Yuan Binggang's long storytelling prose "The Story of the Feeding Room" Serial 2

Yuan Binggang||The story of the breeding room - (2)

The livestock raised by the production team are just like people, and they all have names, some are named according to their coat color and size, such as: big red and two red; some are named according to their age , for example: Huang Niuwa, Red Niuwa; some are named according to certain characteristics, such as: bald tail, white tail tip; some are named according to the speed of work, such as: strong stick, two poles.

At that time, it was a collective system. No matter whether people used livestock at home or for the production team, they liked to use those who moved quickly and did not use whips.

Our Pobei No. 2 team, people like Dahong, Erhong, Huang Niuwa, and Bai Taishao love to use them, but people don’t like to use Zhuang sticks and Er poles. These two cows can’t move even with a half-pound whip, so they walk. Always so rhythmic, so unhurried, neither humble nor arrogant. Whatever you do with it, it's still Mr. Wendexiangming. It is used to steal the grain on the top of the stone mill, and it is used in the field to eat the grass and crops next to the ground.

So when the captain's second dad sends someone a strong stick and a second pole, that person always complains a bit. But everyone knows that complaining is not good, the captain's second father will not change, so he began to borrow other people's short leather whip. A fast-moving animal does not need a whip, but at most stretches it with a rope tied to its nose ring, and says, "Get up."

Some breeders are selected by members, and some are designated by the captain's second father.

The production team gives each animal two feeds per catty according to the actual situation, most of which are three catties and sixty-two per day. For mules, horses and donkeys, called tall animals, in addition to ordinary fodder, some whole fodder should be added. Ordinary feed needs to be ground twice on a stone mill. This is not called noodle grinding, it is called pulling material. The whole feed is mostly peas, and peas are very strong. There is a saying: people are bored to eat peas, and don't believe it when they tell the donkey.

's requirements for breeders are selfless, because there was such a jingle at the time: breeders, really hardworking, sleep in the middle of the night, croak, grass and feed, prepare, feed carefully, and gain fat.

And for those who are selfish, there are such jingles: cows cry, pigs laugh, breeders, stealing materials. It is also said that these breeders feed the cows: the spine is faster than the knife, the shit is faster than the lightning (the pulling is thin manure, and it spews black), and it is faster to lie down.

At that time, members could not buy noodles at the food station. Without that qualification, it is an agricultural household registration. Those who can go to the grain station to buy noodles are the registered households of commodity grain, and the state cadres who eat the country's rice and do the country's affairs, and have the grain base.

The food that the members eat at home is distributed by the individual production team. After the grain is laid, it is first handed over to the public for purchase, and the rest is the ration of the members, which is distributed according to the proportion of labor.

At that time, there was no electric grinder, and you had to grind it on an old-fashioned stone grinder to eat noodles. Some people have their own stone mill, some do not. If you don't have it, you have to find some to make an appointment in advance, and they won't need you to use it any day. There is no need to pay to use other people's stone mills, the rule is to lining the chamber.

The lining is the bran left over from the last time people used it in the middle of the two stone mills.

A set of livestock, you pour the grain you grind on the top of the mill, the stone mill turns, and the grain from the top of the mill goes through the grinding eyes to the grinding chamber, and replaces the bran left in the grinding chamber last time. Then put the bran in a small dustpan and give it to the owner of the stone mill as a reward. After you grind it, the mill will be lined with bran from your family's grain. The next time who grinds the surface, it will be swept to the main house (bore). This is the rule, and everyone is conscious of it.

The grains for flour milling must be cleaned up in advance, which is called picking up.The steps are to sieve, toss, pick, and finally apply:

Pour half-thickness of grain into the sieve, lift it up, and shake it with the force of the spin. The grain in the sieve should rotate in one direction against the perimeter of the sieve. The whirlpool contains some impurities such as light barnyard grass seeds and wheat bran. These impurities were not cleaned up when they were raised in the field. They can be spun out in the middle of the sieve. The fine soil in the wheat grains can be sieved out under the sieve.

Put the sifted wheat into the dustpan, shake it again, and fan out some impurities, and then plan to pick up the remaining stones and so on. Only then can the grain be collected.

