Sam's Dream of Green Horizons Chapter 6

Autumn comes early in Daxing'anling. One day, my eldest brother told me, "The group in the mountains has run out of food. Go and deliver a bag of rice on Sunday!"

On Sunday morning, I simply repaired the motorcycle and checked that the front and rear tires were fully inflated and the turn signals were working properly. I bought a bag of rice at two o'clock and put it on the motorcycle to run into the mountains. I am a person who loves life very much, especially nature. I remember that when I graduated from high school, my first college entrance examination choice was the Geology College, but life is not as good as it should be. Unfortunately, I have no chance to go to a geological school in this life.

When we got to the place where we should get off the fire road, I hid my motorcycle in the bushes on the side of the road, carried the bag of rice, and walked hard on the grassland in the forest. I don't know how many times I rested along the way. The mountain road of more than ten miles seemed very long under my feet. 

There were birch forests on both sides of the path, densely packed, and not very far away. I stepped on the path where runners walked and staggered forward. I was very careful because I didn't wear waders today. I always wear a pair of waders when I go into the mountains because I am very afraid of snakes. The snakes in this forest area all have triangular heads. The biology teacher in high school told us that snakes with triangular heads are poisonous, and being bitten by them is not a good thing.

Time passed slowly, and I could see the tent where the group of grass cutters lived from a distance, but I couldn't reach it. The bag of rice on my shoulder became heavier and heavier, and my steps were not as light as before. When I was 200 meters away from the tent, I couldn't carry it anymore, so I hid the rice in the grass by the roadside and came to the tent where the group of people lived.

When I walked into the tent, I found that everyone had gone out to cut grass, and the tent was empty. Only tools such as anvils for hammering knives were randomly placed on the ground. There was indeed not much food left in the rice bag.

I walked out of the tent and saw an animal skin hanging on a tree outside. I followed the path that the grass cutters took to and from get off work and headed into the mountains ahead to look for the leader and members of the group. There were many haystacks in the distance, and the further I walked, the more haystacks there were. I saw the grass cutters. They greeted me from a distance, and I felt very close to them.

Someone in that group knew me, so they asked me if I had sent rice. I told them that I couldn't carry it far from the tent, so I hid it somewhere. They smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, we can find it!" I asked the group leader, "What's hanging on the tree?" The man said, "We caught a badger with a human foot yesterday." I asked them what they did with it, and they said they ate the meat. I thought to myself, these people look kind, but they are cruel at heart. How can they not even let a small animal go? I began to hate them. I hurriedly said politely to them and went back, but I was in a bad mood along the way, because I really didn't understand who the small animals had offended?

Because it was autumn, the flowers and plants here contained a lot of carotene. Once the autumn frost came, the forest was dyed red, and the frosted leaves were redder than the flowers in February. I looked at the yellow and green mottled weeds, forgot my fatigue, and walked alone in the wilderness.

A businessman who knew the eldest brother asked the eldest brother to prepare 100,000 straws, saying that straw would be very expensive. The three groups made a total of 20,000 straws, filling the valley with straw bales. The eldest brother gave those people a total of 50,000 yuan.

On the day of the grass inspection, we first came to Dahekou, where I had been for the first time. There was a wide area between the two mountains, the terrain was flat, and the grass was very good. Looking from afar, patches of green caught my eye in the vastness. I wondered what plant was so full of vitality in this season? People told me that it was a plant called Artemisia selengensis. 

I know it is a famous dish in the north, and stewed pork ribs with Artemisia selengensis is a famous dish. It is just difficult to pick it. It turns out that there are so many Artemisia selengensis sprouts growing here. I think I must come here to pick more next spring when the flowers bloom. Unfortunately, due to the change of my work unit, I have not had the opportunity to go there for several years. It has become a piece of land in my dreams.

This was my first time to check the hay. The rules were that the host picked two small hay bales, and the hay cutter picked two large hay bales. The hay in these hay bales was weighed, and the average was multiplied by the total number of hay bales. Then the total amount was calculated based on the agreed unit price per bale.

Winter has come. Snow is indispensable in the winter in the north. On the first day of October every year, snowflakes will fly all over the sky. The haystacks are covered with snow. Whenever I think of those things now, I feel indescribable. The sweat shed in the forest and the footprints left in the wilderness are engraved in my mind and heart.

Ma'am

Time flows like water, and several months have passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, my fifth uncle on the mountain called the people down the mountain to report the good news that the first black and white calf was born. For people engaged in breeding, this is the greatest joy. My father was also very happy that day and asked my fifth uncle to carry the calf into the living room and wait for a few days until the hair is dry before taking it outside. 

Because the weather in the north is cold. From the birth of this first calf, people on the mountain are reminded to pay special attention to whether other cows have signs of giving birth to calves. If these signs are found, they should often get up to check on the calves a few nights before they are born, for fear that the calves will be frozen to death if they are found too late. Once I was on holiday in the mountains, and I was on duty for two nights, and I couldn't sleep well at all. I had to go out every half an hour, and I don't know how many times I went to check in one night. 

Developing breeding is also very hard, but agriculture and animal husbandry are the foundation of the national economy. Sometimes I think, if the government can support breeders to apply for small loans, how good it would be to improve the production conditions in the mountains. For example, if you have a warm ring, you won’t wake up in the middle of the night out of fear.

During the winter nights of this year, the people in Shandian had to spend many nights like this. The most difficult task every day was to go to the water source to water the cows. Two people had to go each time, one to wash water from the spring, and one to watch the cows that had finished drinking first. 

These cows were very strange. They were obviously very thirsty, but when they saw the cows that had drunk enough water leave, they would follow. It is most important for cows to drink enough water in winter. If there is a lack of water in winter, the cows will be dry in spring, and even gods can't save them. These cows are also divided into grades. Some cows are very domineering. When drinking water, other cows stay far away from them, otherwise they will use their horns to B*tt.