Defeat natural disasters with farming

Early the next morning, when Ye Yu woke up, he felt that the temperature around his body was getting lower and lower as he got up. He took a deep breath, first put his clothes under the quilt to warm up, and waited for his body to warm up. The temperature was almost up, so I struggled to put on clothes under the covers.

As soon as he opened the door, he was stunned. The snow outside the door had already accumulated as deep as his calf, but it still didn't stop. He could feel the slightest pain when it hit his face. .

The snowflakes falling one after another seemed like a hole had been broken in the sky. They were dense and dense. When I looked up, I couldn't even see a cloud, it was dark and gloomy.

Ye Yu shrank his head, opened an umbrella in the snowstorm and went to the main room. It happened that the whole family was gathered there. Seeing him coming, Mrs. Ye hurriedly took out the steamed buns.

"Let's make do with something to eat first, and after the snow stops, the chimney will be dug out, and then I will cook something delicious for you."

The mantou is steamed, and the taste is average, but it has a strong aroma of wheat. Ye Yu bit it down and chewed a few mouthfuls before swallowing it. The aftertaste has a slight sweetness, which belongs to the sweetness of starch, and it is very satisfying to eat.

Unexpectedly, after breakfast, the snow fell more and more heavily. Seeing this, the old man Ye frowned, and after a while, he raised his hand to put out the dry smoke, and said to Ye Laoer: "Don't wait, wait a little longer!" It's getting dark, let's go up and have a look, maybe the chimney is blocked."

It is easy to say that the chimney is blocked, but the worst case is that the kang passage is blocked. It is really troublesome to clean the kang passage. It is necessary to disassemble the kang passage section by section to find the blocked place and unblock it.

Ye Lao Er shook his head and nodded, "Father, don't go up, just ask Brother Hai to go with me."

Ye Hai is now 15 years old, and his family basically regards him as an adult.

Aunt Ye immediately agreed after hearing the words: "Yes, your waist is not good, and it will be bad if something happens to you when you go up."

"Stop trying to persuade us, the three of us, grandparents and grandchildren, together." Old man Ye finally made a decision, "Time waits for no one, let's go now."

Ye Lao Er responded, first went back to the house and changed into old clothes, then took out a hemp rope from the firewood shed, tied the stone Ye Hai found to the end of the hemp rope, and when they came out of the firewood shed, they would see Old man Ye has already put the ladder on the wall, just waiting for someone to go up.

"Father, you and Geer Hai are holding the ladder below, and I will go up and poke the chimney with a stone."

Immediately afterwards, before Old Man Ye could reply, Second Ye climbed up the ladder three times, five times and two times. He was very agile. After he got to the roof, he squatted by the chimney and looked inside. It was pitch black and he couldn't see anything. .

So he hung the twine in his hand down the flue, and pulled the twine up and down so that the stone at the end would scrape away the blockage that was attached to the chimney.

At this time, Mrs. Ye and the others in the house were not idle, they all changed into old clothes, and lay down in front of the stove to take out the fallen dirt with a broom.

Most of the things that fell were gray-black clods, but when they dug out, they suddenly pulled out a dead sparrow. It was unknown how long it had been in the chimney, and it was covered in soot.

Seeing this, Mrs. Ye clasped her hands together, recited a sentence of Buddha, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief and buried it outside the house.

The most rejoicing thing is that the worst situation they expected did not happen. It was the chimney that was blocked instead of the kang road. There was smoke, which made the Ye family members heave a sigh of relief.

At noon, Mrs. Ye and her three daughters-in-law made a pot of chaotic stew. There were beans, potatoes, cabbage, fungus and pork ribs in the pot. They were stewed with miso and served with corn bread. It was a hearty lunch.

This year's miso is a bit salty, but their family has a strong taste, and the saltier miso is eaten faster, and the two large jars of miso are only left at the bottom.

This made Mrs. Ye sigh with emotion: "It seems that we can order more miso in March next year."

Miso has a wide range of uses. It can be used when making pickles, when making stews in iron pots, and even when making pancakes. They are simply omnipotent here, and every dish can be used Add some sauce to it.

Ye Yu also loves this taste very much, especially when dipping cucumbers in sauce in summer, he can eat two or three cucumbers in one go.

Halfway through the meal, Ye Yu covered her mouth and yawned quietly. She didn't sleep well last night and had a night of bizarre dreams, but when she woke up in the morning, she couldn't remember anything except the snowstorm.

