Traveling through the mountains and farming

"Sister-in-law, have you forgotten that we have sheep at home? We can use sheep manure," Li Ke reminded.

Yes, sheep manure is a high-quality organic fertilizer, but she remembered that sheep manure needs to be decomposed before use. Fresh sheep manure will generate heat when decomposing in the soil, which may cause damage to the plant roots.

These were things she had seen when she was at her grandmother's house. She saw her grandfather mixing the collected sheep dung with leaves and weeds, and turning them over every ten days or half a month. At that time, she curiously asked her grandfather why he did this.

Grandpa told her that this was composting, which was to decompose the sheep manure. This way it would be safe and effective to use, making the land more fertile and the crops grown better.

Li Ke goes to the vegetable garden to weed and catch insects every day. He is most familiar with his family's vegetable garden and livestock.

When she cleans the sheep pen every day, she collects all the sheep manure, and also collects the manure of five little pheasants. She is really a hardworking girl who is not afraid of dirt.

After a period of accumulation, these sheep and chicken manure have accumulated to a considerable amount.

"No, the sheep manure has to be composted before it can be used, otherwise it will burn our seedlings." Lin Wan explained.

"So we can't apply fertilizer today?"

"You can still use it for fertilizer. Chicken manure can be used directly for fertilizer. It may not be enough for all the land, so let's use some of it first."

Then the three of them took dustpans to the chicken coop and transported the collected chicken manure to the vegetable garden together.

When we arrived at the vegetable garden, we saw that there was really not a single weed in their vegetable garden.

Lin Wan praised generously: "Xiao Ke, you are amazing. You have taken good care of our vegetable garden."

Li Ke felt sweet inside because of the praise from her sister-in-law. She was now getting more and more used to Lin Wan's occasional praise.

He worked harder and said excitedly, "Let's quickly apply this chicken manure to the fields."

Then they worked in harmony and in an orderly manner. Lin Wan first used a hoe to dig a small ditch next to the seedlings, then Li Ke spread chicken manure evenly into the ditch, and Li Chongle followed behind and covered it with soil.

After a busy period, all the chicken manure was used up, and there were still a few ridges of land left that had not been fertilized. We could only wait until next time when we collected enough chicken manure.

Lin Wan found that the tomato seedlings had grown taller and it seemed that it was time to put up a rack.

She remembered that the tomatoes grown on her own farm were grown on racks when they were more than 30 centimeters tall.

"These tomato seedlings need to be put up on a trellis, otherwise they won't grow well."

"Sister-in-law, this dish is called tomato?" Li Chongle asked curiously after hearing Lin Wan's words.

When I was sowing the seeds, I only knew that they were new vegetable seeds bought by my sister-in-law from the county town. After they grew up, I found that I didn’t recognize them, but I didn’t ask the reason.

Lin Wan smiled and explained: "In about two months, it will bear fruit. The fruit is as big as a child's fist and bright red. It can be used as both a vegetable and a fruit. It tastes a bit sweet."

"What are these seedlings?" Li Ke asked, pointing to the green vegetable field next to him.

"This is a strawberry, a kind of fruit. When ripe, it is also bright red, but the fruit is much smaller than a tomato, but it tastes very sweet."

Hearing the elder sister-in-law say that both are delicious, Li Ke looked forward to it ripening quickly and couldn't help muttering:

"I really hope the tomatoes and strawberries can grow and bear fruit soon."

"You take such good care of them, they will surely grow fast and well." Lin Wan encouraged with a smile.

"Sister-in-law, let's quickly build a rack for the tomatoes."

Afterwards, they went to both sides of the gentle slope to cut some small bamboo poles and cut them into one and a half meters long.

I went home and found some hemp rope and started building a rack for the tomato seedlings.

Lin Wan inserted the bamboo pole into the soil, and Li Ke helped to hold it and knock it firmly with a stone.

Li Chongle handed over a rope and tied the rack securely.

With the concerted efforts of the three, all the tomato seedlings were placed on the racks.

It was getting dark, and while they were busy in the vegetable garden, Li Chonghao came over to ask about the method of making chalk.

After Lin Wan told him the method orally, he ran back to prepare it.

