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

The seeds are packed in small cloth bags and then put into a large cloth bag.

The seeds she knew included grain seeds, peanut seeds, cowpea seeds, pepper, eggplant, cucumber, cabbage, radish seeds, as well as soybean and pea seeds, but these two types of seeds were less common.

At this time of year, most seeds can be planted.

Especially peanuts, one is a staple food and the other can be used to extract oil.

Xia Qingyue already had a plan for spring plowing in her mind. She selected the seeds, took out the bad and shriveled ones, and soaked the good ones in water.

The stewed chicken with mushrooms had a fragrant aroma. Xia Qingyue's stomach was rumbling non-stop. She was so hungry.

The sweet potatoes were steamed and the chicken was stewed for a little longer, for more than an hour. Before serving, Xia Qingyue added an appropriate amount of coarse salt. She tasted it and found that if you ignore the bitter taste, the soup is extremely delicious.

This pheasant weighed about four pounds, and after removing the feathers, it weighed more than three pounds. Together with the mushrooms, it could not be contained in the largest bowl, so some was left in the pot.

The stewed chicken just out of the pot is steaming hot, the broth is shiny and oily, and the mushrooms have absorbed the broth and are juicy.

Xia Qingyue's hands were trembling as she picked up a piece of chicken and put it into her mouth to chew.

His eyes narrowed and he looked comfortable.

Hmm~, the meat is firm, the chicken skin is soft and glutinous, and it is mixed with the delicious flavor of various mushrooms, which can be said to be even more delicious.

Take another bite of the mixed mushrooms, and the soup will immediately splash in your mouth, and the mushroom meat has a rich taste.

Delicious!

Xia Qingyue felt very satisfied. She picked up a piece of meaty chicken and shouted to Heihei who was lying on the side, "Heihei, come over and eat some meat."

When Heihei saw this, he didn't move at all.

"Come on, it smells so good."

Seeing that it still didn't move, Xia Qingyue remembered that her grandmother in her previous life also had a yellow dog named Huang Huang. Like Hei Hei, it was a country dog. Usually, Huang Huang only ate what the owner threw on the ground or poured into its bowl. It never snatched food from the owner's hand, and would never eat at the table.

She threw the chicken in her chopsticks away, "Heihei, eat it!"

This time, Heihei took action. He walked over and ate the piece of chicken in one bite.

"Eat more. You've worked hard to catch the pheasants." Xia Qingyue picked up some chicken and poured the broth together, then poured the mixture into Heihei's specially-chosen bowl with a notch.

One person and one dog started eating at the same time.

Xia Qingyue enjoyed the meal with the soft, sweet sweet potatoes.

When she was 80% full, she resisted the urge to eat any more, as it is not good to eat too much at once.

There was still some food left in the large bowl. She scooped up what was left in the iron pot and put it into the bowl, then boiled hot water to wash the bowl.

If you don’t have detergent, you can use warm water and some wood ash to clean it.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Xia Qingyue took out the soaked bamboo shoots and placed them on a large round winnowing basket, which she placed under the sinkhole to bask in the sun.

It was time to change the medicine she had applied yesterday. She removed the cloth wrapped around her head, cleaned the area around the wound with warm water, mashed the willow buds she had picked today, applied them to the wound, and bandaged it with a new piece of cloth.

After a busy morning, she felt a little tired and wanted to take a nap, even though the sun was shining brightly.

She fell asleep as soon as she touched the bed.

When she woke up, she felt a little dazed and dizzy. Xia Qingyue washed her face with cold water. She looked at the sky and estimated that she might have slept for an hour. It should be around two o'clock in the afternoon.

Picking up a hoe, she went to the vegetable garden to turn the soil, removed the weeds by the roots and threw them aside, leaving them to wilt in the sun for a day.

If you don't remove the roots, they will grow again in the spring breeze.

The soil in the vegetable garden is black, soft and quite fertile, because the original owner's father used dried poultry manure and straw ash to make it last year.

Last year, when the original owner's father was around, he built a bamboo pen and raised eighteen pheasants and thirteen wild ducks, which laid eggs every day. He also raised twenty wild rabbits, and the feces of these poultry were collected.

