Volume 9: Home Chapter 312 Tea Bear's Daily Work
In a special greenhouse built on the hillside with two full walls of laminated metal wire tempered glass and a glass ceiling, a group of tea bears are following Lan Guo, the person in charge of the greenhouse area, and humbly learning advanced planting techniques.
"When winter comes here, crops can hardly be grown in an open-air environment. Fortunately, we have the advantage of long sunshine." Lan Guo, director of the Agriculture Department, patted the wooden rack and said, "Elder Kuku, please take a look at this five-layer wooden rack. The middle partition has a slight slope to drain excess water from the soil. There are movable wheels at the bottom that can rotate the cultivation rack to let the crops chase the sun."
"Four such cultivation racks can cover almost one mu of land (about 66 square meters), and one greenhouse can replace four normal greenhouses. I heard that there is a shortage of land in the Doshi Mountains. If you don't mind the trouble, you can learn from this thin soil cultivation rack and put it on the sunny side. As long as the bottom is stable, it doesn't matter where you put it, even on a stone. The winter there is shorter and not as cold as here, so you don't even need to cover the greenhouse."
Elder Kuku nodded until the fat on his chin trembled slightly, and he stared at the five-layer cultivation rack more than two meters high with a look that was more gentle than looking at a lover...
"Director Lang Guo, can we touch this shelf?" An elderly tea bear behind Elder Kuku asked in a trembling voice.
Lan Guo smiled and took a half step back. A group of tea bears came forward excitedly, carefully touching and looking around the cultivation racks. Some people said in annoyance : "Where there is no soil, they use wooden boxes to hold soil and grow crops. Why didn't we think of this?"
Elder Kuku leaned forward and carefully examined every layer of soil on the cultivation rack, then asked Lan Guo carefully: "Director Lan Guo, is it okay if the soil layer is so thin? The roots of the crops can't hold on to the ground, right? Can't we pile on more soil?"
Tomatoes are planted on this cultivation rack. The tomato plants, which are about 50 centimeters in average height, are full of fruits. Some of the fruits are turning from green to red, and some are already fully red.
"Yes, the biggest problem with the cultivation rack is that the soil layer is very thin, so it cannot be used to grow root crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets. It can only be used to grow vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, etc." Lan Guo explained, "As for the problem of crop roots gripping the ground, you don't have to worry too much. The roots of crops planted in an open-air environment dig down to absorb water, and the cultivation rack is watered more adequately. What you need to worry about is whether there will be too much water in the soil and the roots of the crops will be soaked and rotten."
At this point, Lan Guo stepped forward and pulled apart the dense tomato plants, allowing the tea bears to see the slightly moist soil. "It seems that the workers watered the soil a little too much today... Look here, each layer of the partition is slightly tilted to the left, and a small drainage groove is chiseled at the downward end. Look, the excess water in the soil is slowly draining out."
A group of tea bears tilted their heads and looked carefully at the ingenious design on the planting surface partition, nodding their heads continuously.
"If you place this kind of cultivation rack outdoors, you can't water it in rainy weather to prevent soil leaching. If there are not enough wooden boards to make the cultivation rack, you can also use stones, bricks and other things to build a 'flower bed' on the slope where planting is not allowed, and plant in it. Of course, drainage work must be done well."
"If the mountainous terrain is too complicated, it will be inconvenient to get water for irrigation. After all, water trucks are not omnipotent. At this time, you can use a pump, the kind we use on our construction sites. The pumped water is guided to the mountain for irrigation with a hose. We sell pumps and hoses. You can contact the Hilly New District to buy them..."
The food self-sufficiency rate of tea bears is quite low. Many villages need to plant fruit trees in all places within dozens of kilometers around the village and rely on fruit to solve the food problem. This is also the main reason why every tea bear has great endurance and is particularly good at climbing mountains and crossing ridges ... If you don’t climb mountains and plant trees diligently, you will starve!
Some people may ask, doesn’t Tea Bear have the technology to grow terraced fields? How come it can’t grow enough food to meet its own needs?
This is why Lan Guo was ordered to sell water pumps and hoses to the tea bears - without sufficient water for irrigation, building terraced fields does not mean there will be food!
Why can the Dwarf Kingdom build terraced fields in the southern part of the Western Continent? That's because the place where they build terraced fields is the place with the most abundant rain in the Western Continent. Xiao Yun also taught the Dark Iron Dwarves how to build water wheels through "The Elf Ranger's Journey"...
However, water wheels are not omnipotent. Even if the water wheel is not close enough, or the terrain is too bad, it cannot solve the irrigation problem. Otherwise, how could Xiao Yun sell the water pumps made in the grassland to the Dark Iron Dwarves who are the best at smelting and forging in the entire continent!
When Elder Kuku saw the construction site in the former industrial zone of Huoyan City (building private houses, more and more people have the money to build their own houses), he was very interested in the pump used to pump out the water accumulated in the foundation. When Lan Guo "promoted" it, he hesitated and said, "This... will it be expensive?"
