novelhk Chapter 106: Building a Water Mill and Digging Sweet Potatoes
Chapter 106: Building a Water Mill and Digging Sweet Potatoes
"But there is so much wheat now, how do we grind it into flour?" asked Gu Dahai.
Old Man Gu pondered for a moment and said, "We have a stone mill in Dagu Village. Why don't we take some time to go back and take a look, and move the stone mill here for use. And by the way, go back and see how Dagu Village is doing. I wonder if the clansmen have sent back any news. What do you think, Fuer?" Finally, he asked his granddaughter's opinion.
"Of course, Grandpa, but we have to wait a few more days. The silly, stupid hair will grow back soon. With them, we can go out faster. Then we can go out again."
When the boys heard that they could get out soon, their eyes lit up.
Then I heard my sister continue: "But our stone mill should be pulled by a donkey or pushed by a person, right?"
"Yes, the one in our Dagu Village can be pulled by a donkey and pushed by people." Gu Dahai replied.
"Grandpa, Dad, Uncle, and Second Uncle, we can build a water mill in the next few days, and then install it directly when the stone mill is found. This way we can save a lot of effort in the future."
When everyone heard this, they quickly took out their phones and searched for Water Mill.
"You know what, this water mill really saves labor." Gu Dahai said after watching the video.
"Well, we can build a water mill near the waterfall. We can also build it where the circulating water flows out of our yard. But we'll discuss where to build it later." Gu Dahe responded.
As he spoke, he asked his daughter, "Daughter, bring me a notebook and a pen so I can take some notes. Let's study how to build this water mill."
"Okay, give it to Dad." Gu Fu said as he directly produced a notebook and a pen and gave them to Gu Dahe.
"Good girl!" Gu Dahai narrowed his eyes as he smiled at his daughter.
After Gu Dahai took the notebook and pen, he wrote down all the information he found on his mobile phone about the construction methods of water mill.
As he wrote, he was thinking about how to make improvements based on actual conditions.
Others surrounded him, offering suggestions from time to time.
After thoroughly studying and understanding the principles of the water mill, Gu Dahai took his family to start cutting down trees.
After discussion, the family decided to build the water mill near the creek, close to the house and convenient for use.
After choosing the place to build, Gu Dahe took Gu Dahai, Gu Dajiang and the almighty housekeepers with him based on the knowledge he had learned.
Start digging deep trenches, excavating foundations, and burying tree stumps.
Fill the wood piles with stones and compact them, then pour in cement. When the cement is dry, make a large turntable.
After measuring the position on the tree stump, a towing bracket was fixed with wood and patches to secure the large turntable.
Place the large turntable flat in the water, and insert a thick whole tree stump through the middle of the turntable and into the bottom of the stream to secure the turntable.
The other end of the big tree stump leads into the mill through a round hole at the bottom of the mill. Gu Dahe then fixed some wood on top of the stump to make a support, which stretched out in all directions to support the mill.
After trying it, we found that when the water flow hit the big turntable, it drove the wooden piles to rotate rapidly. At this point, the water mill was built.
Next, we just need to go back to Dagu Village, get the stone mill, install it and it can be used.
It took almost a month to build this mill. When people saw that the sweet potato leaves in the field had begun to turn yellow, they knew that the sweet potatoes were about to ripen.
So, everyone tacitly postponed the time to go to Dagu Village.
After waiting for about seven days, most of the leaves turned yellow. After everyone had breakfast, the farmer came in and asked, "Grandpa, the sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested. Should we arrange to harvest them today?"
"Yes!" Mr. Gu replied happily.
"That's great, we can finally harvest sweet potatoes." Gu Dahai said excitedly.
"Then let's go quickly. Our whole family will go." Gu Dahe said excitedly.
The whole family was very happy and excited, and they all came to the sweet potato field with their tools.
It was still Uncle Farmer who first demonstrated to everyone how to dig sweet potatoes.
