Before transplanting the rice seedlings, the old Zhou’s family had already planted wheat and bean seeds in the field. After the transplanting, the wheat seedlings and bean seedlings in the field grew out. Of course, there were countless others that grew together with them. Exhausted weeds.
So Chun busy entered the second stage - weeding.
This kind of work is suitable for men, women, old and young, even Man Bao follows the weeding in the nearest few fields.
There are basically two methods of weeding, one is extensive and the other is intensive.
The former, holding a hoe, hoeed lightly along the way, hoeing the grass on the ridge by the roots, and then covered the grass in the seedling ditch with soil.
Not only can you get rid of some grass, but also provide more soil nutrients for wheat or bean sprouts.
The latter, on the other hand, took a small hoe to hoe all the grass in the furrows bit by bit, and then transported them out.
Even if Lao Zhou has a lot of family members, he can't do much, and all the land is meticulously worked out.
They make choices based on how well the seeds break through the soil and how fertile the land is.
The land with the best germination rate and the land with more fertile soil will be intensively cultivated, and the rest will be planted according to the situation.
Of course, Lao Zhoutou doesn’t know about extensive and meticulous farming. These are the terms Man Bao heard when discussing with Keke. Lao Zhoutou only has decades of farming experience, and the villagers in the village have tens of hundreds of years That's what they did all the time.
Unlike farmers outside who lost their land and became tenant farmers or refugees, in Qili Village, or even in the large village of Baimaguan Town, very few farmers completely lost their land.
Therefore, there are not many families who can fully cultivate the land under their name. Basically, the local farmers have to make a choice. Therefore, the fertile land will gradually become more fertile, and the barren land will hardly be improved for decades.
Because human energy is always limited.
However, with the end of spring planting, although it is still busy in spring, the family is not so busy.
Man Bao wouldn't sleep from the moment he opened his eyes like before, maybe he couldn't see the big brother and the second brother.
Because often, when she opened her eyes, they had already gone to the field, and after dinner, when it was dark and she was going to sleep, they might still be planting rice seedlings in the field.
The copper plates in the treasure box were almost used up, and the five beautiful gold nudes could only be placed on a pile of copper plates before, but now they stayed quietly at the bottom of the box.
So Manbao was unwilling to pay for meat any more.
Thinking that May is coming soon, Qian became frugal, and naturally he was not willing to spend money on meat.
There was no way, Xiaoqian felt sorry for her husband, and thought of Man Bao's saying that tofu was compared to meat. Although she knew it might be false, she still soaked beans to make tofu.
There are many wild vegetables that can be eaten in spring, but there are very few vegetables in the vegetable garden.
Although there is no shortage of vegetables to eat in the countryside, there is a shortage in the city. I heard that a handful of bitter vegetables can be sold for a high price of five yuan.
Of course, it is impossible for the Zhou family to sell vegetables. Their family has a large population, and the vegetables in the vegetable garden are only enough for them to eat.
But they can sell tofu.
Thinking of the accumulation of so many beans some time ago.
Xiaoqian simply soaked a little more with his two sisters-in-law, and the tofu he made was not only eaten by himself, but also let Zhou Zhoulang take it to the county to sell.
There is no way, Daji is basically bartering, few people will spend money to buy tofu, this thing can only be taken to the county town.
Xiaoqian cut the tofu into big pieces and asked Zhou Zhoulang to sell them out for a penny. If he couldn't sell them, he would consider switching to beans.
Basically, a couple of pennies is enough for a family to eat.
Because Xiaoqian makes tofu in the morning and cooks for the school, he has no time to take care of the field work.
Man Bao heard his father say a few words that the grass in the field grows like crazy, what to do with the wheat and beans this year, so he volunteered to weed the field after school.
Of course, she was not alone, she brought Bai Shanbao along.
Bai Shanbao, who has lived in the country for more than a year, of course can't tell the difference between wheat, beans and weeds, so he had a game with Manbao with relish, and he didn't want to come the next day.
He felt that it was too hard, and he also thought about it, if he weeded, why did he come to Manbao's land? His family's land also had to be weeded.
Man Bao: ...
The two friends parted ways, and Man Bao could no longer cheat free labor.
After weeding the first wave of grass, the crops are growing upwards, so it's time to fertilize. When the fertilizer is finished, May is almost here.
The two families had already chosen a date years ago, and Mrs. Qian went to the Taoist temple on the mountain in Dali Village to ask about it.
After the first day of May, the next good day will be the twenty-third of May.
Of course Qian's preferred the first day of May, and the Fang family knew this, so they were naturally considerate, so when reporting the date, the Fang family also chose this day.
The dowry has already been given to Fang's family, but before welcoming the bride, it is still necessary to announce the good news to the woman's family. Naturally, wedding cakes, wedding candies and the like, as well as gift meat, are indispensable when entering and leaving.
The remaining two taels of silver borrowed by Qian and Zhou Xi came in handy.
The Zhou family posted a lot of red happy words, and Man Bao was so happy that he would run wildly behind the big girl's ass after school every day, leaving his studies aside.
It provoked Bai Shanbao to run after him.
Seeing the two fat and white children, especially the two children who look more and more like the boy sitting down by Guanyin against the background of the black big head and two heads, Qian couldn't help but feel a twitch in her heart.
Qian pulled Man Bao to him, and asked with a smile, "Man Bao, your fourth brother is married, can you give him a bed?"
Man Bao's eyes brightened, "What is a rolling bed?"
"It's just a bed boy, roll around on the new bed, and let Master Tianzun bless your fourth brother and fourth sister-in-law to give birth to a daughter as smart as you."
"Okay, okay!"
Qian Shi looked at Bai Shanbao, and asked with a smile: "Do you want to be a bed-rolling boy, young master?"
Bai Shanbao nodded fiercely.
Qian's family laughed, and brought a wedding gift to Bai's house that day.
Mrs. Liu was slightly surprised when she heard the report from the servants, and hurriedly got up and took her daughter-in-law out to welcome her.
Although there is a generation gap between the two children in terms of their seniority, they are actually about the same age, and Qian Shi looks older than Liu Shi from the outside.
Mrs. Liu and Mrs. Qian have also met several times, not to mention that the two have a lot of contacts.
Not to mention that Man Bao either came to the Bai family to do homework and study with Bai Shanbao, or Bai Shanbao followed Man Bao's buttocks to play. Just talking about the things you come and I send between the two families can be called close relationship.
But it was the first time for Mrs. Qian to visit, so Mrs. Liu was very solemn.
Knowing that Mrs. Qian wanted to ask her grandson to be a bed-rolling boy, Mrs. Liu hesitated for a moment, not because she was unwilling, but rather, "Mother Manbao, I won't hide it from you. In my heart, Shanbao is naturally Qianlong. That's great, but after all, he lost his father when he was young, so he became a bed roll boy..."