sbdcsierra Chapter 254 The family is safe
Chapter 254 The family is safe
Zhou Guo couldn't help but asked, "Mom, why are you sighing again?"
Li said, "I am thinking that our land plus yours is less than 11 mu. Even if the weather is good next year and God is happy, and everything goes smoothly from spring ploughing to autumn harvest, even if the highest yield per mu is three shi, we can only harvest more than 30 shi from so much land. After paying taxes, the remaining husks can only be enough for us to eat for four months. If we have two liquid meals and one dry meal, it will only be enough for six or seven months. We still have to buy food for the rest of the days."
I still have to sigh, they are really good at eating. How can they feed so many big mouths?
After the accounts were settled, everyone fell silent.
In previous years, their family had only had thin meals every day. They could only have one solid meal during the busy farming season. Even then, they had to eat a mixture of bran and wheat bran all year round and just barely get by.
The old man was drinking tea silently. He couldn't remember clearly that he seemed to have never had enough to eat when he was a child. Later, his parents passed away for some reason. He probably starved to death, and then he came out.
Zhou Guo waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about it. We can worry about next year. Maybe one day our yield per mu will be 4 or 5 shi. If it doesn't work, we can just buy some land. There will be many ways to deal with it. Why are you worrying now?"
Everyone laughed when they heard her say that one acre of land yielded four or five stones.
Zhou Dacang didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said, "Didn't you hear what your mother said just now? One acre and three shi still depends on good weather and good harvests from God. If everything goes well and you can sow on time, maybe you can get something. You only got four or five shi, so don't brag about it when you go out. Otherwise, it's not you who will be embarrassed, but me, your father, your grandfather, and your mother."
Everyone laughed.
Zhou Guo snorted and said nothing. What's impossible about this?
Unfortunately, everyone seemed to think she just farted!
Let’s wait and see next year.
Anyway, with so much food at home, we don’t have to worry anymore, and we are not afraid even if it snows heavily now.
Every time Zhou Xing cooked, her heart trembled as she watched the food running out. Whenever she had nothing to do, she would squat in front of the grain bag and count the food, trying to figure out how long the food would last. The more she counted, the more frightened she became, as their family consumed too much food every day!
Now that we have food, we don’t have to worry about eating dry food every day.
……
The busy farming season was over, there was no more grain in the fields, and the firewood and fodder were almost ready, so Zhou Guo turned his attention to the backyard.
In addition to the three tightly built sheds in the backyard, a simple circle was built for the wild boars, roe deer and deer. A few vines were tied around it and a roof was casually built with branches on top to block the sun.
The manure from several pens is cleaned every day. With so many livestock producing a lot of manure every day, a large pile has accumulated so far. By next spring ploughing time, it is estimated that the fertilizer for ten acres of land will not be much different. By then, if we mix some hay and rotten leaves in, and ferment them well, there will be no shortage of manure.
Perhaps because of such meticulous care, this big wild boar in the pen has gained weight visibly, and I don’t know how it eats. It shouldn’t grow so fast if it just eats grass, and I don’t know why.
It is difficult to cut the grass outside now. Almost all the grass nearby has been cut by them. She wondered if she should get rid of the pig.
Li looked at the big fat pig in the pen and was a little unhappy. "Let's keep it for a while longer. It has gained a circle of weight in a month. If we keep it until the New Year, I'm afraid it will gain two more circles of weight. It will have a lot of meat."
Zhou Xing and others also nodded. Seeing that the price was still rising, it would be too uneconomical to kill them at this time.
Zhou Guo was helpless, and thought about the newly harvested wheat at home. He could use the husks to make bran, and feed it together with grass to save some bran and grass, so he said nothing more.
There was only one wild boar left from the one we caught together. Everyone was craving for the taste of the roasted suckling pig, so they ate another one.
The taste was so good that people no longer felt sorry for the little pigs. They even said that it was no wonder that a little pig was more expensive than a big pig. There was a reason for that.
That evening, Zhou Guo and his family came back with a cart of firewood, leading the cows. Now they didn't have to worry so much about firewood, but they still had to go out to herd the cows and horses every day, and chop some firewood and cut some grass.
Zhou Dacang and Zhou Gu were repairing the pigsty at home. Since the pigs were not going to be slaughtered for the time being, they still needed a decent pen so that they would not freeze to death in the winter.
Cut a calf-thick piece of wood from the mountains, dig a deep pit and bury the wood. First, build the frame and embed small pieces of wood around it. Use stones to block the air leaks underground.
There's just one slot missing.
Zhou Guo ran to the river, found some stones of suitable size, brought them back and built a stone trough with yellow mud.
I filled it with water and tried it, and it was leaking a little, but not badly, and it was barely enough.
Zhou Dacang and his friends had just finished building the roof, so it was a proper pigpen.
It's a little different from the one in my hometown. There's a big pit underground. This one is a bit simple, but in Li's opinion it's also very good. He was so excited that his eyes were red.
Zhou Guo looked at it, thought about it for a while, and probably understood. The last time his family had the conditions to raise pigs was many years ago. Although the situation was a little poor, everyone was still there. Now, although life is getting better again, the family members are scattered or dead.
Thinking of this, she felt sad. After thinking about the housework, she felt that most of the work at home had been done, with only some small things left. With so many people at home, she could handle it even if she was not at home.
When the family sat together for dinner in the evening, Zhou Guo thought for a long time and finally said, "Mom, Master, uncle, sister, big brother, second brother, third brother, I will leave tomorrow. Everything is settled at home now. I want to take advantage of this gap before winter comes to go out."
Everyone was silent.
Li's eyes suddenly turned red.
Although she didn't say it, everyone knew what she was going to do.
The old man groaned and said, "I'll go with you."
Zhou Guo shook her head. Her master was old, and she didn't know when winter would come. How could she bear to see her master running around in the wind and snow? "Master, you should help me look after the house. I'm going out alone this time. Under your supervision, my kung fu has improved day by day. Didn't you say that ordinary bandits can't get close to me? Don't worry."
That being said, who can be at ease?
Mrs. Li choked up and said, "Why do we need to take care of our family? We have enough food, drink and money. We live in the village and there is no danger. You are a little kid, so why are you going out? There is chaos and war everywhere. How can I let you go out alone? Even if you are powerful, you can't resist so many people..."
I can't say any more. She lost a son, and now she has lost her daughter in the process of looking for him. She won't even have the face to see her child's grandparents in the underworld.