Chapter 221 Childlike looking forward to the children
There was not much rain this spring. After a few pattering spring rains, wisps of warm wind blew on my face. Spring is here, with pink willows and red willows, grass growing and orioles flying, and the bright scenery The sunshine and the gentle breeze make everything look brand new after the arrival of spring.
The rolling mountains have also turned green, and the melodious and melodious songs of birds are everywhere. The swallows have returned, carrying mud in their mouths and building nests on the beams under the eaves. The birds in the mountains and forests are also brilliant. Screaming with joy in the spring light.
This morning, Chen Ling led the cow to Laohewan. He saw a few large trees scattered on the river bank, and the trees became full of fresh green. Colorful wild flowers bloomed by the river, conspicuously There are a bunch of wild roses, and the flowers are as white as snow, and the fragrance is overflowing.
Pick off a strong twig of a wild rose, tear off the skin and stuff it into your mouth. It feels sweet and crunchy. Squatting down and taking a closer look, among the green aquatic plants by the river, groups of black tadpoles swung their tails and swam slowly.
Chen Ling picked up the fish basket and fished it out. After a few fish catches, half of the fish basket was filled. It really didn't take too much.
Small fish, shrimps and tadpoles are good things to feed chickens and ducks. For farmers, how much grain bran can be saved? If you eat too much food in the wild, chickens and ducks will lay more eggs. , accomplish multiple things with one stone.
He came to Laohewan this morning. In addition to getting some food for the chickens and ducks, he also brought the little white cow to take a bath and wash it. After all, the little white cow had been helping out for more than half a month. It’s time to give it a rest and feel comfortable while doing farm work.
In more than half a month, with the help of my father-in-law and mother-in-law, I have planted wheat, rapeseed, watermelon, and left a two-acre vegetable garden with all kinds of vegetables. Ling also planted a lot, including sweet corn and sorghum along the ridges.
Pull down two handfuls of water plants and feed the calf. Chen Ling took off his shoes, rolled up his trouser legs, led the calf into the water, and washed its body.
Seeing the little white cow squinting its eyes in comfort, its whole body gradually sinking in the water, and happily kicking its legs to swim towards the deep water, Chen Ling smiled softly and followed closely.
He took the cow to play in the water, and kingfishers around him flew across the water from time to time, splashing water droplets and catching fish and shrimp in the water.
A few big white geese that are not afraid of people were playing in the river and preening their feathers.
A group of ducks are lying upside down in the river, looking for food from the bottom of the water. Only their butts are visible but their heads are not visible. This funny and unique way of foraging is a unique one.
“You can play here, I’ll go for a walk in the mountains.”
After washing the little white calf, Chen Ling saw it sinking at the bottom of the water, blowing bubbles, swimming around and having a great time, so Chen Ling patted its head and turned around and walked to the shore.
When I stepped ashore, I stepped on a slippery mussel on the bottom of the river. I didn’t even lean down, but just dug it out of the mud with my feet. With a kick, the big mussel flew to the shore.
"Hey, it hurts so much. Why didn't you feel it when you kicked it when you were a kid?"
Chen Ling took a breath of cool air, rubbed his feet, and walked to the shore.
Then he picked up river mussels, grabbed two handfuls of withered yellow reeds, wiped his feet clean, put on his shoes, stood up and whistled twice into the distance.
Soon, a yellow-clawed hawk flew from a distance and landed on his shoulder.
Chen Ling reached out and touched the kite's curved beak and fed it two mouthfuls of spiritual water.
Then he pointed at the group of sparrows on the field ridge not far away and said, "Go."
At the command, the kite on the shoulder immediately fluttered its wings and pointed towards the group of sparrows not far away. He swooped down and turned into a sharp arrow that shot into the grass.
The sharp claws fell, and the sparrows let out a series of chirping screams and flew away in all directions.
Then the kite flapped its wings and returned, landing in front of Chen Ling with a bloody prey in its mouth.
"Awesome, this is not much better than Yao Zike's kite." Chen Ling clicked his tongue in admiration.
I was thinking about taking the kite to the mountains for a walk, but unexpectedly a few weasels snuck over. Xiao Huang and Xiao Pang rubbed against him affectionately when they saw him.
The three younger ones stood up straight eagerly, looking at the sparrows in the kite's mouth, and chirped softly, like greedy cats.
The kite was so full of feathers that it was full of alertness.
"Go, go, go, I'm still trying to compete with the kites for food, so I'll give you a paw and I'll be honest." Chen Ling gently kicked them away and scolded.
Recently, the native swallows have flown back, and the sparrows that occupied the swallow holes for the winter in the dam and surrounding cliffs have been driven away again. The native swallows are more vigilant and united than the sparrows and other thieves in their hometown. These little things It is rare to succeed in sneak attacks on Tuyanzi.
Other birds are almost ready to lay eggs, and they are not easy to catch. The insects have not grown yet. They are as small as shrimps and cannot fill their stomachs at all.
A few weasels haven't had a good winter yet, so they stay at home all day long, eating and drinking all day long.
