at night.
You can see at the foot of the mountain that a hazy layer of mist has risen from Hulu Mountain at night. The cold air from the mountain is rolling down to the foot of the mountain. The house still lacks a thick quilt. That thatched quilt is really hard to sleep on!
"Where are the duck eggs?"
I was really tired today. Yi Niang pouted and said unhappily: "You have to do more work. It's getting late. Why don't you take a rest?"
"Making preserved eggs cannot be completed in a day or two. Let's make them as soon as possible. During the Chinese New Year, everyone has some spare money to buy New Year's goods, and they are willing to spend money to see if they can be sold at a good price!"
Brother Zhao heard the noise in the house and came over to help!
Yi Niang moved out more than a hundred duck eggs during the day. Ducks don't lay many eggs in winter, so she went to the entire Fengshan market to buy so many eggs. Several of them were broken into pieces on the road, which made Yi Niang almost squat down and shed tears.
"Brother, go and pull out all the firewood ashes from the stove, and bring the old ones over too!"
The stove in the farmhouse must be cleaned regularly, and the bottom of the pot must be scraped regularly. Otherwise, the soot will adhere to the bottom of the pot and the stove, and the stove will burn smaller and smaller, and the rice will not be cooked easily! In the north, there are still people whose job is to clean stoves and kangs for others, and they can also make money. .
Zhaodi knew how to make something delicious just by looking at the duck eggs here, and he couldn't help secretly swallowing another mouthful of saliva. It’s really boring to follow my third brother. I eat different delicious food in different ways every day, it’s delicious and fresh!
There is not much ashes in the stove, so Yi Niang will regularly clean out the firewood ashes and collect them in baskets. There are several baskets of firewood ashes piled up at home.
Firewood ash was used as fertilizer for crops in ancient times and is one of the most basic farmyard manures. The other is the excrement of humans and animals. .
If you take it to the market and sell it, you can exchange it for money.
Liang Chuan poured the firewood ash on the ground, dug out a crater shape in the middle, and put the ingredients he bought at the market into it. He added some lime, salt, star anise, fennel, ginger, and some white alkali. It's not an expensive ingredient, and there are many people selling it in the market.
Add a little more water and start stirring like cement. The firewood ash will become sticky when it touches the water. Then put the duck eggs in the middle of the firewood ash and roll them out, and a thick hard shell will form on the outside. Following the same pattern, the three of them worked together to wrap all the duck eggs in firewood ash shells.
After finishing the duck egg shell, put the duck eggs one by one into the earthen jar, pour the other firewood ash left on the ground evenly into the jar without leaving any gaps, and finally put a lid on the jar and seal it!
"There are still more than thirty years until the Chinese New Year, which is just in time! If this thing sells well, we will make more in the future!"
The two of them had never seen duck eggs tossed in this way, and they were curious about what the duck eggs would look like in a month.
Preserved eggs?
The next day, Liang Chuan asked Yi Niang to carry the charcoal to the city to sell it at the lower pavilion. She just needed to run back and forth a few more times to be faster.
Yi Niang knows Shopkeeper Ye. Although she usually stays close to home, Yi Niang is thoughtful and steady in her work. She usually doesn't have any problems explaining the key points of her work.
Besides, if you need to buy some vegetables or other food when you come back, Yi Niang can arrange it herself. He and his brother Zhao were preparing to set up a bamboo shed for burning charcoal at home. The Chinese New Year was about to come, and the spring rains began to fall at the end of the year. If he didn't prepare charcoal, he would be hungry if he couldn't pay the charcoal by then. Belly.
Liang Chuan gave Yi Niang a piece of bamboo with the words "50 pounds of charcoal to be paid on the first day of the new year" engraved on it. He told her to ask the shopkeeper or the person in charge to write the name or draw a sign on it when handing over the charcoal. Confirm receipt of the charcoal to avoid disputes in the future.
At first, Yi Niang felt that there was no need to go to such trouble. Liang Chuan explained that people's hearts are unpredictable and having a certificate will save them trouble in the future. Shopkeeper Ye is a good person, but the other guys may not be so good. After figuring this out, Yi Niang can only Went happily. It is said that carrying fifty kilograms of firewood feels tiring, but this kilogram of charcoal can be exchanged for a lot of money, so it will be very energetic to carry it!
After Yi Niang left, Liang Chuan said: "Okay, now we should start working. Brother Zhao, you can go to the rice fields and carry some straw left by others. If there is really no more, just bring back some reeds from the stream." , the quantity needs to be large, and we need to lay a thick pile on the roof.”
"Heibi, let's go and get to work!"
After Zhaodi also left, Liang Chuan pulled out the two bamboos he had cut down from the mountain yesterday. The roots of bamboo are very strong, so they are most suitable for making pillars and beams. The shed should be more than three meters tall, which is slightly lower than the house you live in. One side of the shed should be against the eaves, so it cannot be higher than the eaves, otherwise water will accumulate when it rains. It will not accumulate on the roof and can flow down the slope. Dig two mortises and tenons on each of the thinner ends of the pole, leaving hemp rope to tie in place.