Later, as the original owner's parents passed away one after another, the pheasants, ducks and rabbits were eaten. Xia Qingyue still wanted to raise some of these small and safe poultry, one for her own consumption and the other to collect their feces to fertilize the land.

She would like to raise large animals like wild boars, but with her small body, how could she handle it alone? She might even be killed by the wild boars.

Xia Qingyue worked so hard that she was sweating and breathing heavily. She stopped and looked around. She realized that she had probably been digging for more than two hours and had turned over two-thirds of the land. Tomorrow she would grow rice seedlings here in a dry land and plant cucumbers, cowpeas and peanuts.

The remaining one third will be dug out tomorrow. She is injured, so she needs to combine work and rest.

It gets dark early at night, so she has to finish her meal and wash up before dark, otherwise she will have to grope in the dark.

Dinner was two steamed sweet potatoes, leftovers, simple to prepare and quick to eat.

She ate half of the chicken stewed with mushrooms and put two steamed sweet potatoes into the black bowl.

The man and the dog finished their dinner like this.

After washing the dishes, Xia Qingyue boiled a large pot of hot water and prepared to take a good bath. She wanted to wash her hair but had an injury on her forehead.

The original owner's family was relatively clean, and they kept themselves and the rooms in the cave tidy, so Xia Qingyue didn't have to clean.

The bath water was collected in the largest wooden bucket and brought to an open space near the kitchen for washing. After taking a warm bath, she felt that all the pores in her body were opened, and she felt very comfortable, and a lot of fatigue was eliminated.

She changed into a sky blue patched outfit, the sleeves and trouser legs were not up to par and were a little small.

As night fell, darkness enveloped the interior of the tiankeng. At a glance, the small trees and weeds on the stone walls were dim. Xia Qingyue was a little frightened, so she called Heihei and groped her way into the room.

She felt insecure without Heihei in her room.

Lying on the bed, she opened her eyes and looked up at the darkness above, thinking about what she had done today. Although they were all small things, she felt that she had gained a lot and lived a fulfilling and happy life.

When she was working in her previous life, she felt that every day was a year long and time passed so slowly. Every time she thought that several hours had passed and it was almost time to get off work, she would look at the time and her eyes would go dark. Wow, only twenty minutes had passed.

The life she lives now is what she has always dreamed of and truly wanted.

Xia Qingyue turned over and cried silently, "Grandma, I am very happy now, please don't worry about me..."

I don't know when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, Xia Qingyue felt full of energy. The only problem was that the bed was too soft.

The beds here were built by the original owner's father himself after logging. There are two of them. The beds are covered with dry straw, a thin mattress and a sheet on top.

Looking out the window, it was still dark. I couldn't do anything until dawn, so I just stayed in bed.

After lying down for a while, it was getting light outside. Heihei ran over and rubbed the back of her hand, meaning he wanted to go out.

Xia Qingyue got up quickly.

The man and the dog first solved their respective physiological problems.

It was still early, so she boiled half a pot of water, drank the warm water on an empty stomach, and carried a hoe to plow the soil.

The vegetable field is not far below the sinkhole, where the light is better and one can see things clearly.

They dug with great effort, digging up the land that was not finished yesterday. They left a piece of land empty for growing rice seedlings and made holes for sowing in the rest of the land.

Twenty nests of each of cucumber, cowpea and pepper were planted.

The remaining land was planted with peanuts.

She took a wooden bucket to fetch water and watered the newly planted seeds, thinking that it would be great to have rapeseed seeds, as rapeseed oil is also very fragrant.

After finishing the work, the sky was bright and the birds were singing.

Xia Qingyue was so hungry that she quickly steamed four sweet potatoes, refined some oil with the chicken fat she had saved yesterday, beat three eggs, mixed and stir-fried them, set them aside, and fried some mushrooms in the base oil, then poured in the fried eggs before removing the pan from the heat.

Breakfast is ready, just one dish, eaten with sweet potatoes.

After eating, she packed her backpack, vegetable basket and other belongings and left the tiankeng.