A Rural Life in the 70's

Chapter 90

In May, the chicks and gooses were a lot older, almost as big as adults' fists. They couldn't let go of the baskets, and finally abandoned their cradles and moved to the renovated chicken coop. 

    After dinner, Xiaoqiu and Xiaoxia went to the henhouse to take a look. Xiaoxia still sighed: "You don’t need to catch chickens in the basket, it’s so easy!" 

    As a result, there was a burst of chicks in the henhouse in the middle of the night. Exclamation. 

    Xiao Qiu woke up from sleep, opened his eyes, pulled his shoes and walked out. The head of Wang Limin's family reacted more quickly. He opened the door with a bang and ran towards the chicken coop, with a flashlight in his hand. 

    When they arrived at the henhouse, the chickens and geese were in a mess in the nest, screaming again and again. 

    Wang Limin flashed his torch and looked into the chicken coop, and saw vaguely a gray shadow escaping from the gap in the corner of the chicken coop... 

    Xiao Qiu ran over and asked, "Father, what's the matter?" 

    Wang Limin clenched his fist and hated it. He said: "The mouse is recruited..." When he 

    took the basket, he grabbed the frightened chickens and geese into the basket. Xiao Qiu's heart sank: "Five geese, 31 chickens,... Two are missing!" 

    Adult roosters are also very fierce, but after all, they are only chicks at the full moon. No matter how powerful they are, they are weak in their childhood. Two fluffy chicks were lying in the henhouse. The wounds on their necks were bloody and bleeding. Xiao Qiu picked them up... The tentacles were still soft and warm... 

    That night, the chicks and goose had to Another night in the basket. 

    Early the next morning, Xiao Qiu got up early and went out to dig vegetables, because Xiao Xia night did not sleep well, so she did not wake her up. When she came back from digging a basket of vegetables, she saw sister-in-law Wang Aiqiao standing under a willow tree with a crooked neck, peeking toward her home. 

    The chick was bitten, and Xiao Qiu was upset, and he didn't bother to care about irrelevant people. He turned his head and pretended not to see him, so he wanted to go home directly.

    But she didn't want to, she didn't want to make trouble, but Wang Aiqiao didn't want to let her go, and said in a weird voice: "Oh, isn't it very exciting to see the world? Is this like an eggplant that Shuang hit?... Tsk, I don't know. Filial piety to the elders and elders, this will not be retribution...Let me say it, it deserves it!" 

    The chick she raised every day was bitten to death, and Xiao Qiu felt uncomfortable. When Wang Aiqiao said this, her heart suddenly rose. There was a fire. She held her hand on the handle of the sickle, and under the impulse, she almost grabbed the sickle to attack people... But, at a critical juncture, she still pressed her anger down. 

    She lowered her head and silently moved Wang Aiqiao to walk past, and walked into her door all the time. Then she suddenly turned her head and smiled at Wang Aiqiao: "I just lost two chickens, and I'm still older. , It’s better than some people who don’t have one!... Hey, sister, you won’t be bitten by a goose and throw mice into my chicken coop, right?" 

    "You... bullshit, I don't..." Wang Ai Qiao was anxiously defending with a pale face, but He Xiaoqiu didn't want to pay attention to her at all. He closed the fence door with a bang, turned to the backyard, and fed the chickens and geese. After she feeds the poultry, she has to wash her face and eat quickly to go to school, where is there so much idle time to take care of idlers! 

    Wang Limin went to the brigade headquarters and bought some old bricks from the house. I pushed the worn out adobe thatched chicken coop, and rebuilt the new chicken coop with bricks. Even the floor inside the chicken coop was built with bricks. Without the cement and lime, Xiao Qiu remembered the method of filling the walls with glutinous rice juice in ancient buildings. He boiled a large pot of glutinous rice juice, mixed with mud and sand, and filled the ground and walls finely. In this way, let the glutinous rice juice in the cracks of the wall dry for one day, and it will be stronger than cement concrete, and the rats will not be able to get in. 

    As the chicks and gooses grow up, their food intake skyrocketed. In addition to digging wild vegetables and tender grasses in the fields in the morning and evening as feed, Xiaoqiu and Xiaoxia can also go to the fields to catch old worms at the turn of spring and summer. 

    This old worm is a small beetle, similar to a beetle, but much smaller than a beetle. It is the size of a mung bean and has a pure black body. The small beetle is good for feeding chicks. After eating this kind of bug, the chicken grows fast, and it is not easy to get sick.

    In addition, Xiao Qiu persuaded his father to dig a pond in the corner of the backyard, pile up chicken manure and some rotting grass and leaves, and then go to the haystack to dig out the earthworms and put them in the pond. She really wanted to raise breadworms to feed the chickens, but she didn't know if anyone raised the thing or where to find it, so she had to give up. 

    Because Wang Limin's father and daughter are very diligent, Song Xiulian doesn't have much work at home. Song Xiuju occasionally helps to wash clothes, and she has nothing to do during the rest of school time. She also goes out with Xiaoqiu and Xia, but she is not like the children. To catch old worms, but to search for fresh wild vegetables. The spring wild vegetables have just sprouted, and they are the most tender. Just boil them with hot water when you pick them home, add some garlic condiments and mix them, it is extremely tender and delicious. If you can't eat it, you can still feed the chickens, without any mess. 

    Everyday is busy and busy, and the days pass very fast. It seems that in a blink of an eye, the weather is getting hot. Just after the Children’s Day, the country has the busiest and tiring wheat harvest of the year. The elementary school also took two weeks of wheat harvest vacation. 

    As soon as the holiday was off, Song Xiulian sent Song Xiuju home. They are too busy to take care of the two elders at home, and they can't keep the younger sister who is on vacation. 

    The wheat is cooked for a while. When the wheat is ripe, it should be harvested from the field as soon as possible. When the weather is fine, the wheat will be harvested and dried, and then packed in bags and put into the warehouse. This year's white flour will be settled. 

    The season of ripening wheat has entered summer, and the weather is changeable. In case the wheat is ripe and has not been recovered, the wheat will be blown down by a strong wind, and the wheat grains will fall into the ground and cause losses. If it rains, it is even worse. The mature wheat will sprout if it is wetted with rain; if it is rainy, the mature wheat will be rotten and deteriorate... Therefore, the wheat harvest is also called grab harvest. 

    When the wheat is ripe, the rural people, regardless of the old, the weak, women and children, will go to the field to take part in the harvest, except for the untouchable elderly, patients, nursing babies, and children who have left the ground. If you are in good health, use a sickle to cut the wheat, and those who are weaker gather the cut wheat in the back, bundle them, and send them to the side of the road. No matter how old, weak, young, just pick up the missing wheat ears with a basket... It's really the particles returned to the warehouse!

    In this case, Song Xiulian, who does not usually participate in labor, also has to go to the ground, Xiaoqiu and Xiaoxia also go to the ground, and Xiaodong is also taken to the ground. A long oval wicker basket is placed in the shade of the ground, and a small mattress is placed in the basket. , Xiaodong wore clay pants and sat in the basket to play by himself, and fell asleep when he was tired...The children in the countryside are pitiful, and there are many children who grow up on the ground. Xiaodong is just one of them.