After breakfast, everyone started working. The place to be cleared today is where the house will be built.

It's too late before the Chinese New Year, and it's impossible for other craftsmen to come during the Chinese New Year.

However, they can level the place first and then fence it, so that they can live in peace of mind until the house is built.

The division of labor was still the same as yesterday. Everyone worked until the afternoon and the area was much larger than yesterday, almost more than ten acres.

The crooked trees were also cut down, and even the roots were dug out.

Although the trees are not mature, some are very thick, some are as thick as an adult's waist, and some are as thick as a wooden basin.

After it is dug out, the root part below is sawed off, leaving half a person's height, which can be used as a table and stool.

This saves everyone from sitting on the ground all the time.

After all, it's winter, and it's still chilly even with a straw mat.

After weeding this time, we didn't bundle it into bundles and stack it like before, because we had to clear the open space for everyone to camp.

This time, after the grass was cut, it was spread out on the ground, dried in the sun, and then used to weave it into straw mats or to make fires.

The thin parts of the tree were split into sections and dried in the sun before being burned as firewood.

Today is already the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, and the New Year will be celebrated in four or five days.

Everyone knows that this year will definitely be spent in a tent. After all, even if we start building a house now, it will not be completed within a few months. It is not just one room or two rooms, but this construction can be dozens of small courtyards.

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But even so, they had already thought of getting some bamboo or picking up some stones to enclose the fifty acres of land where they would build their house in the future.

This is equivalent to enclosing a wall around the village. Even if the wall is not high or thick, it still feels safer.

At least it can block some prying eyes and warn people that this is private territory.

As for the fields, it won’t be too late to open them up for cultivation next spring.

It was already late afternoon after we finished cleaning up these dozen acres.

Everyone took advantage of the dawn and took Xiaoling, Liuliu and the little gray donkey Huihui into the mountain from the slope not far away.

Little Ling recited the mantra to drive away snakes all the way, and everyone also followed suit.

Although everyone has learned how to do it, they still think it is safer to carry Xiao Ling with them, because they are afraid that they will forget it.

Moreover, the little spirit is flying in the air, so it can warn you of any danger in advance.

Liuliu, on the other hand, has a high force value. If they encounter any wild beasts, they have to rely on Liuliu to protect them.

As for the little gray donkey, Liuliu had to take it with him. Everyone thought that it was Liuliu's daughter-in-law after all, and she was definitely not an ordinary donkey, so they let him follow him.

The remaining women and old people were not idle either, taking their children to collect stones.

I just picked them up on the edge of the mountain wall and moved them directly to the open space not far away.

Knock the big ones into small pieces. If they are particularly large, burn them with fire. Just pour water on them and they will explode.

Jiayin couldn't take his eyes off it. He didn't know what the principle was. He thought it was so magical that he lit a fire and burned it, turning such a large stone into small pieces without any effort.

The stones were collected to surround the pool. When the collection was almost complete, the men came back and mixed the stones with grass and mud to build a wall.

The area of ​​this pool is not large, only about ten feet wide. Everyone sees the water flowing down from above, but it has always been dissatisfied, thinking that the pool should be quite deep.

Of course, they couldn't see there was a water outlet connected to the underground river below, so they thought the pool might be bottomless. So they were even more eager to surround the pool first to prevent the children from accidentally falling in.

There are not many rocks next to the mountain wall, but it should be more than enough to surround the pool.

In the future, when the village builds a wall, they will definitely have to collect stones from the mountain.

There is not as much loess here as there in the north, which can be used to make adobe. They also found that most of the villages here are made of stone. In the county town, they only use blue bricks, and there is basically no adobe.

It may be that the weather here is too humid and it is not easy to dry the adobe house. Moreover, if there is a heavy rain or flooding, the adobe house will most likely collapse first. The stone house is much stronger.

On the other hand, most of the roofs are thatched roofs, or slates are used to build the roofs, which have the same feeling as tiles.

It is said that in the mountains here, there is a kind of slate that can be used to make tiles. The slate is so thin that the layers can be separated in the middle, just like the pages of a book.

This kind of slate can not only be used as tiles, but can also be laid on the ground.

On the small road they took from the county seat, there was a section of road paved with stone slabs.

It is paved neatly, and even if some places have been cracked by the car, it is still very solid and will not move like stones.

They decided to search nearby. If there were such stone slabs, they could pick up more and bring them back.

After the house is built, it can be paved in the yard or on the road away from the village. In this way, it will not be muddy even if it rains, and it will still look beautiful.

The men returned before dark.

Liuliu and Huihui were carrying many long bamboos on both sides, and the men were also carrying bundles.

Jiayin saw them going to the bamboo forest before, so he brought a dozen pheasants from a distance and threw them in the bamboo forest. Now they are all in their baskets.

Looking at the pheasants in the basket, Jiayin rolled her eyes and threw the sharp object she collected last time into Fang Youwei's basket.

Fang Youwei had no idea, so he handed the basket to Fang directly and went to sort out the bamboos with everyone else.

They plan to use bamboo as a framework to surround the fifty acres of land. Then they will tie the grass into a curtain and tie it to the bamboo so that no one can come in from the outside. Although it can't block anything, at least it will provide some sense of security.

The inside cannot be seen from the outside.

Otherwise, the pedestrians and vehicles that occasionally come and go on the country road during the day would subconsciously look this way, and they would feel awkward.

Although this side is still some distance away from the rural road, you can't help but feel that it is so empty. You can see this side at a glance.

Just do it as you say, cut the slightly thicker bamboos into one foot long, dig a thin trench at the location measured by the yamen servant before, dig about one foot into the ditch and bury it to fix it, then bury one about half a foot long.

After it is buried about two feet, use two thin bamboos in the middle to clamp it from both sides and secure it so that it will not tilt around.

On the cooking side, Mrs. Li and the others happily took out the pheasants and put them away, and also discovered the thing in the basket.

Fang Yun looked at it and said: "Oh, why did you just dig out one? This stewed chicken with winter bamboo shoots is the most delicious. If you dig more, you can share more vegetables."

Everyone looked at her curiously and said, "These are the winter bamboo shoots you were talking about. How do you eat these black ones?"

"Yes, yes! This looks like a small tower."
Chapter completed!