After drinking and playing at Han Chuang's house for a day, Chen Ling brought back the sunflower seeder, and then spent a few days tidying up the ground, drying the sunflower seeds and sowing them, and then stopped caring about it.

The main thing is that it rains a lot recently, and it rains every now and then, and the amount of rain is not too small, which makes the guards stationed at Chenwangzhuang very nervous. You can often see three or five of them holding umbrellas in the reservoir on heavy rainy days.

When patrolling the dam, Wang Laishun would sometimes be dragged up to watch him everywhere.

The villagers were also nervous, and the Lord worshiped the Dragon by burning incense and candles every day.

However, after last year's flood, the dams of various houses were built high and the food had been sold long ago, so we were not too worried about the house being destroyed like last year.

The main worries are about the crops in the fields, which have just started to grow, so they won’t be flooded again. And they are worried about “leaving their hometowns” again to hide from disasters, which makes people panic. It is too uncomfortable when there is no stability.

Later, I saw that although the rain this year was coming fiercely, it only happened every now and then, and it didn't make a difference, so I felt relieved.

When the weather is good, the villagers are still in the mood to go to the mountains to collect medicine, because Gastrodia elata has come down recently, and it is time to collect Gastrodia elata. Even Wang Cunye often takes advantage of Chen Ling's free time to give him the task of herding sheep.

Carrying a bamboo basket and a medicine hoe, I took the little yellow dog into the mountains.

Today my father-in-law went there again and took Wang Zhenzhen up the mountain to collect herbs.

Chen Ling, after the sunflowers emerged, dug trenches in the field for drainage while herding sheep.

There used to be drainage ditches in the fields. When it rained heavily, the water discharged from the farm would flow along the ditches into the rivers and fields. However, since the sunflowers had just been planted and it rained more recently, Chen Ling blocked the ditches. Now it is

Dig the trench deeper again.

After the rain, eel holes can be seen everywhere in the ditch. When Chen Ling dug the drainage ditch, he also saw two eels sticking their heads out. Unfortunately, they were too thin and small, so he was too lazy to catch them.

In the past, he would have dug holes whenever he saw them, regardless of their size. But now, there are too many eels in the farm's ditch, and the small ones are completely uninteresting to him.

"Mea~"

"Baa~baa~"

There was a sudden commotion among the sheep grazing on both sides of the field. Chen Ling turned around and saw that it was a wet-haired mountain raccoon jumping out of the orchard with a water bird in his mouth. After coming out, he glanced at Chen Ling.

, then fled away in panic, as fast as lightning, and quickly disappeared into the dense grass.

"This guy, the mountain raccoon has also come here." Chen Ling was stunned for a moment, then walked into the orchard and walked around. The two dogs Heiwa and Xiaojin were still patrolling everywhere, not paying attention to the mountain raccoon that sneaked into the orchard.

What a reaction.

With their tempers, if they didn't react, it was nothing. The mountain raccoon definitely didn't provoke anything in the house, it was just a water bird.

"There are more and more birds in the forest, which is a bit too inviting for wild things to eat."

In this season, there is actually a lot of food in the wild, including crickets, grasshoppers, old poles and other insects. But for small beasts like mountain civets, birds are more delicious, and you can eat just one.

It can fill your stomach and is quite tempting.

"You two, watch carefully. If there is any wild thing coming, drive it away when you need to, and warn when you need to warn." Chen Ling ordered the two dogs.

Mountain geese are very wild. If left alone, they will easily take advantage of them. Moreover, they are too fast and come and go like the wind. There is no good way to catch them. Even if you raise big geese, there is nothing you can do with them.

The ferocious mountain raccoons will go to other people's homes to catch geese to eat, so they still have to rely on dogs.

Unfortunately, the kite was in estrus during this period and went out to look for a man. I went home several times and didn't see him in the nest.

Otherwise, if you call the kite over, you can calm down many small beasts.

"Well, the kites haven't come back yet, so you can call a few weasels over first. There are no fewer birds here than there are at the reservoir, and there will definitely be enough for them to eat."

With this thought in his mind, Chen Ling continued to herd the sheep.

But he soon discovered that both big and small sheep like to get close to the same plant. It is a small tree that does not grow very tall. Its leaves are very similar to cotton leaves, but rougher. When the sheep see it, they will

He leaned forward and rolled his tongue around the leaf. After biting it off, his mouth kept moving and he ate it very happily.

Chen Ling walked over curiously, broke off a leaf and looked at it, and found white sap dripping from the cut part of the branch. He immediately knew what it was.

"There are so many peach tree saplings growing at once. It rains all the time and the water in our house is flooded. Wild animals and wild trees come too."

The wolfberry tree is also called paper mulberry.

This tree is a miscellaneous tree in the mountains. It is easy to attract beetles. The trunk is often drilled with large holes and small holes. It is covered with wormholes and burrs. It cannot be used as a timber at all. It is useless except as firewood.

The reason why it is called the wolfberry peach tree is because this tree will bear a kind of red fruit, which looks like a bayberry, but will gradually grow and spread out when mature. The locals call it red wolfberry peach or dog apple.

When cooked, it will fall to the ground, leaving a sticky lake on the ground. It also attracts flies, which can be said to be annoying to everyone.

However, birds love to eat them and will carry the seeds to all directions.

This tree has extremely strong vitality and is known as the northern banyan tree. It can take root and sprout as long as it comes into contact with water vapor.

