As soon as the tractor stopped on the roadside of Niuweiling, two big dogs came over quickly.
The dog got close to its owner and kept circling Gao Mingcheng.
Gao Mingcheng picked them up and strode toward the house.
It was past ten o'clock in the morning, and the sun was a little bright, but Duo Mei was still wearing a straw hat and working in the vegetable patch in front of the house.
This is the time when various vegetables are growing luxuriantly. On the cucumber stand, the vines are growing gratifyingly, and the green cucumbers are hidden under the broad leaves.
The cowpea rack next to it is also growing very well. It is already blooming and growing cowpeas. The long cowpeas are hanging down like the green hair of a girl in green.
Cowpeas grow in abundance and fast. If you plant a lot, you won't be able to eat them. In many cases, you have to eat cowpeas every now and then, otherwise the cowpeas will become old if they are delayed in the field for two more days.
Many beauties were taking care of the vegetables and pulling out the newly grown weeds, but she had a big belly and worked slowly.
"Duomei, don't squat down and work. The sun is so bright and it's so hot. Go back to the house quickly!" Gao Mingcheng walked over quickly and told Duomei to go back to the house to rest.
Duo Mei stood up slowly and said with a smile: "I just came out not long ago, and I was going to pick some vegetables to eat. I saw some weeds, so I just pulled them out."
In the era before herbicides, farmers often had to deal with weeds when farming. There is a poem that says: wildfires never burn out, but spring breezes blow them again.
This is enough to prove how tenacious the vitality of weeds is. On a carefully cultivated land, you can see weeds popping up in the ground as long as you don't pull the weeds for two or three days.
Weeds will rob crops of fertilizer and water, so they should not be left in excess.
"Go and rest, I'll do this." Gao Mingcheng said, picking up the hoe on one side and hoeing the weeds easily. When the hoe went down, the weeds were turned up with roots and soil.
"You pile these grasses together to dry them. After drying, you have to use them to cover the watermelons. The weather is getting hotter and hotter. It is not good for the watermelons to be left in the sun for a long time. I went to the watermelon field today to see a lot of them. It’s a little watermelon.” Duo Mei said.
The watermelon could have been covered with straw to provide shade, but their family cultivated too few fields, and even the little straw was not enough.
"Okay." Gao Mingcheng responded. While working, he told Xiao Yuanyuan's situation, and finally said that he was going to go out to drive a sports car.
"Duomei, I may be delayed on the road for a few days when I go out this time. Will you stay in the village or go to the county? If you stay in the village, I won't be so relieved."
Gao Mingcheng hoped that many beauties would go to the county. It would be fine if they lived in the old village with neighbors around them, but his house was built in Niuweiling, which was some distance away from the old village. Many beauties were pregnant now. If something happened, no one would help me if I wanted to ask for help.
Duo Mei also considered this, so she said: "I'll go back to the county. You can go out and do things without worry. I'm fine. Do you plan to go back to the county this afternoon or tomorrow morning?"
Gao Mingcheng said: "Tomorrow morning, I will go into the mountain to shake the honey later. Last time I saw that the honey was full, so it's time to shake it."
"Okay, I'll cook now. In the evening, I'll pick some vegetables so that I can take them to the county to eat tomorrow." Many beautiful people had plans in mind, and their eyes swept over a large vegetable field.
There are quite a lot of edible vegetables in the vegetable fields now, including cucumbers, cowpeas, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, loofah, bitter gourd, sweet potato leaves and sweet potato stems, etc., all of which can be eaten.
In addition, if you look for it on the slopes, you can pick tender pumpkins to eat. And the winter melon is also growing vigorously, and given time, it can grow into a giant thing weighing dozens of kilograms.
The husband and wife divided the labor and cooperated. Duomei went back to the house to cook, while Gao Mingcheng stayed in the vegetable field to work. While weeding, he observed the growth of the vegetables to see if they were lacking water or fertilizer.
Then we strolled all the way to the watermelon patch.
Watermelons cannot be grown continuously, so they have to plant them on a different piece of land every year. Fortunately, their family grows watermelons mainly for their own consumption, so they only plant one acre of land at a time. To be precise, they only plant eight acres of land, because there are still two acres of land. The land was allocated to grow pears and melons.
Pear melon is what they call it here, but other places also call it cantaloupe.
This melon also tastes very good, but you shouldn’t eat too much of it, as eating too much will cause diarrhea, so most people don’t plant much of it, and they often plant it together with watermelons.
In the melon field, not only small watermelons grew, but small pear melons also grew. Under the broad green leaves, small fruits grew on the vines.
