Chapter 10 Farmhouse Farmyard

Zhang Dayou and his brothers chose the foot of the North Mountain, where there is a lot of wasteland, and the children can continue to build it when they grow up, and it is also convenient to mine stones at the foot of the mountain. In addition, it is far away from the entrance of the village, and the whole family can hide on the north mountain if there is something, so the three brothers helped each other build a house in the village, and they heard it shouting 100 meters away.

Zhang Dayou's house is closest to the foot of the mountain, so the wall is also the highest, all of which are cut into large blue stones, a typical northern courtyard house.

The vermilion gate had just been painted last year for a happy event, and when you entered the gate, you could see that there were three fruit trees planted on the east and west sides of the yard, and two jujube trees on the west side, which were also many years old, and were transplanted directly from the mountain, and the tall leaves could also shade part of the sunlight in summer.

Not far from the west wing, a high grape trellis was erected, and a large bluestone table and a few stone benches were placed under the grape trellis.

The persimmon tree on the left, near the kitchen, was also transplanted from the mountain, and the fruits of these three trees make the children happy every year.

There is also a well not far from the tree, and with this well, the family does not have to go to the village entrance for many years to fetch water. In addition to washing clothes and going to the river at the mouth of the village, this well meets the needs of the family. Because the children in the family are small, the wellhead is built high and covered with fast iron plates.

The open space in front of the east and west wings is well leveled, and in addition to drying corn and sweet potatoes, dried wild fruits and mushrooms and fungus are also mountain goods harvested in autumn. The whole yard is very clean and well organized.

On the left side of the courtyard entrance by the fence there are three rooms, namely the outer kitchen, and the second is a small warehouse, where there are dried vegetables in autumn, pickles eaten in winter, a small amount of coarse grains and other grains. The last utility room is where the family's farm tools and baskets are kept, and the pieces are in tatters. There is also a cellar in the kitchen, which is across the road, and the whole family's coarse grains are placed.

A small cellar was dug in the landlord's wing of Zhang's father and mother, which no one knew except for Zhang's father, Zhang's mother and Zhang Guoqing. Here are the family's dark wealth, such as a pair of gold bracelets, 2 gold rings that Zhang's mother married, as well as a box of jade pendants, jade plates, jade rings, etc., which were secretly hidden by Zhang's father when he liquidated the landlord in the township, and some wild things were exchanged for 3 gold bars and 2 packs of silver dollars before liberation, as well as some of the more than a dozen wooden ornaments and jade ornaments that Zhang's father collected in private, several of which have cracks.

Xiao Guoqing once asked Zhang's father, and he didn't know if it was worth it when he heard what Zhang's father meant, but when he was a child, he followed his father to the landlord's house to deliver prey. I just saw the landlord carefully wiping it, and he estimated that it was worth a lot.

Zhang's mother planned to give the gold bracelet she married to her sister-in-law a hundred years later, and the two gold rings had been given to the two sisters to marry.

Zhang's father told Xiao Guoqing that he couldn't say it, otherwise he would be robbed and arrested and sent to prison. also promised to let him pick half of it first in the future, and wait for the rest to be divided by the three brothers after a hundred years, and Ren Xiaoguo is also smart and never told others.

Leaning on the kitchen used to be the east wing, with three rooms, which was lived by the eldest Zhang Guofu's family. Now the children are small, the eldest nephew is over 10 years old and lives alone, the 8-year-old second and third twins live in a room, and the little niece lives with the eldest brother and his wife.

There are 5 west wings on the right side of the front yard, and the first two are for the second Zhang Guoqiang, and the couple only has 2 children.

The last two rooms are the old three Zhang National Day, and last year's wedding and new house were directly opened up to these two rooms and made a suite. The people who come and go in the village don't pay attention to sitting directly on the pit, Zhang Guoqing knows that Zhou Jiao has a little cleanliness habit. The small living room and study room are arranged directly outside, and the bedroom is easily not opened, and the bedroom is usually entered from the small living room.

The vacant room in the west wing, Zhang's father vacated this room as a granary, in the dead of night in the countryside, the child's crying is especially loud, the second child is small, and the second daughter-in-law is a big mouth, just in the middle of the granary is also to avoid conflicts between the two brothers.

The two rooms of the landlord's wing are the bedrooms and warehouses of the old couple, Zhang's mother specially put air-dried pheasants and hares, and some fine grains, eggs, red candy, dried bacon, mountain goods, etc., the key here is only Zhang's mother, and others don't want to go in. The second daughter-in-law wanted to go in and was scolded by Zhang's mother several times. Except for Zhang Guoqing, no one in this warehouse has ever entered the family.

