The crops in the fields have been harvested, but there will be food falling to the ground in the fields. According to rural practice, harvesting will take place three to five days after harvesting crops.
In other words, no matter whose land it belongs to, anyone can go to the fields to pick up food left on the ground. If these grains are not picked up, they will eventually become cheaper for birds, animals and voles.
After the pellets were returned to the warehouse, the government announced on the third day that the autumn harvest activity would be relaxed, and the elderly, children, women, and disabled people in the city were encouraged to go to the fields to pick autumn autumn to subsidize their families.
As soon as the news came out, the whole city was in an uproar. Picking up autumn is not only a means of making money, but also an activity that the common people love to see. Everyone involved was excited.
After playing wildly for a few days, the children in Duolun City were asked by their parents to put small backpacks on their backs and carry small shovels and small hoes. The elder brother took the younger brother, and the elder sister took the younger sister, leading the family's yellow dog, and ran to the fields to pick up crops on the ground.
Si Xiaosong and Si Xiaobo brothers also prepared their tools and went out of the city to pick up autumn with their backpacks on their backs. The family said that no matter how much stuff they picked up, it would belong to them, which made them extremely happy.
They also planned to go to the black pine forest in three days. After all, as everyone picks up, the harvest of picking up autumn will be greatly reduced. After all, it is getting harder and harder to pick up good food.
They plan to sneak out in three days, cross the barbed wire fence, and dig out chipmunk and squirrel nests. Get some pine nuts and hazelnuts to sell. That is the most valuable thing, the price is many times that of food.
Gathering autumn leaves is mostly the work of women, children and the elderly.
Usually after breakfast, people who pick up autumn will put on their baskets, pick up the baskets, pick up shovels and three-tooth rakes, and go out.
Due to physical constraints, the elderly and children generally pick up in fields closer to the city, while half-year-old children and women go to fields farther away.
And often the farther you go, the more abundant your harvest will be, and returning home with a full load is quite eye-catching.
The annual Autumn Gathering Festival is mainly about picking up the grain left behind during the harvest, because the grain planting area is the largest and can be found everywhere. The most commonly grown crops outside Duolun are corn, sorghum, millet, millet, soybeans, etc. They are all being picked up.
These are good grains, the same as those harvested normally.
The most interesting thing is picking up corn cobs.
At this moment, the corn stalks after harvesting the cobs are cut down and lying on the ground. As long as you step on them one by one with your feet, you will often feel something round under your feet. This is undoubtedly a corn cob that has not been broken off cleanly.
Corn is being planted in large quantities this year because of its cold resistance and high yield. In the first two days, Si Xiaosong and Si Xiaobai were able to pick up a full basket in half a day. Cook and eat it at home. Whether it is sticky corn or sweet corn, it is the favorite of children.
When they went home at night, they stuck an iron skewer into the stove pit and roasted it. It was very delicious. Even though they were kicked several times by their mother because it interfered with cooking, they didn't care.
However, as everyone picks up, the harvest will be much less the next day.
After picking corn for two days, they decided to pick soybean pods. This is a boy's favorite thing. In addition to picking up bean pods and beans dropped on the ground, they also looked for vole nests in soybean fields.
This is not just for fun. A vole nest can often dig out two or three kilograms of soybeans, which is also the winter ration for the vole family. Digging up several nests of voles in a day is equivalent to more than thirty kilograms of soybeans.
You can replace it with tofu. Pay some processing fees, and one pound of soybeans will produce four pounds of old tofu.
You can also exchange it for soybean oil. 100 kilograms of soybeans can be exchanged for 12 kilograms of soybean oil. There is no processing fee for this. Just give the soybean cake to the oil pressing shop.
And starving voles to death can reduce next year's rat infestation.
As long as you dig a few vole nests, you won't have to worry about running out of tofu during the Chinese New Year. It’s cold here in Duolun, so you can eat frozen tofu all winter long. Soybeans can also be used to make miso.
It can also be used as a snack. It's delicious when stir-fried in salt water, but don't drink cold water after eating, otherwise you'll fart in the quilt.
Children and the elderly, disabled people, eldest girls, and young wives picked up the abandoned crops, while yellow dogs ran wildly in the fields in groups, catching and eating the voles that escaped everywhere. These guard dogs usually do not have meat. You can eat enough in these days.
Autumn is their favorite. Dogs are very agile at catching voles, no worse than cats, but cats have an advantage in small homes.
After the crops were harvested, the vole holes were exposed. In addition to the Si family brothers, the half-year-old children in the Xingfu Society would also block some of the holes and leave only a few, then light the straw, smoke them, and even pour water to drive the vole out. Drive them out of the remaining holes. It’s very convenient for dogs to catch and eat.
Another excellent way to dig a mouse hole is to "pierce the mouse hole with a spear." The consumption warehouse is the granary where rats are dug.
Rats are very smart animals. They also need to store food for the winter in autumn. They build a special warehouse for storing food in holes in the ground and store the food for the whole winter in this warehouse.
A few days ago, during the autumn harvest, everyone would put the cut crops on the ground. When the farmers were not paying attention, rats would come out of the holes and bite off the ears of grain.
Then, one mouse lay on its back holding the bitten grain ear, and another mouse bit the mouse's tail, dragged it into the mouse hole, stole the grain, and stored it in the bottom hole.
The tools used to "tie up the waste warehouse" are very simple. Just use a spear that is available in every household. The top of the spear is pointed so that it can be driven into the ground. There is usually a barb one inch behind the blade of the spear, which is like a fishhook. It is driven into the ground and can pull out things from the ground when it is pulled out.
The person who "Zhao the Hushang" kept probing around the entrance of the mouse hole. When there was an empty place, a little crop ear came out from the barb, which meant that the Hushang was found. Then he dug it with a shovel and found the grain.
Si Xiaosong and Si Xiaobai are very experienced in digging mouse holes.
Looking at the appearance, you can see a lot of details. If the mound is old and rock-hard, it may have been abandoned by the voles for various reasons. If it is too new and there is too little soil, it means that the hole was just made by a small vole, and there is unlikely to be much good stuff inside.
The only way to take action is to follow the winding field ridges, carefully observe the paths that mice often walk, and see a large mound of soil in the distance. The floating soil is half dry, half wet and granular. Good goal. This kind of hole contains the most things.
Si Xiaobai found the vent of the rat hole and sealed it tightly with mud. Si Xiaosong first dug a few times at the vertical weir with a hoe to expand the cross-section of the hole to facilitate subsequent excavation.
Si Xiaobai kept digging with his fingers to judge the function and direction of the rat hole through the hardness and thickness of the hole wall. The area leading to the granary had a relatively hard and smooth hole wall due to the high number of entries and exits. This was exactly the reason for the two The direction of the brothers' main attack.
After digging about half a meter, some wheat grains and bean pods came out here and there. Si Xiaobai couldn't help shouting excitedly, and dug forward a few more times. The cave, which was originally as thick as a tea cup, suddenly became much larger, and finally I saw the real "warehouse".
Around the main cave, like a well, there are several neatly arranged small granaries horizontally distributed. White, plump soybeans are piled up tightly and orderly, tightly fitting and well-proportioned.
"Brother, we are now rich. Look, we have five kilograms of soybeans." Si Xiaosong
