This year's autumn could be considered a harvest autumn. The reason for saying "could be considered" was that this year's cold snap arrived a bit early, causing many crops to suffer reduced yields.
Fortunately, because Wang An and a few other families used semi-mechanized farming, their planting speed in the spring was faster. Wang An's family and several relatives had already finished planting their crops, while those using mules, horses, and donkeys were still in the process of farming.
As a result, the crops of Wang An's group invisibly gained more than ten days of growth cycle. Consequently, the impact of the cold snap on these families' crops was not very significant.
That is how farming works; one must never underestimate those ten-plus days of growth time, because for crops, ten-plus days can be enough to complete the grain-filling stage and enter maturity.
The main point is that once crops complete the grain-filling stage, even if the temperature suddenly drops and causes frost damage, the worst that happens is that the grains look shriveled and the overall weight decreases, but a total crop failure will absolutely not occur.
Farmers rely on the weather for their living; a reduction in yield is acceptable, but a total loss is unacceptable.
Of course, that is how it is said, but the truth of the matter was: "Whether you can accept it or not, you have to accept it!"
Regardless of whether there was a reduction in yield, the public grain quota had to be handed over, and it had to be plump grains—not a single shriveled grain allowed!
Now, tell me, are you convinced?
Before the autumn harvest, Wang An had entrusted Wu Dong and Wang Shuai to purchase two small harvesters driven by crawler tractors from the Beidahuang Farm.
Although harvester technology in this era was imperfect and could not harvest the crops completely clean, Wang An understood the construction of the harvesters. He directed Wang Dazhu and Wang Li to perform a round of modifications on the two machines.
And indeed, after the modifications, the harvesting effect improved significantly. Even if some residue remained in the field after harvesting, people only needed to go through the field once with a bag to pick them up.
Of these two harvesters, one was specifically for corn, and the other was specifically for rice.
Mainly, the crops in Wang An's family consisted primarily of corn and rice. Crops like soybeans, miscellaneous grains, and miscellaneous beans were planted in very small quantities, and not a single stalk of sorghum was planted, so harvesting them by hand took little effort.
Furthermore, starting from the spring land reclamation and plowing, Huang Baoguo, his wife Guo Chunyan, and their daughter Huang Ying—the three of them—had been kept at home by Wang An, temporarily living with Huang Zhong in Wang An's old house.
The combined monthly salary for the couple was 80 yuan, and their food and lodging were provided.
Of course, they didn't eat at the same table as Wang An's family; rather, Wang An's family provided the grain, vegetables, and meat, allowing them to cook for themselves in the old house.
After all, they were two different families; eating together every day would truly be inconvenient.
Their task, or rather their responsibility, was to help with farm work during the busy season and build greenhouses in the winter.
Although the salary Wang An paid the couple was certainly not low, the two of them were basically never idle.
Fortunately, compared to their life in Weizigou, Huang Baoguo and his wife were extremely satisfied with their current life.
At the very least, they could see hope for their lives; in local terms, they finally had something to "look forward to."
That is how people are; only when life has something to "look forward to" will they be full of energy and live happily.
Since food and lodging were provided, the couple had no major expenses other than buying clothes and other daily necessities, so they could save several hundred yuan a year. This income was significantly higher than that of other farming families in the village.
In short, calculating carefully over these nine-plus months, although Wang An himself hadn't done any trivial chores, there had been many changes in Wang An's household.
First, the land had increased. From the previous 60-plus mu of arable land, it had become 360-plus mu of arable land and 1,000 mu of barren hills.
Second, the number of greenhouses had increased. Including last year's, there were now four greenhouses. In terms of square meters, it had gone from a 200-square-meter greenhouse to 800 square meters.
The reason they didn't build larger greenhouses was that winters in Heilongjiang Province were simply too cold. Winter heating for greenhouses was a massive problem; the larger the area, the harder it was to heat.
Therefore, increasing the number of greenhouses to increase the vegetable planting area was the most economical and stable method at this time.
Third, Wang An's family gained two seeding plows and two harvesters.
Fourth, the crops were considered a harvest. The average corn yield was about 800 jin per mu, and the average rice yield was about 900 jin per mu. As for soybeans and miscellaneous grains, there was no need to even calculate them.
Fifth, the wild boars and yellow goats were cleared out—meaning not a single one was left. Currently, the pigpen and sheepfold housed 12 local black pigs and 21 local fine-wool sheep.
The black pigs were piglets bought at the market by Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan when Wang An sent them to the fair in early spring.
Locals called piglets "pig-gagas."
