Hello 1983

  Chapter 100 Natural Large Refrigerator

  Er Biaozi went home for a while, then was dragged to his house by Liu Qingshan. Yesterday he butchered a pig, and there were still some pig dishes left, so he happened to call Datou and the three younger brothers to have a meal together.

  Before eating, Er Biaozi took out a stack of banknotes from his close-fitting pocket and handed them to Liu Qingshan.

   "When you went to Longjiang Province, I gave you 200 yuan, and you gave me more than 160 yuan. In the past few months, you have spent less than 40 yuan?"

  Liu Qingshan counted the banknotes, and then got a little angry.

   It’s not because the money spent is too much, but too little. Excluding the round-trip travel expenses, it’s basically no money.

  Er Biaozi chuckled a few times: "When I get there, Professor Xu is a good person. Basically, I eat and drink for nothing and learn technology for nothing. Even the rice seeds are given by Professor Xu for free."

  Liu Qingshan also silently recorded this kind of favor in his heart: the feelings of the older generation are actually the most precious wealth.

  It's a pity that with the surging economic tide, the feelings of too many people have been washed away without a trace.

   "When the rice here is grown, Er Biaozi, you must carry a bag of rice and send it there."

  The big head obviously knew the affection in this, and while talking, he stretched out his hand and patted Er Biaozi's back heavily.

   "It's more than a thousand miles, you asked me to carry it over, why is your head getting worse and worse?"

  Er Biaozi patted the big head on the brain in turn, and the three little friends were laughing and joking.

  Laughing for a while, Er Biaozi opened the satchel he had carried back, and took out a thick stack of notebooks from it.

  The above is all the relevant knowledge of rice from planting to harvesting, which is equivalent to the secrets of growing rice in cold regions.

  Er Biaozi also patted the cheat book quite proudly: "This is a gift from my godfather!"

  Godfather?

   Seeing the doubtful eyes of the two friends, Er Biaozi smiled: "Professor Xu is so kind to me, so of course I recognize him as my godfather."

  Liu Qingshan can only give him a thumbs up: "Okay, then from now on, please respect your godfather well."

   "Eat and eat."

  Liu Jinfeng put a large bowl of sauerkraut on the table, then gave Er Biaozi a look:

   "Your kid is a ghost, you can't be called a godfather when you are an old professor, and you can throw it aside when you are done with it. If that is the case, be careful and I will pinch you."

   Er Biaozi was not afraid of others, but Liu Jinfeng, so he nodded his head vigorously to assure: "Eldest sister, don't worry, I'm not that kind of person either."

"Let's eat."

  Lin Zhi served both the white meat and blood sausage, and put a plate of white meat in front of Er Biaozi: "Biaozi, you have been dark and skinny these past few months, you have suffered a lot, eat more meat."

  Er Biaozi couldn't help feeling hot in his heart, and his eyes were a little sour. His wife passed away within a few years after giving birth to the fourth child in the family, that is, Si Huzi.

  Since he was seven or eight years old, he spent most of his time playing with Liu Qingshan, treating Lin Zhi as his own mother.

Ok! With a promise in his mouth, Er Biaozi quickly picked up a piece of fat and thin pork belly, dipped it in some garlic, stuffed it into his mouth, and yelled while chewing:

   "It smells so good!"

   When it was time to rest at night, Lin Zhi told his son to go to the commune tomorrow and sell the remaining half of pork to the buying station.

  In fact, there are fewer sales this year. According to the usual practice in previous years, after killing the New Year’s pigs, except for the head and hoofs and suet to keep at home, and then entertain relatives and friends for a meal, the rest will basically be sold.

   Throughout the year, the family’s income, apart from exchanging eggs for some pocket money, the rest is the money from selling pork years ago.

  This year is better. After paying the mission rations, there is still some leftover rations to sell.

  If the production team used to be able to provide a good ration for the whole family, as for the work points and so on, in the poor place of Jiapigou, the work points are not worth much at all.

  Take the year before last as an example, a work point was only a few cents.

