When he came back from the market with a full harvest, Duo Mei had already gotten up. Looking at the steamed buns and fried dough sticks he brought back, he said with a smile: "I was just about to eat this."
"I know you want to eat. I will buy some food every market day from now on. Oh, I also bought some meat and tofu. These tomatoes and eggplants were given by Huang Dazhi's mother. It's good to scramble eggs and tomatoes for lunch. That's it." Gao Mingcheng said as he took out everything, put breakfast on the table, and put the meat and vegetables in the cupboard.
Then I went to make two bowls of porridge, and a hearty breakfast was ready.
After breakfast, Gao Mingcheng will go into the mountains to check the condition of the beehives. When he was taking a bath in the reservoir yesterday, he promised others that he would be given a share of the queen bee.
After talking to Duomei, Gao Mingcheng led the two dogs into the mountain.
I haven't checked the beehive for a while, but when I opened it, I found that there was a lot of honey inside. Now is the season with the most abundant honey sources among the four seasons of the year, and at this time, the life span of bees They will all be shortened because they are busy collecting honey.
He picked up a piece of honeycomb and shined it into the sun. He found that the honey inside was still relatively thin. This was freshly formed honey, but it had not been completely brewed. This kind of honey has a high water content and is not that rich in sweetness. The key is Yes, the shelf life will be much shorter.
In order to make more money, some beekeepers will shake honey at this time, so that they can shake honey once or twice a year.
Gao Mingcheng was not in a hurry to make money, so he decided to wait. In a few days, the honey in the beehive would be completely brewed.
After checking one box after another, most of the beehives were in good condition, but something happened to two beehives. One box was suffering from an unknown disease, and the bees inside seemed to be in bad condition.
In another box, a new queen may have hatched and then split. There were only a small number of bees in it and almost no honey.
Gao Mingcheng carefully observed the box of sick bees and saw that they were moving slowly, their bodies were twitching and shaking, and they had lost the ability to fly. Their wings and legs were stretched out, but they could only flap their wings weakly and crawl weakly.
Some of these bees have enlarged abdomens, some have thin bodies, and some have blackened body surfaces, faded villi, and contracted abdomens, as if they had been fried.
Upon seeing this situation, Gao Mingcheng had a bad feeling.
"You're not suffering from bee paralysis, are you? No matter what the disease is, kill these sick bees first to prevent them from transmitting the virus to other healthy bees." Gao Mingcheng murmured to himself, and then began to kill these sick bees. of bees.
Not only do the bees need to be killed, but the beehive also needs to be cleaned and disinfected, and all the honeycombs inside must be discarded.
In addition, he had to buy some sublimated sulfur.
Sublimated sulfur is a medicine extracted from sulfur. It contains high sulfur and can prevent and treat common bee diseases. It can also treat skin diseases and hemorrhoids. It has many uses.
He piled the honeycombs and dead bees together, took out the matchbox from his pocket, and lit it.
High temperature can kill many viruses and effectively prevent virus infection.
During the process of burning the fire, Gao Mingcheng could not leave. He could only leave after ensuring that the fire was completely extinguished. Otherwise, he would set the mountain on fire and be imprisoned!
In the process of lighting the fire, Gao Mingcheng observed the surrounding environment to see if there were any contaminated nectar sources.
But everything in the mountains is very clean, and there are no chemical plants nearby, so external pollution does not need to be considered.
Then the reason why bees get sick may be related to too much rain and excessive humidity in the beehive.
It's the rainy season, and it's rainy in the mountains.
He checked the lid of the beehive and sure enough he saw some tiny cracks on it.
It seems that the beehive needs to be covered with a tile or a plastic sheet to protect it from rain.
The cover of the beehive is not to allow bees to enter and exit, but to facilitate people to manage the beehive and collect honey. It is usually completely covered. As for the entrance and exit of bees, there is a small hole at the bottom.
The person at the entrance of the cave looks small, but the body of the bee is small, and it is enough to get in and out. And the opening is small to prevent larger wasps from getting in.
After all the corpses of the dead bees were burned, Gao Mingcheng completely trampled the remaining ashes with his feet before leaving with the empty beehive.
His territory is all over the mountains and plains, so he places the beehives far apart. It is precisely because of this that when one box of bees gets sick, the other bees are not infected in a short period of time.
But now that there is a disease, other beehives cannot take it lightly. Bee paralysis can be prevented in the early stages, which can reduce the loss of bees.
Otherwise, when the disease reaches an advanced stage, we can only kill them and not keep them any longer.
