Since entering May, Xi Yongfu's family has been busy.

This year, Lao Xi's youngest son's family contracted a mountain forest under the jurisdiction of the cottage to harvest wild mushrooms, and his family also prepared to plant more than ten acres of mountain flue-cured tobacco, two acres of rice, and seven or eight acres of corn. With so much farm work, he and his youngest son and his wife have a tight schedule, including two grandsons and a granddaughter who are still in school, and they also have to help the family in their spare time, and the whole family may not be able to cope with it.

Lao Xi is old, and his legs and feet are a little inflexible. This year, instead of working in the fields with his youngest son's family, he went to manage the mountain forest where his youngest son's family contracted to harvest wild mushrooms. His daily task is to carry a basket and a small hoe, and wander around the mountain area contracted by his youngest son's family, harvesting wild mushrooms and wild vegetables growing on that mountain.

Xi Yongfu, 62, is a Yi villager from Qingshan Village, Yunmei Village Committee, Chahe Township, Exian County, Yunnan City, and has two sons and three daughters. After his three daughters got married, he and his wife were raised by two sons who had separated from each other. He lives with his youngest son's family, and his wife lives with his eldest son's family.

In other words, the time has come when you have worked hard all your life, and when you are old, you need to take care of yourself. The two old husbands and wives need to live with their two sons' families respectively, and their two sons' families are also responsible for their birth, old age, sickness and death in their later years. Now that they can still eat and move, the old couple also need to help their two sons with household chores. There are two sons in the family, and one son raises an old man, which is very fair and reasonable. The two of them have actually lived separately, and their old husband and wife have been artificially separated.

This kind of old-age care is not an isolated phenomenon in rural areas. In many places, in families with many children, elderly parents either live alone or take turns eating at the homes of several sons. In families with two sons, raising one of the parents is a normal part of life, not an isolated phenomenon. As for who and whose family supports the old couple, this varies from person to person, and each family has its own specific situation, depending on the situation. Under normal circumstances, the old couple can take care of themselves and help their son's family to do some work within their ability. In case one of the parties has a big physical problem,...... Hehe, the old couple still depends on each other, and the children will support Di together!

Without further ado, let's talk about the old Xi family.

After the Spring Festival this year, Qingshan Village began to subcontract the mountain forests belonging to the village collective to the villagers who were willing to contract. Lao Xi's eldest son's family and younger son's family respectively contracted to collect mushrooms on both sides of the same mountain. The old and frail old Xi couple can help their two sons' families to guard this big mountain, and by the way, they can harvest wild mushrooms and wild vegetables with economic value on the mountain and sell them for money.

The area of mountains and forests under the jurisdiction of their Qingshan village is quite large, and 50 or 60 households are divided into subcontracts, and the area of mountains and forests that each household can contract is more than 2 to 300 mu. This kind of contracting method is somewhat special, and the villagers only contract the right to harvest wild plants produced in the mountain forest, not the right to manage the mountain forest. Although they cannot cut down trees in the mountain forest, they can only harvest ancillary products such as mountain grass and wild vegetables that are produced in the mountain forest, but they do not need to plant trees or make separate investments.

The village is rich in mountain and forest resources, with few people and many mountains, and it is enough for a family to manage such a large area of mountains and forests. Especially from March to October every year, there are many things produced in the mountains and forests. There are all kinds of wild vegetables that can be collected, such as mountain lilies, bitter thorn flowers, wild mushrooms, wild yams, and bracken. Lao Xi, who knows some Chinese herbal medicines, can also collect a certain amount of Chinese herbal medicines, and after drying and finishing them at home, they can be collected and sold to medicinal material buyers It is also a lot of income. The mountains are generous, as long as you have time and mind to wander around the mountains, every time you go home, the basket can be full.

The mountain forest contracted by their family is located in the depths of the mountains, and the Qingshan village is also located in the depths of the mountains, in fact, that mountain forest is not far from the village where they live. Lao Xi and his wife, who have lived in the mountains since childhood, are familiar with the mountains and forests, and they are too lazy to go home for food and accommodation. From March to October, when the weather in central Yunnan was also warm, the old couple took matters into their own hands and built a simple thatched hut on a flat land in the middle of the mountain. The old couple often live together in the mountains and live a mountain life like idle clouds and wild cranes.

