Chapter 129 Planting Fruit Trees
As time passes day by day, the golden autumn of October has also entered the second half of the month.
Qiuhu, which was very hot some time ago, seems to be on vacation these days, and the weather has become a little cooler.
The weather may be like this during the next period.
So Zhang An’s plan to plant trees needs to be put on schedule.
Some time ago, Zhang An, when he had nothing to do, had already scattered a large number of grass seeds on the mountain.
Now all the grass seeds sown by Zhang An have grown out, and they are all growing very well.
This was all discovered by Zhang An when he went to wander in the mountains when he had nothing to do.
He found that there were many weeds growing in some places on the loess slope.
Most of these grasses are clover or plantain, plants that are drought tolerant and can improve the soil.
After all, other grasses cannot grow here
So Zhang An also took advantage of his trick and directly cultivated a large number of clovers and plantains in the space.
Finally, a lot of grass seeds were scattered on the loess slope, and with the magical effect of the space spring water, they grew quickly.
Now the loess slope is no longer a bare wasteland. If you get closer, you will find that there is grass everywhere.
Zhang An also took time to sprinkle water on them every day. After half a month, he could clearly feel the changes in this place.
During dinner in the evening, Zhang An talked about planting saplings in the next few days.
Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang also asked several times during this period to see when Zhang An planned to commit suicide.
Because if you delay it any longer, you won’t be able to plant it. You have to wait until spring comes.
Zhang An’s plan is to pay some wages to hire people to do the work, so that he doesn’t have to be responsible for the food.
Wang Fang did some calculations and found out that based on the wages Zhang An gave, it would cost several hundred yuan a day, which was too much.
She felt that there was no need to spend so much money, and she could just hire a few people to help her pay it back slowly.
But Zhang An didn't want to bother, even though it cost nothing to hire a favor.
But if such a large piece of wasteland needs help, it will probably take a long time to pay it back.
If you invite less, you will have to work for many more days; if you invite more, you will have to have someone at home to cook.
It's better to pay some wages, hire a few more people, and be done with it in a few days.
Zhang Jianguo felt that what Zhang An said made sense, but Wang Fang was a little worried about money.
But all major family matters are decided by the man through discussion with his son.
And Zhang An’s idea of spending money to hire someone was mainly because he didn’t want his mother to be too tired.
After getting paid, it means that there is no need to pay for meals. When the time comes, everyone will go home and be responsible for their own food.
Wang Fang doesn’t have to be busy in the kitchen all the time. After all, it’s not easy to cook meals for so many people.
So Wang Fang didn't continue to say anything.
In the end, Zhang An ignored those people and let his father do the calling.
About ten to fifteen, not too many.
Anyway, as long as you are diligent and not lazy, and you must be able to plant trees.
There are some people in the village, Zhang An is really hard to say, they all have to be lazy or lazy when they go to help people or do favors.
There are many people like this, and Zhang An has seen many of them, but he just doesn’t want to talk about them. After all, everyone wants to save face.
After the discussion, Zhang Jianguo went out to invite people.
At around seven o'clock the next morning, the person who was found by Zhang Jianguo last night had eaten early at home.
Then they brought their own hoes and shovels to the yard of Zhang An’s house to gather.
When I go to help others with work in the village, I always bring my own tools.
After all, no one has so many tools.
Zhang Jianguo invited twelve or thirteen people last night. These are people who often plant trees in the village.
Including Huang Ming, Zhou Yang, and Xiao Tangyuan’s father, there were a total of fifteen or sixteen people.
Including my own family, nearly twenty people are enough.
Zhang An’s family also had breakfast early. After everyone arrived, they started digging saplings with them.
When you dig, you should also take care of the roots, branches and leaves of the saplings, so that they can survive more easily after planting.
The wages of the village helpers are paid after the work is completed at night.
I didn’t say that I would be paid if I reported in early in the morning.
Because some people may work for a long time, or they may not work for long, and then go back due to family emergencies.
The work for several days in a row is all done together at the end.
The Zhang An family still has this reputation, and no one is worried about not paying after the work is completed.
If you say this, it will be unless you don’t want to stay in the village anymore.
So everyone came together and followed Zhang An to dig saplings.
The people hired by Zhang Jianguo are very experienced and they don’t have to explain anything.
Sometimes they have to tell Zhang An what he needs to pay attention to.
