Chapter 1619 Drought Dilemma, Long-term Worry and Near-term Worry
After coming out of the Natural Disaster Research Institute, Li Yu returned to the inner city.
Unknowingly, he came to the shore of Shantang Reservoir in the inner city.
Looking at the water in the reservoir,
He found that the water level had dropped a lot, leaving only one-third of what it was just after the thunderstorm.
The water in the Shantang Reservoir only supplies the inner and outer cities, while the lake reservoir under the cliff supplies the people in the buffer city.
There was a crab walking sideways on the dry shore. Li Yu saw it and kicked it into the lake.
It has not rained for more than four months. Since there are two reservoirs in the base, plus four large and medium-sized reservoirs to store water, and deep wells distributed throughout the base to support the water supply of the base, there is no need to damage the large camphor trees for the time being.
The base has too much impact.
Agricultural planting is still going on normally, and industrial use has been reduced. In the past half month, construction activities such as foundation excavation that do not waste water have been mainly carried out.
He walked along the wooden plank road by the lake, constantly thinking about what Song Zhihong, Ma Di and others had just said in his mind.
We don’t know how long the drought will last, and we don’t know what will happen after the drought.
There is indeed a limit to what he can do now, and he has not been able to come up with a good solution after much thought.
Perhaps, as he thought at the beginning, the best way to cope with all changes is to remain unchanged.
........
Li Yu was thinking about how long the drought would last and what would happen after the drought at the Da Zhangshu Base.
The vast majority of survivors are currently facing the difficulties caused by the drought.
The absence of rain for more than four months has caused great trouble to the survivors in the apocalypse.
No matter in the north or south, if there is no rain for more than four months, it is considered a severe drought.
Under drought.
Many plants in the mountain forest withered due to lack of water, making it more difficult for survivors to find edible plants in the mountain forest.
In addition, it has become increasingly difficult for them to obtain water.
Due to the drying up of mountain springs and the drying up of many rivers, they can only get water from some large rivers or large reservoirs and lakes.
This is not over yet, because a large number of clouds are accumulated in the sky, the sky is overcast, and the ultraviolet rays from the sun are reflected by the clouds, and more and more zombies have appeared on the ground recently.
These zombies coming out of dark and damp places have caused a lot of trouble to the survivors.
China Forest Park.
The Qingtianyuan forces who live here and grow crops are also in trouble.
In the yard of the house on the top of the mountain, Lin Muguang, Zheng Hanbing and others were discussing a major matter.
Zheng Hanbing said solemnly:
"Team Lin, now the lake at the foot of the mountain has dried up, and even though the underground well was dug more than ten meters down, no water can be found. It's time for us to make a decision."
Just as Zheng Hanbing finished speaking, another team member also persuaded him:
"Yes, Captain Lin, Brother Zheng has been to the trading market before and asked. Since they are willing to accept us, now is the time to go!"
Lin Lu stood up and looked at the crops planted outside. They had not watered them for four or five days.
Two days ago, the small lake at the bottom of the mountain completely stopped flowing.
If they want to get water, they can only go to Nanwan Lake, which is 30 kilometers away in the north, or Xujia Reservoir, which is 25 kilometers away in the west.
With such a long distance, it would take a whole day to go back and forth without taking a break.
Moreover, they have no vehicles and rely solely on human transportation, which cannot guarantee the water needed for planting.
The crops outside have reached the final stage of maturity. Thanks to their careful care, potatoes and sweet potatoes are growing very well.
In the later stages of these crops, although watering needs can be reduced, small amounts of water still need to be poured from time to time.
But now people are running out of water, let alone crops.
Lin Lu thought about it again and again, and finally made up his mind.
"Okay, if that's the case, let's start the potatoes and sweet potatoes."
"After the sweet potatoes have grown, we should send them to the trading market to sell them. With these grains, we can also live well in the trading market."
According to his budget, these two acres of crops can produce at least 6,000 kilograms of grain.
Generally speaking, one acre of sweet potato land can produce at least 3,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and the yield of potatoes is similar. If there is no water shortage in the later period, their yield per mu can even reach more than 5,000 kilograms.
6,000 kilograms of grain is enough for people like them to not be short of food for more than a year in the future.
The biggest dilemma now is water shortage. They went to Oil City, and the water source problem may be solved.
Moreover, they have so much food in their hands, which is very dangerous in the last days.
They have so much food, but they don't have the ability to protect it.
After going to the trading market, apart from other things, their safety was guaranteed.