Lao Xi used to go up the mountain to harvest wild vegetables and Chinese herbs when he was fine, he had no fixed range of activities, and he went to harvest wherever there was good things, and he was free.

Not only the forests of Qingshan villages have been contracted by zoning, but also the forests of several nearby villages have also been contracted to specific mountain families. He can only wander around the mountain forest area contracted by his youngest son's family, and harvest the mountain goods in this mountain forest area where his family has the right to move freely. Other mountains and forests already have owners, and Lao Xi has no problem wandering around when he passes by, and it is no longer possible to harvest anything from those mountains and forests.

Lao Xi felt breathless at first, this kind of day when the range of activities was artificially limited was really uncomfortable. However, as he wandered around the mountains and forests contracted by his family when he had nothing to do, he found that there were so many things he could do in this mountain forest where only his family could harvest wild vegetables freely. Due to the limitation of the scope of his activities, he is no longer wandering around, he can search carefully, and he can pick more wild vegetables and Chinese herbal medicines.

Because this mountain forest belongs to him, and everything produced in the mountain forest belongs to him to harvest freely, except for the fact that trees cannot be cut down and vegetation cannot be destroyed at will. No one came to compete with him, there was nothing good in the mountains and forests, and there was no need to worry about being harvested in time by others first. It should be his, it is his, and he can patrol the mountains and harvest the output of the mountains and forests in a planned way.

"Old woman, do we talk to the eldest and second family, and simply manage this mountain in a unified manner. Lao Xi smoked a hookah and talked to his wife who was making dinner.

"What do you mean?" asked my wife calmly as she cut the vegetables.

"The hill contracted by our family has more than 800 acres, from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, shrubs, pear trees, miscellaneous trees, and pine trees are relatively dense. I have estimated that when the rain penetrates, there will be no less than one or two hundred catties of fungi growing every day, and the two of us can harvest at least forty or fifty kilograms. If you harvest them all, you can buy them for four or five hundred yuan on the mountain. Although the contract fee for this mountain is a bit expensive, the eldest and second family have a total of 5,000 yuan a year, and the two of us can help them recover it in more than ten days. Lao Xi smoked a hookah comfortably, telling his wife about his discoveries and plans.

The wife responded happily: "In this way, the contract fee of the eldest and second family is not too expensive." From May to October, you can harvest the mushrooms for five or six months. ”

"It's not that there are so many mushrooms every day, and you have to collect them to buy them. The harvest was not in time, and those who did not find it were all rotten in the mountains. Lao Xi said pragmatically.

"With such a big mountain, the two of us, plus the eldest and the second, and the two of them have time to come over to harvest, and they may not be able to turn around. , there are not a few rotten in the mountains. Today, the dozens of dried mushrooms in the thatched bushes of the back valley can't be eaten, and they are all rotten. You say, where did I pass by the other day, why didn't I turn around to take a look?" said the wife regretfully, as she went up the mountain to harvest mushrooms.

"Hehehe, if it's rotten, it's rotten, what is produced on this mountain, it's yours when you encounter it, and you don't have to regret it if you don't meet it. Didn't you find the nest this time? Later, you will know that there will be valuable dried mushrooms there. Old woman, there is a pattern of mushrooms on the mountain, and the time of rainy days and sunny days is different, and the mushrooms are different. The two of us are almost ripe in this mountain, and we have a good idea of when there will be any fungus there. Lao Xi smiled open-mindedly and comforted his wife, he had discovered the financial password of this mountain, and he was not in a hurry.

"Hehe, I don't regret it, I just feel sorry for it. If those dried mushrooms are recovered, they are worth more than 100 yuan. Old man, didn't those people who came to collect the mushrooms say that after contracting the mountain forest, each family can investigate the production in their own mountain forest and have a planned harvest?"

My wife has been in charge of housework for many years, and she has not separated her family for those years, and she is taking care of the firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea at home, and she is very concerned about the big and small affairs that happen in the village.

You must know that the gains that Lao Xi got from the mountains and forests were all turned into the wealth of the family through her hands, and she is not ambiguous!