Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 945 - 927. Cleaning up cattle and sheep dung

Chapter 945: 927. Cleaning up cattle and sheep dung

Wu Lei knew nothing about it. It was only when he came back on his tricycle to pack up his bags that he heard one earful of gossip relayed by Zhang Yanping—

[Three children’s filial piety moved heaven; aged father fills ladle with dung]

Huh? Ah! Uh... Damn, that’s intense!

He stuffed his quilt into a plastic bag, took a longing look at the room he lived in, and then left with overwhelming sadness.

Qiaoqiao was just spreading out a sheet of white paper when she saw him and curiously asked, "Eh, Brother Wu Lei, are you leaving?"

"Not exactly leaving."

Wu Lei sighed, "It’s your uncle, insisting it’s not appropriate for me to live here, nagging me every single day to move to the pasture... Is there really any difference which side I stay on!"

It’s so convenient to eat breakfast early at my aunt’s house!

Zhang Yanping thought to himself, of course it’s inappropriate!

With your kind of brains, there’s no future in working for others. Your dad and mom are racking their brains to carve out a future path for you!

Raising cattle and sheep is great, relaxing work that pays well, and is healthy living to boot!

If you keep living here, how can you monitor the cattle and sheep in the pasture at night? Can you accumulate any experience like that?

Young man, you really have to listen to your parents! Zhang Yanping said with a bossy tone.

Despite his many faults, Wu Lei has one virtue—that is, regardless of his murmuring, complaints, and confusions, it doesn’t hinder him from obediently following through.

He used to be like that with Lili, and now he’s the same with his parents.

Except for not meeting the demand to save money, he’s done pretty well in everything else. But that’s okay too; his big aunt has saved a tidy sum for him by now.

Ever since June, he has a monthly income of around 2000 yuan, and while 10,000 may not sound like much, money is saved just like this, little by little!

Seeing his son return, she quickly helped to settle his luggage, oh such tender motherly care!

And the old mother quickly instructed:

"Hurry up, today is windy and sunny, you should turn over that cow dung."

Wu Lei’s face was expressionless: "Oh."

Turning cow dung is a job with no technical content. The huge fermentation pits had been divided into sections, each section accumulating three days’ worth of cow dung.

All he needed to do was to scramble the dung with a shovel from the front to the back, and it would be best to sprinkle some rice husks in the middle...

Wu Lei put on leather overalls, the kind with boots, long rubber gloves, and geared up with a mask and hat... Actually, cow dung doesn’t stink, but since the area is full of fermentation pits, it’s inevitable that other pits could give off ammonia gas that you end up marinating in if you’re not careful.

So, after learning from a few lessons, he’s now accustomed to getting fully suited up.

He doesn’t see what there is to learn from this—cow dung is much less nutritious than chicken and sheep manure, it simply cannot be fermented into pellets and sold like theirs, so there’s no real profit. The best use is fermenting it for your own use and then burying it in the field to improve the soil.

After all, it’s rich in fiber!

If that doesn’t work out, I heard this stuff can be used to raise earthworms—like he’s turning now and sees an earthworm.

The earliest piles have now dried out thoroughly and will have to be placed in sacks again with a handcart to be neatly stacked.

This will make it much more convenient when applying base fertilizer in the spring.

Lost in thought, he saw his father Wu Chenghai push over a handcart filled with fresh, wet cow dung.

The weather turned cold, and the cows were less inclined to go outside. They would just stroll around the grass field twice a day and spend the rest of their time in the barn.

Compared to autumn, when one had to push carts and carry baskets around the playground to shovel, collecting cow dung is somewhat easier now.

Wu Lei couldn’t figure it out: "Why don’t they just sell the cow dung directly?"

Here, they flip and sundry it, and then have to bag it. After the roads were improved, some boss heard about the cattle raising here and called to inquire; they can sell it for several hundred per ton.

Isn’t that less of a hassle?

"What do you know? You don’t farm the land." Wu Chenghai was already used to his son’s nonsense and chided him:

"Since you don’t farm, don’t bother about the experiences of the farmers... How would you know how difficult it is to nurture the soil? Cow dung is really good for the soil."

Turning back, all that land on Tantan’s mountain that is so vast and large, all of it needs to be fertilized with cow dung for good crops!

Those barren hills could only be farmed once the shrubs and rocks were cleared away, and the vegetables grew well this first year because the soil still had nutrients.

But continuous cultivation wouldn’t work, even the richest soil couldn’t withstand such depletion, otherwise why did our ancestors invent careful ridge cultivation thousands of years ago?

Selling cow dung for several hundred per ton is one thing, but when it comes to buying chemical fertilizers, the prices are not the same.

This foolish son only knows about the hardship of his work, but what things don’t come with a cost?

On second thoughts, though, it might be good training.

After mastering cattle-raising techniques, they could raise some cows themselves next year. How great it would be to use the accumulated cow dung for their own vegetable garden!

He hurriedly finished unloading this cart of cow dung and turned around to see that there was sheep dung to be sorted out as well, so he quickly went back to the sheep enclosure.

The dozens of cows had produced quite an amount of dung in these two or three months!

Some of the well-fermented dung was already piled up in the warehouse, but Wu Lei still had to turn it over for several hours, working until his back ached before finishing.

However, his old mother did not let him off the hook, and at the moment, she was standing by the sheep dung fermentation pool calling out:

"Are you done? Take a breather, then come over here. This pile needs to be fermented today."

Sheep dung was not as abundant, and after saving it for several days, there were only a few piles. Today’s pile was obviously just assembled.

At this moment, his mother was carrying a water bucket filled to the brim with evenly stirred molasses water, then pouring the molasses water into a large sprayer.

She directed her son: "Hurry up, sprinkle the fermentation bacteria all over it, and make sure it’s even."

Then she asked him: "Can you mix some water later to settle it down, okay?"

Wu Lei resignedly walked over and started sprinkling fermentation bacteria in large handfuls, waiting for his mother to slowly pour water from the sprayer onto this patch of sheep dung.

The sheep dung, which had been gradually drying, became moist again, soaking the land with wetness and red water flowing, prompting him to sigh:

"Mom, you can do the water-collecting job yourself. Why ask me to help?"

His mother, not pleased, responded: "I’m doing this because I thought you could use a break! I figured you’ve been shoveling cow dung for half a day, and I could handle mixing the sheep dung... Seems you’re not tired after all."

After saying this and before Wu Lei could argue back, she stood up: "Alright, alright, keep turning then! Ah, it’s the young folks who are better suited; I’m not that capable of doing this kind of labor with my body anymore...

"This talk is just talk, in summer you still carry a big hoe in the vegetable garden and work there all day without stop!"

Wu Lei, holding a shovel, silently sighed.