An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

And it might rain again in the near future, so she decided to dig a few more diversion channels from the end of the canal and increase the number of drainage outlets.

The excavated soil was poured aside, planning to use it to fill the pond when there is free time later.

After working for more than ten minutes, her whole body was hot, so she took off her long sleeves.

When it was almost noon when they were digging, it started to drizzle. She ran back to find her straw raincoat and hat, put them on, and continued digging for a while.

After working hard for a whole morning, she felt a little tired, but couldn't resist the hunger, so she kneaded the dough and rolled out the skin to make dumplings.

Cut the cured pork belly cooked yesterday into small cubes, wrap the cured pork with diced bamboo shoots and a little chopped green onion to enhance the flavor.

Some shepherd's purse grew in the field of the tiankeng. I picked several handfuls, blanched them in water, rinsed them with cold water, squeezed out the moisture, and cut them into pieces. I poured egg liquid into a hot oil pan, stir-fried and mashed them, and then made a dish with shepherd's purse and egg filling.

She sat at the dining table and wrapped them slowly. She filled two baskets, weighing more than three pounds. Most of the filling was shepherd's purse. Half of them had no seasoning and were still black and edible.

Heihei's food was cooked in a clay pot, while hers was cooked in an iron pot. When it was almost cooked, they added a handful of Chinese cabbage.

The dumplings are fragrant, the bacon filling is salty and fragrant with a slightly stronger taste, while the shepherd's purse and egg filling is fragrant and delicious. The two complement each other when eaten together.

After finishing her meal and cleaning up, it was drizzling. The diversion channel was not dug well, so she couldn't take a nap or do other things in peace. She put on her hat and raincoat and continued digging.

Heihei originally wanted to go with her, so she took out its wooden bowl and asked it to play with it, as it would catch a cold if it wasn't careful in this kind of weather.

The length and width of the several diversion channels are standard. As for the depth, if it is too shallow, water will easily overflow. The good thing is that if the drain outlet is not blocked, the water can flow out quickly.

But it was too deep. The drainage outlet was located in the middle and lower part of the mountain and connected to the land outside. It was feared that water would not be able to flow out easily, resulting in backflow.

Xia Dasong had also considered this at the beginning. He came up with a compromise and dug two lines each, deep and shallow, to neutralize the problem.

In a few hours in the morning and afternoon, she dug three and a half diversion channels.

For dinner, we cooked and ate the dumplings left over from lunch.

Have a rest overnight.

When I woke up the next day, it was foggy and rainy.

In the morning, she dug the remaining one and a half diversion channels, making a total of five, three shallow and two deep.

After digging, we have to break through the mountain and make a drainage outlet.

I quickly made noodles and had lunch. At noon, the rain got a little heavier and the wind and rain were strong.

Even though the weather turned bad, it couldn't stop Xia Qingyue's determination to fix the drain in one go.

She bought several iron products a few days ago. She was not worried about the tools, but she was worried that the banging noise might attract outside attention.

After some thought, she went back and prepared rain protection measures for Heihei, and asked it to stay nearby so that it could give an early warning if any foreign objects approached.

Xia Dasong spent a lot of effort in digging the drainage outlet. Without X-ray vision, he couldn't see where the mountain was thick and thin, so he could only take his chances.

The tools used were pickaxe, iron rod and hammer.

The deep diversion channel has three drainage outlets on the mountain, two in the ground and one flush with the ground.

When she was knocking and hammering, she was nervous at first, afraid that it would attract people or ferocious beasts. But after knocking for more than an hour, Heihei didn't feel anything unusual.

She murmured doubtfully, "Didn't they go out because of the weather?"

With Heihei watching over her, she wasn't so worried and focused on hammering.

I worked hard for several hours in the afternoon and only went to the toilet once, knocking through one drainage outlet each for the deep and shallow diversion channels.

It is inevitable to touch your hands during the hammering process. Your dusty and dirty hands feel sore and a little hot and painful.

In the evening, she simply cooked a bowl of dumpling soup and ate it. After washing up, she applied anti-swelling and analgesic ointment on her slightly swollen hands. It felt cool and made her feel much more comfortable. Finally, she wrapped them with a cloth strip and tied them up.

A thin layer of honey and lard ointment is applied on the fingertips and the edges of the fingers. If it weren't for this care day and night, one would not know how rough the hands would become.

After finishing all this, she fell asleep exhausted. In a trance, she whispered, "I must fix the drain tomorrow."

He turned over and fell into a deep sleep hugging a thin reed quilt.

After a good night's sleep, Xia Qingyue felt fully recovered. However, she felt a dull pain in her stomach, perhaps because her period was coming. For breakfast, she cooked a bowl of boiled eggs with astragalus and red dates.

I bought some red dates when I went to the pharmacy last time. They are good for women's health.

Today she continued to work on the unfinished work. She hammered on the mountain with great grunts. It was drizzling in the morning, and she completed one deep and one shallow.

In the afternoon, when I was tapping the shallow one, the sky was getting darker and darker, and the wind was howling.

Almost as soon as the bell rang, the rain suddenly increased in intensity and turned into a heavy downpour.

There is still one deep channel drain left to be knocked.

"It's raining so hard, don't worry, saving your life is the most important thing!"

Xia Qingyue asked Heihei to go back first. She checked several drain outlets before running back in a panic, with most of her body wet.

Fortunately, the residual heat from the stove warmed a pot of water, which I used to take a quick bath and change my clothes.

The heavy rain subsided a little by the next morning. Thanks to the addition of several diversion channels and drainage outlets, the water in the canal was discharged in time and did not overflow.

At this moment, she was very glad that she didn't slack off these days, otherwise it would be terrible.

In the afternoon, it rained heavily, heavier than yesterday. It fell lightly, and the sky and the earth were shrouded in darkness. Everything was blurred and unclear. It was damp and cold, and it made people feel uneasy. They didn't know when the rain would stop.

It rained heavily for two days and two nights, and was still continuing. Except for sleeping at night, Xia Qingyue had to check the condition of the canal every once in a while during the day to see if the rain was changing.

She looked worriedly at the sky where dark clouds were rolling and rain was falling. "Don't make it rain so hard anymore. If you are going to rain, please make it rain less."

Since the beginning of this spring, she has been busy and has not yet gone out to collect mountain products, such as wild vegetables, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and bamboo fungus. Most of the vegetables she eats now are from the vegetable fields.

If the rain continues like this, the crops in the fields will inevitably be affected.

She wasn't the only one who was worried.

valley.

Han Zhibai stood under the eaves outside the main hall, his eyes piercing through the heavy rain curtains, looking up at the mountains and forests in the distance surrounded by clouds and mist, his eyes full of worry, "It's raining so hard, I wonder how she is doing, is she okay?"

After a few days of recuperation, the wound on his waist was much better, but he still had some difficulty in moving. He slowly squatted down and raised his hand to touch Xiaobai's head. "Xiaobai, we have to be more careful recently. Once we hear the whistle, we must go out. Got it?"

"No no no!"

Xiushui Village, Li family.

Chen Yuzhen stood under the eaves of her house, frowning, "Oh my God, it's raining this hard. I've only seen it raining this hard many years ago. Fortunately, it didn't rain for long, otherwise the whole village would have been flooded."

She turned around, patted her chest, and said anxiously: "My heart is pounding so fast here, I always feel a little uneasy."

"Me too." Li Benfu, who was sitting on a bench, stood up, looked at his family and said, "When the rain stops, I will go back to the mountain to dig a few more water outlets."