Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

After entering the eleventh month, there wasn't much work to be done in the fields, so the days slowed down considerably, and the village became lively again.

In their spare time, one can always see old men basking in the sun among the wheat straw and corn stalks in the corners of the walls.

Whenever Ji Yongling passed by, they would always ask with a smile, "Yongling, where are you going?"

Ji Yongling would also reply with a smile, "Grandpa, you're all warmed up in the sun!"

The hemp that Niujiazhuang had soaked earlier has been harvested and stripped. Now that there's some free time, several families can work together to start making ropes.

Old Ji's family started making the rope-making machine, and all the men in the village came to watch and learn how to use it. In no time, the area was packed with people, and it was quite lively.

In the spacious field, the rope-making machine frames were set up, with a distance of about twenty steps between the two frames. Each frame was equipped with four iron cranks. The hemp rope was first fixed to the crank, and then by turning the crank, the hemp rope would be twisted into a rope.

As the crank is turned, hemp is continuously added to it, making the rope longer and longer until it reaches the opposite shelf. Then, both sides are cranked simultaneously, tightening the rope and causing the crank to creak.

To reduce the resistance of the crank handle, Ji Yongling also dripped some castor oil into the gaps of the crank handle for lubrication, so the rope making machine was very smooth and effortless to use.

Soon, the rope was twisted into single strands, double strands, triple strands... and finally coiled into hemp ropes of varying thicknesses.

In those days, hemp rope had a wide range of uses; it was indispensable for hauling goods, plowing fields, bundling things, fetching water, and making burlap sacks.

Old ropes can also be made into hemp knives, which can be used to plaster walls with mud. This makes the walls last longer, without cracking or producing dust, and are both sturdy and beautiful.

Some of the hemp ropes that everyone made were kept for their own use, while others were brought to Ji Yongling to exchange for money.

In short, the small castor bean plant takes up little space, yet everything about it can be sold for money, which delighted everyone and led them to decide that they must plant more castor beans in the ditch after the New Year.

Ordinary people live simple, leisurely lives, yet some experience joy while others grieve.

The good news is that everyone has had a lot of income this year.

Besides the income from selling castor beans and gourds, the dried herbs they grew were also taken away by people from Qingzhou Prefecture during the winter months.

Every household was beaming with joy, sharpening their knives and preparing for a bountiful New Year.

Even more joyous was the fact that Maihua, the poor girl the villagers had been watching with bated breath, was finally married amidst the rousing sound of the suona horn.

The ceremony was simple but lively. Almost the entire village came to help take care of the widowed and elderly Tie Dan and his grandson, and everyone gave a gift.

However, some people didn't go, such as Mr. and Mrs. Yang.

Feng felt that Maihua's marriage was an embarrassment to her, and she felt that Niujiazhuang would not accept her as an outsider. So she abandoned Yang Laosan, Yang Jiafa, and Xinghua and her son, packed her bedding, and went to the county town, saying that she was going to help Taohua look after the shop.

Another source of worry is the Ji family.

The dispute between Ji Da-wa and the others over remarrying had reached a boiling point. Because of this, Ba-wa even beat up Jiu-wa, knocking out his front teeth, saying that Jiu-wa was hogging the old women's money and trying to take all of Old Lady Ji's silver ingots.

Left with no other option, Ji Laosi had to ask the village head to arrange another meeting at another house.

The result of this separation was that Ji Laosi's wife, Yao, lived with Jiuwa and his wife, while Ji Laotai and Ji Laosi went to Bawa's house to live with Bawa and his wife.

The land cultivated by the three elderly people also followed them, meaning that Bawa's family received a total of eight mu of land from Grandma Ji and Fourth Brother Ji.

Old Lady Ji also took out her twenty taels of silver and divided it up. Of course, Eighth Brother took six taels, while Ninth Brother didn't take any.

Jiuwa said he didn't want the money. He would only send some food to Old Lady Ji and Ji Laosi during a few festivals, and he would not care about anything else, including the funeral arrangements for Old Lady Ji and Ji Laosi.

