and earlier these days, and it was only five o'clock at the moment.
There was no other way, so Xu Han and Lu Chuan went into the kitchen one after the other; there was still a big project to be done!
When I got to the kitchen, I opened the lid and saw that the dough had risen very well because it was in warm water.
So the two of them started making steamed buns again. Lu Chuan was strong, so kneading the dough didn't take much effort at all, while Xu Han was quite tired.
I simply stopped kneading and let Lu Chuan knead it himself. I then cut the dough that Lu Chuan had kneaded into large rolls. I didn't care if they looked nice or not; they were all for the dogs anyway, so as long as they tasted good, that was fine.
Place the cut rolls into the steamer, arranging them neatly, layer upon layer, even five layers of steamers were not enough.
Then I took out a new steamer basket and started arranging them. Cooking with two pots at the same time is quick and saves a lot of time!
The steamed buns were ready in no time. Xu Han put them into her spatial storage while they were still hot and continued with the next round until all the steamed buns were steamed.
Xu Han started the fire, while Lu Chuan went to the backyard to wash a basket of potatoes, which he would cook later to feed the dogs.
It was busy until seven o'clock before I finally finished preparing all the dry food for the dogs. I gave each dog a hot steamed bun before I started making dinner for two people.
"What are we having for dinner tonight?" Xu Han asked.
"It's been so long since we've had potato noodles, let's cook some!" Lu Chuan suggested.
"Okay, it's been a long time since I've had this, let's have potato noodles then!"
So Xu Han took out potato noodles and hot pot meatballs from the refrigerator in her space, along with some side dishes, making a big pot full of food.
As they slurped their noodles, they discussed their plans for tomorrow. "What should we collect first tomorrow?" Xu Han asked.
"Why don't we harvest the radishes first? Radishes have a lot of water content and are easily damaged by freezing, while potatoes and sweet potatoes can last a few more days!"
“Okay, then we’ll harvest the radishes first tomorrow. But we didn’t plant a lot of radishes, so we should be able to harvest them quickly. After that, we’ll harvest the potatoes,” Xu Han added.
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