When I was a child, my family was relatively poor, and the elders always wanted to find some ways to supplement the family, and chose to choose to raise sheep. Before raising sheep, the family also raised pigs, but raising pigs has never been profitable, several times pigs are about to grow up to be out of the pen, the epidemic swine fever, a year's hard work is in vain.
There are also cattle in the surrounding area, but the cost of raising cattle is too large, the family can not come up with so much money, and finally choose to raise sheep, because the cost of raising sheep is not too high, and the big sheep can give birth to small lambs, but also to the family to supply goat milk, it is indeed a multi-profit.
Sheep
The impression is that there were never more than three sheep in the family, and they were all a mother sheep and one or two of her children, and the rams were sold to the sheep dealers when they grew up, and only the ewes stayed to give birth to lambs and provide goat milk to the family and the villagers. There was a small earthen house behind the yard that was the sheep pen, and Grandpa piled a clean loess pile next to the sheepfold, and the loess soil was pulled back from the nearby edge of the earth cliff, dried and crushed. He used clean loess to create a comfortable environment for the sheep, and the sheep pen was always clean and the smell was very small, which was Grandpa's hard work.
Sheep prefer coarse fiber weeds, grab a handful of weeds from the ground, reach into the sheepfold, swing at the sheep, and it immediately runs to the door to eat the grass in your hand.
In the countryside, there are a lot of fresh weeds and some bushes, for the sheep, these are all pure natural fresh delicacies, feeding the sheep to eat grass can not only save the family some money to buy feed, but also make the sheep eat happier.
Sheep graze
For sheep, going out for a walk is also a way to "strengthen the body". Sheep naturally like to move on the hillside, go out to herd sheep, not only can feed them, but also let them exercise more, often exercise sheep physique will be better, meat quality will be better.
Compared with other agricultural work, sheep herding can be said to be a very easy job. When I was a child, I was too small to do the heavy work at home, and when my peers had begun to follow the adults to sharpen their knives and cut wheat in the field, I could only do some small chores at home.
Cut the wheat
Sheep herding does not require hard work, there is no technical content, it is the most suitable for my housework. Every day when I came home from school, as long as the weather was good, I would lead two or three sheep from the family to the hillside to herd the sheep, and lead the sheep with a rope, and I would carry my school bag and whistle in my mouth toward the hillside.
When I reached the hillside, I chose a place where the weeds were lush, tied the sheep's rope to the stake, and watched the three or two sheep eating the fat weeds in a big mouth, I found a shady place, put down my bag, found a stone, sat on the stone and began to write my homework. Under the blue sky and white clouds, three or two sheep quietly graze, and the children herding sheep sit next to them to write homework, which is really a beautiful landscape painting.
Sheep herding children
In my spare time, I will also read extracurricular books, every hour or two when the sheep will eat the grass around them, change the place of the sheep, and then I still go to the shade to read books, in this innocent and messy time, I read "Five Thousand Years of China", "Shi Gong Case", "Yi Tian Slaughter Dragon" and many other books, completed the accumulation of my basic knowledge, and learned about the vast world outside the sheep herding from books.
As the sun sets and the sun sets, I carry my bag and lead the sheep home slowly, and the sun pulls the sheep and my shadow long. At that time, although my family was poor, it was indeed my most unforgettable memory, making fun in suffering, as long as I experienced the hardships of life, I would know how to cherish the beauty of life, and only after tasting bitterness could I understand the sweetness and preciousness.
Shepherd diagram