The next morning, when the two got up, the sky was still overcast. The heavy snow had not yet fallen, but the sky did not clear up.
"Judging by the sky, it looks like it's going to snow soon! Let's eat first!" Lu Chuan said.
After breakfast, and after feeding the livestock in the backyard, light snowflakes began to fall from the sky, then the snow fell heavier and heavier, and in a short while it turned into a heavy snowfall.
"This snow is really heavy! I've never seen snowflakes this big in previous years," Xu Han said.
"Yes! I wonder how many ordinary families will be affected by this heavy snow."
"Luckily, we have a heated kang bed at home, otherwise it would have been unbearable. Father was very thoughtful," Xu Han said proudly.
Normally, ordinary families at the foot of the mountain do not have heated kang beds. The Lu family installed a heated kang bed because when they built the house, they thought that since it was deep in the mountains, the temperature would be relatively low.
Lu's father lived on the frontier, where every household had a heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove). He thought that if he could build a heated kang in his home, the house would be warmer and life would be easier, so he built a kang in every room.
In winter, lighting a brazier keeps you warm whether you're sitting on the kang (heated brick bed) or working inside the house.
Even though it was a snowy day, the two of them couldn't just sit idle after breakfast; there were still many things to do!
There were many lotus roots in the space. Xu Han took them out and put them in the bathroom. Then she pulled Lu Chuan to start washing the lotus roots.
After washing the lotus root, I immediately chopped it all up. When the weather was sunny, I had corn grinder grind it into powder to make lotus root starch.
They dug up quite a few lotus roots, and it took the two of them a day and a half to process them all.
On the third day, Xu Han took out the cow's head and hooves, as well as the sheep's head and hooves, from her space that she hadn't had time to deal with before.
This is a huge project, and it really tests one's patience.
Sheep's head and hooves were relatively easy to remove, but cow's hooves and head were much harder to handle. In the end, Lu Chuan simply put them on the charcoal fire to roast.
After burning off the surface hair, I used a knife to repeatedly scrape and wash off the black residue.
For the past few days, it has been snowing heavily, sometimes stopping, sometimes starting again, and so on.
The roof was covered with a thick layer of snow, and the yard was also piled with snow. The two of them not only had to deal with the remaining items in the space, but also had to shovel snow.
The snow in the yard needs to be removed, and the snow on the roof also needs to be swept off.
The brick houses can withstand the heavy snow, but the donkey sheds and woodsheds are made of thatch and cannot accumulate any snow. They need to be shoveled frequently, otherwise they will collapse under the weight of the snow.
Today is the fifth day of snowfall. Around noon, the snow finally stopped completely, and the sky cleared up.
"The snow has finally stopped," Xu Han said.
"But the melting snow is even colder than the snowfall! And the snow melts very slowly due to the low temperature," Lu Chuan added.
After they finished talking, the two started shoveling snow. They made sure the yard was clean so they wouldn't be delayed in doing other things.
More importantly, it's almost impossible to go out when the snow is melting. There's mud and water everywhere. The snow thaws at noon, but freezes again in the afternoon. This cycle repeats until the temperature rises and the road dries completely.
It seems we won't be able to do much work for a while, so we'll just have to wait. Fortunately, the reservoir is already more than halfway done, and it should be completed soon after the weather warms up.
It took three days of processing to finally get all the cow hooves, sheep hooves, cow heads, and sheep heads sorted out.
During these three days, in her spare time, Xu Han also cooked a lot of rice, eggs, salted duck eggs, corn, sweet potatoes and the like.
All the cooked rice and corn were placed inside the space. Because there was a lot of rice and corn, the cooked rice and corn were placed directly inside the space using leaves as a base.
The two got up early this morning. The sheep's head had already been processed. They planned to cook the sheep's head and trotters today, remove the bones, and store them in their spatial storage.
After breakfast, Lu Chuan split the sheep's head open with an axe, and put the sheep's brains away separately so they could be cooked in the hot pot.
Xu Han began cleaning the sheep's head, then added scallions and ginger to the pot, put the sheep's head in, and started cooking.
The large pot outside isn't idle either; it's used to boil lamb trotters directly. No salt or seasoning is added during the boiling process; they're just boiled plain. After they're cooked, the bones are removed.
You can eat it directly whenever you want, whether it's used to cook spicy food, stir-fry, or make soup. It's easy to cook and saves space.
It took a whole day to cook all the sheep's head and trotters.
That's not all! Tomorrow I also need to cook cow hooves and cow head, which are even bigger and harder to cook. It will definitely take several days to cook them properly.
During dinner, Xu Han said, "I cooked sheep's head and trotters all day today, and I still smell like that. Tomorrow I have to cook cow's head all day too! Just thinking about it gives me a headache. I don't want to eat any of these things at all right now."
“We definitely can’t finish cooking it all in one day. A cow’s head is much bigger than a sheep’s head, there’s plenty to cook! You don’t want to eat it today because you’ve smelled it too much, you’ll want to eat it again in a few days,” Lu Chuan said with a smile.
"That's right. I'll braise all of these in a few days and save them for us to enjoy slowly."
After saying that, Xu Han happily continued eating the hot pot in the pot.
The next day, Lu Chuan was in charge of starting the fire to cook the cow's head, while Xu Han brought out the corn and began grinding lotus roots.
Fortunately, the yard is paved with bluestone slabs, and the snow was promptly removed after it stopped, so the yard is now completely dry.
After tying the corn to the ground lotus root pulp, Xu Han was responsible for filtering it. The filtered pulp was then placed in the bathroom, where charcoal was lit to maintain the temperature and prevent the lotus root water from freezing into ice cubes, allowing it to settle normally.
And so the two began to divide the work and cooperate, each taking charge of their own tasks.
Since Xu Han and Lu Chuan couldn't go out before the Chinese New Year, they made a lot of steamed buns and rice.
Of course, there are many other dishes, such as Mapo Tofu, Braised Beef, Chicken Stew with Mushrooms, Stir-fried Winter Melon, Stir-fried Greens, Braised Duck, Boiled Salted Meat, and Cold Dishes.
I even prepared a lot of ice jelly, pea jelly and various soups. After making them all, I put them in my space. Since there is water and I have a lot of free time now, I made a lot of them to keep in case of special circumstances and I can't cook.
The two of them start planning their day's work as soon as they open their eyes.
That morning, Lu Chuan said, "Tomorrow is the Little New Year, shouldn't we chop up some dumpling filling?"
"Is tomorrow the Little New Year? Time flies! There are only a few days left until the New Year, and we haven't even started preparing food for the New Year yet!"
"Yes! It's time to start preparing."
"Let's chop the filling and make dumplings today! If we make a lot, we can also make some meat buns!"
After saying that, Xu Han took out beef and mutton from her spatial storage.
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