Chapter 195 Autumn Harvest 2
The morning mist dissipated and the sun rose from the east.
After breakfast, everyone continued to cut rice stalks, some squatting or bending over to cut rice. After a while, they either felt sore in their waists and backs or numb and painful in their feet.
Spring ploughing is hard, autumn harvest is hard, and farming is extremely hard.
This is the Nth time that Lin Youcai has complained in his heart. At this moment, he really misses modern life!
Lin Youcai bundled the cut rice stalks into bundles and piled them in the field. Lin Zisu followed him, picked up a large bundle of rice, and walked towards the rice thresher.
Whether it is called a thresher or a rice thresher, this tool is really practical. It does not require electricity or oil, and can be used to quickly remove the grains from the rice ears by stepping on them.
The thresher was transported to the intersection by the Xinghai government using a large truck. Each family received a thresher to go to the fields. Each thresher was numbered, and Lin Zisu's family received number 41. The staff registered and randomly assigned the threshers, and the one that was next in line was the one they got. Not only the new residents of Qingxi Town needed it, but also the local people in other towns and villages needed it for the autumn harvest.
The guys removed the carriages and used them as carts pulled by animals to transport the threshers to the fields. Strong young men could carry the threshers into the fields on their backs.
Not all fields are next to the road. For most fields, the roads are only along the ridges, and only a few people can carry the thresher to their own fields.
Today is the second day of threshing. Old man Lin holds a bundle of rice in his hand and puts the end with wheat ears in the thresher. He steps on the pedal with his right foot, and the roller inside rotates, bringing down all the grains.
Old Man Lin bundled up the rice straw used to thresh the grains and threw it aside, to be cleaned up after he was done. He took the bundle of rice handed over by Lin Zisu and continued threshing.
Old Lady Wang wiped her face with the handkerchief around her neck, came over with a bundle of rice, and looked at the thresher with great interest. "The government of the country is really amazing! It has everything! The thresher is so clean! It's effortless and fast!"
Lin Youfu came over with a pile of rice in his arms, put it down, and went to the ridge to get some water to drink. "The thresher is useful! We will also buy a thresher to harvest rice next year!"
Old Man Lin was in a good mood and pedaled vigorously. "When we were in my hometown, we could only dry the wheat in the sun and beat it with sticks, or put it on a straw mat and beat it with a hoe."
Lin Yougui stood up with a sickle in his hand, eased his aching waist, looked at the yellow rice, and said with a smile: "This time next year, the harvested rice will be ours."
When everyone thinks of the golden rice filling up the warehouse, they feel at ease, satisfied and happy. The happiness of ordinary people is just that simple.
The autumn harvest is a rush. If you harvest early, you will suffer losses if it rains heavily. If it rains continuously, the harvest will be ruined. So we have to harvest the crops in a hurry. Noon and afternoon are when the sun is the hottest. We take a lunch break from 12 to 3, and we avoid the hottest and most sunny time to harvest.
Staff would come on horseback to patrol the fields, fearing that someone would get heat stroke or heat stroke. After 3 o'clock, everyone had to wear straw hats and sickles to continue working in the fields.
The sun was rising higher and higher. Lin Zisu looked at her watch. It was 11:22. She looked at Old Lady Wang and Old Man Lin and shouted, "Grandpa, Grandma, let's go back and cook lunch!"
Old Man Lin: “Go ahead!”
Lin Youcai stood up, stretched his sore waist, looked at his wife, then looked at his mother, and shouted, "Mom, aunt, you should go back too! It doesn't matter the time!" He came to work in the fields at around 5 o'clock in the morning, and it has been more than 7 hours now.
Lin Youfu: "Yes! Dad, Mom, you guys go back first! This acre of land will be harvested soon!"
Old Man Lin stepped on the pedal and said without raising his head, "I can still thresh the grain! Old woman, you can go back first with your wife and granddaughters!"
I told you to go back, but you still don’t want to go back! Then let me go back! I’m so tired! How come this feels even harder than the journey of escaping! Lin Xianwen felt itchy and sticky all over his body. He looked at his cousin Lin Xianpeng, “Brother, let’s go swimming in the river later! I’m so itchy! These hairs are sticking to my body and it’s so itchy!”
