Chapter 295 Autumn Harvest 1
Autumn is ripe, and large expanses of golden color carry the breath of life, like a beautiful picture scroll being opened and spread across September. Golden and heavy, the fields are filled with indescribable joy.
Early in the morning, Yike and Jieyi took a ox cart to the rice fields. The sun is shining brightly today, which is a good day for harvesting rice.
The best time for autumn harvest is sunny day. The hotter the sun, the better, because this way the rice will be easier to dry after harvest. The most feared thing during autumn harvest is heavy rain. Heavy rain not only beats down many rice grains on the rice ears on the branches, but also soaks the grains in the threshing floor. If the grains that have been wetted by rain are exposed to the sun again, they will need to be exposed to the sun for several more days before they can dry. If it rains for several consecutive days, these grains will easily germinate, and the germinated grains will be useless.
The happiest people during the autumn harvest are the farmers, because the hope for the year lies in the fields, visible and tangible. All they have to do is harvest the crops quickly and bring them home.
Unlike spring, the hope sown will only bear fruit after the long spring and summer seasons.
It was a paradise on earth. All the members of Yike's family came out, even Old Su and Wu Feifei brought Xu Chaoqun to the edge of the field.
Although they could not harvest the rice, Mr. Su said he could direct the children to pick up rice ears. He said, "Every grain of rice is hard-earned," and he would not let go of any ears of grain that fell in the field, and he would pick them up with the children.
Wu Feifei also said that she could not work in the fields, but she could help everyone prepare cold boiled water in the small hut and make honeysuckle to cool everyone down.
Xu Chaoqun became friends with the two youngest children, Zhang Maoming and Zhang Maoye, who had just arrived. The three children were unable to do other work, so they followed Su's instructions and went to the fields to pick up ears of grain.
Han Guihua and several of her cousins first went to the paradise to feed the chickens, ducks and other animals and to clean the place. They would help dry the rice only after they finished those tasks.
Mother Zhang Yuling took a group of women and the newly arrived men and women to the fields to harvest rice. They waved sickles, and bunches of corn were held in their hands. With a swing and a pull of the sickle, rows of corn stalks with golden, heavy ears of corn lay behind the harvesters.
There were no threshers in those days, so the harvested rice had to be threshed manually, knocking the grains off the stalks and into large rice barrels.
The straw barrel is made of wood and is square. There are two logs at the bottom to facilitate moving the straw barrel in the fields. The size of the large straw barrel is just enough for four people to stand and pound the straw in four directions. If it is too big, it will be difficult to push, and if it is too small, it will not be convenient for four people to pound the straw.
There are two straw buckets at home. One bucket is used by a group of four, namely Ma Youcai, Wang Feng, Liu Bing and Tang Jianguo, to beat the straw handles; the other bucket is used by a group of four, namely Li Haoran, Du Qingcang, Ziyi and Dong Guoqing, to beat the straw handles.
Each group of four men surrounded a large straw barrel. They held a handful of straw tightly in both hands, raised their hands high, and slammed the straw handles hard against the wooden board of the large straw barrel. After repeating this three or four times, the grains finally reluctantly broke away from the stalks and lay obediently in the big barrel.
There should be someone beside the person who is beating the stalks to pass them the sheaves, so that the person who is beating the stalks does not have to waste time trying to pick them up himself. Usually, the person who passes the rice handles can be an older child, because this job is not very hard. The only bad thing is that the rice leaves can easily scratch the skin on the arms.
Yike had prepared the sleeves long ago, and everyone who worked had a pair. At first, everyone thought that sleeves were a waste of fabric. Later, when they asked them whether it was more expensive to make clothes or sleeves, everyone started to think that sleeves were a good thing, as they protected both the skin and the sleeves of clothes from being scratched.
Yike was originally going to cut rice, but her mother Zhang Yuling refused to let her do it, saying that bending over to cut rice would easily cause scratches on her face by the leaves.
Yi Ke just passed the sheaves of rice with the newcomer who was weaker in strength. Actually, passing the sheaves of rice was not easy either, but it was a little easier than other jobs. He had to bend down to pick up the sheaves, then move around the field holding them, walk to the sheave bucket and hand them to the person who was threshing the sheaves. Walking back and forth, with his feet stomping in the mud in the field, was very tiring.
People are busy in the rice fields. The rice grains absorbing the sunlight are clustered into a golden ocean. The breeze blows, bringing a pleasant fragrance. In the rice fields, those who hand over the rice bundles and those who beat the rice bundles cooperate with each other in perfect harmony and with skillful movements. The full-grained rice ears flutter in the rice bucket and each grain falls to the bottom of the bucket.
In the rice fields, the working people wiped the sweat from their faces from time to time, and their faces could not hide the joy of breaking up.
"Ah, snake, there is a snake." Suddenly, Xu Chaoqun, who was picking ears of corn, shouted loudly and crawled to the ridge of the field.
"Snake, where is the snake?" The boy Zhang Maoming threw away the ears of corn in his hand and ran to where Xu Chaoqun had just stood.
"Where? Where is the snake? Where is the snake?" The boy Zhang Maoming was not far from where Xu Chaoqun was standing, and he reached the place in just three or two steps.
"Over there, in the grain village where a straw stalk stands." Xu Chaoqun was standing on the ridge of the field, still in shock, pointing with trembling hands towards the boy Zhang Maoming.
The boy Zhang Maoming bent down and looked carefully, then he reached his hand into the water and soon his hand rose up. He held the head of a golden eel firmly, and its tail struggled weakly in the air.
"Haha, look, is that it?" The boy raised his hand proudly.
"Yes, it is it, that's it. Be careful not to get bitten." Xu Chaoqun said worriedly.
"It's okay. This is not a snake. It's an eel. We're going to eat eels tonight." The boy grabbed the eel and walked towards the ridge of the field. When he reached the ridge, he put the eel into a basket. This basket was the one Yi Ke brought to put these things.
Every year when the rice is harvested, there are many small animals in the fields that can be eaten: eels, loaches, blackfish, snails, etc. Sometimes you can also find rice eggs in the rice leaves that have fallen in the fields. As soon as people appeared, the rails ran away and hid somewhere, leaving behind only a nest of eggs. Clay eggs are much tastier than domestic eggs, so people will look for clay eggs when harvesting rice. Xu Chaoqun, a city kid, had never seen an eel before, so it was no surprise that he mistook it for a snake.
Xu Chaoqun saw the boy Zhang Maoming put the eel into the basket and then put the basket into the water. He asked curiously: "Hey, aren't you afraid that it will run out?"
"Haha, how could that be? This basket is specially used for eels and loaches. The opening is bigger than the outside, but it gradually gets smaller as you go inside. After the eel enters, the small opening is blocked, and it can't get out no matter what." The boy Zhang Maoming explained patiently.
"Wow, you know so much." Xu Chaoqun was extremely impressed.
"Haha, that's nothing. I'll teach you how to catch eels after I finish the work." The boy Zhang Maoming waved his hand like a general and said heroically.
"Okay, then I'll follow you." Xu Chaoqun stared at the boy with admiration in his starry eyes.
The boy almost lost his senses when Old Su shouted, "What are you guys mumbling about? Hurry up and pick up the ears of corn." The boy Zhang Maoming hurriedly pulled Xu Chaoqun, and the two of them went down to the fields and picked up the ears of corn honestly.
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