After the autumn equinox, the nights gradually cooled down, but the days were still hot and sweaty. In the middle of September of the solar calendar, the autumn harvest begins. At this time, the adults in the family are always busy, and they don't come home until dark in the evening. And we usually get out of school to help the family turn over the millet that has just been beaten in the past two days, and cook by the way.

Going to the field to thresh rice generally requires two or more cooperation. First of all, the rice rods and ears should be cut together with a sickle and put into stacks of rice, and then the division of labor. One person stepped on the threshing machine, and the other person "captive the head of the harvest". Stepping on the threshing machine requires good foot strength, which is generally served by the man in the family, and the "captive harvest" relatively does not require much strength, so it is done by the woman, and the children in the family will also be called to do the "captive head" when they are very busy.

The external structure of the threshing machine is made of wooden planks and is made by a carpenter. The main structure of the interior is a roller embedded in a "V" shape bent by wire, driven by gears, and connected to the pedal of the head. When threshing, grab a stack of rice with both hands and stretch it into the roller, step on the pedal with one foot, the roller rotates, and the "V" shaped wire on the roller knocks down the rice and falls into the bucket of the threshing machine. When the grain in the bucket has accumulated a certain amount, it should be packed in a woven bag and set aside.

There are still some dangers when working on the threshing machine, and children who are too young will never let you step on the threshing machine, and if you accidentally do not grasp your hands, you will be caught in it. Xiaoguang, a classmate in elementary school, was involved in it, and his index finger was broken, and now his index finger is a little deformed. Later, he wanted to be conscripted into the army, and during the physical examination, he was brushed off because of a deformity of his index finger. I've tried threshing a few times and I've been caught in it, but it's fine.

The bagged paddy should be hauled home in time and then poured out to dry, otherwise it will be suffocated. Our family is transported by wheelbarrow, which carries two bags on one side and can pull up to four bags at a time. On the way back, when going uphill, there is always someone who pulls a rope in front of him, tied to the head of the wheelbarrow and carried on his shoulder, so that the help can barely push uphill. On the uphill side, you can always see a man who is tired of pushing uphill, and then retreating some distance and pushing again. When approaching the uphill climb, both the man pushing the cart and the woman pulling the rope in front of them should trot a little earlier so that the ascent is easier. Sometimes I just use a flat shoulder to carry it back, one bag at each end, and it is not so laborious when going uphill.

The millet is dried in a groundpan, which is woven from bamboo strips. It is about three meters long and more than two meters wide. When not in use, it can be rolled up and placed vertically, and it does not take up space. When you need it, untie the rope, open it and lay it on the ground. Later, they also used oilcloth, which is similar to a fertilizer woven bag, and the oilcloth has three colors: red, blue and white. The tarpaulin is lighter and more waterproof than the dustpan. If it rains, you can't harvest it, so you can collect the grain and cover it again, saving a lot of trouble.

The rice brought back was poured on a dustpan to dry. There are many rice ears, green grass leaves, and some diseased rice mold balls and insects. It is necessary to first use a coarse sieve to sieve out the rice ears and grass leaves, and then use a fine sieve to pick out the inedible rice mold balls. Every time Dad poured the rice out of the bag, the fragrance of the rice greeted him. Then the worms also crawled out of the grain and quickly fled. Harvesting rice can not wait for the rice to be fully ripe before harvesting, fully ripe rice stalks have less moisture, there is no support, and it is easy to be blown down when the wind comes. Blown down rice is more difficult to harvest and the quality is not so good.

Therefore, when the rice is cut, you can always see some green rice grains mixed with it. After the sieved rice, it is necessary to bulldoze it to dry, and at this time it is necessary to use the "swinging rake". It is made of a wooden board twenty or thirty centimeters long at the front and a wooden stick nearly two meters long. There are also skills in using "swinging rake" to turn over rice, and the strength should be moderate. I didn't use it very well, and the thickness of the grain I turned was not so uniform and flat. Most of these are done by my sister and parents, and I only go to look through them occasionally.