Seeing this, Mother Ye asked him to go back to the house to sleep for a while after he finished his meal.

But just as he was about to fall asleep, there was a muffled knock on the door.

At this time, the snow was as deep as his knees. Ye Hai ran to open the door from the cleared path in the yard, and was surprised to find his father and third uncle outside the door.

They were wearing coir raincoats, their eyebrows were covered with snowflakes, and their faces turned blue from the cold.

Ye Hai quickly welcomed the two of them in, and shouted loudly: "Grandma, mother, third aunt, my father and third uncle are back."

As soon as the shout came out, the old lady Ye, who was knitting sweaters in the main room, was immediately startled. When she came out quickly, she saw the distressed appearance of her two sons, and she exclaimed, "My God, what are you two doing at this time?" Back? Such a big snow."

"Hurry up and get warm in the house."

Mrs. Ye drove the two of them into the house, and then ordered her daughter-in-law to cook two bowls of noodles so that her two sons could eat hot.

Father Ye sat on the kang and took a sip of boiling hot water, and sighed comfortably, feeling his whole body come back to life.

Only then did he explain to his family why they came back.

"The store has no materials, and the lo mei has been sold out long ago. In addition, the snow is getting heavier and heavier, and no one wants to go out. We simply closed the store. It happened that people in our village were also blocked by the snow today. Once we got to the county seat, we came back together together."

Speaking of this, Father Ye gave a wry smile, "Who knew that the snow would get heavier and heavier, and we were delayed on the road for a whole morning!"

Come back, come back, Mrs. Ye didn't say anything, but kept urging her two sons to go back to the house and change into dry clothes.

Father Ye drank the hot water in one gulp. After returning to the house, he put on clean and warm clothes. After his body warmed up, he went to Ye Yu's room to take a look. Seeing that he was fast asleep, he didn't bother him, just tucked him in. Tuck corner.

After he came out, he said to Mother Ye, "I heard a news in the county that the emperor has issued an imperial decree that additional taxes will be collected this year. It is estimated that when the snow stops, someone from our village will come to collect taxes."

Mother Ye frowned and asked, "How much will be collected?"

"I don't know. But it should not exceed the normal tax."

The normal tax nowadays is that no matter how much an acre of land produces, the tax is only levied on a bucket of rice.

Mother Ye calculated in her heart and breathed a sigh of relief, "Our family can afford a bucket of rice per mu."

Fortunately, the food at home was not sold.

Father Ye comforted after hearing the words: "The imperial court will never make it hard for us."

The couple talked privately in the room, and they didn't stop until Ye Jing came over and said that the noodles were cooked.

Father Ye saw Ye He in the main room, and then he remembered something, and said to him: "It's snowing too much, and the martial arts hall is temporarily closed. Master Wu asked you to stay at home for a while, but I just told you not to forget it." daily exercise."

Ye He nodded, and replied, "Thank you Third Uncle, I understand."

After Xilihulu finished eating a bowl of noodles, Father Ye and the two went back to the house and fell asleep. They slept until it was dark.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw Ye Yu lying on the bed and staring at him.

Seeing that he woke up, Ye Yu said, "Father, you slept all afternoon!"

Father Ye straightened up and rubbed Ye Yu's head, "It's still comfortable to sleep at home."

"Did Brother Bao listen to your mother at home?"

Ye Yu replied obediently: "Yes, I still miss you."

Hearing this, Father Ye immediately laughed, "Then dad, will you spend more time with you these few days?"

"Okay!" Ye Yu nodded sharply upon hearing that.

-

The snow stopped once in the middle, but before the Ye family could react, it started to fall again.

The men of the Ye family couldn’t wait to go out to shovel the snow. The snow had already reached their thighs. If they didn’t shovel the snow aggressively, they might not even be able to open the door in a few days, let alone the snow on the roof. It might bring down the house.

Although their house is a rare green brick and tile house, the weight of the snow should not be underestimated, and such things have not happened in previous years.

Shovel after shovel of snow was thrown to the back of the house and beside the yard. Father Ye and the three brothers had to work all morning to barely finish shoveling the snow in the yard. Come one way.

Halfway through the shoveling, they met other people in the village who came out to shovel the snow in full gear. They stopped and chatted for a while, all talking about when the snow would last.

I have never seen heavy snow falling for seven or eight days in a row.

"It's not the coldest time yet." I don't know how cold it will be during the Chinese New Year.