What's more, now the trading market has extended an olive branch to them and welcomes them there.
Based on various considerations, this is the best time to harvest crops and go to the trading market.
When the others heard Lin Lu talking about harvesting crops, they all cheered.
"Okay, we can finally go to the trading market. You don't know, the trading market is so bustling!"
"How prosperous is it?"
"Haven't we been there before? Oh, I forgot, you were there a long time ago. Let me tell you, things have changed a lot over there since the thunderstorm disaster."
"Uh-huh."
.......
Zheng Hanbing smiled and said to Lin Muguang:
"Team Lin, let's start making potatoes and sweet potatoes now?"
"Come on, it's not safe to have so much food around all the time. It's better to send it all to the trading market and exchange it for points." Lin Muguang nodded and said.
It is unrealistic for just 25 of them to carry 6,000 kilograms of grain. On average, each person has to carry 240 kilograms of grain.
"Okay! Let's get the tools together and prepare the potatoes and sweet potatoes!" Zheng Hanbing said to everyone.
They dispersed to the yard to get hoes, shovels and wooden rakes, which are very useful tools for planting and harvesting potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Lin Muguang reminded: "The sweet potato leaves and potato leaves have been sorted, and these can be eaten."
"Okay, we know." Zheng Hanbing nodded.
Lin Muguang divided the work among everyone and each did different things.
Pull out the potato seedlings, pick up the potatoes, and put the potatoes into bags.
Lin Muguang also took out a hoe from the storage room and started picking up potatoes and sweet potatoes with everyone else.
Zheng Hanbing picked the potatoes with his hands, pushed aside the soil around the potatoes, and carefully pulled out the potato seedlings while retaining the bud eyes.
At the same time, he gently pulled off the small roots and leaves at the base of the potatoes, which would ensure that the squeezing between the potatoes would not cause scars.
This is just the first step. Some potatoes are broken because the soil is too hard and remain in the soil. Later, they have to dig out the soil and find the potatoes bit by bit.
The method of making sweet potatoes is similar to this.
They have a clear division of labor. Some people are responsible for pulling out potato seedlings, another group is responsible for picking up potatoes with pickaxes, and the other two people are responsible for putting potatoes into bags.
Aunt Zhao and the others were careful in their work, and the potatoes they dug out were rarely damaged by pickaxes, so I left it to them to dig out the potatoes.
There is also knowledge in picking potatoes and sweet potatoes. You must carefully remove the pick from the side of the ridge, otherwise the potatoes may be damaged by the pick, exposing a scar, which is not good-looking and difficult to store.
"Captain Lin, this potato is so big!" Feng Chen raised a fist-sized potato in his hand and said with a smile.
Lin Muguang smiled and nodded. This was more than the few potato seedlings they pulled out a few days ago.
It seems that this time, there will definitely be more than 6,000 kilograms of potatoes and sweet potatoes.
The moment of harvest always makes people happy.
They started harvesting potatoes at nine o'clock in the morning and were busy until 11:30 at noon when they finished harvesting the potatoes. There was still an acre of sweet potatoes that had not yet been harvested.
"Captain Lin, I'm going to cook." Aunt Zhao put down the pickaxe in her hand, straightened up and said to Lin Muguang.
"Okay." Lin Muguang nodded and turned to look at Lin Lu next to him.
"Xiaolu, take a few people to dig the crop fields twice more."
"good."
It is not easy to grow these potatoes and sweet potatoes. Some potatoes grow deep underground and may not be dug out the first time or the second time. You will need to dig several times later, and you cannot let go of a single potato.
On the other side, Zheng Hanbing, Zheng Zheng and others carried the potatoes to the flat ground outside the house, spread them flat and dried them.
In order to preserve these potatoes for a longer period of time, they dry the potatoes for at least two days, which prevents too much moisture from remaining in the potatoes.
Generally speaking, potatoes can be stored for about 2 months if they are intact and not damaged and are properly stored indoors at room temperature.
If stored in a cellar, it can even be stored for 6 months.
If it is made into dried potatoes or sweet potatoes, it is not a problem to store it for more than one year.
They will send these potatoes and sweet potatoes to the trading market. The trading market will also judge the humidity of the potatoes they send and give points that can be exchanged for one pound.
The higher the water content, the fewer potatoes will be weighed per pound.
Aunt Zhao went to cook, Zheng Hanbing went to dry the potatoes, and Lin Lu took people to sweep the newly planted potato field again.
Lin Muguang took the rest of the people to harvest the remaining one acre of sweet potatoes.