As for the fine-wool sheep, Wang An had Wang Li and Mu Xueqing buy them from the village and surrounding hamlets.
In any case, the sole purpose of raising pigs and sheep was to slaughter them for meat during the summer when hunting was not allowed, so he didn't buy too many.
Sixth, the number of sika deer and roe deer in Wang An's family had increased.
Previously, including the large male sika deer, there were 21 sika deer; now there were 31.
Actually, these deer had given birth to 12 fawns, but for some unknown reason, two died, leaving ten.
Those two dead fawns broke Wang An's heart.
Mainly because sika deer in the deep mountains were very difficult to catch, and Wang An's sika deer breeding had not yet reached a large scale, so the death of one was a huge loss.
The roe deer also increased by two, going from six to eight.
Previously, Wang An had wanted to clear out the roe deer as well—to stop raising them and slaughter them all for meat.
The reason was that these things simply didn't grow large; normally they were fifty or sixty jin, and at most seventy jin was the limit. The meat yield was simply too low.
Crucially, besides the roe deer penis and antlers which could be soaked in wine—though their efficacy was far inferior to deer penis and velvet—there were no other valuable parts.
Overall, like the yellow goats, their breeding value was not great.
However, Wang An's idea was blocked by Wang Dazhu's couple and Mu Xueqing. Their reason was that there was plenty of grain at home and people to feed them; more importantly, since roe deer didn't have much meat, it would be a waste to slaughter them after raising them for so long.
Thus, Wang An dropped the matter.
Perhaps in gratitude for the family's mercy, the two large female roe deer gave birth to two fawns—one male and one female—this May.
Seventh, comrades Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan finally agreed to sell some of the family's mules, horses, and donkeys.
Now, only seven horses remained in Wang An's home.
These seven horses were the date-red Da'er horse, the date-red mare and her foal, the white horse and its foal, and two Oroqen horses.
As for the three blue horses, the mule, and the two donkeys (one large, one small), they were all sold by Wang Dazhu.
The reason for keeping those seven horses was that if Wang An needed to pull a sledge into the mountains, he would use the Da'er horse. The Da'er horse was large, had great endurance, and was bold, not fearing the various wild beasts in the mountains.
The two Oroqen horses were for Wang An to ride into the mountains.
As for the white and red mares, Wang Dazhu's couple wanted to keep them, saying that the foals born every year could be sold for a good amount of money.
Of course, Wang An also didn't want to sell the date-red mare because her courage and endurance were second only to the Da'er horse.
Most importantly, this date-red mare and the date-red Da'er horse were genuine warhorses.
What does "warhorse" mean? You couldn't find a place to buy them even if you wanted to. To sell them as ordinary draft horses would be a complete waste of a treasure!
Fortunately, because of the household responsibility system for land, many families had saved some money, and the number of people wanting to buy large livestock for farming had increased significantly. Thus, the price of large livestock was much higher than in the first two years.
There was no helping it; the market for any industry is like this—when more people buy, the price naturally rises.
The three blue horses sold for 450 yuan each, the mule sold for 400 yuan, and even the two donkeys sold for a full 250 yuan.
To be fair, the small donkey wasn't that small anymore; it was already a half-grown donkey.
Actually, the reason they could sell for so much was mainly because Wang An's family was generous with feed—meaning grain.
Livestock fed grain every day were naturally fatter than those fed less grain, or those whose owners couldn't afford grain. Because of the good nutrition, their coats looked glossy and smooth.
Therefore, anyone looking to buy mules, horses, or donkeys would instantly take a liking to Wang An's livestock at a single glance. After checking the teeth, hooves, and thighs, the deal was basically done.
To be honest, when selling the donkeys, Wang An wanted to keep the small braying donkey and slaughter it for meat when he had nothing to do.
Mainly because this little donkey was so damn annoying; every day before dawn, it would go "ge-ga ge-ga," and the sound was incredibly loud. The whole courtyard was filled with the damn sound of a donkey braying.
Thus, Wang An looked at it with utter disdain, and his desire to slaughter it grew day by day.
Unfortunately, Wang Dazhu's couple wouldn't allow it and gave Wang An a scolding, so he didn't get to eat the donkey meat.
Of course, the old couple's reason for not allowing the slaughter was very sufficient: what decent family slaughters their own farming livestock for meat? If you want meat, just slaughter a sheep.
And so, Wang An's family lost another sheep.
It must be said that the sheep was the most wronged of all; because the donkey brayed, it was the one slaughtered.
Seriously, who the hell do you reason with in this world? (End of Chapter)