  Encountered a bad year, maybe you have to pay back, work all year round, and finally owe money.

  Lin Zhi felt that life at home was easier this year, so she left nearly a foot of pork.

  Yesterday, she was still a little worried about slaughtering pigs. She was worried that the pox would come out. Fortunately, the pigs she raised were also up-to-date, and the pork was clean.

   At this time, pigs are raised in free range, so the pigs are prone to parasites, and the most common one is tapeworm.

  This kind of pork has tapeworm eggs parasitized in the lean meat, which are white round things, the small ones are the size of rice grains, and the large ones are the size of sorghum rice grains. People call this "pox pork".

  Anyone who kills pigs to get pox will be at a loss. The buying station doesn’t accept them at all. You can eat them at home, and you will be guilty of resentment. So when slaughtering pigs, this is the most worrying thing.

  Of course Liu Qingshan can understand his mother's thoughts. He has lived very carefully these years, which is why he has brought up these children.

  But it’s different now, life will get better and better, so there’s no need to sell pork.

  But I can’t tell my mother clearly, then my mother will definitely feel reluctant.

After thinking about it, Liu Qingshan said cheerfully: "Mom, why don't you sell it, the eldest sister and the second sister need to supplement nutrition, and the fourth and fifth are also very thin, eat more meat, and grandpa Grandma has to take care of it too."

  Lin Zhi thought it made sense: "Then let's sell it. You can't kill a pig and keep it for food. Others will laugh at us for eating and drinking too much, and we won't be able to live."

  Liu Qingshan scratched the back of his head: "Mother, when I went to Chuncheng, Professor Wang and his old couple said that during the winter vacation, they would go back to Jiapigou to have a look, mainly because our family entertained them."

  Lin Zhi raised her hand with a smile, patted Liu Qingshan's head lightly, and then turned to gently caress: "You, you are greedy, and you are always pulling others, so I won't sell it."

  Feeling the warm palm of his mother, there was only peace in Liu Qingshan's heart.

   "Heck, there's meat every day!"

  In the bed, the giggles of the fourth and fifth little guys came.

   It turned out that they were not asleep, and they were listening with their small ears. When they heard that Lin Zhi said that they would not sell meat, they were both overjoyed, these two little greedy cats.

  Since the meat is not going to be sold, it must be well preserved. Their place is a large natural refrigerator, and this is the last thing to worry about.

  The next day, when Liu Qingshan came back from practicing kung fu on the mountain, he unloaded all the pork into small pieces, such as pork knuckle and ribs, and unloaded them separately. The rest of the pork was cut into cubes the size of tofu, and then buried in the yard.

  Yes, it is buried.

   Of course, we can’t bury it with soil, but with ice.

  Plucked two sacks of ice cubes from the Xiaosong River and brought them back, put the pork in the ice, sprinkled snow on it, poured water on it, and shaved it out when eating, as if it was fresh.

   How about calling it a natural refrigerator?

   There are other advantages, not afraid of thieves stealing, not afraid of dogs stealing food.

  In addition to this method of preservation, Liu Qingshan also left a few pieces of meat and threw them into the big tank in the warehouse, which is more convenient to eat and saves the need to pile up shaved ice.

  The pork in the big tank in the warehouse is hung with a layer of ice outside. This is called hanging wax, which can prevent the pork from drying out and changing its taste.

  Hanging wax is also relatively simple, that is, at night, the coldest time of the day, dip the frozen pork in cold water, take it out and place it on the curtain, and a thin layer of ice will soon form on the surface of the pork.

   If you are worried, hang up again.

  By analogy, this method can be used to keep chicken, duck and fish meat fresh. How else can we say that the wisdom of the working people is infinite.

This is shaved ice and ice pulling. This busy work lasted for a whole day. When the fourth child and the others came back from school, they saw the few big pieces of ice left in the courtyard, and their big eyes immediately became brighter, like ice cubes. It's still crystal clear.

"elder brother-"

  The fourth child tugged on Liu Qingshan's skirt, and his voice began to turn several times.