After coming down from the mountains, he drove the tractor and prepared to go to the city to buy sublimated sulfur. The health of bees still needs to be taken into consideration.
In addition to buying medicine and a new honeycomb, he also bought a cigarette. Yesterday, he agreed to invite everyone to smoke, so he couldn't break his promise. Since he had invited everyone, it would be unreasonable to only invite everyone. It’s wrapped.
Anyway, the cigarettes he bought were not very expensive, just the kind of cheap ones that everyone in the village usually smoked.
After running back and forth, it was already noon when we returned to the village.
The tractor stopped at the old village. Gao Mingcheng went to give the cigarettes to Gao Liang and the others first. He did not go to each house to deliver them, but entrusted Gao Liang to let him deliver them. By the way, he told the person who asked him for the queen bee. , just saying that there is no new queen bee in his beehive recently, and he has to wait a little longer.
Gao Mingcheng himself died of a hive of bees and lost half of the hive. He needed a new queen bee to replace him, so naturally he couldn't give it to others first.
All the way back to Niuweiling's home, Duomei was working in the vegetable field. When he saw him coming back, he said, "The food is being heated in the pot. Go and eat it quickly."
"Hey." Gao Mingcheng responded and walked to the kitchen.
When he opened the lid of the pot, he saw two bowls inside, one with rice and vegetables, and the other with bone soup.
He took it out and ate it hungrily, while the black tiger and the elf squatted at the dining table, waiting for him to feed the bones.
He gnawed the meat on the bone in a few seconds, and then threw it on the ground. The two dogs came forward to eat it. The stewed bone was quite rotten. Even Gao Mingcheng could break it if he bit hard. , let alone the dogs biting me, there was only a clicking sound, the bones were bitten into pieces by the two dogs, and then they ate them bit by bit.
Gao Mingcheng looked at their figures and felt that they were a little thin and their coats were not shiny enough, so he said: "I will take you into the mountains to hunt rabbits in the afternoon and let you have a good meal of meat!"
The two dogs seemed to understand, and their expressions were visibly excited. The young elf couldn't hold his breath and was already wandering around Gao Mingcheng, barking incessantly.
Gao Mingcheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he had to cook the rice faster and then threw the bowl and chopsticks into the basin.
He took the sublimated sulfur he just bought and a few knives, and said in a high-spirited voice: "Let's go!"
The two dogs barked in response, followed him, and hurried toward the mountains.
In the vegetable field, many beauties could only smile helplessly when they saw him going into the mountains again, but she never thought of stopping him. She just did what she could. If she had free time, she would go to her second sister's house to sit. The two sisters talked and teased their little nephew.
After entering the mountain, Gao Mingcheng first dealt with the problem of the beehives. He poured out a little sublimated sulfur and sprinkled it evenly on the frame beams, nest entrance and box entrance of each beehive.
When sick bees are exposed to sublimated sulfur, a series of changes will occur, thereby curing the sick bees.
After finishing this matter, Gao Mingcheng said to the two dogs: "It's hunting time! Let's go find the rabbit!"
The two dogs understood, and immediately sniffed the smell in the air to look for the rabbit.
Rabbits are accustomed to coming out early in the morning to look for food, so they are called rabbits. But if there are two dogs around, they will find rabbit holes. The noises and threats they make will frighten the rabbits. Some rabbits hiding in the holes will feel unsafe and run away in fright.
At this time, the two dogs will chase, and Gao Mingcheng can also kill the rabbit with a flying knife.
There was a severe drought in the mountains last year, and both vegetation and animals were affected to some extent. However, rabbits are particularly capable of reproduction. Female rabbits can become pregnant once a month, and can reproduce by blood, and can give birth to several rabbits in one litter.
In the first half of the year, the vegetation is lush and the hares in the mountains have no shortage of food. It is a good time to breed in large numbers.
The first rabbits that Black Tiger and the others found were a group of small rabbits. The two dogs were not picky about size, so they had to open their mouths to bite them.
But Gao Mingcheng is still very picky about size. After all, those rabbits are too small, only one or two months old at most, and they don't have much meat.
"Black Tiger, Elf, go find the big rabbit." Gao Mingcheng ordered.
Black Tiger slightly raised his head and looked at Gao Mingcheng, then gave up the rabbit meat in his mouth.
Throughout the afternoon, Gao Mingcheng led his two dogs to search for traces of hares in the mountains.
Except for him, few people set foot on this mountain. There are many wild animals in the mountain. Even if Gao Mingcheng was picky, he finally got a dozen adult hares.