In and outside the village, in fields and mountains, in cracks between stones, in latrines, and even on roofs and courtyard walls, wherever there are wolfberry seeds, saplings more than two meters high will grow if you are not careful, making many people hate it.

.

Moreover, wolfberry is difficult to remove. Even if the trunk is cut and the roots are dug out, as long as there are fibrous roots, they will still sprout and grow back the next year.

However, it is not without some benefits.

The leaves of paper mulberry have a special smell, animals like to eat them, and they are quite nutritious.

Whenever the amaranth and sweet potato vines are finished, and pigweed cannot be obtained, the pig farmers will pick the leaves of the tree to feed the pigs. However, the pigs often do not have enough to eat. If they pick a basket full of leaves and go back, the pigs will eat it in one meal.

It's done.

Not only pigs like to eat this stuff, but cattle, sheep, and even rabbits also like to eat it. It is a good natural feed.

"Oh, let's keep it for now. Although it may grow and spread easily, this is what we are least afraid of."

Seeing that there was no one around, Chen Ling pulled out two small saplings and threw them into the cave, intending to cultivate them when he had time.

With his current control over the cave, he can arbitrarily divide plots in it and isolate areas from each other, so he doesn't have to worry about it growing everywhere and causing flooding.

"It is said that paper mulberry cannot be grafted onto any fruit tree, but I would like to try it."

The tenacious vitality of paper mulberry made Chen Ling jealous. "It would be great if it had such tenacious vitality and the fruits were delicious. And in China, as long as the fruit is delicious enough, such a tree is not afraid of it at all."

flood."

While he was thinking about things, he didn't even notice that his father-in-law came back with his sister-in-law to collect medicine.

At almost noon, when we drove the sheep back to the sheepfold and went to the back of the farm to cook, Wang Cunye and his daughter had already been cracking firewood next to the firewood pile for a long time.

"Dad, Zhenzhen, you are back. How was your harvest today?"

"It's not bad. After you contracted this place, everyone knows that you raise chickens and ducks here, and no one comes to the mountain. It's easy for me to find it."

Wang Cunye said with a smile while holding an axe.

Wang Zhenzhen squatted on the ground next to the firewood pile and kept picking up bugs in the firewood. When he picked it up, he held it in his hand and moved to the next place to continue picking up.

Chen Ling walked over and took a look and found that he was picking up "Mu Huan'er".

Muhuan'er is a bug that eats firewood, and is also called firewood bug and wood flower. Their local name "Mu Huan'er" here is based on "wood flower".

This kind of bug looks very similar to silkworm babies, is white to yellow in color, and is rather ugly.

Fresh firewood was cut back from the mountains and piled in the open space. If there was wood Huan'er in the firewood, it would often make a "rustling-chacha-" sound of insects eating the wood.

They are beetle larvae, similar to sawworms, but they are cleaner than sawworms, do not burrow into the soil, and taste better.

Chen Ling remembered that when he was a child, there was an old man in the village who would often pick up wood Huan'er while cracking firewood and eat it raw. It was said that it tasted slightly sweet when chewed and did not cause diaphragm or nausea. He had never tasted it and did not know what it was like.

Fake.

He had never eaten it raw, but he had eaten it cooked. It was considered a rare delicacy when he was a child.

These little bugs are almost entirely made of meat. When fried in a pan, they taste fragrant and crispy, with the unique fragrance of trees. The more you chew, the more flavorful they become, making you want to bite off your tongue.

"Really, don't pick that one, go look for it among the firewood of the paper mulberry tree. The wood huan'er is the most abundant in the paper mulberry tree."

Chen Ling walked over and reminded, then he brought a small bucket from the kitchen, and he and his sister-in-law also looked for Mu Huan'er. One big and one small rummaged through the firewood pile, and the small bucket was quickly filled with Mu Huan'er.

Most of them were packed with white bugs crawling back and forth.

Listening to the "rustling" sound inside the keg, Chen Ling was filled with satisfaction, "Dad, fry some Mu Huan'er for lunch, let's drink some."

"Just drink. By the way, if you just talk about drinking, I will brew some medicine for you. Didn't your branch secretary tell you two days ago that the leader is very satisfied..."

Wang Cunye patted the wood ashes on his palms and said: "Gastrodia elata has fallen just now. Make some wine from the elata. I can also make wine for you with platycodon, but I can't make it with a higher alcohol content. What do you think?

?”

"Okay, but there's no need to rush. I'll bring back a few more tanks in two days. I'll help you then, and the two of us can do it slowly."

Chen Ling thought for a moment and concluded that fruit wine was probably a one-time deal. After all, the price was indeed not cheap.

So I went into the kitchen to cook and fried Mu Huan'er. At noon, I put out the wine and drank with my father-in-law happily over the crisp and fragrant fried Mu Huan'er.

After drinking and eating, I went upstairs to take a nap.

In the afternoon, Chen Ling stayed with his wife and son, lying on the bed and reading a newspaper. From time to time, he read a few passages to his wife and son.

He himself was very interested, saying that he wanted to provide a good environment for his son.

But Ruirui was so young, how could he know what he was doing? Listening to him reading next to him, he slept very soundly.

Chen Ling was very helpless, saying that this brat would definitely not be good at studying when he grew up, and how could he fall asleep when he heard the sound of reading.

Wang Susu was so amused that she lay on the bed laughing.

She always felt that after having her son, her husband seemed to have become much more childish.
To be continued...