Things in the countryside (50) Transplanting and farming

Today is the summer solstice, the weather is hot, and it will last for several months.

Speaking of the twenty-four solar terms, I have always felt that the solar term name of this "mango" should be a homonym for busy species. Because the solar term is coming, farmers have to be busy farming.

Pay attention to Noda when you go out in the class. It is common that large areas of blank farmland are submerged in water, waiting for a new round of planting. In some places, sowing has begun. Looking at the green seedlings inserted in the soil, the scene of farming in the past seems to be in front of us.

My parents are farmers. Since I was born, I have been dealing with dirt, taking dirt roads and playing with mud, and all my parents bring back is dust or sludge. Soil is a symbol of farmers.

In the past, farmers worked very hard. They got up early as soon as it got dark, dressed in Dai Yue, facing the loess and facing the sky ... These idioms were vividly used on them, just right.

My first experience of agriculture was in primary school, in the middle and late 1970s. During the large collective period, farmers were all assigned by production captains, and female captains led the majority of women to work. "Women hold up half the sky", young and strong women can carry loads, pull out seedlings, plant land and so on, and men are basically capable, truly holding up half the sky.

My grandmother is very petite. When I was sensible, she was old and weak. She can only do some light farm work with some elderly women, while the heavy work is done by people like her mother. But when she was young, her mother was very handsome and weighed less than 100 Jin. Her dexterous "embroidery hand" is most suitable for needlework, and it is always slower to really do farm work, especially by strength. So, I acted as body double, did me a favor, and started planting rice behind her.

In the season of awning, the most impressive thing is to pull out seedlings. Generally speaking, seedlings are pulled out in the morning and transplanted during the day. At first light, the production team leader came out to shout, go to a fair to catch up early, give everyone a rice field, and then go home for breakfast.

Mother's farm work is as delicate as embroidery. Handfuls of seedlings are small and exquisite, with little mud and lightness. The disadvantage is that they move slowly. Every morning, when I was still sleeping, my mother woke me up, went to the fields to pull out seedlings with her, and my grandmother. With the participation of my grandmother and me, my mother's "task" was completed as scheduled, and three generations went home for breakfast with mud on their legs.

Pulling out seedlings depends on strength, transplanting seedlings depends on endurance.

When mother transplanted rice, every seedling stood upright as if it had survived. In contrast, those women who are fast, their seedlings are either inclined or floating on the surface. According to the example, the seedlings I planted are also straight and often praised by the villagers among my friends. I have probably exercised since I was a child, full of hardships. My works are not only of good quality, but also of fast transplanting speed, and I am the best among my friends.

Although I am often praised, I don't want to do farm work because I am too tired. For example, pulling out seedlings from the ground in the early morning, sleepy eyes were bitten by mosquitoes before they were fully opened. During the day, they transplanted rice upside down from one end of the paddy field, bent over, and six seedlings went back and forth, feeling so far away that they couldn't see the edge, and even more hateful leeches stung the skin on their legs and sucked blood crazily. Soft, pull one off and come back. Some bugs bite people and feel distressed. They come in waves and sweat on a hot day.

One summer, I left many scars on my legs.

Perhaps because farmers work too hard, many farm children study hard with only one purpose: to jump out of the farm gate and stay away from the "six heads".

Although I didn't go to college, I caught a good opportunity and stopped farming when I grew up.

From the large collective to the contract of joint production and then to the urbanization of rural areas, the land is contracted and planted by large foreign farmers. My parents actually left the farmland and ate commodity grain like city people. The difference is that they still have deep feelings for the land in their hearts, so they even go to distant wilderness to open up pieces of vegetable fields and plant various seasonal vegetables. Essentially, they are still farmers, so am I.

There are many details about transplanting rice seedlings and farming. In retrospect, suffering is greater than pleasure, so I don't want to go into details. One day, when I saw the farmland with a promising harvest, I came up with the idea of "contracting a piece of land to farm". Just for a moment, the smoke disappeared soon. Don't taste the bitterness of the past.

Of course, that memory will never be forgotten. The reason why I wrote it is to let future generations, such as Min Min or Chen Bao, know that farming is not easy. "Who knows that every grain of Chinese food is hard?" Don't waste food!