The eldest daughter-in-law, Zhang Cuilan, also only has the key to the kitchen cellar, and there are only two in total, one of which is still in Zhang's mother's hands, I heard that it is to prevent the second daughter-in-law from stealing grain and bringing it back to her parents' house.

As for Zhou Jiao, she was pregnant as soon as she got married, and she wouldn't reach out to take things back to her parents' house. It is impossible for her, except for her grandparents, to sneak into her uncle's house.

In addition, the bride price given by the Zhang family is 300 yuan, plus 500 yuan to buy three turns and one ring, she only bought 220 yuan of brand-name sewing machines, and she originally had a watch in her hand and did not buy a new one, and the bicycle Zhang Guoqing went to junior high school or eighty percent new, and when she got married, she took the fabric given by her grandmother, her own clothes, and the wooden box arranged by her grandfather.

The Zhang family is not divided but the daughter-in-law of each room can be kept, 800 yuan is said to be mixed from the bride price of the boss of the Zhang family of 300 yuan to the second 500 yuan, and I don't know how it is calculated, anyway, the third 800 yuan, if it is less, he makes up for it himself, and it is also a private collection of the third room.

For this reason, I heard that the second Zhang Guoqiang and his wife had a fight, because the second daughter-in-law Lin Juhua did not even wear a box and married without patches, the second child was angry and thought about 500 yuan, and he usually borrowed the eldest brother's bicycle when he went out.

Therefore, Zhou Jiao added more than 300 private money given by Zhang Guoqing later, and the cash is estimated to be more than the whole family combined, which is close to 3,000 smaller.

No one knows about this money except Zhang Guoqing, and Zhang Guoqing is afraid that others will worry about it. Especially when his family asked him, he also cried out that he only had 300 yuan in his hand for the bride price and the remaining 100 yuan for the dowry, plus Zhou Jiao's private money, which was almost less than 500 yuan, and would give examples such as what marriage was, how much money it was, such as how much Zhou Jiao spent on him before, when he was pregnant to buy snacks, when he spent what money, and no matter how confused others were.

In fact, in addition to the secret pension that grandpa asked, someone with a heart still calculated it. For example, her mother-in-law should know how much she has in her hands, but people are smart and fool everyone.

In addition to the lobby of the main room, the whole family eats and chats, which is the two rooms of the west wing on the right, which is the room of the two sisters of the Zhang family, except for the occasional time they come back to live, they are basically idle, and relatives and guests from the family live inside.

Out of the main house to the back, the backyard can be bigger, at least three times the size of the front yard. The whole backyard is divided into three parts, and in the middle, in addition to planting vegetables, there is also a plot of sweet potatoes and potatoes.

In every corner of the wall, loofahs in summer, pumpkins and winter melons are planted next to each other, and pumpkins can be used as staple food and are the most planted.

At the back, there is a row of thatched houses built in the right corner, and there is a simple kitchen inside, which is eaten by roast pigs. There are 2 pigs in the pigsty next to it, and about 10 chickens are raised in a small open space surrounded by bamboo not far from the pigsty.

The thatched house on the left wall of the backyard is the toilet at home, and for convenience, it is specially paved with bluestone on the ground to make a squatting pit like in the city, and it is directly flushed with bucket water after use. The only thing is that it will be very comfortable to go to the thatched house in the northern winter.

A few steps away from the toilet wall, there is a back door, which is used directly to go to Beishan to collect firewood. If you want to go to Beishan, you don't need to go out to the front gate, go around in circles, and go out directly through the back door.

In the northeast, the whole family begins to collect firewood in autumn, and firewood is needed throughout the winter until the beginning of spring next year, not to mention the firewood for several kangs at home.

It is not easy to get briquettes in the countryside, not to mention that the firewood on the mountains does not cost money, and no one will go to the city to buy briquettes to burn. On the contrary, firewood will be bought in the city, and now there are some laborers in the village who cut firewood and pick it up to the city to sell.

After the first snow in Tohoku, the cat winter begins, and every household tries their best to collect firewood and prepare winter clothes and food. It is also inconvenient to go out in the cold winter, and now you can go to the city to buy grain or fine grain for coarse grain at a high price in winter. The Zhang family has been collecting firewood in the past few days, and by the way, they are fighting pheasants and hares to relieve their hunger, and the Zhang family is working hard, and now there are several piles of tall timber not far from the back door of the backyard.