Chapter 169 Master Zhang who trimmed the hoof
After Zhang An put the swallow in the nest, he went home, grabbed a handful of rice and placed it on the wooden board at the door of the nest.
One is to celebrate their return, and the other is to prevent the injured swallow from starving in the past few days.
Of course, it is best not to feed swallows when things are going well.
Otherwise, over time, they will become dependent and may starve to death when they fly south.
This board was nailed up by Zhang An when they built their nest and settled down.
Because there are no poles or wires under the eaves of Zhang An’s house, they usually have no place to stand.
Nick up a board so that they can have a place to stay when they are not in the nest, just like building a lookout for them.
When Zhang An said that Yanzi was fine, everyone felt relieved.
Zhang Jianguo took advantage of this time to find a place to dig a deep pit and bury the crows that he had killed.
This crow is used to eating carrion frequently, and his body is full of bad meat. He is not willing to let Huatou eat it.
The return of Jia Yan can be regarded as an episode in the family.
Originally everyone was very happy, but these crows dampened everyone's interest.
But the way of heaven is reincarnation, and now they have all been cleaned up by the flowers, and it is impossible to jump around.
After breakfast, Wang Fang went out to the old house. She wanted to see if the pair of swallows in the old house had returned.
Not long after Wang Fang left, Zhang Jianguo came back from outside.
He came back with a small bag of horseshoe nails in his hand.
"Dad, do you want to cut Dahei's hooves today?"
The horses' hooves in this area of Hongyan Town are cut at home. There is no master who specializes in cutting hooves for horseshoes on the street. .
But if you don’t work for a long time, you won’t be able to do it anymore.
Mainly because people are reluctant to spend money and would rather learn it at home.
This way you can buy your own horseshoes, trim the hooves and change the horseshoes at home, saving money.
Before, there seemed to be someone who specialized in cutting hooves and changing horseshoes at the cattle and horse market.
"It needs to be peeled. When I took it out for the past two days, it couldn't walk naturally. There were thick hooves on some of its hooves. There were no paw nails at home. I went out and asked for some. ”
Other people’s horses cost horseshoes, but my own horse costs people.
Other people’s horses are because their owners often use them to pull carts and carry goods.
So after a long period of wear and tear, the iron horseshoe cannot withstand the wear and tear.
Especially when roads were not built before, dirt roads were fine and did not hurt animals much.
If the road is gravelly, the horseshoe needs to be replaced frequently, otherwise it will be particularly harmful to the hooves.
But Zhang An’s Dahei is different. He doesn’t often pull carts.
Except for using more when farming is busy, Zhang Jianguo can't bear to use more at other times.
Basically, they are in the circle, or taken out for fun, and they live a very relaxed and comfortable life.
So a pair of horseshoes can be used casually for more than half a year without any problem.
But instead of changing the horseshoe, you have to trim its hooves. This guy's nails grow too fast.
The cuticle on the horse's hooves will grow very quickly if it is not run for a long time.
If this thing is not disposed of, the horseshoe will not fit.
When this layer of cuticle grows long, it will be inconvenient for Dahei to move.
Just now, Zhang An heard his father tell him that he has been walking unnaturally recently.
This is just like human nails, they need to be trimmed every once in a while.
Zhang An’s family didn’t raise horses before, so Zhang Jianguo and Zhang An didn’t know how to cut their hooves and replace them with horseshoes.
But if you have horses at home, you have to learn this craft.
At the beginning, you can ask people who raise horses in the village to come over and help cut the hooves and replace the horseshoes.
Then ask someone for advice and learn how to do it.
But you can’t hire someone every time you change the shoes or trim the hooves. This doesn’t make sense.
And even if you learn it, when you first start changing by yourself, you still have to invite people to come and stand.
Lest you accidentally chip the horse's hoof and the horse will be useless.
"Dad, let me do it."
Now, Zhang An is quite familiar with this work. Now, whether it is a horse's hoof, a cow's hoof or a sheep's hoof, Zhang An can repair it casually. .
Zhang An put on a full-body apron, took the tools from his father, and prepared to start work.
Normal hoof trimming tools are generally pliers, hook knives, and pliers.
Then add the hammer at home, and even the sickle can be used.
However, in places where horses are professionally raised, these tools are divided into more details.
After hearing Zhang An say that he would cut it, Zhang Jianguo did not continue.
Anyway, both my father and I know how to do it, and when Zhang An was cutting his hoof, the big black horse in the family was obedient and didn't even move.
