Rural Diary
Plums
Xuejiagou is located in the soil and stone mountain area in the south of Lan County, the middle section of the valley extending from southeast to northwest in the northeast of Liangjiazhuang Township, and is a natural village under the jurisdiction of Guojiazhuang Administrative Village of Liangjiazhuang Township. The southeast of the village road goes out along the ditch, 4 miles away from Guojiazhuang, 9 miles from Liangjiazhuang, and 40 miles from the county seat.
From Guojiazhuang Village, Dongshungou meandered north for several miles, and only then did you see Xuejiagou Village hidden in the valley. The mountain rocks on one side of the village road are exposed, and the valley is narrow and deep.
The terrain at the east end of the village is relatively open. The courtyards in the village are concentrated on the north side of the ditch, and there are also several courtyards in the south of the ditch.
The mountainous area where the village is located belongs to the Nanyang Mountain block, which is in the north of the eastern branch of Lan County, with a closed environment and a shortage of water sources. Nearly 1,000 acres of cultivated land are mainly sloping and dry land, with poor soil and water conservation, poor cultivated land, and villagers planting widely and harvesting thinly. The main crops are potatoes, millet, millet and beans. The road out of the ground is steep and the road is narrow, and the spring planting and autumn harvest mostly rely on people carrying donkeys. In the early 60s of the last century, the villagers excavated channels and used ice water to irrigate the land, but later the water conservancy project was abandoned due to the change of water source. In addition to planting, the village also has a tradition of raising donkeys, sheep and pigs in a decentralized manner, with donkeys mostly for agricultural service and pigs and sheep as sideline income. However, with the outflow of population, only two families are left in the village to raise sheep.
These stone slope protections, which prevent soil erosion and protect the road foundation, are stacked on top of each other, and are continuous from left to right. Each layer of slope protection is upright and high, up to three or four meters.
The courtyard wall at the bottom of the ditch is also made of dry stones. These stones are neat and uniform in size, which makes people sigh at the hard work of selecting materials and transportation and the exquisite craftsmanship of masonry skills.
After the hardening of the main street, it is another season of spring breeze to promote new greenery, but there are fewer and fewer people in the village.
There were few people to see in the streets, except for a few sheared lambs on the stone steps gnawing on the grass that had just emerged from the cracks in the stones.
The original registered population was 321 people in 102 households, but now there are only 14 people in 5 households (2017 data). The main surname "Yuan, Xue", it is rumored that the ancestor of the Yuan surname has been tossed and turned several times, first from Hebei to Yangqu Baiban, and then to the Yuan family house in Jingle East Dashu, and then the two Yuan brothers moved to the current site, which has survived for 32 generations. But the natural conditions here are poor, the transportation is inconvenient, and the draft is difficult. Although the reservoir was built in the later period and introduced into the village by pipeline, only water was available in winter and spring, and during the dry season, the villagers could only carry the scoop from the gap between the forks and stones in the east ditch of the village, or pull water from Guojiazhuang, and therefore needed to pay part of the electricity bill to Guojiazhuang Village. After the reform and opening up, the villagers moved to nearby villages one after another, and the number of permanent residents decreased year by year. In 2010, more than 20 households in the village migrated to Kangchen Migrant Village, and in 2018, Xuejiagou Village was identified as one of the natural villages for poverty alleviation and resettlement in Lan County, and a total of 37 households and 122 people moved into the Yijuyuan Resettlement Community in the county seat.
When I visited in 2013, there were only about 20 people left in the village. An old man walked down the street on crutches.
In a courtyard, several elderly people are sitting at the door of the kiln, peeling corn and chatting.
Talking about the past days, Yuan Nairong took out the woolen cloth bag used to hold grain from the south room and showed it to us, and laughed about the story of this "family heirloom".
Just after the New Year, children who come back with their parents to play in the street.
The stone kiln cave is a traditional architectural form in the southern mountainous area of Lan County, and the stone kiln architecture in Xuejiagou Village is even more unique. The courtyards of the whole village are mainly distributed on the north slope of the ditch, and there are also a few households in the south of the ditch, or kilns or houses, which are built according to the high and low, and are built with the trend. Stone weirs, stone walls, stone kilns are stacked on top of each other, stone slopes, stone alleys, stone steps are connected and run through, many trees are scattered in the middle, you can't look deep from a distance, and you can breathe in at a close look. The layout of the whole village is neat, and the kiln courtyard building is simple and simple, showing the industrious, neat and orderly living habits of the villagers for generations. Only the remains of the Dragon King Temple in the village remain, and the old man temple at the entrance of the village is newly built in recent years.
In an empty yard warehouse, the sash donkey saddle basket has been dusty for a long time.
In another courtyard, the eaves of the vacant house are filled with all kinds of farm tools.
The rustic host greeted us warmly with water.
Although the wall skin has fallen over the years, painting wall stickers before the year is a link that must not be simplified.
(Taken in February 2013, March 2016, and May 2022.) ）
Source: Lan County House of Literature and Art