The adults, robots and boys of the Gu family, including Jixiang Ruyi, all started digging sweet potatoes.
Several children including Anle Fukang helped pick sweet potatoes and put them into the basket.
The little monkey just pulled them out with his hands, and with a lot of force, he pulled out a bunch of them.
Seeing the sweet potatoes dug out, each as big as a bowl, and a bunch of them on a vine, Mr. Gu was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes.
Gu Kang picked for a while, then picked up a big, long sweet potato and sat on the ground to eat it.
I nibbled off the muddy skin and nibbled the pink sweet potato flesh underneath, tasting the sweet taste. I excitedly nibbled and swung my little feet.
After Mrs. Wen found out, she nodded Gu Kang's head with a mixture of anger and amusement and said, "You, you acted naughty when you couldn't see it. Can you eat this raw? Be careful to get diarrhea."
As he said this, he took the sweet potato from Gu Kang's hand and carried little Gu Kang on Bai Xue's back, "Bai Xue, Kang'er is in your hands now, take him out to play." Bai Xue responded with a melodious deer cry.
The busy people, hearing the sweet call of the deer, felt that their body and mind were sublimated. They slowed down and enjoyed the beauty of the harvest moment.
"Wow, this sweet potato is so big!" Gu Yi shouted excitedly.
Everyone gathered around to look, and saw that the sweet potato was as big as a child's head.
"These sweet potatoes are growing really well!" said Grandpa Gu with a smile.
"Yes, I guess the yield per mu is really 8,000 kilograms as Fuer said!" Gu Dahai responded happily.
They were busy harvesting sweet potatoes all morning. As the baskets gradually filled up, the little monkeys carried them to the edge of the field and dumped them together.
At noon, we stopped to rest and enjoy a delicious lunch.
In the afternoon, the family, along with the outsiders, continued to work hard until all the sweet potatoes were dug out.
As the sun sets, the adults in the Gu family couldn't help crying with joy again as they looked at the mountains of sweet potatoes on the ridges of the fields.
After everyone had gotten over their excitement, the family looked at the mountain of sweet potatoes in front of them and felt extremely happy and satisfied.
"Dad, let's weigh it while it's still light." Gu Dahai said excitedly.
"Yes, Dad, let's quickly see the specific yield per mu." Gu Dahai also agreed excitedly.
Grandpa Gu couldn't help getting excited when looking at the pile of sweet potatoes. Like his sons, he was eager to know the yield per mu.
He nodded to his sons and said, "Okay, I also want to know what the yield per mu is."
After hearing Dad's words, everyone started busy preparing.
Finally, after weighing it three times in a row, everyone dared to believe that the yield per mu was actually 8,500 kilograms.
"Per acre, it's actually 500 kilograms more than what Fuer said!" Gu Dahai said in shock.
"It should be because the soil in the valley is fertile, the climate is good, and the farmers manage it well. That's why the yield is so high." Grandpa Gu said with a smile.
"Fuer, how do we store so many sweet potatoes?" asked Gu Dajiang.
Gu Fu tilted his head and thought for a moment before saying, "People in the other world store food by digging cellars. Of course, they can all be put into my space. In fact, sweet potatoes can be processed into many delicacies."
"Oh, what can it be processed into?" Gu Dajiang continued to ask his niece curiously.
Gu Fu raised his little hand and counted on his fingers, saying, "It can be made into sweet potato starch, vermicelli, rice noodle skin, and can also be baked into sweet potato chips, sweet potato chips, and can also be used to make wine. It can be made into many kinds of things."
"Especially sweet potato vermicelli and rice paper, which can not only be fried and eaten hot and sour, but also made into hot and sour noodles. They are so delicious." Gu Fu couldn't help swallowing his saliva at the end.
I thought that I haven’t eaten hot and sour noodles for a long time, but then I thought that hot and sour noodles are spicy and my family members would definitely not let me eat it. What a pity.