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

She found a total of five menstrual belts, which were sewn by Zhu Er Niang herself when she was alive.

The sanitary belt is long and made of brown soft cloth, with two long ropes at each end, which are used to tie around the waist for fixing. There are cloth belts sewn horizontally on the front and back of the belt, like the belt on pants.

Wrap the wood ash with a clean cloth, place it vertically on the sanitary belt, and pass it through the front and back cloth straps so that it can be firmly placed and will not shift.

Wood ash has the function of absorbing water and killing bacteria. It is purely natural and does not cost money to buy.

After using the menstrual belt, replace it in time, pour out the wood ash, wash and dry the cloth bag so you can reuse it next time.

Four of the five sanitary belts were wrapped in wood ash cloth and felt bulging.

Xia Qingyue took a look and frowned deeply. It was not because she was disgusted, but because she was used to using convenient and easy-to-use sanitary napkins. She would definitely not be able to adapt to using this suddenly in the short term. There was nothing she could do but force herself to get used to it.

Fortunately, her period only lasts for a few days. If it lasted longer, she would definitely go crazy.

She felt that the menstrual belts in front of her were too short and would definitely leak if used at night because the cloth bag containing wood ash was about 240mm long.

After thinking about it, she decided to make some more of these cloth bags by hand, some that were longer and had fan-shaped ends for night use so that they would feel safer when worn.

There is a ready-made menstrual belt, so there is no need to worry about being caught off guard by a sudden period. Just wait for her to come back in the evening to make the cloth bag.

The sun was nice today, so she hung the menstrual belt on a bamboo pole to dry and ventilate it.

She boiled half a pot of hot water in the cauldron and took some angelica, astragalus, and ophiopogon to make a drink, adding the ophiopogon because she was afraid of getting a sore throat.

After feeding the chickens, ducks and rabbits and having a quick breakfast, Xia Qingyue put on the backpack and picked up the hoe to go look for prickly ash.

When I arrived at the place where I had picked fruits before and where there were many thorns, I saw nothing but grass and no trace of red.

The prickly ash had all been picked by others, after all, it was a rare and delicious wild fruit.

There is no choice but to go back and dig camellia flowers.

I dug for a whole morning and got more than ten plants. I returned home around noon and planted them one by one.

The pond is about ten meters in diameter, and less than one-third of it has been dug. It looks ugly with all the potholes.

Forty camellia plants were planted at intervals, forming barely two circles. Although they looked a little sparse, they added a lot of color to the monotonous and barren pond. It would be better if a few more circles were planted.

In the afternoon, she wanted to go to the reed marsh to catch chickens and ducks. She would catch more in the next two days and kill them when she wanted to eat them later.

After a few days, there probably won't be any chickens or ducks left there.

Firstly, there are more people on the mountain, and the news that there are pheasants and wild ducks in the reed marsh will spread sooner or later, and it will inevitably become a popular and sought-after place.

Secondly, the risk factor of the living environment of chickens and ducks has greatly increased, and they will migrate to other places.

“I hope we can catch a few more today.”

I fried two quick dishes for lunch, cooked dinner, and ate them quickly.

The pickled fish were ready a few days ago. Straw ropes were passed through the mouths of the big fish and the fish as long as chopsticks. Their abdomens were opened and a few bamboo strips were stuffed in. They were stretched as straight as possible to let the sunlight shine into every corner, and then hung on bamboo poles to dry.

After hanging three rows of bamboo poles, she took the fish cages and baskets and went out. She first found a few hidden places in the stream to put the fish cages, and then went to the reed marsh.

When she arrived at the place, she saw that there were obviously a lot of messy footprints on the ground. Her heart skipped a beat and she worried whether she could catch chickens and ducks that day.

She went to the place where she had discovered that chickens and ducks were likely to roam, set up traps, and waited in the dark.

In more than three hours, she caught five pheasants and four wild ducks, which she managed to catch by frequently changing locations.

As more and more people set foot here, the pheasants and ducks became more alert, and most of them ran to secluded places to hide.

When she once again moved her things and set a trap to hide in the dark, Heihei, who was following her, suddenly bared his teeth in a certain direction through the thick reeds, and she could vaguely hear the sound of conversation coming from there.

Xia Qingyue raised her index finger to her mouth, signaling Heihei to keep quiet.

There were reeds blocking the way, so as long as they didn't make any noise, the people behind the reeds wouldn't notice them, and they would have to take a long detour to get over there.

The people over there walked away while complaining about how difficult it was to catch chickens and ducks.

After a while, a pheasant came out with six chicks, about two months old, to look for food, being very cautious throughout the process.

Xia Qingyue waited patiently for half an hour and got them all in one go.

It was past four o'clock, and she didn't want to meet those people, so she decided to collect the fish cage and go back early.

Fortunately, the return journey was smooth and I didn't meet anyone.

At night, after dinner, Xia Qingyue was making cloth bags in her room by candlelight. She first used charcoal to mark the desired shape and size on the cloth, and then cut it with scissors and sewed it.

A few days ago, she did the same thing and made a few pairs of cotton underwear.

It’s still better to wear underwear.

Her needlework is average; it’s not very fine, but not ugly either.

Leave a hole in the sewn cloth bag, sew an extra stitch around the hole, and pass a rope through it to make it easier to open and close later.

This is how you make one.

She made three cloth bags about 280mm in length and two 420mm bags with fan-shaped tails for night use.

The light of the candle was limited. She looked into the light for so long that her eyes and neck became sore.

It is late at night and everything is quiet.

Heihei lay on the edge of the bed and fell into a snoring sleep.

She was also very sleepy, so she put away her things and decided to continue tomorrow night.

Dawn.

Just after 7 o'clock in the morning, Xia Qingyue went out to dig camellia flowers. The ones planted two days ago seemed to be alive, with no signs of yellowing leaves or wilting flowers.

After camellias were planted in the tiankeng, the fragrance lingered, especially at night and in the morning, making people feel energetic. What's more, it added a beautiful landscape to the tiankeng.

As usual, I dug some camellia flowers in the morning and took them home to plant, had lunch, and went to the reed marsh to catch chickens and ducks in the afternoon.

It is getting harder and harder to catch chickens and ducks. This afternoon, she managed to catch two chickens and a duck.

Like eggs, she still found three by relying on Heihei.

“It’s getting harder and harder!”

She went to the stream to collect the cages. Fortunately, the amount of fish and shrimp caught every day was still good, although it was one-third less than before.

Now four fish cages are put out every day, and she has to make two trips by herself to get them back.

Bring everything back and pour it into wooden basins and barrels. Put the small fish and shrimps aside, and pickle the big fish together with the ones collected yesterday. Generally, the big fish weigh more than 40 kilograms after two days of pickling. After three days of pickling, they are taken out to dry.

The big river shrimps are also gathered together for two days and then air-dried.

Up to now, there are almost 50 kilograms of dried river shrimps and more than 70 to 80 kilograms of dried fish.

Enough for her to eat until the end of the year.

At night, after making a few cloth bags and lying on the bed, she touched her uncomfortable abdomen, squinted her eyes, and said in a light voice, "Tomorrow is the last day I will go out, and I will lie down at home for a while!"