The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 330 - 319: Building a Chicken Coop

Chapter 330: Chapter 319: Building a Chicken Coop

Old Zhou sat on the threshold looking up at the sky, while Manbao, having just finished her notes and following Keke’s advice, came out to give her eyes a rest by gazing into the distance. Seeing her dad sitting on the threshold, she joined him, and they both looked up at the sky together.

Big and small, they sat on the threshold in silence until passing villagers, unable to help themselves, chuckled and asked, "What are you two looking at?"

Old Zhou sighed deeply, "Looking at the sky."

Manbao nodded solemnly, "Looking at the clouds."

Villagers also looked up at the sky, saw the sunset clouds, and leaned against the wall to join in, "Uncle Jin, do you think the weather will clear up?"

Today, there had been two showers, on and off, and although the sun had come out in the afternoon, such weather still made it difficult for everyone to harvest the rice.

Old Zhou touched his smoking pipe and said, "Whether or not it clears up tomorrow, we can’t wait any longer. The paddy rice has ripened and must be harvested."

"You’re starting the harvest tomorrow?"

"Mhm, after cutting it, we’ll carry it back home to dry. We won’t leave it in the fields anymore."

Some villagers expressed their envy, "Uncle Jin, your household naturally has no issues with many hands. As for my family, that’s not the case. We’re only six people with two kids, we can only harvest a small plot in a day, carrying it back would be impossible."

Old Zhou felt a hint of pride but still laughed and said, "My family may be large, but so is our land. It’s all the same, all the same."

It was hardly the same. The speed of one person cutting one plot of land and two people cutting two was certainly not the same.

Though he didn’t know why, it just wasn’t the same.

They couldn’t do the calculations, but they could see with their eyes and make direct comparisons.

Manbao pursed her lips and complained, "The teacher doesn’t give us a break for the autumn harvest."

Old Zhou chuckled, "Well, if there’s no break, there’s no break. This year the rice yield isn’t much anyway; we don’t need you kids to go down to the fields."

"That’s true. My family planted twelve mu of paddy rice and lost half of it," a villager said somewhat relieved, "Thank goodness the court waived the taxes. Otherwise, we couldn’t have made it through this year."

In fact, even though the court had waived taxes, everyone’s lives were still tight.

Previously, one mu of paddy rice could yield about two and a half loads; now, there might not even be one.

Many rice plants hadn’t even filled their grains, and a touch revealed nothing but empty husks. They could be cut, but only the straw would be of use.

The luck of Old Zhou’s family with their paddy rice hadn’t been any better, suffering the same situation with several of their fields directly washed away, now with more weeds in the fields than rice.

However, his household wasn’t under as much pressure now thanks to a good wheat harvest, Erlang’s steady income, and the unexpected windfall from the China root, so Old Zhou was quite composed and steady.

When the Zhou Family decided to gather their rice harvest, the news spread, and many other families also went to check their fields. It was already August, and despite the flood damage, most of the rice had turned yellow and was ready for harvesting.

After observing the sky, they also decided to start the harvest the next day.

The decisions of countryside folk were quick and without rationale. Just the day before, everyone was idly sitting under trees separating hemp twine, and the next day, before dawn, they picked up their sickles and baskets and headed out.

Suddenly, it was a shift from the slack season to the busy harvest season.

Gathering rice was even easier than wheat, but the villagers of Qili Village weren’t too happy since this year’s yield was truly poor, demotivating everyone.

The Zhou Family simply didn’t let Ms.He and Ms.Fang work in the fields, and the remaining members managed to harvest all the paddy rice from the fields within six or seven days and then leisurely began threshing.

Since many rice husks were empty, they could scoop them up with a winnowing basket, blow against the wind, and instantly blow away a large pile, leaving very few good rice grains to fall.

Everyone had expected this. Although they sighed, they weren’t too distressed.

People gathered the blown-away rice husks as well. If by the next spring there wasn’t enough grain at home, grinding these husks into bran would still provide something edible.

The Zhou Family was gathering as well, but after calculating the grain at home, Old Zhou decided that they had enough to eat and decided to use the husks for feeding chickens.

Ms.Qian looked at the ten or so bags of empty rice husks with a sigh, "Let’s go to the market and buy ten chickens. The hens we raised last year are getting old; they’ll be just right to slaughter for the New Year’s feast."

"The chicken coop is too small," Manbao looked disdainfully at the coop, "Mother, if they’re too cramped, they won’t lay eggs."

Junior Ms.Qian glanced at Manbao and took the chance to suggest, "Mother, why don’t we clean up that waste ground behind the house and build a chicken coop there. It’ll be spacious and keep our home tidy."

Ms.Qian hesitated, "But it’s still outside the house; what if someone steals them..."

"Who would dare to do that? Besides, we raise quite a few chickens. If someone tries to steal, the chickens will cry out, and we’ll know."

Junior Ms.Qian had repeatedly disliked the chicken coop in the yard for being untidy. Although the children cleaned the yard every day, she rose earliest and slept latest, so some messes inevitably caught her eye.

Clearly, Manbao had brought up the matter after hearing her complaints.

Manbao wholeheartedly agreed with her sister-in-law’s suggestion.

"What if a weasel comes?" In the village, it’s not only people who steal chickens but also rats and weasels.

And among them, rats and weasels pose the greatest threat.

Qili Village was still rather simple, and while there were lazybones and annoying loafers, because of the small population and everyone being somewhat related, there weren’t particularly malicious people causing trouble among neighbors.

The village’s unwanted loafers were at most lazy, liking to wander aimlessly up the mountains and down the rivers.

For instance, Zhou SiLang had once been categorized as a loafer.

Zhou Dalang thought for a moment and said, "Last year, when we built our house, didn’t we have some stones left over? We might as well use the stones for the foundation and yellow clay for the rest, then build a fence around it. That way weasels shouldn’t be able to get in."

Zhou ErLang added, "Those broken tiles from June are still piled in the corner. We can use them for the roof of the chicken coop, and that should keep the rats out."

Only then did Ms.Qian agree.

The plot stretching from the right side of the Zhou Family’s house to the back was their garden.

The piece on the right had been started by Old Zhou’s parents and later taken over by Ms.Qian. As the household grew, she gradually expanded the garden outwards–after all, it was no one else’s land–and eventually, she continued until reaching the back of the house.

The land behind the house extended about 300 meters outward to a mountain allocated as Dalang’s allotted farmland by the village.

Up the mountain foothill, naturally, five or six clumps of bamboo grew, and below it, flax used to be grown, already harvested this year.

The mountain wasn’t very far from their home, and the 300 or so meters of open space in between were unclaimed, seldom trodden by anyone.

Ms.Qian had unilaterally decided that this land was part of their household’s territory and without informing the village head, they began mixing clay to build a chicken house the very next day.

When they actually started construction, Manbao ran back and forth to watch, then realized that having a chicken coop at the back wasn’t so bad, "Later, we can drive the chickens up the mountain to hunt for bugs."

Ms.Qian chuckled, "How many bugs could there be on the mountain? They’re better off in the fields."

Upon saying this, Ms.Qian paused, "Right, we can drive the chickens out to the fields to eat bugs."