The family members of the forest farm did not raise large livestock, so the Hou Dadi, Xi Dadi and other areas together accounted for more than 300 acres, all of which were plowed by hand.
Thanks to the large number of people in the family team, Lao Hu led the group of women in the family team, as well as Sheng Xiping, an educated youth, digging the ground with a pickaxe under the sun, and they were all sweating from exhaustion.
During the day, we work in Hou Dadi, and at night, construction continues at the club, and everyone has to participate in voluntary labor.
Everyone is very tired. It really catches up with the old saying of dragging a cat by its tail to get on the bed.
After about ten days like this, at least the land was plowed, the ridges were prepared, and the radishes and cabbages were planted.
At the same time, the main body of the club is almost completed, and there is no need for everyone to volunteer for the follow-up work.
The work of the family team has come to an end for the time being, and the second round of child care has not yet begun.
There is a little gap in between so I can take a few days of rest.
Seeing that Gastrodia elata is about to go out of season, everyone can’t sit still.
Taking advantage of the rare free time, they all went into the mountains to dig gastrodia elata and make the mountains clean.
Sheng Xiping has never been left behind, so he took a commuter bus to Shiye District with Chen Weiguo and others in the morning, got off the bus and went into the woods to look for Gastrodia elata.
When I go out in the afternoon with my pocket on my back, I'll sit on a commuter bus if I can find one. If I don't, I'll walk back along the railway line.
Nowadays, transportation is not so convenient. Unlike in later generations, when the gastrodia digging season comes, the roads are full of cars.
There are few people entering the mountain and Gastrodia elata is thick. As long as you are lucky, the harvest will be good.
At most, Sheng Xiping could dig dozens of kilograms of fresh gastrodia elata a day.
I went back to wash it in the evening, boiled it and dried it the next day. When it was dried, it weighed about three or four kilograms.
Gastrodia elata is purchased at the purchasing station, and the first-class product costs 11 yuan per pound, and most of them are Mengsheng and Dazaizi.
Gastrodia bark, that is, Gastrodia elata after emergence, is cheap, only two or three yuan per pound.
This price is not low at all. Someone like Sheng Xiping can earn about twenty or thirty yuan a day.
It is said that people who live in the mountains will go to the mountains if they have the opportunity.
No matter how much it is, it can at least supplement the family income.
That evening, Sheng Xiping and Chen Weiguo walked back along the main east-west road wearing water boots and carrying heavy bags on their backs.
Before I could reach my house, I heard a noise, which seemed to come from the Sheng family.
When Sheng Xiping heard that something was not right, he ran home.
When I entered the door, I found that my three brothers and two sisters were all standing in front of the kang, their heads hanging down.
The mother was holding a feather duster in her hand, her face was red and her neck was thick, and she was angry at the children.
On the other side, my father was also sitting on the edge of the kang with a gloomy face, smoking.
Sheng Liancheng is not a big smoker and rarely smokes at home. He usually smokes only when he has a guest or when he goes to the mountains.
"What's going on? Dad, Mom, what trouble have they caused?"
Sheng Xiping took a look and saw that all five of his siblings were punished. This seemed like a big deal.
"If you ask them, each one of them is so outrageous that they go to a small repair shop to steal iron.
Your dad works there, and they stole iron and were caught by the factory workers. Where did your dad put his face?"
Zhang Shuzhen was so angry that she slapped the second and third children several times with the feather duster in her hand.
Sheng Xiping was stunned when he heard this. Stealing iron? What's the use of stealing that thing? No one collects scrap iron now.
Oh no, he remembered what happened.
The forest farm school has held various activities in recent years, such as picking up manure in winter, picking up scrap iron in summer, etc.
Because the forestry operations are heavy and the utilization rate of machinery and equipment exceeds the limit, a lot of waste machinery parts are produced.
There are a lot of scrap metal left in the mud, water and on the roadside.
There are no scrap iron buyers and sellers these days, and the workers in the yard are usually busy, so no one can take care of them.
So the school mobilized students to use their vacation time to pick up scrap metal.
Bring the scrap metal picked up from various places to the school for centralized stacking, and then agree to hand it over to the forestry farm for processing.
It is highly recommended to pick up scrap metal and hand it over to the public. Whoever picks up more scrap metal will be praised and have a bright face.
Therefore, the students were very active, and their eyes were like light bulbs. They quickly picked up the scrap metal when they found it.
This is strange. When I don't call for help, I feel like scrap metal can be found everywhere.
Not to mention other places, there is quite a lot of scrap metal left in the field.
But once the task was completed, all the scrap metal that was lying around seemed to disappear overnight.
Only in the east corner of the school playground, the pile of scrap metal gradually increased like a magic trick.
“I picked up scrap metal last summer, and this year the school assigned another task and stipulated the quantity.
From the third grade onwards, everyone must hand in no less than forty kilograms of scrap metal.
Our family doesn’t have to pay except for the sixth child. We all have to pay. Where can we find so much?
In the past few days, the third child and I have gone to the nearby working area to pick up some, but it is not enough.
So if we don’t find another way, how can we deal with it?”
Sheng Xi'an, who had been gritting his teeth and not making a sound even after being beaten, finally couldn't hold it in anymore after seeing his elder brother and said aggrievedly.
"When we go to small repair shops, we either steal or pick up used parts and so on.
Many of them went to ovens and internal combustion engine hangars to directly dismantle parts.
Some people even went to the small railway to remove the spikes on the roadbed." The second brother spoke, and Sheng Xikang also spoke.
The feather duster that Zhang Shuzhen raised high could not come down this time.
Just when Sheng Liancheng came home from get off work, he told Zhang Shuzhen with a sullen face that the children had gone to a small repair shop to steal iron, but they were caught and released by people in the factory.
Sheng Liancheng was the director of a small repair shop, but the children of the Sheng family were caught stealing iron. If word of this spread, the impact would be really bad.
Zhang Shuzhen was so angry that she called all the children over and beat them up without saying a word.
But the children of the Sheng family were also very stubborn, and they didn't say a word after being beaten, and just stood there.
Anyone who has spanked a child has this experience. If the child runs away as soon as he is spanked, most of the children will not suffer a big loss.
When he ran away and came back, most of the adults would be relieved, and at most they would just give him a few more lectures.
Those who beg for mercy as soon as they are beaten are less likely to be beaten.
Only this kind of person, who doesn't make a sound no matter how hard he is hit, and just stands there motionless, can really make people mad, and his hands become less and less serious.
The Sheng family, don't worry about the girls and boys, they are all pretty much the same, very stubborn.
The sixth child wanted to say something, but was glared at by the second child and did not dare to say anything.
So, all five children were beaten, and none of them ran away.
Of course, the second and third oldest ones got the most slaps, and the remaining three got a few symbolic slaps.
"Then why didn't you tell me? If you had told me just now, would I have beaten you like this?" Zhang Shuzhen regretted it now.
"Mom, you didn't even let us say anything. You just hit me with a feather duster when you came up."
Sheng Yunfang touched her arm. The clothes she wore in Xia Tian were thin, and she got red just now after being hit.