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

Ji Yongling thought for a moment and said, "Once I choked on a potato, so I used my fingers to dig it out. When I got my fingers to my throat, I vomited. I thought that stimulating that area should induce vomiting. I tried it a few times and it worked. I think if it works on humans, pigs will probably do the same."

"Yes, she's a clever and adaptable child!" Old Master Ji exclaimed.

Seeing the piglets at Niu Lao Er's house today, Ji Yongling remembered reading in a book that pigs were not castrated in ancient times, so they didn't grow big and their meat was smelly. So she asked Grandpa Ji, "Grandpa, do we castrate the pigs we raise?"

Grandpa Ji chuckled: "Castrate him, of course we'll. Otherwise, his flesh will smell awful and we won't be able to sell it."

After Grandpa Ji explained, Ji Yongling learned that piglets in this era had to be castrated two months after birth.

Moreover, they have accumulated a wealth of experience in this area. When castrating, they use "hemp and salt to disinfect the wound and prevent bacteria from entering."

Although the concept of bacteria and microorganisms did not exist in this era, experience had taught them that cannabis could anesthetize wounds and reduce the pain of piglets, and that disinfecting with salt after castration could prevent infection and reduce mortality.

Ji Yongling couldn't help but marvel at the wisdom of the Chinese working people, how generations of people have accumulated experience from their daily lives and passed it down to form a treasure of Chinese culture.

"Ling'er, tell your fourth uncle to set the table, it's time to eat. And tell Yongzhou and Yongning to come and wash their hands." As soon as they arrived home, the voice of Fourth Aunt Hu Xirong came from the cave dwelling in the kitchen at the back.

"Understood, Fourth Aunt," Ji Yongling replied.

Ji Manqing moved a gray, old square table out of the cave dwelling and placed it under an apple tree, with several low stools and folding stools around it.

"Time to eat! Time to eat!" came the cheerful shouts of Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongning from the courtyard.

Soon, for reasons unknown, Hu Xirong started chasing and whipping Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongning with a branch.

Ji Yongzhou's straw sandal strap broke, and he fell to the ground. Hu Xirong slapped him twice, but he didn't cry out. He got up and hid behind Ji Manchuan.

Speaking of which, the Ji family had already divided up, but the division wasn't completely finished.

In the Ningping County area, there is no custom that elderly people must live with the eldest son after the family has separated; it is all up to the elderly people's own wishes.

Some elderly people prefer to live alone rather than with their sons after separating from their families, while others choose a son they like and live with him.

The eldest and second eldest sons of the Ji family had grown up, so they were separated by their grandfather and lived separately in the east end of the village. The cave dwellings there were dug by their grandfather and his sons together.

Originally, Ji Manchuan was also supposed to be separated from his family, but the couple had no sons, and the old man and his wife were always worried that their third son would have no descendants, so they never separated their family.

Actually, there was also the idea of ​​getting Ji Manchuan and his wife closer to the fourth brother's family, so that the fourth brother could adopt a son to the third brother later.

Jia Ronghua became pregnant again after nine years. Not only Ji Manchuan, but also the old man and his wife Ji took it very seriously. If this time she gave birth to a son, then Ji Laosan's family would soon leave the old courtyard.

Ji Yongling went into the kitchen to help serve the bowls and chopsticks. Yang told her to first bring a bowl of dark, lumpy vegetable dumplings with floating vegetable leaves to her mother.

When Ji Yongling came out of her mother's room, the table was already surrounded by people of all ages.

Ji Yongling consciously sat down next to Hu Xirong, glanced at everyone's bowls, which were mostly dark, vegetable dumplings with more vegetables than noodles. The men had larger portions. On the table were a plate of chives and a plate of wild vegetables that Ji Yongling couldn't name, all simply mixed with salt and vinegar.

Perhaps due to the coarse salt, these dishes tasted bitter, and the vinegar wasn't the sour and fragrant kind she had eaten in her previous life.

Of course, Yang also gave each person a steamed potato the size of a baby's fist.

It seems that the Ji family is indeed not well-off, which is typical of this era of eating coarse food and wild vegetables. Fortunately, they are not struggling to make ends meet.

She grew up in the countryside and knew that potatoes and sweet potatoes were produced in large quantities. She didn't understand why potatoes had to be rationed here.

Ji Yongling was filled with questions and pondered them, thinking that she should go to the fields to take a look.

After Grandpa Ji and Grandma Ji started eating, the others also picked up their chopsticks, and Ji Yongling finally picked up her bowl and began to eat. There was so little flour in the vegetable dumplings; it was probably just a little sprinkled on top. The dumplings barely clumped together, and you couldn't taste any flour at all.

Ji Yongling swallowed hard, thinking that she should go to the storage room later to get some nutritional supplements for her mother. How could a pregnant woman possibly produce enough milk to feed her baby if she ate like this?

