Back to 1980: Farming the Sea and Expanding the Island

Lin Chuan smiled at his parents and said patiently, "Dad, Mom, I'm talking about the long-term plan for the entire island. It won't be built all at once. Let's take it one step at a time. I believe we can achieve it sooner or later."

"Alright, this island may not look big, but it's big enough for our family. Tell me how you plan to develop it," Lin's mother said, her eyes filled with expectation.

"I think the island can be divided into three parts. The higher-lying areas can be cleared first and planted with some seasonal greenhouse vegetables," Lin Chuan said enthusiastically.

"Greenhouse vegetables? What's that?" Lin's father asked with a puzzled look, staring at Lin Chuan, and couldn't help but sigh.

Lately, my son has been saying words I don't understand, but every time it turns out he's right.

For a moment, I felt as if I, as a father, had become useless.

Lin Chuan was unaware of the strange look in his father's eyes and was trying to figure out how to explain it to everyone.

Lin's mother glanced at Lin's father and said irritably, "Don't understand? If you don't understand, then listen to your son. Who told you to be so useless in your studies? From now on, do whatever your son tells you to do."

Lin Chuan turned around and looked at his somewhat embarrassed father, and said with a smile, "Dad, this greenhouse is actually very simple. It's just a bamboo frame that's erected and then covered with a plastic film."

This way, sunlight can get in, but the warmth stays inside the greenhouse, which is warmer than outside. This allows vegetables to be grown even in winter and can also help them mature earlier or later.

"Okay, Dad will listen to you. Whatever you say, we'll do it." Lin's father said with an embarrassed smile after being glared at by Lin's mother.

Lin Chuan and Shui Houzi laughed heartily, while the old man also smiled and blew smoke rings.

In 1980, there were very few large-scale greenhouse vegetable farms in the Yangtze River estuary area; only a few research institutions and state-owned farms had simple sheds.

There are basically none in the private sector, but now that they have the advantage of the land and forests, they naturally want to build greenhouses to seize the opportunity.

Otherwise, if we had to cultivate hundreds of acres of land on the island bit by bit without any machinery, it would be exhausting and would take at least three or four months to complete.

"Building greenhouses is much simpler than deep plowing and turning the soil. We just need to clear away the weeds in that area."

"I reckon it'll take our family about half a month to clear it out," Lin Chuan said, pointing to a slightly elevated, sheltered spot.

The old man looked in the direction Lin Chuan was pointing and roughly estimated, "It looks like it's about sixty or seventy acres. We'll surround it and burn it down."

"Dig up the humus soil and mix it with the fertile ground."

"Alright, let's get the sweet water well set up first, then your mother and I will clear the wasteland on the island."

"Xiao Chuan, you guys go and set up that greenhouse you mentioned. Looks like we need to tell the village chief that the cowherd won't be able to wait until after the New Year," Lin's father said with a smile.

"Let's leave it at that for now. Let's tidy up the area around the sweet water well and build a shed to shelter us from the rain and sun," the old man nodded and said.

Everyone nodded and then walked toward the sweet water well.

"Dad, you take charge of building the well platform, and the rest of us will dig the reservoir." Lin Chuan began to build around the sweet water well according to his own ideas.

In his previous life, he had also seen videos of others building mountain springs and tidying up the construction process.

Now that I have a high-quality spring, I want to develop it properly.

Then, around the Sweet Spring, a residential area will be gradually built, and a large courtyard will be created. Just thinking about that scene makes people feel wonderful.

Mr. Lin and his grandfather skillfully picked up their tools and began building the well platform. Mrs. Lin helped out, handing them bricks.

The houses in the village were basically built by each family themselves, with others helping out.

It may not be that the style is particularly good or beautiful, but every brick and stone is placed steadily and cleanly, showing the demeanor of an old craftsman.

Lin Chuan, Shui Houzi, and Li Jiaye took hoes and began digging a reservoir.

He dug at the soil with a hoe, turning over the earth and emitting a strong earthy smell.

As Lin Chuan dug, he directed, "Monkey, dig a little deeper over there. We need to make sure this reservoir can hold enough water."

"Alright, Brother Chuan!" Water Monkey replied, tightening his grip even more.

Just then, Li Jiaye suddenly shouted, "Brother Chuan, we've dug up a big rock, what should we do?"

Lin Chuan straightened up, walked over to take a look, and said, "First, dig away the soil around it and see how big this rock is. If it's too big, we'll have to find a way to pry it out."

The two nodded and continued digging around the large rock. As the surrounding soil was gradually removed, the outline of the rock slowly became visible.

Lin Chuan examined it carefully and said, "Fortunately, this rock isn't too big. If we work together, we should be able to pry it up."

So Lin Chuan found a thick tree branch and used it as a crowbar, inserting it under the rock.

These thick tree branches were obtained through trade with the village; it took several exchanges to find suitable timber for building the shed, or simply paying money to buy it directly.

There are hardly any mature trees in their area, and the forest in the team's area is a collective resource, so it cannot be directly cut down.

They don't have a forest farm here yet; they have to go all the way to Qinglong Port to buy timber. Lin Chuan inquired and found out that timber prices are really high right now, with a bulk purchase price of seventy or eighty yuan per cubic meter.

Unfortunately, he couldn't buy the supplies that were centrally procured, so he could only inquire about the price of timber, and as expected, the price increased by half, and this was only for the most common timber.

Lin Chuan shouted the slogan, "One, two, three, lift!" Everyone worked together, and the stone was finally pried open and slowly pulled out of the soil.

Lin Chuan looked at the stone and had some ideas in his mind. The stone's material and size were alright. If he had the tools, he might be able to grind it into a stone table.

For now, we can only set it aside for future use.

At noon, everyone ate the multigrain steamed buns they had brought in the morning along with Lin Chuan's pickled alkali grass and pickled vegetables to simply fill their stomachs.

The large stones that were dug out were washed, moved around, and eventually became a temporary dining table.

Speaking of which, Lin Chuan originally intended for his mother to sell the pickled chard vegetables at the free market to supplement their family income.

Now, by some twist of fate, I'm somewhat dismissive of this small profit, but this salted vegetable dish still has a considerable following in the local area.

With his skills, it seems feasible to set up a small processing plant on the island.

Shaking his head, Lin Chuan put the thought aside for the time being and continued digging.

Everything must be done in a planned way; you can't just do things haphazardly, or you'll find that nothing works.

As excavation continued, the basic shape of the reservoir gradually emerged.

After digging the reservoir, Lin Chuan and the water monkey began to move stones from the island to reinforce the edges of the reservoir.

The sun gradually set, casting long shadows on them.

After a day of hard work, the land around the sweet water well has achieved initial results. The well platform and reservoir are basically completed, and the next step is to build a shed to provide shelter from the rain and sun.

Seeing that it was getting late, Lin Chuan called to his father and mother to stop.

These three are much more energetic than Lin Chuan and his group, who had to rest several times in the middle.

Goodness, Lin's parents didn't even get a break. Lin Chuan looked at the excitement in his parents' eyes and didn't know what to say.

"Let's call it a day. Everyone's tired. We'll continue setting up the tents tomorrow," Lin Chuan said.

"Alright, Brother Chuanzi." Li Jiaye stuck out his tongue and breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, if it weren't for Lin Chuan, he wouldn't have wanted to do this hard work.

It's much harder for him than if he stayed at home!