Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 104 Mosquito legs are also meat

As for the deep depressions that were not suitable for growing water chestnuts and wild rice seedlings, people found a lot of water hyacinths and duckweed from the moat and put them in the flower buds.

These two things may not have been very popular in the past because they would block waterways and affect shipping, so they were often disliked and were picked up from the water by river cleaners and thrown on the shore to die.

Nowadays, these two are good things. Not only can they purify water quality, but they can also be used as feed for pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese. They are also the best feed for fish, and eating them can prevent fish from getting sick.

Moreover, these two small things have very strong reproductive capacity and vitality, and they can grow well without too much management. After being planted in the puddle in the first year, they will grow again in the spring of the second year as long as the temperature is suitable, and there is no need to plant again. This saves labor costs for the flower buds.

I also heard that water hyacinth and duckweed have medicinal value, but I’m not sure about this flower bud.

The cabbages sown in mid-June have good sunlight, high temperature, and timely watering by farmers in the morning and evening. In just over a month, they have grown crowded together and are lush green. They are as tall as an adult's palm and can be picked and eaten slowly.

Because there were too many cabbages to eat, Hualei asked the deliveryman to ask several restaurant owners if they would accept fresh cabbages. The result was encouraging. They all needed it. Then, when delivering dried bean curd and tofu to them every day, she also delivered several hundred kilograms of fresh cabbages. Although it was cheap, Hualei followed the principle of "even a little bit of meat is good" and let the people in the village do the work.

After all, if we do well now, we will have a place to go for the loofahs, winter melons, eggplants, etc. on the farm in the future. Besides, children in their seventies and eighties can do things like pulling up Chinese cabbages, so although there are many women on the farm, they still have a place to use their skills.

Children who really don't know how to pull up the vegetable seedlings can also act as a movable wooden stake, holding a thin bamboo stick in their hands to raise chicks and ducklings. Hualei once again showed his true colors, giving everyone in the village something to do.

Various vegetables were planted in every high-lying area of ​​the village, while water chestnut and wild rice seedlings occupied the shallow depressions in the middle and west, and water hyacinth and duckweed occupied the deep depressions. Now only the land in the east was left, which was intended to be used to dig a fish pond.

Now that the busy farming season is over, more and more villagers are looking for work in the countryside. The weather is hot, which is suitable for repairing the fish pond. Hua Lei then prepares to dig a fish pond. After more than a month of adjustment, Hua Lei has basically understood the people in the village.

Half a month ago, a man named Wu Sansi was temporarily selected to assist Uncle Fu and Uncle Zhao in handling the affairs of the farm. Wu Sansi was less than 30 years old, big and strong, with a somewhat fierce face, and spoke directly without knowing how to beat around the bush. However, he was decisive and never shirked his responsibilities. Perhaps because of his directness, he was not liked by the manager and the boss in the past. It was said that he was disliked by several bosses and resold, so he had been doing the lowest level of work.

But Hualei didn't mind, as long as she did her job well. Uncle Zheng and Uncle Zhao would both return to Baihua Manor in the future, and they would be indispensable there. Yuanying Manor here also needed a few capable people to manage it.

After half a month of instruction from Uncle Zheng, Uncle Zhao and Uncle Fu, Wu Sansi has made rapid progress and is now doing quite well as a steward. He was originally a fisherman, but because of an accident he sold his fishing boat and lost a large sum of money. He then moved ashore with his parents to become a farmer and has not married yet.

After Hualei understood the situation, she assigned the task of digging the fish pond to Wu Sansi, and asked Uncle Fu, Uncle Zheng, and Uncle Zhao to assist. Wu Sansi was originally from Zhuangzi, and had worked here for two or three years. He was very familiar with the terrain here, so he started working after receiving Hualei's order.

The southeastern part of the pond is the lowest, with the lowest point being about ten feet deep. The fish pond itself needs to be about two and a half to three meters deep, so this is about right, as long as the shallow part is dug deeper.

Wu Sansi found some fellow villagers he knew and rented a few small fishing boats, which he put in the deep depression. Hua Lei then went to the Cabinet and Materials Section of the Water Conservancy Department, a branch of the Ministry of Works, and rented the tools needed to clear the river, which he handed over to Wu Sansi.

Wu Sansi and Fu Bo took the young and strong men in the village and found a group of villagers. They spent a week cleaning up the inside of the fish pond and divided it into four fish ponds. On one side of the four fish ponds, a small rectangular water storage tank was built. The water storage tank was connected to the Nanwaicheng River outside.

In order to irrigate the fertile fields, the Nanwaicheng River would have an opening at certain intervals for irrigation. This reservoir was connected to one of the openings in the moat.

Each fish pond is of different sizes, and each fish pond is connected to a rectangular water storage tank, which is usually closed with two thick wooden doors. It can be opened when the water needs to be changed.

Hualei originally wanted to use iron, but the government had very strict control over the use of iron. Making five or six iron doors would require too much, so the government refused to allow it. Hualei had to settle for the next best thing and use two wooden doors, which she could only replace frequently before they rotted. Then she spent another seven or eight days tamping the bank of the fish pond.

During this period, Hua Lei took Fu Bo to the Yuguan Office under the Ministry of Industry, which was in charge of fisheries, and ordered a batch of black carp fry, crucian carp fry, and grass carp fry.

Generally, crucian carp fry can be sold in about 220 days, grass carp in about 320 days, and black carp in at least a year.

There is no other way. Although farmed fish have a long growth cycle and require large initial investment, Hua Lei thinks that one cannot catch a wolf without sacrificing one's own child.

Since the farm has been bought, it is not a big deal to leave it empty. A large investment means a large harvest in the future. As long as we cultivate it well, it should be good. I picked a few days of sunny weather and put several kinds of fish fry into the fish pond. By the time all the fry were released, it was already the end of July.

Hua Lei looked at the batch of chickens, ducks and geese that the farm bought in mid-June. Because they were well taken care of and exercised a lot, and later had high-protein food such as bean dregs added, they grew even faster. Now the chicks weigh 70 to 80 taels each. The older geese grow even faster and weigh almost one and a half kilograms.

Now this flock of chickens, ducks and geese no longer needs to be managed as meticulously as when they were first captured. Every day a few children can just drive them to a few open spaces on the farm and release them.

Hualei thought that the farm was big, and if she only raised this batch, she might not be able to sell them by the end of the year. So she went to Dumucao to buy a batch of chickens, ducks, geese and two hundred piglets, and started raising them together.