Ji Yongru couldn't feed herself yet, so her fourth aunt, Hu Xirong, would eat by herself while occasionally feeding Ji Yongru a bite. She would also ask Ji Yongling questions from time to time, such as what happened yesterday and how she was found today.

Ji Yongling answered them one by one.

Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongning, with exaggerated expressions, recounted what had happened at Niu Lao Er's house that day, almost like a theatrical performance. The adults listened with amusement, while Ji Yongling looked helplessly at the two little devils.

Hu Xirong tapped Ji Yongru's forehead with one finger and said, "Look at your sister Ling'er, she's just like a well-educated young lady from an official family. She's so refined and composed, and she can apply what she's learned in a practical way. She's definitely destined for great things."

Ji Yongning pouted, chewing on a noodle, and disagreed, saying, "Sister Ling'er is educated, but we're all educated! Our eldest uncle, third uncle, and eldest brother all taught us to read and do math!"

"Yes, yes, yes, you are all educated people. Look at your sister Ling'er, she was buried in the ground all night yesterday, but now she's all neat and tidy. And look at you, anyone who didn't know better would think you were the reincarnation of Tu Xingsun!"

"Fourth Aunt, Yongning and Yongzhou are both very good and clever kids. They were the ones who found me first today, otherwise I don't know how long I would have been buried." Ji Yongling put down her chopsticks and said seriously.

Hu Xirong smiled happily and said to Ji Yongling, "That's all those two mischievous monkeys are good for." Before she could finish speaking, a dumpling almost got stuck in Ji Yongru's nose, making Ji Yongru scream.

The family finished their meal amidst the lively atmosphere.

After dinner, apart from the children, none of the adults rested; everyone had something to do.

Ji Yongling went in to take a look at the baby who had been secretly fed milk powder by Ji Manchuan, and then came out to help Grandpa Ji twist straw rope.

Before long, Niu Lao Er's wife arrived with ten eggs. As soon as she came in, she grabbed Old Madam Ji's hand and started telling her about the farce that had happened with Zhang Jiapan. Of course, she also gave Old Master Ji and Ji Yongling a good compliment.

Yang's face crinkled into a wide smile, but she still said, "It's all only right, nothing to worry about."

Ten eggs were a very generous gift in a rural family that rarely ate meat, and Yang and Niu Lao Er's wife had to argue before accepting them.

Speaking of pigs, in this era, besides selling them for a few dollars or slaughtering them for meat during the New Year, the most important purpose of raising pigs is to accumulate manure.

However, in those days when people were frugal, almost no one fed pigs with grain. They mainly fed them grass. In winter, those who were better off would dry and chop peanut vines and sweet potato vines and mix them with some wheat bran to feed them, which was already considered very good.

Although grass-fed pigs grow slowly, they produce a lot of fertilizer. Therefore, in this era, raising pigs for meat and producing fertilizer were equally important.

Ji Yongling had seen the pigsty of the Ji family, and it was similar to that of Niu Lao Er's. Both had pigsties built in a corner of the outer wall near the main gate, with the latrine (juan) connected to the pigsty, except the latrine was slightly higher than the latrine. When people relieved themselves, their excrement and urine fell into the latrine and were eaten by the pigs.

This is called Lianmaoquan.

If modern people find dry toilets unbearable, then the mere thought of a latrine would make some people want to vomit.

Having grown up in the countryside, Ji Yongling knew that this method of feeding pigs with the toilet connected to the pigsty was not only smelly, but the biggest drawback was swine tapeworm disease.

In the previous life, in order to prevent and control swine tapeworm disease, the country vigorously promoted the toilet and pen renovation campaign, guiding farmers to abandon the traditional latrine-to-toilet system and implement the separation of pens and toilets to cut off the host transfer of tapeworm disease between humans and pigs.

But now...

Ji Yongling glanced at the pigpen to the left of the courtyard gate, then continued twisting straw rope with her head down.

On the other side, while Niu Lao Er's wife and Yang Shi were still talking animatedly, Chen Shi, who lived a dozen steps away from the house, came over again.

Although Yang and her sixth brother's wife occasionally harbored secret rivalries, they maintained a generally harmonious relationship.

After entering the courtyard, Chen looked for Yang and said, "Second Aunt, which doctor in Yangjiaji did you say was good at treating babies?"

Niu Lao Er's wife chimed in, "Is Mei Yatou sick?"

"No, it's Chun'er. Ever since the New Year, she's been complaining of stomach aches and bloating. She doesn't eat properly and is getting so thin. She just vomited after eating," Chen said with a worried expression.

When Madam Yang heard that the four-year-old child was in pain, she couldn't bear it and quickly said, "In February, my brother from my maternal family mentioned that the magistrate of the prefectural city had taken the old doctor away to recuperate his young master, and the whole family had moved away. They probably won't be back for a while."

"What should we do? The baby is very uncomfortable."