There were so many hares, enough for Black Tiger and Elf to have a good meal, and it was also enough for him to have a good meal.
Just as he was preparing to go back, he was lucky enough to encounter a group of pheasants. After the pheasants noticed the sound they made, they tried to escape with flapping wings all the way away. However, Cheng Ming had a sharp eye and the knife in his hand was faster, and he threw it at them. , a pheasant was killed by the knife.
But at this time, other pheasants had quickly hid in the lush bushes.
Gao Mingcheng was not greedy, so he carried the trophy and continued down the mountain.
After returning home, seeing that there was still some time before making dinner, Gao Mingcheng decided not to peel the skin, but to remove the hair. In fact, rabbit skin is quite delicious, and the rabbit meat with skin is more delicious when fried.
In the first half of the year, the fur of rabbits is sparse and easy to shed. Even if they are skinned, rabbit skins cannot be sold at high prices. However, those who use fur are usually hunted in autumn and then skinned and tanned.
He boiled a large pot of water and took out two large basins.
Duo Mei saw that he had brought back so many rabbits, but there was not much happy look on her face. She hesitated for a moment and then said: "I heard from the old people in the village that pregnant women cannot eat rabbits, otherwise the children they give birth to will be Harelip.”
"Nonsense!" Gao Mingcheng retorted subconsciously.
Hare lips are obviously related to genetics. His ancestors have not had hare lips for several generations, and many beauties have not heard of hare lips. Moreover, his two sons were both fine in his previous life!
However, many beauties firmly believe it, or she does not dare to take risks. After all, she is a pregnant woman now, and she will not take the initiative to touch anything that is not good for the child in her belly.
So she said, "I don't eat rabbit anyway."
Gao Mingcheng originally wanted to reason with her, but when he saw Duo Mei's determined look on her face, he thought about it and decided not to.
Now that the conditions at home are good, we don’t only eat rabbit meat.
There are many beauties that you don’t want to eat, so just don’t eat them, which will save her a burden after eating them.
So he smiled, picked up the pheasant, and said, "Perhaps knowing that you don't want to eat rabbit, this pheasant just fell into the trap! I'll stew this pheasant tonight, and you can eat more."
Duo Mei was amused by Gao Mingcheng and responded with a smile.
But she looked at the rabbits and said, "The weather is hot now, and there are so many rabbits that I can't keep them. How about sending some to my parents, and one to my second sister?"
Gao Mingcheng took a look at the rabbits on the ground. There were indeed a lot of rabbits. It would be troublesome to remove the fur one by one, so he carried four rabbits and walked towards the old village.
Before leaving, he asked Duomei to help him watch the fire boil the water.
Many Mei responded. Although she didn't dare to eat rabbits, there was no problem in stripping and frying rabbits.
Gao Mingcheng carried the rabbit and walked quickly. First he arrived at Duoyu's home. Zhang Chengyuan was not at home, still working in the fields outside, while Duoyu was looking after the children at home.
Gao Mingcheng first gave her a rabbit, and then continued walking to the old village.
The remaining three rabbits are for his parents, grandma, and Gao Shouwang's family.
After delivering the rabbit, he didn't stay too long and hurried back home. At this time, the water in the iron pot was boiling, which was just right for scalding and removing the fur.
Gao Mingcheng first cleaned the pheasant's feathers, and then gave it to Duomei to stew in the kitchen.
The pheasant meat is tight and needs to be stewed for a longer time.
He quickly removed the fur from the remaining rabbits, but the rabbit fur was very fine and difficult to clean, so in the end he had to light a pile of straw and then burn the rabbits on the fire. At this time, the fine hairs on the skin will be burned clean by the fire, making a sizzling sound, and the skin will become firmer.
After cleaning the hair, the next step is to disembowel it.
He got a total of thirteen hares, and now he has sent four out, leaving nine at home.
He decided to save two for the two dogs, stir-fry two tonight, and braise the rest for dinner.
Braised food can be left for a day or two without going bad.
In addition, there are also natural refrigerators in the countryside. That is to put food in a bamboo basket and hang it in the well with a thick hemp rope.
The well water is warm in winter and cool in summer. Hanging the food a few centimeters above the well water will not touch the water, but it can also take advantage of the cold air of the well water to prevent the food from quickly rotting and deteriorating.
When the watermelon in the field grows well, soak it in well water for a while. The watermelon will become sweet and delicious, which will relieve the heat.
(End of chapter)
