"Let's not cook tonight, we'll just eat the food from the space," Xu Han said, changing the subject.
I've been really tired these past few days and don't want to do anything, so I'll be lazy today and not cook.
"Okay, how's the composting going today? Is it done?" Grandpa Zhao asked with great interest.
"We haven't started yet. Today we collected a lot of pine needles, dead branches and leaves. In the afternoon we also pulled some weeds in the orchard. We'll keep these for composting tomorrow."
"Okay, will it take a few more days of work?"
"It should be almost done by tomorrow. All the materials are ready now. Tomorrow, I'll use a guillotine to chop them up and then mix them together in the correct proportions."
Xu Han thought for a moment and then asked, "By the way, did you have any old, worn-out oilcloths at home before?"
"Yes, it's in the backyard."
"Take it over there tomorrow and use it to cover the compost pile. This will raise the temperature inside the compost pile, allowing it to ferment and decompose better later."
"Okay, I'll go find it and put it in the front yard in a bit, so I don't forget it tomorrow morning."
"The guillotine is also ready; we'll take it with us then," Xu Han instructed.
"I understand, I'll go get it right away, don't forget it later." Lu Chuan said, then got up and walked towards the backyard.
Grandpa Zhao was also very interested in composting, so he said, "Tomorrow I'll go and see what you mean by composting, and see how it's done."
"Okay, we'll prepare the materials tomorrow morning, and you can go over there after your afternoon nap."
"Okay, I'll take them both with me then."
While the two were chatting, Xu Han took out food from her spatial storage and arranged it so that they could eat as soon as Lu Chuan returned.
After dinner, everyone stayed in the main room for a while, chatting and playing with the two children.
Only when the children gradually became sleepy did everyone get up and disperse, each going back to their rooms to rest.
The next morning, after having breakfast, Xu Han and Lu Chuan took their tools and went out.
Before leaving, Xu Han also made a detour to the woodshed to bring along the sawdust and bamboo sawdust she had made while making furniture.
Rice bran and wheat bran can also be used, so take them all with you.
The sawdust had been kept in the woodshed and hadn't been thrown away. Xu Han originally intended to use it as a footrest for the corn, so that the donkey shed wouldn't get wet.
When raising chickens, we can also put some in the shed. In the past few years, we haven't raised chickens, so we used some for corn, and we still have three or four bags left.
Xu Han thought that this could also be used when making compost, so she brought it along.
After leaving their home, the two went to the orchard and stored the grass they had pulled out the day before in their spatial storage.
The weeds have wilted overnight, making them more suitable for composting.
"How do we get rid of these weeds?" Lu Chuan asked.
Xu Han took out the guillotine and said to Lu Chuan, "Let's use the guillotine to chop up all these pine needles and weeds, which will reduce the fermentation time."
After listening, Lu Chuan immediately got to work, asking, "How should it be made? Is this size okay?"
"About two or three inches is fine. The smaller the better."
After Xu Han finished speaking, she came over to help, and the two worked together quickly.
At noon, Xu Han and Lu Chuan didn't go home for lunch; they ate here instead.
Although it wasn't far from home, the two decided not to go back because there were still many weeds that hadn't been chopped.
After lunch, I found a cool place to rest for a bit before continuing to work.
When Grandpa Zhao arrived with the two children, Lu Chuan and Xu Han had already chopped up all the weeds.
From a distance, we could hear Grandpa Zhao say, "Haha, you guys are pretty fast! I was thinking you didn't go home for lunch, so there must be a lot left to do."
"At noon, I saw that there was still a lot of food that hadn't been chopped up yet, so I didn't go back," Lu Chuan explained.
"Your timing is perfect; we've just started."
"Today I want to see how this composting is done," Grandpa Zhao said, then played with the child nearby with great interest, his eyes constantly glancing this way.
Xu Han was directing Lu Chuan to spread the excrement on the ground and pile it into a thick layer.
Then add a suitable amount of pine needles on top, then a layer of manure, then a layer of dead branches and leaves, then continue to add manure, and finally pour weeds and wood chips on top.
Xu Han added some rice bran, wheat bran, and a little bit of quicklime powder to it.
After finishing everything, I poured some water onto the manure pile with a ladle.
"Okay, now just mix these things together."
"Is that all? There's still so much manure left here, aren't we going to leave it?" Lu Chuan asked, glancing at the half-used manure.
"No need, let's try to see if we can successfully pile it up. If we succeed, this fertilizer will be enough to grow crops."
The rest can be piled up again next time, so that it can be used as fertilizer for the crops when needed.
The key issue is that Xu Han wasn't sure she would succeed, and she didn't dare use it all at once, so she decided to leave some for the crops in the field.
If composting fails, all that manure will be lost.
However, this traditional composting method is really simple. As long as the temperature is controlled and the compost is turned over in time, it rarely fails.
Xu Han remembered that almost everyone in her grandparents' generation knew this composting method.
The materials used for composting vary from household to household.
Moreover, there used to be manure piles outside every household's yard.
When Xu Han was little, there was a huge manure pit outside the yard.
In everyday life, uneaten or spoiled fruits and vegetables are usually thrown into the latrine.
Kitchen waste and wastewater were also dumped directly into the manure pile.
There's no need to compost it specifically; just pile it up day by day, and it will naturally ferment over time.
When it's time to plant crops, you can just dig it up and use it.
When Xu Han was little, she often watched her parents haul manure into the fields.
Before planting crops, simply spread manure on the ground, then till the soil and plant the crops.
However, the current manure pile only contains animal droppings; Lu Chuan and Xu Han haven't added anything else to it.
The main problem is that Xu Han hadn't thought of this before. Now that the natural disaster is over and she wants to focus on farming, she's realized that she didn't have enough manure.
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