Here, Gao Mingcheng's eyesight was put to use. He had to follow the vines all the way. It is best to leave only one or two watermelons on a vine, because if there are more, the vines will not transport enough nutrients and the watermelons will not grow big enough. Not sweet enough either.
As the saying goes, you can't chew off more than you can chew. Those who sow fruits also need to thin out the fruits in order to strive for excellence.
After Gao Mingcheng thinned out all the watermelons in an acre of land, he went back to the house. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he drank a ladle of well water.
The well water in summer is cold and delicious, and has a sweet taste when you drink it.
You shouldn’t drink raw water in the mountains, but country people usually drink well water directly, especially in summer. The freshly drawn well water is cool and delicious. Who can resist taking a few sips?
Duo Mei was already cooking, and Gao Mingcheng went to help light the fire. However, Duo Mei was very good at making fire, so there was no need to add more firewood for the time being.
Seeing that the sweet potato leaves in the pot were almost ripe, Gao Mingcheng went to do other things.
After each honey shake, the honey shaker needs to be cleaned, drained of water, and covered with a large plastic sheet to prevent dust from entering.
The next time you use it, it will be clean and dry inside.
At this moment, he moved the things out of the corner of the warehouse and put them under the eaves for ventilation. After lunch, he went to the mountains to shake honey.
The lunch meal was quite ordinary, including stir-fried green peppers, steamed eggplant, and mashed sweet potato leaves with garlic. Gao Mingcheng shook his head at the first sight. This food was too vegetarian.
Just as he was about to say "A lot of beauty", "A lot of beauty" brought another bowl of steamed eggs.
This egg is steamed on top of rice. After steaming, it turns golden in color and melts in your mouth. It is a favorite dish among the elderly and children.
There is a key technique for steaming eggs, which is to mix the egg liquid with warm water. If it is cold water, the steamed eggs will not be so tender and refreshing, and there will be many honeycombs.
"I ate too much greasy food yesterday, so I just want to eat something light today." Duo Mei said first.
The sky is huge, and pregnant women are the biggest. Gao Mingcheng naturally shut up silently and started eating with big mouthfuls. He ate very quickly, and he finished two bowls of rice in a short time.
After putting down the bowls and chopsticks, Gao Mingcheng said: "I went to the mountains to shake the honey. You will wash the honey bottle and filter the water later."
"Got it." Duo Mei responded, preparing to wash the bottles after washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen.
I don’t know if the plastic bottle I bought is clean or not, so it’s best to wash it yourself and then place it upside down on a wooden board to drain out the moisture inside.
I don’t know if the plastic bottle I bought is clean or not, so it’s best to wash it yourself and then place it upside down on a wooden board to drain out the moisture inside.
This kind of bottle is used to store honey, so you can eat it with confidence.
Gao Mingcheng took the honey shaker and went into the mountain, followed by the two dogs who had eaten a vegetarian meal and followed him step by step.
Countryside people are more casual about raising dogs. Generally speaking, local dogs eat leftovers from home and can only chew some bones during festivals.
Gao Mingcheng raises black tigers and elves. Although he runs a small stove for them from time to time, most of the time they eat leftovers. Especially when Gao Mingcheng is not at home, their food is provided by Zhang Chengyuan, and their food is even worse. .
But they are somewhat capable, and if they are lucky, they can also catch rabbits and voles, which can be regarded as a tooth-beating sacrifice.
All the way into the mountain, we soon came to the place where the beehives were placed.
There are six spleens in a beehive, and there are more than 3,000 bees in one spleen. In addition to those busy collecting honey outside, there are also many bees inside the beehive. If you look carefully, you can also identify which ones are worker bees, which ones are drone bees, and which ones are drone bees. Which are newly hatched or unhatched bee eggs?
Because the lifespan of worker bees is not long, the queen bee often lays eggs. Through the size and location of the eggs, you can know in advance what kind of bee species are in these eggs.
If you don't want to keep a new queen bee, you can artificially prevent the new queen bee from hatching.
Gao Mingcheng checked the condition of the hive. The color of the honey inside was darker, which looked fine. He could have shaken the honey a few days later, but this time when he went to Yangcheng, he didn't know how long the delay would be, so it was better to shake the honey first to make him feel more at ease.
He used the soft brush he carried to brush off the bees staying on the honeycomb. Then he took out a long knife and gently cut off the bee cover. After cutting off, the honey sealed inside would flow out and wait for it to be released. When entering the honey shaker, through continuous rotation and under the action of centrifugal force, the honey will gather at the bottom of the honey shaker.
Gao Mingcheng kept turning the handle of the honey shaker. He was experienced and knew how long it would take before he could shake the honey out of the honeycomb.