There is another process before the wheat that has been picked up and milled: before applying it, it is actually adding some water to the grain, so that the skin and core can be separated. The specific operation is to pour half a scoop of water into a bucket of wheat grains before going to bed. The water should be poured several times, and each time it is poured, it should be stirred repeatedly to make the water evenly sprinkled on the surface of the wheat grains. After a whole night of moisturizing, The next morning, the grains tend to peel easily when milled.

When someone's noodle tank ran out of noodles, they went to the mill to pick up grain and prepare the noodles. After everything was in order, we had to order a certain animal from the second father captain when recording the work in the breeding room.

In those months, the conditions in rural areas were generally harsh, and farmers did not wear trousers throughout the year. The breeder Er Bo was naked and naked every morning when he got up to feed the cows. Because a trough of grass is mixed well, it takes a long time for the cow to eat it, and it has to be mixed again after eating. Wearing and taking off, taking off and wearing is troublesome, so all the breeders are pure jirizi, and they are mixed with grass.

The second daughter is a new daughter-in-law. The second daughter’s family is going to grind noodles today, so she has to pass her sleepiness through her eyes. The grinding is done early. Yoke head, press eye (the one that covers the bull's eye, two old straw hats wrapped in cloth and sewn together), support rod (a stick, one end hangs on the bull's nose ring, the other hangs on the grinding peg next to the stone mill, supports The rod is hard, and the cow wants to steal the grain from the mill, but its head is stuck and it cannot reach it), so they go to the breeding room to pull the cow.

The stars are still blinking in the sky, the roosters in the village are constantly crowing, and seeing the lights in the feeding room, the two girls thought that the elder brother who was feeding the cows was getting up: "Second brother, get up!" The two girls said in a crisp voice. He pushed open the gate of the rearing room made of branches.

The kerosene lamp in the breeding room is hung on the head of the kang. When it was just black, the lamp was very bright. It was the second uncle who used the old needle on the wall to lift the twister up. Use the old needle to press down the lamp twister again to save fuel. Feeding the cows is like eating with chopsticks, and you can know where to send it with your eyes closed.

"Get up - get up." The second uncle was naked and was mixing grass with the cow. Hearing the question from his sister-in-law, he was suddenly confused and embarrassed. It's too late. Fortunately, the kerosene light was so dim that no one could see who.

"Oh—pull the bull to the grinder, you wait outside, I'll untie the reins, and the bull will come out." The second uncle untied the bull's reins in a panic, trying to clamp his legs together, but it's not worth it...

Things often go unnoticed. As soon as the reins are untied, I thought the cow was going to go out, and the two women would take it away and it would be fine. Who would have guessed that the cow didn't know if it was full or was too timid to work and pull the mill, and went back to the top of the kiln.

The breeder's second uncle was anxious, "This thing", originally wanted to scold Donkey Day, but changed his words halfway, "If you don't come in, I'll give you a hoot, ah, ah." "This brother, how can I let you Hey, you don't care, I'll pull it by myself." The second daughter was embarrassed, afraid to trouble her brother, and ran to the cow in a hurry.

The second uncle and the second daughter ran to the top of the kiln in the breeding room at almost the same time. When two different hands grabbed the reins of the cow at the same time, the second daughter saw the second uncle and saw that the second uncle was completely naked. While grabbing the reins, the hand also touched the glorious thing.

The two girls ran out, clapping their hands on their thighs, laughing loudly and wildly, and bent over, almost bursting into tears.

The two women laughed loudly outside the door, and the two uncles laughed loudly inside. The male and female laughed together like a duet of men and women, and the sleeping birds perched on the top of the tree were startled, flapping their wings hazy, and fluttering away Now...

Author: Yuan Binggang, born in Pobei Village, Zhaoling Town in 1955, participated in education in 1972 and has been teaching at Pobei Primary School. In 1996, he was transferred to the former Jianling Education Group to work. Retired in 2015, senior primary school teacher. I have loved literature since I was a child, and have published articles

in Shaanxi Daily, Xianyang News and Qindu literature and art publications