Now I see a kite catching a sparrow, and I want to come over and get a share of the pie.
"Let's go up the mountain with me and come back to find food for you."
They all listened to Chen Ling's words and ran beside his feet up the mountain.
Soon, the kite also ate the sparrow and flew over after it.
Fortunately, no one went up the mountain at this time, otherwise I would have been shocked to see this battle.
Indeed.
At this moment, if he replaces the hoe in his hand with a bow and arrow, replaces the several weasels beside him with a few dogs, and adds the kites on his shoulders, he will really be a hunting map of a playboy.
......
In fact, Nanshan has the gentlest slope among the three mountains. People like to come to Nanshan the most. In the past, the spring water on Nanshan was the best. People went up the mountain to fetch water every day. It is Xishan, because Xishan has the most wild fruits, medicinal materials, and mushrooms, which can be exchanged for money.
The one I least like to go to is Beishan next to Chen Ling's farm. There are too many wild animals and poisonous insects, so it's not a good place to go.
In the old days, wolves, insects, tigers and leopards all appeared from Beishan. Even the highest peak was named after Langdiao Rock, which shows.
After entering the forest, I took out the basket and dug up spring bamboo shoots, wolfberry heads, and wild garlic with a hoe...
In spring, there are fresh and green wild vegetables everywhere.
Malan and Di Di vegetables can be seen everywhere on Tianqiao Road. Gao Xiulan has made vegetable steamed buns and vegetable noodle dumplings at home several times in the past few days, especially vegetable noodle dumplings, dipped in sesame oil and vinegar and chili oil. They all smell very good.
But if you want to stir-fry with meat, you should mainly use bamboo shoots, which will taste good when you eat them.
After digging half a basket of bamboo shoots and picking half a basket of wild vegetables, Chen Ling was about to walk down the mountain. Several weasels suddenly straightened up and barked softly at the bushes in one direction. Then they looked back at Chen Ling. He looked like he was about to make a move.
It seemed that he had discovered something and was asking him if he wanted to rush over.
However, before Chen Ling could react, there was a rustle in the bushes, and he saw a gray-brown hen pheasant running wildly into the distance with a group of pheasant chicks.
"It's a pheasant. I thought you guys saw something."
The pheasant ran away, and Chen Ling had no intention of chasing it. He just called to the unwilling little one. The weasels turned and walked down the mountain.
Next, the weasels found many bird nests in the trees above their heads.
It's March in spring, and the birds in the mountains are hatching eggs and breeding one after another. There are bird nests on tree branches, tree holes, and stone nests, and most of them have adult birds incubating eggs in the nests.
This made the three little weasels so greedy that they kept shouting and begging Chen Ling to eat the bird eggs.
Chen Ling didn't pay attention to them.
If he had been a child, he would have climbed up the tree and picked them all out without the little things reminding him.
As for now, of course he won't do that.
Even in the winter, he used sticky bird nets to net birds, and all the beneficial birds were released, leaving only the local thieves, magpies, turtle doves and other harmful ones. These things overflowed in the mountains, overwhelming them. , with them, crop seedlings will suffer a lot.
However, even for such a bird, one cannot over hunt it.
Because after 1998, pesticides were used on a large scale in their local area, and the number of birds in the mountains decreased significantly. For many years, sparrows became rare.
Chen Ling still remembers that a few years ago, you could often see dead sparrows, swallows, magpies, etc. in the fields. Some birds even ate poisonous insects with pesticides and flew in the air. He just fell to the ground and died.
A large flock of these Wuyang Wuyang, the overflowing birds, soon became very few.
For example, for the native swallows, only three or five were seen sporadically later on, which was not a common sight.
Thinking of this, Chen Ling naturally had to pay attention to one thing: no matter whether it was a beneficial bird or a harmful bird, he should not catch it too recklessly.
Otherwise, there are kites and weasels, and those pheasants, even the big ones and the little ones, wouldn’t be able to escape.
I was thinking about the pheasant. In the grass beside the mountain road, another pheasant cackled and flew up with its wings fluttering, its feathers flying down in the air like reed flowers.
Seeing this, the little weasels immediately swarmed towards the place where the pheasant flew out.
Chen Ling also walked over.
Sure enough, it is another pheasant nest, and there are more than ten pheasant eggs.
“This guy, in the spring, the mountains really become lively, there are bird nests and eggs everywhere.”
Chen Ling was so happy that he picked up a few wild eggs that had rolled out of the nest. Put it in your own bamboo basket.
Wild eggs are different from bird eggs.
You can take wild eggs, but be careful not to take them all.
The villagers love to encounter wild eggs and wild duck eggs, which are just like pie in the sky. They are gifts from nature.
Wild animals generally don’t know how to count. As long as they don’t sweep away all the eggs in the nest, leaving half, even a small half, three or five eggs behind. If you look at them in a few days, there will be ten more inside. There are only a few of them, and they are almost the same as those raised at home.
Of course.
It won't work if you take them all at once. It's just like an old hen at home. Sometimes if you take all the eggs from the nest, the chicken will no longer go to the nest to lay eggs.
