Chapter 68: Visiting the Farm (Part 2)

  "Living in the US for a while, I didn't know that Easter had such sales. When I came to America before, it was either May or September, and basically, I never encountered any holidays."

  The old man said, "At Easter, the kids go around looking for those colored plastic eggs. At Halloween, they dress up as ghosts to scare people. Every time this happens, Guangyuan and I are responsible for staying at home to give out candy to the kids. The little ones are all dressed up in strange costumes. My daughter-in-law Donna takes our grandson out trick-or-treating, and we hand out a lot of candy in one night. The kids also get a lot, it's really fun."

  Everyone continued to talk about the foreigner's holiday, and after a while, Chang Dongna came to inform everyone that they could eat. Ju An and Wang Fan followed her to the dining hall, and as soon as they entered the dining hall, they saw a Chinese-style round table placed in the center of the hall, with dishes already laid out on it.

  Everyone sat around the round table, and Lu Guangyuan suggested: "Why don't we have some baijiu to liven things up?" After finishing speaking, he stood up and took out a bottle of Maotai from the cabinet behind him.

  Ju An shook his head, trying to stop Lu Guangyuan, and explained: "We don't need the white wine, we still have to drive back later."

  The old man waved his hand and said: "Why don't you just stay here tonight, there's plenty of room at home, just stay here for one night and go back tomorrow morning."

  Wang Fan said, "There are still things to do at the Ju'an pasture, we really need to go back tonight. This time I came to bring two people to learn about horse breeding and open a ranch after returning home. There are still many things on hand, next time, next time we will definitely come and get drunk."

  The old man took a look and said, "Those who are in charge of this farm are busy every day, Guangyuan is busy with the farm all year round, four seasons are not enough, so I won't keep you. But one person can drive, and the others can accompany me to drink a few cups, just a little less, it's really hard to meet an old fellow in this wilderness."

  "Then you can just keep the old man company and have a couple of drinks, I'll drive."

  Wang Fan immediately responded with a smile and said to the old man, "Then I'll accompany you for two cups. My drinking capacity isn't very good, so I can only drink a little less."

  The old man was delighted: "Like our capital's men, straightforward."

  Wang Fan took the wine jug from Lu Guangyuan's hand, filled it for the old man, and then filled it for Lu Guangyuan and himself. Ju An and Chang Dongna held up their juice glasses and everyone drank a cup together.

  Then the old man loudly called everyone to eat, and Ju An tasted a few dishes, feeling very delicious. Most of them were quite flavorful, and Ju An especially liked a dish of braised eggplant. Generally speaking, Ju An didn't like eggplant because she didn't like its taste, but Chang Dongna's eggplant was just right for her stomach. She couldn't detect the weird taste of eggplant at all, and she ate a big bowl with plain rice.

  Wang Fan and Lu Guangyuan, the two of them were drinking with a small wine, they were more particular about meat dishes, in the US it was hard to see on the table braised pig's trotters, the three people were holding them in their hands happily gnawing, while gnawing also chatting in Beijing dialect.

  Chang Dongna said to Ju Anren, "Try my homemade sausage, it's made from pigs raised in our own home, fed with grains, and the taste is especially good." After saying that, she picked up a piece and put it into a small bowl in front of Ju An. Ju An took a bite, and indeed, there was no strange smell at all, and it had a great texture.

  He smiled and praised: "Your home-raised pigs are not only delicious in meat, but also have such a strong intestine, it's amazing".

  Lu Guangyuan listened and said: "This flavor is the same as when we were young, rural pigs, that kind of black pork. Nowadays, it's not easy to find this kind of local pork at home, they're all fed with feed and fattened up quickly, black pigs are more trouble to raise, economically it doesn't make sense, we only raised a few for ourselves to eat. At first, it was just our family raising them, later on, some foreign friends who came over to eat also started raising them after tasting the pork, now most of the pigs raised by families around us are this kind."

  "Ah, are there still people selling piglets now? If so, I'll get a few to raise and when New Year's comes around, we can have a lively celebration with the whole family."

  Chang Dongna looked at Ju An and smiled: "You're just feeding the little pig now, but you won't be able to eat it for New Year's today. This black pig grows slowly and will take almost a year to mature. Our family always kills one head per household, so why don't we kill half a head together with your family today?"

  "Alright then, but I really want to get a few of these little piglets and raise them back home."

  Chang Dongna said: "No problem, when you leave, there is a family nearby that has several half-grown piglets, I heard they are planning to sell them a few days ago, I'll go ask later".

  "That's great, I have some pigs in my farm too. Now everything is complete, cows, sheep, pigs, geese, ducks and chickens, all domestic goods except for the cows and sheep." He said with a pleased expression.

