On May 1st, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the crops are growing faster and faster.
The Teng tribe has cultivated 30 acres of cultivated land. With extremely primitive tools, it is already very difficult for a dozen people to take care of 30 acres of cultivated land.
Therefore, Jiang Xuan no longer allows tourists to continue to cultivate wasteland, but only needs to plant the thirty acres of land.
"These grasses, plus plant ash, dung, broken bones, and pond mud, are all piled together, compacted and retted for half a month, until they are completely cooked and used as fertilizer."
"Whenever you find earthworms in the fertilizer pile, the fertilizer can be used."
In the field, Jiang Xuan personally taught the tourists how to compost. Even when faced with the smelly manure, he did not change his expression.
Compost is a magic weapon for farming.
In addition to lack of management, the low yields of slash-and-burn farming are also important reasons for not having enough fertilizer.
Plant ash is good, but relying solely on plant ash to grow crops is definitely not enough.
Compost is to mix various materials together and turn them into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer after maturity, which is very beneficial to the growth of crops.
Compost materials are widely available and easily available, such as grass, plant ash, manure, food scraps, animal bones, etc.
Gan Song kept everything Jiang Xuan said in mind.
Since losing an arm, hunting has become very difficult for him. Even a simple rope trap is very difficult to set because he only has one hand.
But now, he has found something he can do and do well, and that is farming.
Although he only has one hand, through his own efforts, he can also master the skills of farming and does no less work than others.
Gradually, he fell in love with farming.
This feeling of opening up wasteland, planting crops, and then watching the crops grow, mature, and be harvested little by little fascinates Gan Song.
Gan Song said confidently: "Don't worry, leader, we will definitely pile up the best fertilizer!"
"Well, work hard. There will be a lot of food harvested in the autumn, and everyone will have enough to eat in the winter without going hungry."
Jiang Xuan gave a few more instructions, then turned and left.
"Work, work!"
Gan Song shouted, and then began to look for various materials for composting according to the method Jiang Xuan said.
There was a busy scene in the fields.
Jiang Xuan walked to the creek and found a large piece of tall reed. He looked for intact reeds and cut them with a stone knife.
In fact, it is best to harvest reeds in the autumn, after the new reeds bloom and are most resilient.
But Jiang Xuan couldn't wait any longer. He could only cut some reeds from last year and planned to weave a few mats.
As the weather gets hotter, mattresses on bamboo beds are no longer suitable.
But sleeping directly on a bamboo bed is not a comfortable thing, because those bamboos are not flat and can be uncomfortable to sleep on.
Jiang Xuan thought about it and decided to weave a few mats.
Bamboo can also be used to weave mats, and the effect is very good, but it requires breaking the bamboo into very thin bamboo strips, which is not an easy task without the right tools.
Reed is different.
It is softer and tougher, making it much easier to chop down or weave than bamboo.
After Jiang Xuan chopped for a while, Chi Shao came over to help.
She would always be by Jiang Xuan's side, silently guarding him and guarding against possible dangers.
"Chi chi chi..."
The weather was very hot, and there were many unknown little bugs in the grass beside the stream, screaming constantly.
"Sister, that's enough, no more cutting."
Jiang Xuan chopped a large bundle of reeds, and Chi Shao also chopped a large bundle. The two simply twisted the reed leaves together to make a simple straw rope, tied the reeds, and then carried them back to the bamboo house.
"Snapped!"
A large bundle of reeds was thrown on the ground, and Chi Shao wiped the sweat from her cheeks. Only then did she ask curiously: "Xuan, why are you cutting so much grass?"
"Knitted mat."
"Lang mat?"
"It's just a mat for sleeping on the bed. The animal skin is too hot to sleep on, so I want to make some cool mats to put on it."
"So that's it." Chi Shao nodded. The current weather is indeed not suitable for sleeping on animal skins.
"Sister, let's throw these reeds into the pond and take a dip."
"good!"
The two men carried the reeds to the pond, and then threw the whole bundle into the pond for soaking.
This is because the reeds collected by Jiang Xuan and others are all old reeds from last year. They have dried out and are very brittle and will break when broken.
Soaking it in water allows the dry reeds to absorb water and become pliable again, making them more suitable for weaving.
After throwing the reed down, the two went to do other things.
More than two hours later, Jiang Xuan returned to the pond. He took out a piece of reed and tried to fold it. He found that the reed had softened. Then he picked up two bundles of reeds and brought them back to the open space in front of the bamboo house.
He untied the straw rope that tied the reeds, then found a flat stone and a piece of wood, put the reeds on it, and flattened the round reed pole bit by bit.
"Dong dong dong..."
As Jiang Xuan continued to pound, the reed rods were flattened and turned into flat sheets.
After Chi Shao finished her own business, she came over to help.
Uncaria, Stone Loach, and Nan Xing also came over to help.
After all the reed poles were smashed flat, Jiang Xuan began to weave them.
If you want to weave a beautiful, fine, patterned reed mat, it is very tedious and time-consuming.
But it is much easier to flatten the whole reed and weave it directly into a mat. It doesn’t take long to weave a mat, but it just looks rough.
Tribal people have been doing weaving since they were young, and everyone is very skilled at it.
Jiang Xuan first used a flattened reed as a weft thread, and then tied the reeds vertically and evenly to the weft thread as a warp thread.
Then, you only need to continuously intersperse the reeds on these warp lines and press them tightly, and then you can weave the reeds into a complete mat.
With the efforts of five people, in just one afternoon, they weaved the reeds they brought back into five single-person mats.
The next day, these mats were left in the sun for a long time and dried again.
Later, Jiang Xuan and others replaced all the animal skin mattresses on the bamboo bed.
At night, Jiang Xuan lay on his bamboo bed. The thick mat under him was very breathable. When he lay on it, he would not feel cold or stuffy. It was very comfortable.
"feel good."
A cheerful smile appeared on Jiang Xuan's face. As long as he was willing to take action and not be lazy, he could improve his life bit by bit with his own hands.
The three teenagers are also very satisfied with the new mat. It is very comfortable to sleep on.
Chi Shao was lying in her small room, stroking the mat under her body, and said in an inaudible voice: "Xuan has grown up and is more capable than me."
With a relieved smile, Chi Shao quickly fell asleep, and the whole night was a pleasant dream.
