The end of February and the beginning of March is a rare leisure time for farmers throughout the year.
The New Year has come to an end, and the children have flown away with their families. The swallows on the roof beams have not yet returned. More and more land is abandoned, with withered yellow and gray-brown tones occupying large areas of land.
Except for the green hills in the distance and the large expanse of green, the entire village was lonely and silent.
Today, the fields beside the bamboo forest of the old Song family were bustling with activity again.
"Song Sancheng, what's going on with your family this year? Are you getting rich and ready to do something big? Do you have to take care of so many fields?"
"That's right, Old Song, what are you going to plant? There were two tea trees in the field, so you don't want them anymore?"
Everyone was invited by Song Sancheng to clean up the fields.
In the corner, the cultivator was rumbling, and before plowing the land, they first had to clear away all the weeds and trees in the field.
Otherwise, the little machine might get stuck.
Fortunately, there are many people, so working together is not only fun, but also very efficient. After tidying up one piece at the front, the tiller plowed it twice more at the back, and the combination was just right.
The people who came were all about the same age as Song Sancheng.
At their age, if they go out to work, most factories don't want them.
Those who do hard work can relax the age requirement, but their bosses are also afraid of getting into trouble.
In addition, people in their forties or fifties, who endured hardships and hardships when they were young, have many physical ailments and so on...
Now that I stay in the village, I just work for a while and take a break, trying not to burden the children.
Therefore, Song Sancheng said that if he asked people to work, it would not be a good job to bend down and exert force for 150 days, but everyone was willing to come.
As I get older, I also want to have fun.
Song Sancheng also sighed: "This tea is not worth much. There is still a large area on the hillside. I haven't taken care of it for many years... Why keep it?"
That's true.
Their place is not a famous tea place, just ordinary tea in Shangouzi. After frying it, we take it out for takeout. It costs fifty yuan a pound to drink it and it tastes delicious. There are really not many people outside who are willing to pay for it.
The tea trees in this field were so bare that I couldn’t see them in the first place...
But I’m older!
I really couldn't do the farm work that required a lot of effort, so I slowly accepted my fate.
"Then what do you want to do as you clean up the land and the mountains?"
The person asking the question was neighbor Li Baoni.
Speaking of this, Song Sancheng didn't know how to speak.
What do you say?
Your daughter is not going to work and is planning to come back to farm?
How many young people these days know how to farm? If you tell them, people in the village will laugh to death!
So he said lightly: "It's nothing. My Tantan works too hard and her body can't bear it anymore. I told her that she needed help in farming at home and let her rest at home for a year and a half before going out. work."
That's true.
Whose young people don’t venture outside?
Neighbor Li Baoni also sighed: "It's true. My daughter came back during the New Year with a sallow complexion. When asked, she worked overtime until one or two o'clock - the salary was only so little, and there was nothing left at the end of the year."
Li Baoni's daughter sells clothes in a chain store. He is sweet-tongued and talkative. Now he is a supervisor. From time to time, he does inventory late at night and travels to expand stores and the like. It is also hard work.
Unfortunately, the environment has been bad in the past two years, wages have not increased, and we have to worry about whether there will be layoffs...
When it comes to children, every household has a hard-to-recite scripture.
Zhou Maozhu, who was further away, also sighed: "Last time, my son asked us, the old couple, to live with them in the city and help take care of the children. The chili peppers in the supermarket outside the door cost more than ten yuan a pound! How much can we eat? Are you up?"
"With my children, I take them to kindergarten in the morning and pick them up in the evening and take them to interest classes. They are not even in the same place. The bus makes me feel dizzy. The air conditioner is blowing in the house every day, so there is no way for us to burn the stove to keep warm."
"I stayed there for a week and couldn't bear it anymore, so I just came back first."
As for the old woman at home, of course she still couldn't bear to part with her grandson and stayed there to take care of her as best she could.
Regardless of whether farming is reliable or not, the reason Song Sancheng came up with is pretty decent anyway:
"Tan Tan also said that the food in the past few years has not been as delicious as before. I thought, since people are staying here anyway, I might as well plant some vegetables and rice for the children, and it will be delicious for myself."
The villagers were also happy to hear it.
"Song Sancheng, now you are the one who farms the most in the village and you have become a landlord - when your rice is ripe, I will stop buying rice and buy your rice instead."
"Yes, yes, I will buy it too. The rice outside looks white. It is all polished and has no nutrition at all. It costs several yuan per pound, and it is not as fragrant as the rice I grew myself before."
Song Sancheng didn't dare to agree: "My family only farms two fields. It's not enough for my family to share. If I don't sell it, I won't sell it."
Who here has never farmed before?
Everyone was unhappy when they heard this: "The two fields combined are several acres. What, your family eats several thousand kilograms of rice a year?"
Song Sancheng also laughed: "What should we do? My rice seeds are good and taste good, but they are expensive. The best yield is one thousand jin per mu. One thousand jins yields 700 jins of rice, which is enough for two or three people. Year."
"Looking back at my family, the old man and the old woman, the children's grandma, uncles, aunts and uncles...don't every household deserve some points?"
"This is enough for my family to eat."
This is how the relationship between people goes in the village. Neighbors and relatives always have to give a little, not more, but they have to show their affection.
When everyone calculated it, it couldn’t be much more, but it was definitely a lot: “No, I have to eat your rice this year, otherwise I won’t come when your family is planting rice!”
Everyone agreed.
What he meant by that was that he was helping to plant rice without asking for money.
Song Sancheng didn't dare to respond: "With just two fields, it won't take us two days to plant rice by ourselves... Eat, eat, eat. Come and help when the rice is actually harvested. The rice will satisfy you!"
Everyone was laughing and joking. When a field was cleared and ready to be moved, someone finally remembered:
"Then you clear up the twenty acres of land and plant a few acres of rice. What are you going to do with the rest?"
Song Sancheng didn't hide it: "I'll just grow vegetables."
"I'm thinking that if we don't spray medicine, we can take the shuttle bus to the market to sell it, so we won't lose money."
That doesn't make much money.
Without spraying pesticides, the grass and insects would be layer by layer, and the couple would not have time to clean it up, not to mention worrying too much.
What's more, their road is not easy to get around. The shuttle bus runs from village to village once a day, and it costs 40 yuan for a round trip...
The vegetables need to be fertilized and laborious, and so many vendors in the vegetable market are from rural areas near the city. They are closer than them and the competition is greater...
Earning comes and goes is hard-earned money.
Everyone made a calculation in their minds, it’s really not a good deal!
But after thinking about it: "That's okay. Old Song, your family Qiao Qiao has to be looked after. We are old and no one wants to work. It's good to grow our own vegetables."
“When the time comes, I’ll come to the field to buy and pick now!”
…
…
Most of the varieties grown in the village are single, and the ripening seasons of each household overlap, so vegetables often need to be bought.
In addition, it is now allowed to sell pigs in rural areas, and it is also allowed to kill pigs and eat them yourself. It is illegal to kill pigs and sell them, so it is not allowed.
Tantan’s next step is to grow rice, watermelons, various vegetables, chestnuts from the mountains...and beekeepers, because milkvetch nectar is really not to be missed! There are also many wild vegetables.
Raise pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks and geese, as well as fish, shrimp, and water chestnuts.
What other crops do you like more? You are welcome to leave comments!
