Traveling through the mountains and farming

Lin Wan cleaned up the kitchen and walked out of the house. She saw people scraping the white frost off the fruits of the saltwort tree at the door of every house in the secluded cave.

She came over to the two siblings and sat on a small stool.

Pick up the Rhus chinensis fruits in the basket and scrape the white frost on them into a small bowl with a bamboo knife.

Glancing at the siblings' bowls, which were already half full of salt cream, he said, "You two are pretty quick!"

Li Ke stopped scraping the white frost, raised his head and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, we are not lazy."

Li Chongle also echoed: "Yes, we want to get all of this done as soon as possible."

Lin Wan continued to scrape the frost carefully without stopping, "Then let's work harder and try to finish it as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, the two siblings quickened their movements.

Not far away, Old Man Wang was walking over carrying a finished blackboard, followed by a group of curious children.

"Lin Wan, the blackboard you wanted is ready." Old man Wang said as he put down the blackboard and set it up.

When Lin Wan heard the voice, she looked up and saw the blackboard. She said happily, "That's great, Grandpa Wang, thank you for your hard work!"

She quickly got up to check the blackboard, touched it with her hand, and felt that the surface was polished very smoothly. It was obvious that Old Man Wang was very attentive.

"Lin Wan, is this the blackboard you want?" asked Old Man Wang.

"It looks like what I want, Grandpa. Let me try the effect first."

After saying that, Lin Wan hurried out of the cave and took the chalk that was drying outside.

The children gathered around, looking at the blackboard curiously, chattering about what this black board was used for.

"What is this blackboard used for?" asked a child.

Lin Wan had already walked over with a piece of chalk in her hand and replied with a smile, "This is the blackboard used to teach you how to read and write."

Li Chonghao, who was not far away, heard that it was used for reading and learning to read, so he quickly walked over.

This also attracted the attention of the adults in the cave, and they all gathered around to watch.

Lin Wan has picked up the chalk and is writing on the blackboard. It feels a bit slippery and the words are not easy to retain.

She turned around and quickly went into the house to get a piece of coarse cloth, wrapped some rice husk crumbs in it, and rubbed a corner of the blackboard for a while.

Then she wrote a few more words with chalk, and she felt that the effect was better than before.

Old Man Wang immediately understood that he had made the blackboard too smooth and it needed to be rougher to write on it.

"I understand. Lin Wan, don't polish it anymore. I'm good at this. I'll make the surface of the blackboard a little rougher later."

When he saw Lin Wan started to rub another place, he spoke.

At this time, everyone also understood that the small white stick-like thing in Lin Wan's hand could write on this object called a blackboard.

Li Chonghao understood the meaning best. With this blackboard and the small white stick in Lin Wan's hand, his teaching would be much more convenient.

He immediately walked forward and asked Lin Wan for the chalk in her hand, wanting to try the effect himself.

After he finished writing a few words, he felt very satisfied.

I quickly asked Old Man Wang to help polish and repair it, and then moved it to the teaching area after it was finished. He wanted to write the few words he taught this morning on it so that the children could see it at any time.

Before leaving, Li Chonghao did not forget to ask Lin Wan for a few more pieces of chalk and asked to come over later to learn how to make them.

In less than half an hour, Old Man Wang came over again and gave Lin Wan the three small blackboards she wanted.

When other parents saw the two siblings holding a small blackboard and writing with chalk, they all thought it was a good idea as it would allow the children to practice writing at any time.

They immediately followed Old Man Wang and asked him to help make a small blackboard for their children.

"Sister-in-law, how do you erase this word?" Li Ke asked, holding the blackboard full of words.

Lin Wan had thought about making a blackboard brush before, but it seemed that in ancient times only horse hair could be used to make it, so she gave up.

Finally she thought of a very simple solution.

"Cut a piece of old linen later and see how it turns out."

After hearing this, Li Ke immediately ran into the house to cut the linen.