The next day, Li Chonghao used the blackboard to teach. After using it, he felt that this teaching tool was more useful than he had imagined.

Lin Wan and her two siblings did their morning exercises as usual, and went out in teams to hunt, cut grass, take good care of the vegetable fields and feed the small animals.

The days passed one by one, peaceful and fulfilling.

The vegetables in the vegetable garden thrive under their careful care, and the small animals also grow stronger under their care.

He Lizheng and his family had also built their house, and they invited the people living in seclusion in the cave to a housewarming party.

Taking into account their food shortage, Uncle Li and his friends decided that each family would send one representative to attend the meeting, and agreed to send food as gifts as much as possible if conditions permitted, and also to discuss when to set out to buy salt at the dark market.

Lin Wan decided to send five dou of rice, and the two siblings had no objection to this. They have always been convinced by their eldest sister-in-law's decision, and their family has relatively more stored grain.

The two also helped Lin Wan with the preparations.

On the day of He Lizheng's moving to his new house, Lin Wan followed the others, who brought their own prepared gifts, to the secluded valley where He Lizheng and his family lived.

She saw other people bringing home-grown vegetables, bacon, and wild rabbits and pheasants.

When they arrived at the secluded valley, He Lizheng was already waiting for them at the entrance of the valley. When he saw the gifts everyone brought, he knew that they were prepared with great care, and he bowed to express his gratitude repeatedly.

Lin Wan saw that the five families including He Lizheng had houses next to each other, and a spacious courtyard was surrounded by high walls.

When everyone walked into the yard, they saw two tables of food. Although there was only one meat dish, the other dishes were still sufficient, which showed that they had tried their best.

There was even a pot of wine on each table.

Under such difficult conditions, they still had wine to entertain the guests.

Lin Wan recalled that their Hejia Village was a wine-making village, and she thought that this wine was probably carefully preserved by them to express their respect and gratitude to their guests.

He Lizheng invited everyone to take a seat and start the meal. He smiled and said in a loud voice:

"Everyone, please take your seats. Today's meal is simple, so I hope you can bear with me. I really appreciate your help these days."

In order to reduce their burden, the people in Quanshui Village never eat here, which makes He Lizheng and others both moved and a little guilty.

Everyone responded with a smile and sat down in order.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they began to discuss going to the dark market to buy salt.

In order to prevent any complications, they decided to set off tomorrow. He Lizheng would be in charge and lead the group with an acquaintance who had been to the dark market before. Four of them would go to the valley and six would go to the cave, a total of ten people.

Lin Wan reminded everyone to prepare enough money and weapons for self-defense.

Then they returned to their secluded cave and informed everyone of their plan to go to the Dark Market tomorrow.

After collecting everyone's purchasing needs, Lin Wan also asked the team leader Luo Dashan to help buy as much cotton as possible.

And gave him the silver. Fortunately, all the silver was not sealed in the cave in the valley. In order not to put all the eggs in one basket, half of it was brought out.

The weather is getting colder now. We can wear cotton clothes in about one or two months.

She and her two siblings had already prepared three sets of clothes for each of the autumn and winter seasons.

Lin Jing had no winter clothes, and neither did Doctor Zhong.

Doctor Zhong's previous change of clothes was made of linen that he temporarily asked Aunt Li to buy and asked Chen Lian to help make them.

They didn't have winter quilts either, and Lin Wan hoped to buy cotton this time.

Early the next morning, Luo Dashan and his team set out for the dark market with each family's purchasing needs.

After seeing them off, Lin Wan returned home, thinking that the men in the cave had been taking turns helping He Lizheng build a house recently, and usually only two or three men could be sent to accompany the women and children to do some picking activities.

So she didn't have time to dig up the large amounts of food she found, such as konjac and kudzu.

The weather will get colder and colder in the future, and Lin Wan knows that she can't wait any longer.

She immediately went out and organized people to dig for food in the cave.

When she gathered everyone together and told them that she had discovered two new types of food and had already explored their locations, all that was left was to take them to dig.

When everyone heard this, they all found it incredible. From what Lin Wan said, they could dig up a lot of food, which was no different from pie falling from the sky!