Traveling through the mountains and farming

The third day of August is the agreed opening day of the Taohua Village market in Nanxi Township.

In the early morning, Lin Wan got up and made eleven buckets of ice jelly. Six buckets were for her second aunt and her family, four buckets were for the teahouse, and one bucket was for Aunt Luo's family to set up a stall at the Taohua Village market.

Luo Dashan delivered a wooden barrel yesterday evening, saying that he asked for one for safety as it was his first time setting up a stall.

The four buckets for the teahouse were newly bought from Old Man Wang’s house yesterday. From now on, the people setting up stalls in the county town will help bring them back every day.

After Lin Wan finished making the ice jelly, she went back to her room to continue sleeping. When she woke up again, it was already bright outside. She was so startled that she jumped up and ran to the kitchen to check. Fortunately, the ice jelly had been taken away.

At this time, Li Chongle was digging the ground in the backyard, and Li Ke was washing clothes in the front yard.

As Lin Wan took her toiletries and walked out the door, Li Ke saw her. She stopped washing clothes, tilted her head and smiled:

"Sister-in-law, my second aunt and her family came to get the ice jelly this morning. My brother arranged it for us. He didn't ask them to wake you up."

"Well, that's good. But wake me up next time. You need to sleep more to grow taller." Lin Wan said with a smile.

"Then next time sister-in-law gets up to make ice jelly, call us too. If the three of us work together, we can finish it faster and we can all sleep longer."

After Lin Wan finished washing up at the spring, she put down the wooden basin and started washing clothes with Li Ke, and then prepared breakfast together.

Their breakfast is relatively simple, consisting of only fish porridge and wild vegetables.

Lin Wan looked at the breakfast on the table in front of her, thought for a moment and then said, "We will go to Auntie Wang's house to buy some eggs later. From now on, each of us will have a boiled egg for breakfast. Xiaoke, you will be responsible for keeping an eye on the eggs at home and remind me to buy some before they run out."

She continued to eat breakfast while thinking that although they could now eat enough at every meal, the diet was too monotonous and lacked meat, eggs and soy products.

If this continues for a long time, it will lead to insufficient nutrition intake, which will affect their physical fitness, especially since the brother and sister are still in the growth and development period.

No, I am fifteen years old now and should still be in the growth stage.

It's not like in modern times where you can buy meat anytime. It seems you have to raise some yourself. Chicken, duck and fish seem to be the most common ones.

Thinking of this, Lin Wan immediately had a new idea for the renovation of the house. She had to plan a place to raise these small animals.

Lin Chongle was not aware of Lin Wan's thoughts. He was drinking porridge when he heard Lin Wan say that she wanted to buy eggs. He quickly stopped drinking porridge, raised his head and said to Lin Wan anxiously:

"Sister-in-law, buying eggs is not cost-effective. We might as well buy chickens and raise them ourselves and let them lay eggs."

When Lin Wan heard this, she immediately laughed. How could this child be so smart and know how to live?

So he agreed: "Okay, wait until the house is built, then I will buy chickens to raise."

At this time, Li Ke smiled sweetly at Lin Wan and said, "I know how to raise chickens. I'll do it."

The three of them had just finished their meal when Li Changyi came over. He told Lin Wan that tomorrow was a good day and if she felt it was okay, they could start work tomorrow.

In addition, he also needs to communicate with Lin Wan to confirm the areas to be built and renovated, so as to determine the number of people to participate in the construction of the house based on the content of the renovation.

Afterwards, Lin Wan took Li Changyi to check it out on site and communicated how she wanted to transform it:

A pavilion three meters long and three meters wide will be built on the west side of the front yard near the bamboo forest. In the future, a long table will be placed there for daily use such as cooling off, resting and eating.

There are three pools at different heights in the front yard. The first one is a purification pool, the second one is a drinking water pool, and the third one is a fish pond.

Add a bedroom ranging from 15 to 20 square meters;

Add a 6-square-meter shower room and a 6-square-meter toilet, and expand the kitchen by 20 square meters toward the backyard;

A pavilion with a length of four meters and a width of four meters was built on the west side of the backyard;

Build a shed in the northeast corner of the backyard near the back hill;

Build a two-meter-high wall to enclose the front and back yards.

After following Lin Wan around the front and back yards, inside and outside the house, and listening to her detailed explanation, Li Changyi said that except for the shower room and toilet, everything else could be completed according to her ideas.