"No, if my family hadn't bought a sweater and wool trousers this year, I wouldn't have been able to shovel snow like I am now. General Chu is such a kind person. The price of sweaters and wool trousers is not expensive at all, and everyone can afford it."

"yes…"

Hearing the villagers talking about sweaters and trousers, the three Ye family brothers couldn't help but look at each other. It's a good thing that their family didn't appear in the villagers' minds. As for the outside, let General Chu take care of it. People seem to be able to crush them to death with one finger.

Chatting does not delay work. With the efforts of the villagers, a trail was quickly shoveled out. This trail connects every household in the village, which is not only convenient for oneself to go out, but also benefits the neighbors.

After Father Ye returned home, he drank steaming red dates and ginger tea overnight, rubbed his red, swollen and stiff hands, and applied special ointment. , once got it, it is easy to relapse every winter.

With his hands full of oil, he gossiped: "It's cold outside, it's almost the same as during Chinese New Year before, but it's only October now!"

"The recent weather is very strange. There is heavy rain in the south, and there are insects. We have been snowing for such a long time."

Ye Yu's heart skipped a beat at Mrs. Ye's words, and she suddenly had an ominous premonition.

However, before he remembered the origin of this premonition, his thoughts were interrupted by Ye He who hurried in.

"Grandma, our chickens and ducks are freezing, you should go and have a look."

"Yo," Mrs. Ye slapped her thigh, "I'd have forgotten about our livestock if you didn't tell me."

After she finished speaking, she hurriedly got off the kang, didn't even take an umbrella, and rushed to the backyard in a hurry.

Ye Yu went over and looked, and sure enough, as Ye He said, the chickens and ducks were huddled together in the shack and trembling, but there was one exception, that was the only rooster in the family, Big Red, which was standing vigorously. On the straw mat, the dark red feathers look very handsome.

Mrs. Ye looked at each of them one by one, and said with some gratitude: "Fortunately, when the shack was reinforced this year, there was an extra layer of mud on the outside, and with the addition of cattail grass, it can somewhat block the wind and snow."

Fortunately, the soil from digging the well was not thrown away, and it was left to reinforce the shack.

Father Ye thought for a while, and suggested: "If you don't just keep the rooster and duck, the female will pick the strong ones and keep one or two, and kill the rest, and then raise them again when the weather gets warmer next year."

This is a good idea, so Mrs. Ye quickly agreed.

She looked at the spirited Dahong and said with a smile: "Our rooster still has to look at Dahong, he is not afraid of the cold at all."

"I don't even look at who raised Dahong!" Ye Jing puffed out his chest proudly.

These words caused Mrs. Ye to rub his head, "Yes, thanks to Brother Jing who raises chickens well."

More than a dozen chickens and ducks were all slaughtered. It was a spectacular sight. The internal organs were taken out and then cleaned. Ye Yu watched. During this period of time, the hot and sour chicken and duck dish must be indispensable on their table.

The chicken and duck meat was frozen hard in the yard, and then put into the big tank by Mrs. Ye. When you want to eat, you only need to lift the lid of the big tank to take it out.

As for the remaining eight chickens and ducks, one male and three females, they were raised in the firewood house, because there was also a kang in the firewood house, and the temperature of the fire was not low, and the four sheep were also moved in by them. As a result, the wide firewood room suddenly became cramped.

Seeing this, Father Ye specially discussed with the old couple: "Next year we will build a few more houses, build more stoves, and lay kang roads."

Mrs. Ye didn't speak, but Old Man Ye nodded in response, "Sure, we'll build it when we're free. You should pay more attention to the cellar these days, and don't let the snow crush the cellar door."

"It should be so." They all responded.

After finishing the work on the livestock, the Ye family returned to quietness. The adults were busy, while the children read books at home during the day and picked beans at night.

No one in the village visits the house, they leave cats at home, and no one even makes tofu. Where can I sell tofu in such a heavy snowfall? Maybe I just got lost on the road, and I have to sell tofu for money when everyone is gone. What to do.

I don’t know if it’s because the temperature in the firewood room is high enough, and the chickens and ducks even laid a few more eggs. They are not small, and they are warm to the touch. The diced radish and corn grains have a smooth and delicate taste, which is just enough for one person.

During the snowy days, all the Ye family members stayed at home safely, and Ye Yu read almost all the books in his hand out of boredom. Various books, from which to find many useful ideas, such as paper and cement.

Especially for the former, what he wants to make is toilet paper, and now they use clean and soft leaves for toileting, Ye Yu is not used to it no matter what.