A moment later, she came out with three pieces of cut old linen.

He handed one to Li Chongle and used another to erase the words she had just written. He felt the effect was acceptable.

After writing a word, Li Chongle put down the blackboard and chalk and started scraping the frost seriously.

Lin Wan looked at his sensible and focused appearance and felt that this kid would definitely achieve great things in the future.

It is difficult for many adults to do one thing well without being distracted by the outside world.

In fact, Li Chongle had a simple idea. He wanted to finish processing the Rhus chinensis fruits as soon as possible so that he could practice writing on the new blackboard with peace of mind.

Li Ke next to him was still immersed in the novelty of the blackboard.

She held the remaining blackboard and linen cloth and said with a smile:

"Sister-in-law, let me give this blackboard to brother Lin Jing."

"Okay, go quickly and come back soon."

Li Ke ran to Doctor Zhong's house with the blackboard.

The two siblings have always taken care of Lin Jing as their own brother. Whenever they pick fresh wild fruits outside, they will give them to Lin Jing as soon as they come back.

Thinking of this, Lin Wan remembered the kiwis she had picked yesterday. There were quite a lot of them. After distributing some to the children in the cave, there were still a lot left. She couldn't eat them all, so she had to think of a way to preserve them or make them into storable food.

Digging back into my old memories, I remembered that my family had made kiwi wine before.

She glanced at the Rhus chinensis in the basket and saw that there were not many left, so she told Li Chongle to continue processing them. She turned and went into the house to get the kiwis.

After a while, she came out carrying a small basket of kiwis and a wooden bucket.

"Sister-in-law, why do you take so many kiwis?" asked Li Ke, who had just returned from Doctor Zhong's house.

"We can't eat all the kiwis, so we plan to make kiwi wine."

"Kiwi wine? I can't drink it! It's okay, I can help make it."

"Come, help me carry the bucket, let's go to the spring and wash the kiwis first."

They took their things to the water's edge and washed the kiwis carefully.

After washing, Lin Wan and Li Ke spread the kiwis flat on a winnowing basket and hung them outside the cave to dry.

"Sister-in-law, why do you still need to dry it?"

"We need to dry the surface moisture of the kiwifruit. All tools must not be exposed to raw water during the production process, so we need to dry the wooden basin, cutting board and ceramic pot for the kiwifruit."

After hearing this, Li Ke immediately ran into the house, took out all the tools he was going to use, washed them and hung them out to dry.

After the moisture in the kiwifruit was drained, the three of them moved all these things into the backyard.

Lin Wan picked up a knife, cut the kiwi into small pieces and put them into a wooden basin.

Li Chongle asked curiously, "Sister-in-law, what should we do next?"

Lin Wan added sugar to the wooden basin and said, "Add sugar and mix well, then put it into a ceramic jar and seal it, and wait for it to ferment.

Alas, I have to use the sugar sparingly, there is not much left.

Fortunately, there were a few stevia plants, and the seeds that Li Chongle had sown in the corner of the gentle slope also grew.

"Sister-in-law, how long will it take?" Li Ke asked.

“Filter it again after a month or two, then ferment it for another half a month and filter it again.”

Lin Wan mixed the kiwi fruit pieces and white sugar in the wooden basin, and then scooped them into the ceramic pot with a large wooden spoon.

Fortunately, they later made a batch of pottery jars and other utensils, otherwise they would have no utensils to store the food they cooked.

Finally, Lin Wan melted the white wax and sealed the pottery jar.

"Sister-in-law, white wax also has the function of sealing."

"Yes, this will completely isolate the air and ensure the success rate of our kiwi wine production."

Li Chongle put the sealed pottery jar into the cupboard.

"Sister-in-law, the vegetables in our vegetable garden have grown taller. Do we need to fertilize them?"

“I don’t think we have a compost pile.”

Lin Wan has been so busy lately that she even forgot about composting.