Seeing Chen Ling take a few wild eggs, the three little weasels thought they were for them, so they climbed into his basket to eat, but Chen Ling pinched the back of his neck and pulled them out.
"Don't worry, I told you I will take you to find food later. I still have use for these eggs."
There is an old hen nesting in the house, just in time to hatch some chicks and ducks. These pheasant eggs You can also try hatching a few and raising them.
……
Walk to the bottom of the mountain.
The little white cow is still immersed in the joy of playing in the water.
Chen Ling looked around. The wheat seedlings were jointed and spread out thickly on the field. The wildflowers on the roadside were blooming. There were not many people in the wheat field at this time, and they were all busy in the distance. , so he put down the bamboo basket, walked to the hiding place, took out a bucket from the cave, filled half a bucket of water from the river, and led a few weasels to fill the mouse holes for them.
Just now I saw several newly dug mouse holes in the grass beside the mountain road. Looking at the piles of broken soil at the entrance of the holes, these mouse holes should be quite large, enough for the weasels to have a good meal.
Then I found the nearest mouse hole and poured water into it.
It's not autumn anyway. At this time, the gophers won't store food in their holes, they just fill them with water.
Most of the bucket of water quickly filled the mouse hole.
Several weasels and kites all gathered around, watching with curiosity and expectation.
Within two minutes, the gopher inside couldn't hold his breath and ran out to look around to see what was going on outside.
Seeing people standing outside, as well as weasels and hawks, surrounded by three natural enemies, the wet gopher shrank back in fright.
Chen Ling ignored it and continued to pour water.
The mouse soon couldn't hold on any longer and rushed out desperately dragging its wet body.
At this time, Xiao Huang and Xiao Pang reacted most quickly. With one swoop, they had bitten the two mice and killed them quickly.
Following this, several mice escaped from the hole on the other side.
The three little weasels also set out one after another, chasing after them.
But there were too many rats, and the weasels couldn't catch them.
Seeing this, Chen Ling shook his shoulders, and a black shadow with yellow claws flew out, then fell rapidly from the sky and flew straight into the grass, but the kite also took action.
That’s it, no one in the nest of voles was able to escape. As usual, Chen Ling fed the kite some spiritual water as a reward.
Then he picked up the bucket and filled up the water, filling all the mouse holes on the surrounding mountain roads.
It took about twenty minutes, but none of the gophers in these mouse holes could escape. They were often captured by weasels as soon as they met.
The weasels couldn't catch up, and the kites were still watching, but they were all in vain.
"Very good, I will practice with Heiwa and the others from now on, and you can go hunting with them."
Chen Ling touched them happily and praised them.
After eating the mouse, the three little weasels were very energetic, sniffing here and there, and then ran away quickly.
Chen Ling didn't care about them. It was almost noon and he was ready to call the little white cow home.
Three little things suddenly ran back screaming, shaking their heads and jumping up and down.
Chen Ling knelt down and took a look, "What's wrong? Have you been stung by a scorpion?"
These little fools are a little unlucky... Now that the weather is getting warmer, scorpions and so on The poisonous insects are also out and about.
With their restless nature, it is normal to provoke scorpions.
“Hey, it’s not a scorpion, it’s a bee.”
When the three little guys lay down at his feet aggrievedly, Chen Ling discovered that there were one or two bees on their noses.
Bees are different from wasps in that their poison stingers are connected to the poison glands in their internal organs. As soon as the attack is carried out, the barbs on the poisonous needle will hook the skin and pull out the internal organs, making it difficult to fly away.
He reached out to help them pull out the poisonous stingers from their faces and noses, and then threw them aside.
Only then did Chen Ling notice that among the wild roses on the river bank not far away, there were many bees buzzing around collecting honey.
Wild roses are also called white can flowers here, and they are more likely to attract bees and butterflies in spring.
"If you are dishonest, you will provoke something bad. If you provoke bees, you deserve to be stung."
Chen Ling was so confused by them that he didn't pay much attention. Being stung by bees is not a big deal. It can be done in a long time. Reduce swelling.
At this time, the little white cow swam over from the river.
When we came ashore, there was so much noise that the bees in the flowers flew away in all directions, flying out in large swaths.
“This guy is incredible, he’s just stabbed the beehive.”
He walked over and took a look. It was really a honeycomb. There were many yellow-brown spots scattered on the leaves of the wild rose.
The little kid who took out the honeycomb knew that it was bee dung.
Where there is a lot of bee droppings, there must be honeycombs.
Because bees love to be clean. When they go out to collect honey or fly back to the honeycomb, they will excrete the feces in their bodies to ensure that the honey is clean.
So it makes sense that everyone dares to eat honey directly.
"Good guy, I picked up wild eggs and almost poked a bee nest. I was more playful than the kids in the village."
Chen Ling smiled.
I thought that if my doll ran away in the future, it would be more interesting to bring the doll over to play.
Then I couldn't help but laugh at myself. My wife was only half a year away from giving birth. Why did I start looking forward to having a child now?
(End of this chapter)