He suggested that if the bathroom floor was to be able to drain, it would need to be tiled, which would require going into town to buy bricks as well as glutinous rice and slaked lime for mortar.

As for the bathroom that Lin Wan mentioned, he had never heard of or seen one before, so he could only make a squat toilet in the house. He didn't know how to connect the pipes to the septic tank.

When Lin Wan suddenly heard that she had to mobilize a large number of people to go to the county town to buy bricks, and that the septic tank would require pipes, a problem that could not be solved, she originally wanted to listen to Li Changyi's suggestion to build a conventional dry toilet.

But she thought of the scene when she borrowed the toilet from Uncle Li's house.

At that time, she was squatting on the wooden board, swaying, feeling that she might fall down at any time. She could see wriggling white worms in the pit below, and the stench that stuck to her clothes after she came out lingered for a long time.

Dry toilets are absolutely not allowed!!!

So she decided to build a bathroom.

She quickly calculated the number of bricks needed. The amount of bricks needed for laying floor tiles, making squat toilets and septic tanks was about 300 bricks. It would take about one or two carts to pull them back. Then, they could be covered with thatch and pulled into the village without attracting attention.

Moreover, when she was renovating her own ancient village B&B in modern times, she participated in the entire bathroom renovation process. She knew how to build a septic tank. As long as the pipeline problem was solved, Li Changyi could handle the other bricklaying work.

After figuring this out, Lin Wan used a branch to carefully draw the design details of the bathroom's squat toilet, connecting pipes and septic tank on the ground, and explained them clearly to Li Changyi.

"If you can solve the pipeline problem, I can build it according to your design." Li Changyi, who was squatting on the ground looking at the design drawings, finally gave a positive answer.

"I can solve the pipeline problem, should I buy the other materials?" Lin Wan, who was squatting nearby, asked with a smile.

Li Changyi stood up, threw away the branch in his hand, patted the dust off his hands, and said:

"I had planned to go to the market today to buy quicklime for mud, but now it seems that I also need to buy bricks, glutinous rice, slaked lime, and slate for covering the septic tank. I have to go to the city tomorrow to buy these. Fortunately, I had the official inspection done yesterday, so I can get them this afternoon. And you don't need to prepare the straw, it will be from my house."

Lin Wan stood up and responded, "I'll go with you tomorrow morning."

Li Changyi and Lin Wan agreed on the departure time for tomorrow and then went back.

After Li Changyi left, Lin Wan always felt that she had forgotten to explain something. When she entered the house to get the snake and insect repellent powder and saw the simple bed made of two boards, she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to communicate about the furniture.

It seems that building a house does not include the furniture inside the house. Thinking of this, Lin Wan explained it to the brother and sister and went out.

~

When Lin Wan arrived at Old Man Wang's house, Li Changyi was also there. He and Old Man Wang were chatting in the yard about building a house at Lin Wan's house.

It turned out that Li Changyi, after hearing that Lin Wan's plan included two pavilions and sheds, plus the windows and doors that were originally required, there was a lot of carpentry work involved, so he came over and wanted to ask Old Man Wang to bring one of his sons along.

They had just finished their discussion when Lin Wan arrived. Since the salary Lin Wan offered was considered high in the countryside, Li Changyi quickly hired people. Old Man Wang's was the last one left.

Li Changyi saw Lin Wan coming and asked, "Why are you here too?"

"You know, I have nothing in my house now, so I want to ask Grandpa Wang to order some furniture for me." Lin Wan approached the two of them and answered after calling out Old Man Wang.

"When we go up the mountain to cut wood and build the house, we will cut the wood for your furniture as well. You should communicate with Uncle Wang first about what furniture you want to make, and then he will go and help build the house." Li Changyi gave his advice.

Lin Wan said happily: "That's great, I will discuss it with Master Wang right away."

Afterwards, Lin Wan discussed with Old Man Wang the furniture she needed to order: a bed and wardrobe in each of the two bedrooms, a cutting table and a cupboard in the kitchen, and a tea table with a long bench in the front and back yards.

After listening to Lin Wan's request, Old Man Wang said that it was no problem. He would calculate how much wood was needed and tell Li Changyi so that they could prepare it together when they went to cut wood.

After deciding on how to build and renovate the house inside and out, Lin Wan and her two siblings began a full day of picking ficus carica fruits.