Most of the lunch was cooked by my sister. Sometimes porridge is cooked in an aluminum bowl. Put charcoal in a clay pot, and then use a "fir needle" as a fire starter, and put it on the charcoal to light it. Sometimes I want it to burn faster, so I fan it with a fan. After the porridge is boiled, it is necessary to prevent it from smashing the pot, put two chopsticks on the pot, and then close the lid of the pot. After the porridge is cooked, sit in a basin of cold water and let it cool. It's too hot for us to eat. However, I always hear them say that the porridge that their older generation has just brought down from the stove when they are busy, and they eat it when it is served, and the same is true for hot mouths. Most of the time when cooking white porridge, it is not stir-fried. Sometimes I go to the street and buy some dried radishes, and I can eat several meals. I don't really like to eat that kind of dried radish, it seems to have been mixed with chili sauce, and it is yellow in color and finely chopped. They told me to go to the cupboard and get some sugar, mix it with porridge, and I barely ate it.

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the grain harvest will begin, and it will be too late until it gets dark. Harvesting the millet is first to roughly gather the millet into a pile with a "swinging rake", and then use a broom and a dustpan to sweep up some of the missing ones. Gather the grain in a pile and pour it into the windmill body with a dustpan to filter out the grain. The windmill is turning leisurely, the autumn cicada stretches its cry, the sunset is afterglow, the sun shines on the air, the air is wafting with rice, and we are sweating when we harvest rice......

For dinner, it is usually eaten with loofahs or beans. When my siblings couldn't eat, they would burst chili peppers to eat. Chop the chili peppers finely, stir-fry them in a pan to dry the water, and then set them aside. Add rapeseed oil to the pot, cook until smoking, then add minced garlic, stir-fry with chili peppers until fragrant, and then add water to simmer for a while, so that the soup can be put into a bowl. This thing is a meal, but it's painful when you go to the toilet, and it's a little spicy......

After eating, it was already dark, because I couldn't stand the feeling of those rice mangs sticking to my body when I was harvesting the grain. Mom is usually the first to go to the shower, and then she drives us to the shower after the wash. There is no bathroom at home, so I just take a shower directly outside the kitchen or next to the well, taking advantage of the night.

When it comes to the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is customary to go to the street to buy a bag of mooncakes. At that time, Cantonese mooncakes were popular, and the ones my family bought the most were five-kernel fillings. The rock sugar in it will jump teeth, as well as peanut kernels, sesame seeds, green and red silk, and the taste is also indescribable. And at the grandfather's house next door, my uncle bought some mooncakes from the county and came back, and he couldn't finish them alone, so he would always take some to share with us. At first, my favorite food was the cantaloupe filling, which was green like jade, a little sticky and fragrant. Later, I ate the kind of white bean paste filling, which is delicate and sweet, soft and glutinous, and I can't get tired of eating it at all. Our Mid-Autumn Festival is not as leisurely and elegant, to admire the moon. After eating the mooncakes, it is considered a festival, and then I go to sleep like this.

When I go to school, I look forward to the holiday, and the most anticipated holiday is the National Day. In general, there are seven days of holiday for National Day. And this time happens to be the time when the chestnuts are ripe, and we will go to pick the chestnuts together. We are not familiar with the mountains and forests outside, so we usually go to the mountains of our grandparents' houses to pick chestnuts. Picking chestnuts is like a treasure hunt, and finding one will surprise you. Some chestnuts fall and will be covered by fallen leaves, so you have to use a wooden stick to remove the fallen leaves to pick up more chestnuts. Sometimes the chestnuts do not completely peel out of the thorn ball, so you have to step on the thorn ball with both feet and peel the thorn ball outward to remove the chestnut inside.

In this way, every day after eating, I ran to the mountains to pick chestnuts. After a holiday, it is not a problem to pick up five catties and ten catties of chestnuts. The chestnuts picked up are not delicious when eaten raw, so they are caught in the stove with tongs and roasted until they burst, peeled off, and are steaming, which is fragrant. However, it is generally put in a pot and cooked, and then dried to dry, so that it can be eaten for a long time. Chestnuts that are completely dry cannot be eaten with bad teeth. Dried chestnuts are at the top of the list of snack hardness, and even "bong" and shaqima can only be ranked behind.