Lin Xianpeng closed his eyes and quickly picked up the towel hanging around his neck to wipe his eyes. The sweat that had just fallen into his eyes was very painful. "Okay, after lunch, tell Dad and them to go again."
Lin Xianwen: "My dad will definitely go! How refreshing it is to take a dip in the river! Ah! I want to go to the river now! I have to thresh the millet for several days, and I will get prickly heat all over my body!"
Lin Zisu looked up at the sky with squinted eyes, then quickly lowered her head. It was too dazzling! The sun's rays could blind people!
The autumn heat is too strong!
Shen Xianglan quickly put down the sickle, walked up to the ridge of the field impatiently, turned around and said to Lin Youcai: "I put the sickle there, remember to put it away!"
Lin Youcai: “Okay.”
People who don't have sickles can apply for sickles from the staff of the agricultural department. Every morning, the staff of the agricultural department will park their carts and tools on the road beside the fields. If you need a sickle, you can go to the staff to register, sign, and stamp your handprint, and then you can take the sickle. After the autumn harvest, the sickle and thresher must be returned.
After the autumn harvest, no tools to hand in? Just compensate me according to the original price.
Lin Zisu got in the car and quickly opened the windows and doors to let in some fresh air. After being exposed to the sun for the whole morning, the inside of the car was like a steamer.
Five minutes later, Lin Zisu, who was enjoying the air conditioning, exclaimed, "Ah~ I'm alive again!"
Cuihe, Xiatao and Qiuyue took off their straw hats and masks and lay on the sofa like Ge You.
Shen Xianglan was sitting in the passenger seat, enjoying the air conditioning. Suddenly, she shivered, "Ah Qiu!" She shrugged her nose, "It's easy to sneeze when it's hot and cold!"
The mule cart in front raised yellow dust.
Lin Zisu deliberately let the mule cart with Old Lady Wang and the others in it run in front, with the doors and windows of the RV closed so that dust would not be sucked in. If the mule cart was behind the RV, it would have to eat dust all the way home.
After the women in the house left, at 12 o'clock, Lin Youcai and his colleagues also finished work.
The grains threshed by the thresher are packed in jute bags, weighed by the agricultural staff, and the weight is recorded in a book. They are placed on the roadside, and the agricultural department's truck will come and take them all away.
Lin Youcai and his companions took sickles and water bottles, got on the ox cart and headed to the river, where they let the big yellow ox drink enough water and gave it a wash.
Everyone jumped into the river to cool down~
Even Old Man Lin couldn't help but go down to the river to take a bath, it was too hot!
Many men came one after another, gave the animals water to drink, washed them to cool them down, and then went into the river to take a bath themselves.
A group of soldiers passed by, sweating profusely. Apart from the different clothes, pants and shoes, the soldiers also had short hair, straw hats on their heads, cloth towels around their necks, and sickles and water bottles in their hands. They avoided the river section where the people were and walked towards other sections of the river, also intending to take a bath and cool down before going back.
Everyone who harvests in autumn receives a handkerchief, which is distributed free of charge by the agricultural department.
Lin Youxiang stood in the river, looking at the soldiers walking by, "Are these soldiers?"
Lin Youcai rubbed his neck, "Well, we are here to thresh the grain! We have a big family, and we can harvest all the grain in a few days! Dashu's group of half-grown children, and Zhaomu's family with only two adults, who knows how long it will take to harvest three mu of land."
Lin Youfu: "That's embarrassing. Many families only have two or three strong laborers. The millet is not their own, so we can't ask people to pay for it!"
Lin Youcai: "So we let some soldiers do the work! It's to collect grain from the national treasury! Our family has a large population, so it's okay to work hard in the autumn harvest. Families with few strong laborers must have help to harvest!"
"Hurry up and wash! Go home for lunch after washing, and take a nap, as you still have work to do in the afternoon!" Old man Lin had almost finished washing, wrung out the towel, and walked ashore.