Su Ying and Wang Min heard that the big black horse's hooves were trimmed. Neither of them had seen it before, and they were very curious.
Seeing Zhang An bring out the big dark horse, they both came over to watch.
The big black horse saw Zhang An coming over with hoof trimming pliers and stood there honestly.
Zhang An easily lifted its right front leg and placed it on his knee.
Before cutting the hoof, remove the old horseshoe first.
Normal horses can be clamped directly with pliers.
But Zhang An's big black horse has bigger hooves than the other horses.
When changing horseshoes, you have to cut off the tips of the horseshoe nails to cut off the entire horseshoe.
At this moment, when Zhang An lifted the horse's feet, he could see that there was already a ring of gray cuticle on the horse's hooves.
“No wonder it feels uncomfortable walking. The nails are bigger than the shoes. It must be uncomfortable to walk on.”
This thick layer of cuticles surrounds the horseshoe. I thought To remove the horseshoe, you must first cut off this protruding cuticle.
Da Hei was very obedient, Zhang An simply used pliers to easily cut off the protruding circle, and only then did the horseshoe appear.
Use pliers to cut off the shoe nails in two or three strokes. The hoof trimming pliers will pinch and pull, and the entire horseshoe will fall off.
"Stand further away. If the big black horse doesn't wash its feet, it will stink."
Seeing that Su Ying and Wang Min were closely surrounding each other, Zhang An was not worried about the big black horse. Violent and hurtful.
It’s just that the smell isn’t very pleasant, and Zhang An is worried that they won’t be able to stand it.
"Zhang An, if this nail is on the foot, won't the horse feel pain?"
Su Ying looked at the horseshoe nails that Zhang An pulled out. How painful it is.
“It’s just like a manicure, you won’t feel any pain if you don’t cut to the flesh. These nails are all driven into its nails, so at most it just feels a little itchy.”
Horse hooves are different from cow hooves. There is a V-shaped fork in the middle of the horse's hoof. The inside is soft and it is very easy to stuff foreign objects.
At this moment, Dahei’s hooves were filled with dung, gravel, mud, and even his own cock.
These things are why Zhang An said that horse hooves smell bad.
After scraping the hoof fork clean with a hook knife, start trimming the hoof.
With a clicking sound, the originally gray-black cuticle was cut off.
Every time Zhang An uses the knife, it is like art.
If in future generations, Gaoluo would have a video account called Master Zhang, the hoof trimmer.
Once the inside of the hoof is repaired, there is no need to go around the outside.
Zhang An took the hoof trimming pliers and cut off a large horse nail in a few strokes.
Then I trimmed it a little with a hook knife, and a white and clean horse hoof came out.
Use a file to sharpen it, file it, and smooth it, and then you can start nailing the horseshoe. The old horseshoe has been deformed by Dahei's steps, and it is obvious that it cannot be used again.
Zhang An’s family has already prepared many new horseshoes because Dahei’s feet are extra-large.
There are no shoes suitable for it in the town, so I can only go to the blacksmith shop and ask someone to beat it.
In order to avoid trouble later, Zhang An beat him several times at a time.
These horseshoes have been beaten for a long time, and there is some rust on them.
When Zhang Jianguo was repairing Zhang An's hoof, he had already put it in the stove to burn.
These horseshoes were made by Zhang An according to Dahei's size, so there was no need to adjust them.
It's just to burn it red to remove rust and disinfect it.
If you really want to nail it, you have to wait until the horseshoe cools down.
When you hear how to repair horseshoes, you will know that it takes the most time to repair, and it only takes a few strokes to nail the horseshoes.
Zhang An quickly changed one, and then the other.
When the four hooves are repaired and replaced with new horseshoes, it is considered finished.
Dahei seemed to know that he had changed into new shoes, and he slowly kicked with his hooves.
There was a clicking sound on the concrete floor.
"Is it over now?"
Su Ying felt that Zhang An was done before she even looked at it for a while, and she hadn't even recovered yet.
"Yes, it only has four hooves, and they must have been replaced."
Zhang An smiled at her, "It's okay, I will tell you first when I repair the hooves in the future, hahahaha."< br>
Su Ying and Wang Min were fascinated by it, which Zhang An did not expect.
In his later life, Zhang An could watch hoof trimming videos for an hour or two in the middle of the night.
It turns out that girls also like to watch this stuff.
Although Su Ying thought it was not enough, it actually took a lot of time.
This is because Dahei is obedient, otherwise it will take more time.
After Zhang An repaired it, Zhang Jianguo led Dahei back into the circle.