So Zhang An only needs to tell everyone how far apart they are to plant a seedling.
In the end, they all took the saplings with them in twos and threes and took charge of a separate area by themselves.
This wasteland totals a little more than 110 acres, but the mountain is only 70 to 80 acres at most.
There are still more than thirty acres left on the river bank at the foot of the mountain, which is a nest.
Zhang An does not plan to use it to plant trees for the time being, but will save it for other uses in the future.
So all we need to do is plant the land on the slope.
Not to mention, since the grass seeds sown by Zhang An here have grown.
The land here seems to be better than before.
At this rate, this land will no longer be so barren by next year.
Zhang An did not expect that the grass seeds cultivated from space could have such a powerful effect.
Grass seeds cultivated in space are indeed better at surviving than native grasses outside.
But the strength is limited and not that exaggerated.
In fact, it is not just the grass that plays a role, but the main reason is that he comes to sprinkle water every day.
In the past, the main problem on loess slopes was that the land could not retain water. In addition, the loess was barren, so anything planted would turn into seedlings.
But after Zhang An planted so much grass, he still came to sprinkle water every day.
Space spring water also has the effect of improving soil quality, which Zhang An already knew in his own forest.
After these grasses grow up, they not only retain moisture in the ground, but also slowly improve the soil quality.
If grass seeds are really that powerful, then you don’t have to do anything anymore, just sit at home and sell grass seeds every day.
There is so much barren land in China, but with grass seeds like this, you can just sit at home and count the money.
Seeing that everyone was moving, Zhang An was not idle either.
I also followed suit with a hoe and started digging holes to plant trees.
Zhang An was much faster than the others, and it didn’t take long to plant a tree.
Everyone moved faster than expected. The saplings Zhang An dug out in the morning were almost planted.
At this moment, Zhang Jianguo took a few people back to the yard to dig saplings.
Originally, Zhang An thought that the hundreds of trees he had taken out in the morning would take him a whole morning to finish.
Unexpectedly, it was already done before ten o'clock.
If you calculate it this way, it will be over in two or three days.
At noon, Zhang An asked everyone to eat and rest first, and then continue working in the afternoon.
Because it is close to home, everyone did not bring food to the mountain to eat. After all, it is not far away. If you bring it, you have to heat it up. Moreover, the wages paid by Zhang An's family are relatively high, fifteen yuan a day.
Although we are not responsible for the food, there are still many. Many people would rather pay more and eat at home.
So everyone was too embarrassed to take a rest, so they always asked their families to bring food when it was time at noon.
After eating in a shady place on the mountain, we rested for a while and then continued working.
Even though Zhang An asked everyone to rest more, everyone said that the work was not tiring, and the weather is not hot now, so there is no need to rest.
I don’t mean to be a foreigner at all, I just do as much as I can.
The main reason is that in this era, when you go to help others work, you are cheating and cheating on foreign workers.
If everyone knows about it, your reputation will be ruined in the future, and no one will ask you for anything in the future.
So most people are very careful when they work.
Especially the paid work, I put more effort into it than doing my own work.
This way, the next time someone else has work, they will call you.
Seeing this, Zhang An didn’t say anything. Everyone at this time was quite simple.
So after lunch, Zhang An went home and got two large buckets of space water, mixed it with honey and carried it up the mountain to rehydrate everyone.
As a result, after everyone drank the honey water, they worked more diligently.
In this way, each person can plant an average of fifty or sixty saplings in a day.
Forget about Zhang An, this man suffered at least a hundred losses today and cannot be treated as a human being.
After four days of planting, the mountain was finally covered with plants.
On the eighty acres of land, Zhang An planted fifty acres of cherries and about thirty acres of peach trees.
After finishing the work on the last day, I paid everyone a hundred yuan as wages.
Everyone was very happy to get a whole big banknote.
Usually when they go to help people outside, the maximum they can pay is fifteen yuan a day, and they don’t necessarily need to pay.
Only Wang Fang felt very distressed when she saw Zhang An counting the money outside.
From now on, the only thing left is to water these trees, which Zhang An can do slowly by himself.
You said that planting trees is to rush for time, so it is okay to spend some money to hire someone.
Wang Fang doesn’t agree at all with paying someone to do this kind of watering thing.
So Zhang An watered these trees by himself every day.
Wang Fang originally wanted to go, but in the past two days, guests came to the house basically every day.
