After Zhang An put the swallows in the nest, he went home, grabbed a handful of rice, and placed it on the wooden board at the door of the nest.
One is to celebrate their return, and the other is to prevent the injured swallow from starving in the past few days.
Of course, it is best not to feed the swallows when things are going well.
Otherwise, over time, they will become dependent and may starve to death by the time they fly south.
This board was nailed up by Zhang An when they built their nest and settled down.
Because there are no poles or wires under the eaves of Zhang An's house, they usually have no place to stand.
Nail a board so that they can have a place to stay when they are not in the nest, just like building a lookout for them.
Everyone felt relieved when they heard Zhang An say that Yan Zi was fine.
Zhang Jianguo took advantage of this moment to find a place to dig a deep pit and bury the crows he had killed.
This crow is used to eating carrion, and his body is full of bad meat. He doesn't want Huatou to eat it.
The return of the barn swallow can be regarded as an episode in the family.
Originally everyone was very happy, but these crows dampened everyone's interest.
However, the way of heaven is full of reincarnation, and now they have all been cleaned up by the flowers, making it impossible to jump around.
After breakfast, Wang Fang went out to the old house. She wanted to see if the pair of swallows in the old house had returned.
Not long after Wang Fang left, Zhang Jianguo came back from outside.
He came back with a small bag of horseshoe nails in his hand.
"Dad, do you want to trim Dahei's hooves today?"
Horse hooves in this area of Hongyan Town are all whittled at home, and there are no masters on the street who specialize in shredding hooves for horseshoes.
But if you don’t work for long, you won’t be able to do it anymore.
Mainly because people are reluctant to spend money and would rather learn it at home.
This way, you can buy your own horseshoes, trim the hooves and replace the horseshoes at home, saving money.
There seemed to be people who used to go to the cattle and horse market to help people cut their hooves and change their horseshoes.
"It needs to be shaved off. When I took it out for the past two days, it couldn't walk naturally. There were thick hooves on some of its hooves. There were no paw nails at home. I went out and asked for some."
Other people's horses cost horseshoes, but my own horse costs people.
Other people's horses are used because their owners often use them to pull carts and carry goods.
Therefore, after a long period of wear and tear, the iron horseshoe cannot withstand the wear and tear.
Especially when roads were not built in the past, mud roads were fine and did not hurt animals much.
If the road is gravelly, the horseshoe needs to be replaced frequently, otherwise it will be particularly harmful to the hoof.
But Zhang An's Dahei is different, he doesn't often pull carts.
Except for using it more when the farming is busy, Zhang Jianguo can't bear to use it more at other times.
Basically, he is kept in the circle, or taken out for fun, and he lives a very relaxed and comfortable life.
Therefore, a pair of horseshoes can be used casually for more than half a year without any problem.
But if you don't change the horseshoe, you still have to trim its hooves. This guy's nails grow too fast.
If the horse is not running for a long time, the cuticle on the horse's hooves will grow very quickly.
If this thing is not dealt with, the horseshoe will not fit.
When this layer of cuticle grows long, it will be inconvenient for Dahei to move.
Just now, Zhang An heard his father tell him that he has been walking unnaturally lately.
It's just like human nails, they need to be trimmed every once in a while.
Zhang An's family didn't raise horses before, so Zhang Jianguo and Zhang An didn't know how to cut their hooves and replace them with horseshoes.
But if you have horses at home, you have to learn this skill.
At the beginning, you can ask people who raise horses in the village to come over and help cut the hooves and replace the horseshoes.
Then ask others for advice and learn how to do it.
But you can't have to hire someone every time to change your horseshoes or trim their hooves. This doesn't make sense.
And even if you learn how to do it, when you first start changing it by yourself, you still have to invite someone to come and stand.
To avoid accidentally chipping the horse's hoof, the horse will be useless.
"Dad, let me do it."
Now, Zhang An is quite familiar with this work. Now, whether it is a horse's hoof, a cow's hoof or a sheep's hoof, Zhang An can repair it casually.
Zhang An put on a full-length apron, took the tools from his father, and prepared to start work.
Normal hoof trimming tools generally include pliers, hook knives, and pliers.
Then add a hammer at home, and even a sickle can be used.
However, in places where horses are professionally raised, these tools are divided into more details.
After hearing Zhang An say that he would cut it, Zhang Jianguo did not continue.
Anyway, both my father and I know how to do it, and when Zhang An was cutting his hoof, the big black horse in the family was obedient and didn't even move.