Zhang An was sweeping the keratin crumbs on the floor. He didn’t know if he didn’t sweep them away. He was shocked when he swept them away, and the dustpan was full.
While cooking at noon, Zhang An told his mother to just cook something casually.
Because they agreed yesterday to have a barbecue today, Su Ying and Wang Min were also in high spirits.
After lunch, Zhang An began to cut the mutton and thread it on skewers.
When Zhang An was ready, Wang Fang took Wang Min and Su Ying to wear them beside him, so it was nothing to him.
“It’s a bit monotonous to just eat skewers, I’ll give you something delicious.”
Zhang An looked at the fact that now he doesn’t have to do the skewering thing himself, since he is idle anyway. .
“What’s something delicious?”
After hearing Zhang An talk about getting something delicious, Su Ying and Wang Min both looked forward to it.
"Hey, you guys will find out later."
After saying that, Zhang An ran to the back room and came out with a bundle of hay.
“These grasses are what you said are delicious?”
Su Ying was a little disappointed when she saw the hay in Zhang An's hand.
"Don't worry, this stuff is really delicious."
Zhang An found scissors from home and cut them into short pieces.
"This is jelly grass, Xiao An." Wang Fang took one look and knew what it was.
“Yes, Mom, these are jelly grass.”
These hay are the jelly grass that Zhang An planted in the space before.
After Zhang An dried them in the sun, he stored them in the ear room.
Speaking of which, since Zhang An planted this thing, he hasn’t tried it yet.
"Is this grass really delicious? How to eat it."
Don't say that Su Ying has never drank milk tea. Even those who have drank milk tea in later generations do not know. They knew that this stuff was the burning jelly grass they drank.
"You'll know later if it tastes good or not, hehe."
Zhang An cut all the jelly grass into pieces, put them in a bucket, and washed them many times.
While washing, the dried jelly grass is also allowed to fully foam.
When I feel that the washing is almost done, I start to drain the water, put it in a big pot and start cooking.
The pot that Zhang An used to cook the grass jelly was a large steamer that Wang Fang had just bought. It was very, very big.
Fill a pot full of water, put it on the stove and start boiling it. At this time, you need to put some edible alkali in the pot.
While it was cooking, Zhang An poured some of the previously beaten starch and mixed it with water.
After cooking like this for more than an hour, a lot of the water in the pot that was originally full has now dried up.
But now the remaining juice in the pot has been boiled into a black gelatinous state.
While Zhang An was busy in the kitchen, Su Ying was so curious that she ran in to see what Zhang An was doing.
"Zhang An, the delicious food you told me must be these dark juices, right?"
Watching Zhang An pour the branches, grass and leaves in the pot onto the gauze to filter, and finally What's left is a basin of black water.
"Wits, this thing eats this black water."
As soon as Zhang An finished speaking, Su Ying lowered her head and smelled it.
"Is this really edible? You should drink it directly, it's a bit strange, and it's also a bit pungent."
The water boiled by the grass jelly looks like black It was like Chinese medicine, and Su Ying couldn't accept it.
"Fool, this isn't done yet. It's only half done. When it's done, it will be like jelly."
Because Zhang An used gauze, so Filter out all the branches and leaves of the grass jelly in one go.
If you use a filter, the filtered water must be filtered again.
Because the cleaner the filtered grass jelly, the more delicate and smooth it tastes.
He was worried that the taste of the fairy grass jelly that would be prepared later would be bland, so Zhang An mixed brown sugar powder and honey with water in advance.
Then pour the filtered black water into the just-mixed sugar water, put it on the fire and heat it slowly.
At the same time, pour in the starch that has just been prepared with water, and stir while heating, so that they can gel well.
"Okay, that's almost it."
Zhang An looked at the black water in the pot, which had begun to look thick and gelatinous.
Just take the pot off the heat and set it aside to cool.
It’s a pity that there are no fruits at this time. It would be better to squeeze some juice.
Although there is it in the space, it is difficult to take it out and explain it now.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it. After it cools down, it will condense into a large piece, just like jelly, and you can take it out then. Eat.”
In fact, it could be put in the refrigerator to speed up cooling, but Zhang An did not do that.
Because when it was just taken off the fire, the temperature was quite high, which is not good for the refrigerator.
In addition, the quickly frozen grass jelly does not taste very good.
Zhang An tried it in later generations, because it was cold outside but still hot in the middle.
"Let's go, it's getting late, we should go and light the fire in the grill."
(End of this chapter)