Liang Chuan dug two holes 50 to 60 centimeters deep on the ground. After putting two three-meter thick bamboo poles in, they served as pillars. He buried the originally dug soil back and tamped the soil so that the two bamboo poles would not fall apart. It won't be strong.
After a while, Brother Zhao came back with a large bundle of straw. Not many people use straw this season, but in the beginning of spring, the unused straw will be burned by farmers and turned into ash to fertilize the fields.
Liang Chuan asked his brother to straighten the straw, bundle it together in small handfuls, and then tie it into one piece. The thickness does not need to be too thick, but it is very dense. After a few more layers are laid, the waterproof effect can be achieved. .
There was no ladder at home, so Liang Chuan used it as a human ladder. His younger brother Zhao stepped on Liang Chuan's shoulders and supported the wall with both hands. The wall was made of earth, and two openings were made in the wall, and bamboo poles were placed horizontally to support the load-bearing frame.
The two bamboo poles were originally about ten meters long, and the remaining part of Liangchuan was split into two. Because this straw shed needs to bear the weight of the thatch, there is no need to use the entire length of the pole. If it is broken in half, it can bear the weight of the thatch. The weight is reduced, and the bamboo can be saved. Liang Chuan picked two thicker ones for his brother, one end was inserted into the hole just dug in the wall, and the other end was connected to the tenon hole of the pillar.
Four sections of thicker bamboo poles are tied into a rectangular frame, leaving a head on the two shorter sides of the bamboo poles. Although there are mortise and tenon connections at the joints, Liang Chuan tied them with hemp rope to prevent them from being not strong enough.
Liang Chuan acted as a human ladder for Zhaodi, carrying him back and forth to fix the frame of the hay shed. After working for a long time, a prototype framework finally appeared! Liang Chuan broke all the remaining bamboos into suitable thicknesses and used them as beams. The small beams were evenly spaced and tied with hemp ropes.
Finally, the originally tied straw pieces are laid out piece by piece, and some key connection points such as the edges are tied and fixed with twisted straw ropes. Such a straw shed is completed in just half a day!
Standing in the thatched shed, looking up, the sunlight cannot penetrate at all, and there is no shelter around it. If the walls were built, it would be fully habitable, but it would be a bit crude. The room for recruiting my younger brother is still in good condition, and I will have to find a way to fix it for him later.
The shed has also been set up. The ground under the shed will be repaired again. The surrounding ground will be shoveled down slightly to create a slight slope to prevent water accumulation. A drainage ditch will be dug to allow the accumulated water to drain outside the house, so that the rainy season will come. How about having a dry place when the time comes.
Next, we have to prepare the charcoal for delivery tomorrow. Zhaodi joked: "Third brother, the shed is now built. You don't have to worry about wind and rain in the future. Then I start playing in the mud?"
"Let's get started. You should be able to do it by now. You can start working!" Brother Zhao said it right. He is going to start playing with mud again. Making mud and burning charcoal every day wastes time and energy. How much water will the mud make on the skin? They are all corroded. Not to mention corrosion, the skin will become chapped after being dried for a long time. Since there are no skin care products at home, the wound will hurt as much as a knife cut!
He didn't mind recruiting a younger brother. He worked hard and took care of all the work single-handedly. The third brother was now quite his boss. The couple treated him like family members, with food and shelter, and new clothes. Like a little beggar, it is also happy to do more work.
Brother Zhao carried a large pile of wood back and forth, and carefully piled the wood up in circles. What shape of wood do you want now, how much wood should be piled, and the best way to stack it. Brother Zhao has some experience, and soon there will be a big pile of wood. It stood like a small tower.
Zhaodi panted and brought back a bucket of water. He started mixing the soil without saying a word. While working, he also complained in a rare way: "Third brother, this charcoal stove needs to be burned every time." It would be too troublesome to re-paste it. It would be great if there was a charcoal kiln like a stove or a fixed charcoal stove!"
That's right! Liang Chuan was awakened by the words from his brother Zhao, who woke him up from his dream. Why was he so stupid? He didn't understand the principle of reuse, so why not just build a stove? "Hey, you can do it, young man. You still have some ideas. Work hard. I won't be able to build a stove in a while. I can only do this the old way. Stop complaining and hurry up."
When Zhaodi heard that his opinion was accepted by Third Brother, he felt happy and said, "Okay, I know, don't scream like a boss."
Liang Chuan asked: "Brother Zhao, you are quite familiar with the Fengshan area, do you know where I can buy bricks?"
"After passing the market and walking south, you will see a brick kiln as you approach the county seat. The bricks there are not cheap."
"Why?"
"This brick must be made with good clay, just like we make this charcoal stove. It is better to dig out the mud and burn it. It will not hurt the farmland. This brick kiln is different. It can make a few more acres of land." The soil has also been hollowed out. The fertile mud in the fields has been dug out to make bricks, and the remaining sandy soil cannot be used to grow food."
"So that's it, then where do the bricks come from for people like us to build a house?"
"Of course I should buy it from this official kiln. This is the only one I can buy from."
"Isn't this an official kiln? How could it be sold to the private sector?"
"The money spent will come naturally."
"Oh... Oh... I understand." Liang Chuan suddenly realized it and slapped his forehead. Fortunately, he was also from a noble family, so this little truth didn't make sense for a moment.