When Su Ying and Wang Min heard that the big black horse's hooves were being trimmed, neither of them had seen it before, and they were very curious.
Seeing Zhang An bring out the big black horse, they both came over to watch.
The big black horse saw Zhang An coming over with hoof trimming pliers and stood there obediently.
Zhang An easily lifted its right front leg and placed it on his knee.
Before trimming the hooves, remove the old horseshoes.
For normal horses, just use pliers to clamp them directly.
But Zhang An's big black horse has bigger hooves than other horses.
When changing horseshoes, you have to cut off the tips of the horseshoe nails to remove the entire horseshoe.
But now, when Zhang An lifted the horse's feet, he could see that there was already a ring of gray cuticle on the horse's hooves.
"No wonder it feels uncomfortable walking. Its nails are bigger than its shoes. It must be uncomfortable to walk on."
This thick layer of cuticle surrounds the horseshoe. If you want to remove the horseshoe, you must first cut off this protruding cuticle.
Dahei was very obedient, so Zhang An simply used pliers to easily cut off the protruding circle, and then the horseshoe was revealed.
Use pliers to cut off the shoe nail in two or three strokes, and then pull it with the hoof trimming pliers, and the entire horse shoe will fall off.
"Stand further away. The big black horse will stink if he doesn't wash his feet."
Seeing that Su Ying and Wang Min were closely surrounding each other, Zhang An wasn't worried about Da Hei's violent outburst and hurting others.
It's just that the smell isn't very pleasant, and Zhang An is worried that they won't be able to stand it.
"Zhang An, if the nail is on the foot, won't the horse feel any pain?"
Su Ying looked at the horseshoe nails that Zhang An had pulled out. How painful it would be if these things were nailed to her feet.
"It's just like having your nails trimmed. You won't feel any pain unless you cut to the flesh. These nails are all driven into your nails, so it's just a little itchy at most."
Horse hooves are different from cow hooves. There is a V-shaped prong in the middle of the horse's hoof. The inside is soft and it is very easy to stuff foreign objects into it.
At this moment, Dahei's hoofs were filled with dung, gravel, mud, and even his own cock.
These things are the reason why Zhang An said that horses' hooves smell bad.
After scraping the fork of the hoof clean with a hook knife, start trimming the hoof.
With a clicking sound, the originally gray-black cuticle was cut off.
Every time Zhang An uses the knife, it's like art.
If in future generations, Gao Luo gets a video account and calls him Master Zhang, the hoof trimmer.
Once the inside of the hoof is repaired, there is no need to remove the hoop on the outside.
Zhang An took the hoof trimming pliers and cut off a large horse nail in a few strokes.
Then I trimmed it a little with a hook knife, and a white and clean horse hoof came out.
Use a file to sharpen it, file it, and smooth it, and then you can start nailing the horseshoes.
The old horseshoe has been deformed by being stepped on by Dahei, and it is obvious that it cannot be used again.
Zhang An's family has already prepared many new horseshoes because Dahei's feet are extra large.
There were no shoes suitable for it in the town, so I had to go to the blacksmith shop and ask for help.
In order not to cause trouble later, Zhang An beat him several times at a time.
These horseshoes have been beaten for a long time, and there is some rust on them.
When Zhang Jianguo was repairing Zhang An's hoof, he had already put it in the stove to burn.
These horseshoes were made by Zhang An according to the size of Dahei, so there is no need to adjust them.
It's just to burn it red to remove rust and act as a disinfectant.
If you really want to nail it, you have to wait until the horseshoe cools down.
Once you hear about horse hoof repair, you will know that it takes the most time to repair and nail the horseshoes in just a few strokes.
Zhang An quickly changed one and then the other.
Once the four hooves are repaired and replaced with new horseshoes, it will be considered complete.
Dahei seemed to know that he had changed into new shoes, and he slowly kicked with his hooves.
There was a clicking sound when stepping on the concrete floor.
"Is this done?"
Su Ying felt that Zhang An was done before she had even watched it for a while, and she hadn't even come back to her senses yet.
"Yes, it only has four hooves. They must have been replaced."
Zhang An smiled at her, "It's okay, I will tell you first when I trim my hooves from now on, hahahaha."
Su Ying and Wang Min were fascinated by it, which Zhang An didn't expect.
In his later life, Zhang An could watch hoof trimming videos for an hour or two in the middle of the night.
It turns out that girls also like to watch this stuff.
Although Su Ying thought it was not satisfying, it actually took a lot of time.
This is because Dahei is obedient, otherwise it will take more time.