  Lu Guangyuan said: "Do you still have domestic geese and native chickens there? Those are really good things, we wanted to bring them several times but it was not easy to bring, so we gave up in the end".

  "Hey, if you want to raise them, just come to my place and take a dozen or so. The geese in the pasture are hatching eggs now, and the chicks will be coming out in their second batch soon. If you want some, just go there and catch them."

  Chang Dongna smiled and replied, "That's great, after a few days, let Old Lu go to your place to catch some geese and little chickens to raise, the big ocean chicken in America is really just big in appearance, but tastes much worse when eaten."

  Everyone happily finished their lunch, and then Lu Guangyuan took Ju An and Wang Fan to visit his own farm.

  They entered a large greenhouse, where Ju An saw several rows of shelves inside the shed, filled with flowers. Lu Guangyuan introduced: "This is the flower house, we will plant some flowers for sale in spring and autumn, which is also a major source of wealth in spring."

  Looking at the rows of pipes and sprinkler heads hanging from the top of the greenhouse, Wang Fan sighed and said: "Your greenhouse facilities are quite advanced, with automatic sprinklers and all, much better than the one in Ju'an".

  "Hey, I've got a greenhouse too, and it's also got sprinklers, but not as many or as big as Master Lu's here. Mine is just for growing some veggies for myself to eat, no need for such professional sprinklers."

  Lu Guangyuan smiled and said, "It's not necessary to be so particular. It's not that my greenhouse is advanced, but the labor costs here in the US are too high. I want to hire people, but even if I want to, I can't afford it. During busy times, I'll find two people to come over and help out, and for the rest of the year, just my family can handle it."

  "It's just the opposite of our country, we have cheap labor and expensive goods, while here in America, things are cheap but labor is expensive."

  Lu Guangyuan smiled and nodded, saying: "Yes, it's just the opposite of what we do domestically." Ju An and Wang Fan followed him out of the greenhouse after a while, and Lu Guangyuan said: "All my greenhouses are used for growing flowers in spring and off-season vegetables in winter."

  "Business should be good, right?"

  "It's still okay, anyway, from the beginning of the year to the end, we don't have to worry about food and drink, and there are some small savings left over, which can be used for several children to finish college without any problem. The eldest is not even planning to let us support him, he plans to apply for a loan to go to university. Anyway, basically there's no pressure, and no big money, just leaving some fun." Lu Guangyuan said with a smile.

  Then the two of them went to see their domesticated animals, cows and sheep. The number of cows was not many, but there were dozens of sheep. In the pasture, they also saw a few donkeys. They didn't know what the donkeys could be used for, maybe they were raised to be slaughtered for meat? After asking, they found out that it was actually his eldest son who had brought them back to raise as pets.

  After taking a look around the domestic animals, Lu Guangyuan followed Daai and Wang Fan to a large patch of pumpkin field. They saw green pumpkins growing under the green vines. Ju An asked: "Can these pumpkins be sold? They all seem quite big."

  Lu Guangyuan smiled and said, "These pumpkins are all reserved for sale on Halloween. When the time comes, we'll pull out the pumpkin vines, and there will be only a few big orange pumpkins left on the ground, which is more beautiful. At that time, you can come over and play. Our farm and several other farms in the area provide activities every year, similar to the rural amusement park style in China."

  Wang Fan asked with interest: "What is American country music like? Is it also a package of food and drink?"

  "Basically, it's just a family outing to have some fun, you can buy some vegetables and stuff. We'll set up a maze in the cornfield, a big one, and put some markers inside. If you find all the markers, there will be a small reward. Usually, whole families come together, and they also pick out their Halloween pumpkins while they're here. If you're interested, just come on down in October."

  Later, he took Ju An and Wu Ming to visit a large cornfield, pointing at the vast expanse of corn and saying: "This year's maze will be drawn on this land. When the time comes, we'll find an airplane to draw the pattern in the air, and then use harvesters below to cut out the pattern."

  Living in a safe place, heard about airplanes, came in spirit and asked: "Is this kind of airplane expensive?"

  "What's the big deal? With a few tens of thousands of dollars, you can even buy an airplane to spray pesticides yourself. It's not like it's something major. Many farms have their own airplanes, and some large ranches with hundreds of thousands of acres use helicopters to herd cattle. If they used horses, how many cowboys would they need to hire to herd tens of thousands of cows?"

  "Hey, is it easy to get a pilot's license? If it's not too hard, I might as well get one for fun."

  Lu Guangyuan said: "Now I heard that this license is a bit troublesome, before it was just spending money, now there are audits and whatnot, the Americans were scared by 911, but it's just taking more time, also need to go to class and all that, in total it will cost around $20,000".

  It's really a bit tricky. When I got the license, I thought of assembling a World War II super fighter jet, which is so cool.