I can't see the sun this morning and it's a bit hot.
It's almost noon now, and the temperature is getting hotter. It's cloudy, but there are no dark clouds yet...
Ye Mo paid attention to the weather station in Dongmen Town. The weather station said there would be heavy rain this evening.
Although Madam Xiaomian’s watermelon field has ditches, they are not deep and the terrain here is relatively low. If there is a heavy rainstorm, it is easy for water to accumulate.
"Dad." Ye Mo took out his phone and called his father-in-law.
"ah?"
"I'm here, and it may rain heavily tonight. The melon fields here don't have very good drainage. You can drive the tractor over, hook up the ditching machine, and I'll help dig the ditch deeper.
"Ye Mo said.
"Well, okay... come over right away. There is also a walking tractor, can you bring it over with us?"
"Get it here." Ye Mo said.
There are four watermelon fields on the eldest lady's side, scattered at different heights.
It rained twice in May, with loud thunder and light raindrops... before they officially enter the rainy season here, there will be a heavy rainstorm.
Ye Mo waited here for a while, and Lin Shan drove the orchard transport truck to deliver the machine. As for the tractor, Lin Xiaomian drove over.
I only bought a 32-horsepower small tractor about a week ago.
Ye Mo went over to help assemble the trenching machine...
"Is it going to rain heavily today?" Lin Shan said.
"That's what the weather forecast said." Ye Mo said, "The melon fields here don't have deep ditches. I'll help Erxian dig a deep ditch around the melon fields."
"Yeah." Lin Shan nodded.
Drilling deep trenches is not only for drainage. In the future, you can also use the deep trenches to determine whether you need to water the watermelon...
Deep trenches can store some water to ensure the moisture of the soil around the melon vines.
Watermelon is more afraid of waterlogging than drought.
If you want to store water in the watermelon field, you can only use deep ditches. The amount of water cannot be too much...
Specifically, the soil around the melon vines must maintain a certain humidity. You can judge this humidity yourself.
The watermelons grown here are also very large and given a lot of organic fertilizer.
Ye Mo drove the excavator down and dug a deep trench 27 centimeters wide and nearly 1 meter deep along the edge of the melon field.
This is solid soil, not sandy soil. It would be convenient to dig deep trenches...
Lin Shan used a tractor to dig vertical ditches in the melon fields.
It's almost noon.
After Ye Mo and the others had been working in the fields for a while, the eldest lady called them over to eat.
Lunch was cooked by Lin Xiaomian and Xiaomian's mother at the eldest lady's house.
Niu Youde took out a beer and said, "Have you sorted out all your work on the mountain?"
"It's straightened out." Lin Shan said with a smile: "Now... the commuting time is basically fixed, and there is not much overtime."
Niu Youde smiled: "That's good, don't delay you because of my affairs."
"No delay..." Ye Mo said, "We said before that we would dig deep ditches for your melon fields here, but I had too many trivial matters here, so I forgot about it."
"I saw someone measuring land on a gravel slope a few days ago. Has the land over there been contracted?"
"It has been contracted, and the total is 89 acres," Niu Youde said.
"So much?" Ye Mo said.
"These 89 acres of land are all flat. Shallow hills and slopes cannot be reclaimed..." Niu Youde said.
"Our family contracted 20 acres. Your second uncle's family contracted 20 acres, and Tang Xun's family also contracted 20 acres. The remaining 29 acres were contracted by Chen Chen and his family..." Sister Xiaomian smiled and said: "Our family's 20 acres of land
, we are also planning to allocate 10 acres to the second son’s family for planting.”
The two of them managed twenty acres of melon fields, which was indeed tiring, but not impossible.
For example, the melon field at Ye Mo's side, calculated... it is equivalent to managing ten acres per person.
"Ma'am, 10 acres of land, you can turn it into a greenhouse." Lin Xiaomian said, "Ye Mo said, the risk of managing watermelons in a greenhouse is much smaller. Moreover, the watermelons can be guaranteed to mature early in the greenhouse, and the seedlings are not afraid of frostbite."
"We are also considering it." Niu Youde said: "Let's see how the harvest of watermelons in the field is. Besides, a ten-acre greenhouse requires a lot of investment. We have never grown watermelons before..."
"Take your time." Lin Shan said with a smile.
Had a meal.
The sky outside seems to be getting darker, and it feels like a heavy rain is coming.
Ye Mo and the others did not go back to rest. They put down their bowls and chopsticks and hurried to the melon field to continue digging ditches.
Lin Xiaomian took a kitchen knife, and went to the banana forest with her mother, cut down two banana trees... and put the bananas back in the trees.
The banana seedlings Ye Mo bought last year and planted near the reservoir have already started to grow, with more than a dozen of them blooming. It is still very early for banana picking.
Afternoon.
The sky was overcast and extremely hot.
Ye Mo was covered in sweat while sitting on the tractor digging ditches.
Niu Youde and Lin Shan exchanged use of tractors...
The maiden and Xiaomian's mother dug out the soil with hoes.
A group of people were working in full swing.
After three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was getting darker and darker, and the muffled thunder could be heard faintly.
There are still two fields left, which add up to more than an acre. Ye Mo adjusted the trenching machine to only open about half a meter to speed up the work.
Lin Shan and the others are doing the same thing. They need to fix the drainage first. As for the other things, don’t worry about it.
The thunder became louder and louder.
It was past four o'clock, and the ditches had not yet been repaired. Raindrops began to fall from the sky. Accompanied by bursts of thunder, it looked like it was going to be dark.
Only the last bit is left. There must be no problem with the drainage of the melon fields. A heavy rain came down, and several people were soon soaked in the water...
"Okay, okay, let's not do it anymore. Let's go back." Niu Youde shouted.
"It's done." Lin Shan also shouted.
Ye Mo put away the ditching machine. Xiaomian's mother and the others came over and dug out the soil...
"Dad, Mom, I'm going back first." Ye Mo said.
"Okay." Lin Shan responded.
"Come over for dinner tonight," the eldest lady called.
"Forget it. This rain will definitely not stop in the evening... and it won't come over." Ye Mo said.
"We can't come here at night, such a big fish." Lin Shan also said.
"Okay, come over for dinner another day."
"Hahaha... We are still talking about that. Come on, pack your things and go back."
The rain was heavy and pouring.
Ye Mo drove the tractor back to the mountain, and the heavy downpour had blocked his view.
Entering the large warehouse, Ye Mo touched his eyes and saw Lin Xiaomian inside the warehouse.
Ye Mo drove the tractor to the corner and looked at Lin Xiaomian: "Why did you run over here?"
"Come to pick you up." Lin Xiaomian said, "Where are my parents?"
"In the back." Ye Mo was about to pinch Lin Xiaomian's cheeks when his parents drove in in an orchard transport truck.
The Hongqi SUV was in the warehouse. Everyone shook off the water and got into the car...
"We don't want to make the car dirty." Xiao Mian's mother said.
"If it's dirty, it's dirty. Ask Lin Xiaomian to wash it." Ye Mo said with a smile.
