At the north end of the forest farm, there is a small river ditch. Behind the small river ditch is a swamp, which the locals call Laowadianzi.
Beyond the waterlogged meadow, there is a row of loess hills, on which are built a row of individual or connected self-built houses.
Lao Hu's family lives at the eastern end of that house, in a self-built two-and-a-half-room wood-carved mud hut.
There are fewer residents here, so the place can be more spacious. The yard of Lao Hu's house is larger than that of Sheng's house.
When Sheng Xiping came over, the chimney of Old Hu's house was already smoking, so he must have made a fire for cooking.
There was a man in the vegetable garden, squatting there and not knowing what he was doing. As soon as Sheng Xiping saw that figure, he knew it was Captain Hu.
"Uncle Hu, what are you busy with?" Sheng Xiping coughed and greeted Old Hu in the vegetable garden with a smile.
Lao Hu was thinning seedlings in the celery field. When he heard the noise, he turned around and saw that it was Sheng Xiping.
"Oh, it's Xiping. Why are you here so early in the morning?"
Lao Hu quickly stood up, patted the soil on his hands, and walked out of the vegetable garden with a smile.
"Uncle, this is the fish I caught this morning. I just brought some to you."
Sheng Xiping smiled and brought the enamel basin to Lao Hu.
When Lao Hu saw it, he was very happy and said, "Oh, you went to catch fish again?"
Let me tell you, among all the young people in Qianchuan Forestry Farm, you are the only one who is capable.
You can hunt in the mountains, catch fish in the rivers, and you can row everything back home.
Brother Sheng is so lucky to have raised such a capable son like you."
Sheng Xiping often hunted and caught fish in previous years, and everyone in the forest farm knew that.
Not to mention, there have been pheasants and big snakes in the past two days, and the news has already spread.
"Old lady, come quickly. Xiping has sent some fish to our family. You should quickly find something to put it in."
Lao Hu yelled at the top of his lungs, then grabbed Sheng Xiping's hand and walked into the house.
"Boss, are you up? Hurry up and boil water to make tea for Brother Xiping.
I feel lazy every day. I don't sleep until dawn.
Look at your brother Xiping, he got up early in the morning and caught a lot of fish and came back."
Lao Hu's voice was quite loud, which made all the sleeping children in the room noisy.
When the old Hu's wife heard the commotion, she quickly came out of the house. When she saw Sheng Xiping coming with something, she was also smiling.
"Oh, it's Xiping's eldest nephew here.
Look, our family has taken advantage of you a lot. Come on, come inside and sit down."
Old Hu's wife took the fish basin, quickly found something from the cupboard, and poured the fish into it.
Then I grabbed a noodle screwdriver, wiped the Sheng family's basin, scalded it twice with hot water, and scrubbed it clean.
While working, Old Hu's wife called his daughter and came out quickly to squeeze the fish's belly.
He also called the second son of the family to go to the tofu shop and pick up two pieces of tofu. This morning, he just stewed the tofu with river fish.
As soon as they heard that there was delicious food, the children of the Hu family were very nimble. They hurriedly got out of bed, washed their faces and got to work.
Sheng Xiping was dragged by Lao Hu to the east room and sat down. The two of them sat on the kang and chatted.
"Xiping, I will have dinner at my uncle's house this morning.
You also heard what your aunt said, this morning the small fish was stewed with tofu, let us have a few sips."
Lao Hu's words were mostly polite.
How can anyone who is going through life drink early in the morning?
This was a gift from Sheng Xiping. Lao Hu didn't know how to express it, so he said he wanted to keep Sheng Xiping to drink.
"Uncle, I still have a lot of work to do at home, so I won't eat at my uncle's house this morning.
Some other day, if I have time some other day, I will definitely come to my uncle’s house for dinner."
How could Sheng Xiping eat at Lao Hu's house? He was busy making excuses to avoid it.
"Uncle, I'm here and I have something to ask you.
The saplings on the mountain have been shoveled for the first time, so I came to think about it and asked, what kind of work does our educated youth team do today?
Isn’t it time to plow the land in preparation for planting radishes?”
Generally speaking, it is said that the head of the radish is the second of the two vegetables, but the Qianchuan forest farm is located in the Changbai Mountain forest area, which is an alpine mountainous area.
The altitude is high and the temperature is low, the frost-free period is short, and the frost comes early in autumn, so vegetables need to be planted ten days and a half months in advance.
The forest farm family team mainly grows radishes, cabbage, and potatoes to ensure the forest farm’s autumn vegetable supply.
At the same time, we also grow a small amount of seasonal vegetables, corn, soybeans, sweet potatoes, etc. to supply the canteen and the few pigs raised by your family team.
The corn and beans have sprouted quite high. I just finished plowing all over the ground a while ago. There is nothing busy at the moment, but it is a vegetable field. It is time to prepare to plant radishes and cabbage.
"Well, it's almost time to plow the land. There are more than two hundred acres left on the Hou Dadi land, and there are several other areas on the West Dadi land.
We have to plant a lot this year, so start early to save yourself from being busy later.”
The farmland behind the agricultural team covers 500 acres. Previously, we planted some corn, beans, and a lot of late potatoes. The remaining 200 acres have to be planted with radishes and cabbage.
In addition, the forest farm also has many fragmented plots of land in other places, which add up to one or two hundred acres.
There is so much land that needs to be plowed through, and the family team has not raised any large animals. They are all digging with pickaxes. Don’t they have to prepare the land in advance?
"Then let's go to work in Hou Dadi today. Time is running out anyway, so you don't have to be in a hurry. Just work slowly."
Lao Hu valued Sheng Xiping very much, and he also knew that these young men were very tired after shoveling saplings for nearly half a month.
So I told Sheng Xiping to let them take their time and not work too hard.
"Okay, it's all up to uncle's arrangement."
This is what Sheng Xiping wants. Although Hou Dadi is close to the roots of the mountain, it is still close to the forest farm after all.
I finish work early in the afternoon and don't have to wait for the commuter bus. I can just go home for dinner.
"Uncle, I'm going home first, everyone is waiting for me at home.
When I have free time, my uncle also comes to my house to sit and sit, and my dad always talks about my uncle."
Sheng Xiping said a few polite words and stood up to leave.
Lao Hu and his wife tried to persuade him to stay, but Sheng Xiping insisted on leaving, so they quickly followed him out.
Old Hu's wife also returned the cleaned enamel basin to Sheng Xiping.
"Niece, this is your basin, I have cleaned it all.
Oops, thank you very much, nephew, I have benefited from you a lot throughout the year."
Sheng Xiping took the basin, said a few polite words to Lao Hu and his wife, and then quickly left the Hu house.
He did not go home directly, but went to the field department first and shouted using the field department's loudspeaker.
Inform the educated youth from each family to gather at the livestock shed of the family team at seven o'clock and go to work in the field today.
There is no way, the educated youths in the forest farm have not yet been built, and they are all living in various houses.
Sheng Xiping couldn't go from door to door to inform people, right? He could only shout through a loudspeaker.
Starting at 5:30 every morning, the forest farm's loudspeaker starts shouting.
Most of the time, front-line production tasks are arranged according to weather conditions, with news broadcasts interspersed in between.
If it snows heavily in winter, the workers will stretch their necks and wait for the loudspeaker to shout when they wake up in the morning.
As soon as they heard that production was suspended today, everyone would cover their heads and go back to sleep.
Today, the educated youth don’t have to go to the mountains to work, and they don’t have to get up early.
Therefore, when many people hear the loudspeaker shouting, they simply hide in bed and sleep for a while.