...........
Half an hour later, Aunt Zhao came and shouted to everyone:
"It's time to eat!"
Lin Lu wiped his sweat, put the pickaxe in his hand aside, and shouted to his father and others who were working in the sweet potato field: "It's time to eat."
There is a faint aroma of potatoes in the air.
Logically speaking, food is extremely scarce in the apocalypse. The cleanest way to eat potatoes is to clean the soil on the surface of the potatoes with water, then cut them into small pieces, boil them in water, and flatten them into mashed potatoes.
.
but.
Now they are short of water, and the water tanks in the kitchen can only sustain them for a few days.
After consuming all the water, they ran out of water to drink, and how could they be willing to use water to clean the soil on the surface of the potatoes.
Baking potatoes is the most water-saving way.
Everyone worked hard all morning, their upper and lower bodies were soaked through, and their throats were filled with smoke.
As soon as I entered the yard, I looked for water.
Aunt Zhao had already prepared water for them, which was carried up in buckets a few days ago before the lake at the foot of the mountain dried up.
They boiled the water and let it cool for drinking.
Lin Lu picked up the gourd gourd, scooped up the water in the plastic bucket, and drank. After drinking a whole gourd of water, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Gululu——
His stomach rumbled.
Aunt Zhao came out of the kitchen, carrying a bamboo basket of overripe potatoes.
clatter!
She placed the bamboo basket on the wooden table in the yard.
They built a pergola over the area near the gate of the yard, which they painstakingly built using wood and bamboo.
But they have to leave here after harvesting the crops on the ground.
Looking at the yard and the house in front of him, Lin Lu felt filled with reluctance.
This time in Zhonghua Mountain was the most beautiful time since his last days.
The terrain of this place is high and there are cliffs everywhere. Normal zombies can't get up there, so it's safe.
And few survivors will find this place, it's like a peach garden.
They work hard here to farm and harvest food.
pity......
When the drought hit, they couldn't replenish water in the mountains and had no choice but to leave.
But thankfully, this time of grain planting can be regarded as the biggest harvest since they planted crops many times in the last days.
In the past, the crops they planted would be harvested very little due to natural disasters, zombies, or other surviving thugs before the harvest season came.
This time, it can be called a bumper harvest.
Although the drought came, there was still a good harvest of food.
Soon, Lin Muguang and others returned to the small courtyard from the ground.
Under drought, handwashing has become a luxury.
There's nothing you can do about it because your whole body smells like sweat. There isn't much water now, so you need to use it sparingly.
Bathing is too luxurious.
They also need to harvest and dry these potatoes and sweet potatoes, which takes at least three days.
Moreover, it will take time to send these potatoes and sweet potatoes to the trading market for sale later.
Naturally, it is impossible to transport it all in one trip. Even if the road to the trading market is now safe and they can use wheelbarrows to transport it, they still cannot transport it all in one trip.
Calculating this, some of them will have to stay here for at least five days.
For five days, they all had to drink water. It was a luxury to use it to bathe and wash their hands!
"It smells so good!" Zheng Zheng walked into the yard.
"But why is it roasted? On this hot day, the more you eat, the thirstier you become."
Aunt Zhao rolled her eyes and said, "It's better to drink water when you are thirsty than to waste water on washing potatoes."
She simply believed that it was better to pour water into her stomach than to wash the mud off the potatoes.
The potatoes in the bamboo basket piled up into a hill.
Each of them took two, peeled them off and showed off.
Because it was roasted, they felt thirsty after eating too much, so they drank water and ate the potatoes.
After half an hour, they didn't take a break.
Go ahead and give away the remaining sweet potatoes.
After they peeled the potatoes and sweet potatoes, they dug them back and forth four or five times, and then dug out some scattered potatoes and sweet potatoes.
It wasn't until the last pass that no two pieces of potatoes came out that I gave up.
It is getting late and the sun is setting in the west.
The potatoes and sweet potatoes they left to dry in the open space outside the yard were not collected.
After all, potatoes and sweet potatoes are easily damaged during the collection process, which affects the storage time.
In addition, it seems that it is unlikely to rain recently, and the potatoes and sweet potatoes still need to be dried for a day or two, so they will not put them away.
As for whether someone will steal it, it's unlikely.
There are cliffs all around, and the only way up is the plank road. The plank road was destroyed by them, making it impossible for ordinary people to get up.
The only thing that comes up is wall-climbing zombies, but wall-climbing zombies don't eat potatoes.