"In order to extend the service life, some core parts of the water pump are made of aluminum alloy, which is a bit expensive." Lan Guo nodded and smiled, "But don't worry, your farm will be ready in the spring. If you plant well for a year, you can buy as many water pumps as you want. The cat tribe has only been planting for two or three years, and many of them have built their own houses!"
Elder Kuku then smiled...
Of course the tea bears are not very poor. How can they be poor after selling tea for many years? They are just shrewd and pretend to be poor to avoid the grassland people asking for too much...
Lan Guo had no idea that Elder Kuku, the silly-looking elder, had played such a trick on him. After introducing the cultivation racks to the group of tea bears, he let these tea bears who came to visit and learn help harvest the ripe tomatoes without wasting any effort... It doesn't matter whether you are smart or not, the work has to be done!
In just one morning, the tea bears helped pick tea from eight greenhouses.
Lan Guo asked them to help deliver the harvested tomatoes to the processing plant, and they had lunch at the processing plant. Then, they asked Cha Xiong to wash the tomatoes and cook the tomato sauce. They were busy until the pots of tomato sauce were transported to the packaging workshop and then handed over to the cat workers for sterilization, disinfection, jars and sealing. Cha Xiong could not come to this step. The packaging workshop could not allow people who were not thoroughly disinfected and put on work clothes to enter. The main customers of tomato sauce are the elves, who are picky about hygiene.
There was still half an afternoon left, and when Lan Guo was thinking about how to use these tea bears, the people from the earthworm breeding farm came over and "intercepted" the good-natured Lan Guo without saying a word, dragging Elder Kuku away...
After using Tea Bear's "free interns", the heads of various departments basically don't look down on the fox tribe who have little endurance (compared to the snow wolf people and Tea Bear) and the lion tribe who have no perseverance at all. The Tea Bear interns who are divided into several groups are all hot and coveted buns...
After another fulfilling day of "study", when Elder Kuku and the tribesmen, who were a little tired but very energetic, walked into the cafeteria, more than an hour had passed since dinner time and most people had finished their meal and returned to the dormitory or went to evening classes.
"What did you learn today?"
"I went to the brick factory to learn how to make bricks. How about you?"
"I went fishing with the welfare department staff for the whole day. They fed so many fish. You know the lake in the south? Once the ice was broken, so many fish came rushing in that we couldn't catch all of them! The welfare department staff said they were going to fry fish floss tomorrow and asked us to continue to follow their lead. It's really rare that fish floss is actually fried."
"That's great, can I try it?"
"Sure. The people from the Welfare Department said that the first pot of fish floss was divided among the workers themselves."
"Wow!"
"Hey, listen to me. Salu and I went to the rabbit farm to clean the rabbit cages today. The farm staff gave us a whole jar of rabbit cubes! They said it was in salt and pepper flavor. I tried a piece and it tasted really good!"
"Really? Did you bring it? Let me try it."
"Haha, Salu took it back and hid it. You can go find him. If you have the ability to take food out of Salu's hand, I will be convinced by you."
Elder Kuku was very pleased when he heard the enthusiastic discussions of his tribesmen...his own tribesmen were indeed the most reliable, and someone could learn new knowledge every day!
After all, the people on the grassland are not devils. They will not let the "interns" work busy all day and then work overtime at night. They can use their time freely after dinner.
Well...except for the lion tribe. These guys who are used to slacking off have restrained themselves a little under the various trainings of the grassland people, but they have no perseverance in their work and always fail to complete their work on time. The department heads assigned to them will not indulge their bad habits, so it is natural for them to work overtime...
The tea bears left the cafeteria with their full bellies. Many of them, including Elder Kuku, naturally took out one or two dried sweet potatoes (cut into strips and dried in the sun) from their trouser pockets, chewed slowly on the most common snack in Huoyan City, which you might get stuffed in your pocket if you greeted someone, and then went back to the dormitory to get towels and soap and take a shower in the public bathroom.
This is probably the point that the tea bears are most uncomfortable with. The grassland people's requirements for hygiene seem to be completely "demanding" to them - all dormitories must be clean and tidy, everyone's pillows and bedding must be neatly folded against the wall after getting up, everyone must brush their teeth morning and evening, and must take a shower every three days at most!
At first, no one would seriously follow this hygiene rule, which seemed to be a hassle to the orcs, especially bathing, which was the most difficult to check and easy to fool around with...
As a result, the people on the grassland quickly came up with a solution to this problem: each person was given a small card, and when the cardholder went to take a bath, the disabled snow wolf who was in charge of the bathroom (the cubs and the disabled person took turns doing this job) would stamp a small red flower on the card of the person who came to take a bath.
At the end of the month, the cards would be checked, and those who had less than ten red flowers would be singled out for punishment... This included but was not limited to being taken to the coal yard to do hard labor for at least a week like the previous Lion Clan Military Training Brigade.
After hearing the tearful complaints of the lions who came back from the coal yard, even the water-fearing Winged Tribe resolutely followed the bathing order...