Old Mrs. Ji cursed Ji Jiuwa fiercely at his door for a long time, saying that Ji Jiuwa was a beast and had no humanity.

These things in the village had nothing to do with the busy brothers Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing.

By the end of November, all the castor beans had been pressed, and the oil mill had shut down, but the two men still had to keep busy. They cleaned the oil mill inside and out, repaired what needed repairing, replaced what needed replacing, and finally settled the accounts before considering the job done.

December has arrived in the blink of an eye, and the Lunar New Year is just around the corner.

On the day of Laba Festival, something happened at Ji Mancang's shop that made him break out in a cold sweat: someone ate castor oil thinking it was rapeseed oil.

Every time someone came to collect castor oil, he would repeatedly remind them that this was lamp oil and they must not confuse it with cooking oil. To this end, he even used the charcoal pencil that Ji Yongling had given him to make special marks on the oil gourd.

But, something still happened.

An old woman from Tianjiapan once bought a gourd of lamp oil from Ji Mancang's shop. The old woman was very frugal and used very little lamp oil.

As the weather turned cold, and her two grandchildren became thin and frail, she wanted to cook something nice for them. However, the family had no money to buy meat or press rapeseed oil.

She thought it over and over, and found that the bright yellow castor oil smelled very good, so she gritted her teeth and used the castor oil to fry two eggs and a plate of potato shreds for the baby.

After finishing her meal, she suddenly remembered what Ji Mancang had told her when she bought the castor oil, and a wave of worry washed over her. But seeing that the two children in the room were perfectly fine, she assumed that Ji Mancang simply didn't want everyone to eat such cheap oil.

She thought to herself that the shopkeeper selling castor oil must have taken money from the shopkeeper selling rapeseed oil, otherwise why would he be so mean as to not let people eat cheap oil and even use it to light lamps?

Thanks to this old woman's promotion, people gradually started trying to use castor oil for cooking.

After a while, everyone realized that eating this oil wouldn't cause any problems!

However, on the day of Laba Festival, some people suffered from persistent diarrhea after eating food made with castor oil. They were so weak that their families had to carry them to Xu Shirong's clinic.

Xu Shirong was now using lamp oil that he had bought from Ji Mancang. When he heard that the man had diarrhea after eating food made with castor oil, he immediately realized that it was castor oil poisoning.

He rushed to Niujiazhuang to ask Ji Yongling for advice.

Ji Yongling was also somewhat worried.

When she rushed to the county, she saw that although the man was exhausted from diarrhea, he was not seriously injured, and she was relieved.

But this matter terrified Ji Mancang, after all, Ji Yongling had said that castor beans were highly poisonous.

Ji Yongling could only reassure Ji Mancang and tell him the truth: castor oil, once heated and cooked, would not cause poisoning; at most, some people might experience intestinal reactions.

Ji Yongling had previously thought that if he had Ji Mancang tell everyone who came to buy castor oil not to eat it, there would be no problem.

But she forgot that in this day and age, most ordinary people live a hard life. Seeing such good oil, there will always be people who are reluctant to use it and will try to eat it instead.

Speaking of castor oil consumption, Ji Yongling inexplicably thought of an old professor of obstetrics from later generations.

The old professor said that when they were young, the overall medical conditions were not good, so the obstetrics department used a lot of folk remedies, which saved money for the mothers and were simple and effective.

For example, they often use "castor oil fried eggs" to induce labor in pregnant women.

She used to use this folk remedy frequently when she was working at the agricultural commune's health center, but with the development of the times and due to safety concerns, these folk remedies have been phased out.

Ji Yongling recalled that the reason castor oil fried eggs could induce labor was mainly because castor oil has a laxative effect, which can stimulate uterine contractions. Components in castor oil react with lecithin at high temperatures to produce prostaglandins, which in turn cause uterine muscle contractions, thus achieving the effect of inducing labor.