Wang Fang has to entertain guests at home, so she can't leave when cooking and entertaining.
It would be much more convenient if Zhang An went up the mountain alone.
There is no need to hide anything at all, just water the tree with space spring water.
This time Zhang An poured a slightly larger amount of water, soaking the soil around the tree roots.
Although the trees are planted in the autumn, they only begin to grow in the spring.
But more than ten days after Zhang An planted these seedlings, some buds still appeared.
It feels like it is growing in reverse, maybe because of the spring water.
At the same time, Zhang An can also use this to determine which seedlings are bad and seize the time to replenish them.
At this rate, when winter comes, there is no need to worry that they will not survive the winter.
Now Zhang An is looking at this mountainous area, and all he thinks in his mind is:
When next spring comes, the originally barren hillside behind his home will definitely be a peach blossom garden with fallen flowers.
"Zhang An, we are here to drive the pigs."
Tomorrow is the time for Li Hongbin's family to move. He has already planned to treat everyone to a big banquet at the drying yard.
So I agreed with Zhang An’s family early that I would buy a pig for Zhang An’s family and kill it for meat.
Because it is not a good idea to move house and kill pigs tomorrow, I have to kill the pigs in advance today.
The three black soil pigs Zhang An’s family bought at the beginning of the year have been raised for seven or eight months, and it is already time for them to be sold.
A butcher came to my door before and planned to buy it. It may be because the price of meat is relatively low this year. The price offered by others was not high, so Wang Fang was unwilling to sell.
So I have been raising them until now, and each one now weighs about three hundred pounds.
The other eight little wild boars brought back by Zhang An have also grown a lot now.
In the past, the reason why these guys didn't grow taller was because they had not been groomed. They were full and made trouble in the circle all day long.
Later, Zhang An got bored and went back to an old well that groomed pigs, and neatly cut off all the things they needed to do.
Since then, the pig pen at home has been much quieter. They don’t make any noise anymore, and they eat and sleep.
A pig with six clean roots is a good pig. Only when it has no worldly desires can it grow meat only by eating.
Each head now weighs more than a hundred pounds.
Waiting for the Chinese New Year, Zhang An decided to kill one and try it out to see what the wild boar meat he had raised tasted like.
Hearing Li Hongbin shout, Zhang An led them towards the old yard.
The pigs raised by Zhang An’s family are still kept in the pigpen in the old yard.
“Look, which one do you want?”
Zhang An opened the pigsty and let Li Hongbin choose.
Li Hongbin didn't hesitate. After looking around, he settled on the biggest of the three native pigs.
“Here, it’s the big guy.”
Seeing that Li Hongbin had made his choice, Zhang An drove that one out.
The local second senior brother still didn’t know what was waiting for him, so he was driven out.
There is now a special place for killing pigs in the drying area, with a stove for burning fire and a stone table for shaving.
When the water in the big iron pot boils, it's time to kill the pig.
Early in the morning, the pig butcher in the village was waiting on the drying ground with his food to eat.
When everyone put him on the chopping board, the second senior brother now knew that he was not going to die soon.
The whole time they were howling loudly and struggling, the scene was quite tragic.
It is estimated that many people came to press this pig today, because this pig is similar to the two pigs that were killed at Nian Zhang An’s house.
This pig is so strong that it can't be held down without a few people.
Many people in the village saw the New Year pig killed by Zhang An’s family last year. The head was really big.
But in fact, everyone is not convinced. Everyone raises pigs. How can you raise such a big pig?
This year everyone thinks that other places can’t compare. At least this year the pigs must be bigger than those fed by Zhang An’s family.
Furthermore, we had good harvests last year and this year, so we were willing to feed the pigs.
If you are willing to invest, you will reap the rewards. The pigs we fed this year are all growing very well, and they are all fat and strong.
By the time of the Chinese New Year, it will be as big as two hundred and eighty-nine or three hundred kilograms.
But today I saw the pig that Li Hongbin bought for Zhang An’s family. Well, it’s incomparable.
My family is also thinking about feeding more corns and raising pigs to 300 kilograms before the Chinese New Year.
As a result, the pigs in the pen now weigh more than 300 kilograms.
Comparing people to each other makes people angry.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t make money as much as others, after all, people’s brains are different.
But no one’s crops are as good as others, and no one’s feeding pigs is as good as others.
Now everyone is convinced and no longer want to compare. There is no comparison at all.
(End of this chapter)