Elder Kuku's room was previously occupied by the cat tribe and the bear tribe, but in order to accommodate them, the interiors of these houses have been renovated. The claw marks on the walls that were once made by the bear tribe have all been smoothed out with lime, and a layer of refreshing and bright white putty has been applied. It looks rustic from the outside, but when you enter the house, the dormitory with more than a dozen people does not look messy or dirty at all, but rather it is so tidy that it makes people feel comfortable.
Opposite the kang, next to the walkway on the wall, there is a long row of cabinets made of logs for the tea bears to store their personal belongings.
Elder Kuku entered the room, took out his "sanitary card", toiletries and clean clothes from the cabinet opposite his bed (kang), put them in the basin, and called to others: "Who wants to go to the bathroom together?"
"I'm going too, wait for me."
"I'm not going. I just washed it yesterday."
Taking the tribesmen who were going to the bathroom, Elder Kuku staggered to the public bathroom. He first took out the health card and asked the snow wolf cub in charge of the bathroom today to stamp it, then he lifted the heavy curtain and entered the bathing room.
The peak bathing period had passed, and there were not many people in the bathhouse. Elder Kuku found an empty seat and sat on a small bench prepared by the bathhouse. He took off his dirty clothes and threw them at his feet. He skillfully removed the hose from the hook on the wall in front of the bench, turned the small iron sluice to open the water (although iron faucets are prone to rust, alloys are too expensive... so he just made do), and poured the hot water from the hose onto his head.
After wetting his body and applying soap, Elder Kuku hadn't started to rub the mud yet when two goblins and a small cat came over and exchanged glances with Elder Kuku. The three of them helped rub Elder Kuku's back together... Tea Bear was too fat, and it would be difficult to rub his back without his help!
The three men helped Elder Kuku to clean the places that he could not reach, and then it was Elder Kuku's turn to clean them.
"Tea Bear is still the best at rubbing, with just the right amount of strength. Last time I asked a lion to rub me, my God, I felt like he wanted to kill me!" The small cat said comfortably.
"Yeah, it's troublesome when we don't meet the Wing Tribe taking a shower. Their strength is suitable for us. You cat people are too heavy-handed for us."
"We can't enter the women's bathroom. When it comes to back scrubbing, the human women are the best."
The two goblins echoed.
Elder Kuku's face was filled with joy after hearing this, and he rubbed the backs of the three men even more seriously... He was very happy that Tea Bear was popular!
In the past, Aisha had to pinch her nose to rub the goblin's back, but this kind of difficulty does not exist for Tea Bear... They cannot come into contact with the goblins, so they have no conditions to develop discrimination.
After taking a shower, use the bath water flowing into the sink in the corner of the bathhouse to wash and wring out the dirty clothes, put on clean clothes and go back to the house. Hang the wet clothes on the clothes drying rack next to the stove. They can be dried overnight, folded in the closet, and changed the next time you take a shower.
It was already dark, and in the Doshi Mountains, it would be time to go to bed. However, Huoyan City has a "night life", and Elder Kuku was not ready to go to bed right away. After hanging up the clothes, Elder Kuku called the tribesmen who were willing to go out, chewing sweet potato chips, and went to the place where the grassland people had evening classes.
Well...mainly to listen to stories. After the evening class, it's time for the "bedtime story session". After knowing this, even the Winged Tribe who are most afraid of going out in the cold wind will remember the time and come to listen to stories when the time comes...
After spending more than half an hour in the grassland people's evening class "classroom" for bedtime stories, Elder Kuku, who felt a little sleepy, did not disturb others who were concentrating on listening to the story. He gently stood up, walked out, and prepared to go back to the house.
Then, halfway through his walk, he was intercepted by Xiao Yun...
"The craft factory is having a problem with the lack of felt models. If you have nothing to do, could Elder Kuku come and help?"
Elder Kuku found it difficult to refuse the enthusiastic sage Ayun, so he nodded reluctantly.
Then he was taken to the female workers' dormitory.
"Take off your clothes and put them on the kang, then sit on the blanket over here, and hold this quilt roll. Well, imagine that this is not a quilt roll, but a big ball, and you are sitting and playing with the ball... By the way, it is best to place your forearms like this. Don't sit cross-legged, but stretch your legs out to hold the quilt roll. No, hold the ball. Yes, yes, yes, that's it!"
"Tilt your head a little bit... No, just put your chin on the 'ball'. That's right! Tilt your head a little bit more, and you'll be cuter!"
"Open your eyes wide and make an innocent face. The more innocent the better!"
Elder Kuku, who was being manipulated, said: “???”
Xiao Yun asked Elder Kuku to pose in a suitable manner, and immediately turned to look at the female workers who were watching: "See? Just make a puppet out of felt like this! As long as you can make this naive expression, the product will definitely sell well!"
The female workers nodded with shining eyes, and one by one they raised their hands to gesture to Elder Kuku, or immediately took out tools such as wool balls and cloth to start thinking about how to make it; Maggie, who had learned painting (line drawing with pencils), immediately took out the notebook and quickly drew according to Elder Kuku's "playing with a ball" movements...
Elder Kuku: “…”
Although this seems to be a sign that Tea Bear is loved by others... why is he so emotional? !