  Usually at times like this, it's the little girl who has some request.

  Liu Qingshan couldn't help stretching out his hand, pinching her little red face from the cold: "What are you going to do again?"

   "Hee hee, brother, let me and Shan Xing make an ice cart, Er Mangzi and the others said that after dinner, we will go skating in the small river."

  The little fourth child finally showed the little fox's tail.

"Row-"

  Liu Qingshan's tone of voice was not less twisted, which made the two little girls giggle.

  Originally, Liu Qingshan had an ice cart, which he played with when he was a child, but he had to make another one for Shan Xing.

  He didn't want Shan Xing to just stand on the ice and watch other children play, then he would be too incompetent as an older brother.

  He really couldn’t get one to make an ice cart, mainly because he didn’t have any tools at home, so he had to go to Zhang Shaozi.

  Zhang Jizi is making chicken coops at home. Yesterday, another team came to visit. Someone went to Liu Jinfeng’s chicken shed, and it caught his eye. He plans to build a chicken farm next year.

  The chicks will have to wait for a few more months. After all, Liu Jinfeng's chicken farm has not yet started laying eggs, but the chicken coop has been pre-ordered from Zhang Jizi.

  With labor and materials, a chicken coop costs one yuan, which makes Zhang Shuzi so happy, he can earn more than 60 cents.

  Ordered a hundred chicken coops, that’s more than 60 yuan, plus the 50 yuan earned from Liu Qingshan, the money to buy a bicycle for his eldest brother’s partner is almost enough.

  So when he saw Liu Qingshan coming, Zhang Chuanzi beamed and was very affectionate.

   When he learned that he was going to make an ice cart, he immediately agreed wholeheartedly, took out an adze, chisel, ax, saw, etc., and it took more than an hour to get it out.

  The ice trolley is actually a small sledge. The most critical part is the two wooden rails below. The wood must be used well and must be smooth.

   At the front end of the wooden rail, a bevel should be cut out to prevent it from getting stuck in the ice and snow.

  If you want to do it, you can make a complete set. Zhang Shuzi even made two pairs of ice skewers, which are two round wooden handles, with a thin pointed steel bar inserted in the middle.

  Sitting on the ice cart like this, holding the ice skewer in both hands, gently pricking backwards on the ice, the ice cart will slide forward.

  During the time when Zhang Jizi was working on the ice cart, Liu Qingshan was not idle, he found a piece of leftover wood, it was oak wood, very heavy, and chipped two pieces of wood.

  尜 is also the northern child's favorite toy in winter.

   After finishing everything and going home, the fourth and fifth children were studying on the table, while the eldest brother-in-law took Liu Qingshan's usual position and wrote something on the manuscript paper.

  The eldest sister and mother are also working in the house.

  The eldest sister was sitting on the kang, holding an embroidery support to draw dragons and phoenixes, and beside her was Yang Hongying as an apprentice.

  My mother pasted old cloth on a large wooden board, and put a layer of paste on the old strips of cloth, and then pasted them layer by layer until they were a few millimeters thick, and they were used to make shoe soles and the like.

   Just in time, Liu Qingshan asked for a few strips of cloth to make two small whips for whipping.

  The work done by my mother has a special name in the countryside, called "打袼褙 (gēbèi.

  Several layers of 袼褙 are cut into the shape of the sole, then glued together, and then stitched with hemp rope. This is what people often call "thousand-layer bottom".

   Later, there was a song that sang: The shoes I love most are the layered soles my mother gave me.

  Thousand-layer bottom is made in this way.

  Rural women at that time were never idle during the winter slack. They used to wear shoe soles, wear laces, and dexterous girls could also embroider.

  All kinds of curtains for my own home, as well as my own dowry, are all embroidered stitch by stitch.

  The dim light outlines the leisurely and busy life of ordinary farmers in this era.

  Liu Qingshan became a little crazy for a while, and there was only indescribable warmth left in his heart:

   This is the feeling of home, so good!

  (end of this chapter)