He kept shaking honey in the mountains, and the unique fragrance of honey filled the air, attracting uninvited guests - wasps.
In addition to wasps, Gao Mingcheng also discovered several bumblebees. Bumblebees are chubby and cute. They can do things and eat. There are basically none left all year round, so no one wants to keep them.
Gao Mingcheng concentrates on shaking the honey, but if a wasp flies in front of him, he will not be soft-hearted. He will lift the stick and drop it, and a wasp will be killed.
There was too much honey in summer. After Gao Mingcheng shook a few beehives, there was a lot of honey in the honey shaker. He could no longer continue shaking honey. He had no choice but to go down the mountain and pour the honey from the honey shaker into a Put it in a clean large clay pot without water or oil, and then continue to go into the mountains to shake the honey.
After the honey in the clay pot has settled, the upper layer of honey can be taken for canning. This step is taken care of by many beauties.
After three hours of busy work, Gao Mingcheng shook all the honey. When he took the heavy honey shaker home, he saw that Duomei had already contained a lot of honey.
After taking a look at the remaining plastic bottles, he also took out the canned bottles at home. After eating the cans, the bottles were cleaned and drained. They can be used for many purposes, but most of the time they are used to hold chili powder.
"This is quite a lot of honey. You can put the rest in cans and bottles and give some to my parents when the time comes. You can also give a pound to your second sister's house."
"Yes." Duo Mei responded with a smile. Seeing that he was about to go out again, he asked, "Where are you going again?"
"I'll go to the mountains to see how Poria cocos grows." As soon as he finished speaking, Gao Mingcheng's back was no longer visible.
Gao Mingcheng led the two dogs into the mountains again, this time going straight to the Poria field.
The weather has been good in the first half of this year, and the Poria cocos planted a month ago has sprouted, but it still looks small.
Gao Mingcheng inspected the slopes one by one, pulled out some dead Poria seedlings, and observed whether there were insects or ants where the Poria was planted.
Insects and ants are very harmful to Poria cocos, so when planting Poria cocos, you must use anti-insect drugs, but sometimes the drugs are not that effective. Even if you use the drugs, there may still be insects and ants.
But Gao Mingcheng was lucky. He looked all the way and found no insects or ants anywhere.
He planted a batch last year and another batch this year so that the Poria cocos in the mountains can develop sustainably.
It’s just that after digging out the grown Poria cocos, you can no longer plant Poria cocos in that place and you have to plant it in another place.
The mountains of Niuweiling are endless, and he is not afraid of high mountains and long roads. Even if there are steep peaks, he can still climb them, so this is no problem.
After managing the Poria field, clouds filled the sky to the west.
The clouds are rolling and relaxing, and the rays of rays of light coat the mountains and forests with a layer of gold and shine. Every place is a scene, but in the eyes of villagers who are accustomed to seeing this scene, it is not worth taking a second look.
Gao Mingcheng was leaving again tomorrow, so he decided to get some delicious food for Black Tiger and Elf.
"Let's go hunting. You are responsible for driving out the prey." Gao Mingcheng took out the throwing knife from his waist and decided that the two dogs were in the light and he was in the dark.
Covertly.
The two dogs had hunting experience. After receiving the order, they became excited instantly. The silly dog Elf even turned around in circles, as if he wanted to bite his own tail in celebration.
It’s just that it’s already evening now, which is not the time for birds and animals to be active. Hare, pheasant, etc. have already returned to their safe shelters. The bird nests on the treetops have also welcomed tired returning birds, waiting for their return tomorrow morning. Wake up and hunt for bugs.
However, the sense of smell of the black tiger and the elf was not a vegetarian. They searched for a moment in the mountains and then ran towards a place, with Gao Mingcheng naturally following closely behind.
But soon, thick bushes blocked the way ahead.
The two dogs relied on their agility to pass directly through the bottom of the bushes, only to hear a rustling sound.
Gao Mingcheng could only take a detour and followed the two dogs for a while. He heard the sound of a pheasant trying to escape in panic.
But creatures like chickens cannot see at night, so when it gets dark, they return to a safe place to spend the night.
If it is a home-raised chicken, and you plan to kill the chicken to eat tomorrow, it is best to catch the chicken at night and tie it up with a rope, so that the chicken will not run away the next day.
Otherwise, catching chickens during the day would take a lot of effort.
With their excellent sense of smell, the two dogs accurately found a nest of pheasants. In the end, several pheasants ran away, one was bitten to death by each of the two dogs, and one was stabbed by Gao Mingcheng with a flying knife.
In addition to the harvest of three chickens, Gao Mingcheng also picked up a nest of wild eggs.
Wuhu has gained a lot!
(End of chapter)