After Zhang An repaired it, Zhang Jianguo led Dahei back into the circle.
Zhang An was sweeping the keratin flakes on the floor. He didn't know if he didn't sweep them away. He was shocked when he swept them away and found a dustpan full of them.
When cooking at noon, Zhang An told his mother to just cook something casually.
Because they agreed yesterday to have a barbecue today, Su Ying and Wang Min were also in high spirits.
After lunch, Zhang An began to cut the mutton and thread it on skewers.
After Zhang An was done, Wang Fang took Wang Min and Su Ying to wear them beside him, and nothing happened to him.
"It's a bit monotonous to just eat skewers. I'll give you something delicious."
Zhang An saw that he didn't have to do the cross-dressing thing now, since he was free anyway.
"What's delicious?"
When they heard Zhang An talk about getting some delicious food, Su Ying and Wang Min both looked forward to it.
"Hey, you guys will find out later."
After saying that, Zhang An ran to the back room and came out with a bundle of hay.
"These grasses are what you said are delicious?"
Su Ying was a little disappointed when she saw the hay in Zhang An's hand.
"Don't worry, this food is really delicious."
Zhang An found some scissors from home and cut them into short pieces.
"This is jelly grass, Xiao An." Wang Fang took one look and knew what it was.
"Yes mom, these are jelly grass."
These hay are the fairy grass that Zhang An planted in the space before.
Zhang An dried them in the sun and stored them in the ear room.
Speaking of which, since Zhang An planted this thing, he hasn't tried it yet.
"Is this grass really delicious? How to eat it?"
Not to mention those who have never drunk milk tea like Su Ying, even people in later generations who have drank milk tea don't know that this stuff is the burnt jelly grass they drink.
"You'll know later if it tastes good or not, hehe."
Zhang An cut all the jelly grass into pieces, put them in a bucket, and washed them many times.
While washing, the dried jelly grass is allowed to fully foam.
When you feel that the washing is almost done, you start to drain the water, put it in a large pot and start cooking.
The pot that Zhang An used to cook the grass jelly was a large steamer that Wang Fang had just bought. It was very, very big.
Fill a pot full of water and put it on the stove to start boiling. At this time, you need to put some edible alkali in the pot.
While it was cooking, Zhang An poured some of the previously beaten starch and mixed it with water.
After cooking like this for more than an hour, a lot of the water in the pot that was originally full has now dried up.
But now the remaining juice in the pot has been boiled into a black gelatinous state.
While Zhang An was busy in the kitchen, Su Ying was so curious that she ran in to see what Zhang An was doing.
"Zhang An, the delicious food you told me was probably these dark juices."
Watching Zhang An pour the branches, grass and leaves in the pot onto gauze and filter, what was left in the end was a basin of black water.
"Wise, what this thing eats is this black water."
As soon as Zhang An finished speaking, Su Ying lowered her head and smelled it.
"Is this really edible? You should drink it directly, it's a bit strange, and it's a bit pungent."
The water boiled from the fairy grass looked like dark Chinese medicine, and Su Ying couldn't accept it.
"Fool, this isn't done yet. It's only half done. When it's done, it will be like jelly."
Because Zhang An used gauze, he filtered out all the branches and leaves of the grass jelly in one go.
If a filter is used, the filtered water must be filtered again.
Because the cleaner the filtered grass jelly, the more delicate, refreshing and tender it will taste.
He was worried that the taste of the grass jelly that would be prepared later would be bland, so Zhang An mixed brown sugar powder and honey with water in advance.
Then pour the filtered black water into the just-mixed sugar water and slowly heat it over the fire.
At the same time, pour in the starch just prepared with water and stir while heating so that they can gel well.
"Okay, that's almost it."
Zhang An looked at the black water in the pot, which had begun to look thick and gelatinous.
Take the pot off the heat and set it aside to cool.
It's a pity that there is no fruit at this time, it would be better to squeeze some juice.
Although there is it in the space, it is difficult to explain when taking it out.
"Is this enough?"
"Yeah, that's it. After it cools down, it will condense into a large piece, just like jelly. Then you can take it out and eat it."
In fact, it can be put in the refrigerator to speed up cooling, but Zhang An did not do that.
Because when it is just taken off the fire, the temperature is quite high, which is not good for the refrigerator.
In addition, the quickly frozen grass jelly does not taste very good.
Zhang An tried it in later generations, because it was cold outside but still hot in the middle.
"Let's go, it's getting late, we should go light the fire on the grill."