The old man in the photo is 84 years old and an old farmer. All his life, he was bitter, once pulling stones from the mountains to the Yellow River beach, pulling charcoal up the mountain, making bricks and tiles, and carrying salt and salt in salt ponds. Now 84 years old, he still plants 5 acres of fruit trees with his wife, and weaves mulberry baskets, dustpans and sieves in his spare time. Non-stop all year round. Labor makes the old man's health better and better, the waist is not painful, the legs are not sore, and there is nothing wrong with the body. Coupled with the good mentality of the elderly, living past a hundred years is not a dream.
The old man's wife is also 80 years old this year. The old couple had a daughter and three sons in one life. Together with the parents of the elderly, the whole family has a total of eight people. At that time, the life of the family was tight. My wife works in the fields during the day, pulling fertilizer, leveling the field, carrying thatch fertilizer, and doing all kinds of work. At night, under the small oil lamp, we spin flowers and weave clothing for our children. My wife said that she could only sleep for a while a night. The locals call the chickens blink. The picture shows the old man and his wife.
In order to support the family, the old man once went down to the salt pond when he was young, that is, in the winter, the downward wind of the salt pond blew people's eyes. The old man in the salt pool to carry salt, bear salt, a load of salt is enough to weigh 150 pounds, the old man's shoulder is pressed by the burden, the pain is only drilled. But the next day it was not light, and it was time to carry salt again. So the shoulder was swollen and good again. Because the shoulders have been ground into dead flesh, thick calluses have developed. One winter, the old man was blackened by the northwest wind and his body was circled. But for the sake of the children, the second year the old man went down to the salt pond again. The picture shows the old man weaving a basket.
In order to prevent the Yellow River from falling over and causing losses to farmers on both sides of the Yellow River, a large number of stones were needed for the treatment of the Yellow River. Pulling a stone can earn a little subsidy. In order to earn these subsidies, the old man used a small flat cart to pull stones. The stones were mined from the mountains. It takes nearly 100 miles to pull to the Yellow River beach. Before dawn, the old man pulled the flat cart to the mountain and could not return until night. In order to earn more subsidies, the old man loaded more than a thousand pounds of stones in a flat car, which was more than a cow pulled. Don't say that it is pulling more than a thousand pounds of stones, even walking a hundred miles a day is enough to choke. The picture shows the old man weaving a basket.
Fortunately, after loading the stones, it was all downhill. But downhill is also not easy to pull. In order not to be pushed down by the flat cart, a thick piece of wood is tied to the tail of the flat cart, which is called a grinding rod by the locals. Because it was all dirt roads at that time, sometimes the flat car ran out of gas, or the flat car was broken and needed to be repaired, so the stones had to be unloaded one by one, and the flat car was repaired and then installed. So tossed, to the house, people are about to fall apart. The picture shows the old man weaving a basket.
In order to earn more money, the old man also made bricks and tiles on the brick kiln in the village. The work of brick kilns is very heavy, and most people are reluctant to do bricks and tiles. Heavy work does not say, when it is cold, and mud is the same thing, no matter how cold the weather, but also use feet and mud, feet in the cold mud, cold people only drill the heart.
When the old man was young, in order to support his family, he learned to weave baskets, dustpans, and sieves. For more than sixty years, the old man has not lost this craft. Now 84 years old, I am still weaving baskets, dustpans, and sieves. The picture shows the old man weaving a basket.
The strips of the old man's basket are the local mulberry, wicker and thorn strips. In the autumn, when the strips are wooden, the old man will have to pick strips, sometimes there are not enough wild strips, and there are also money to buy other people's strips. In winter, there is no farm work in the field, and the old man weaves baskets at home. You can weave an average of two baskets a day. The big basket sells for 17 yuan, and the small basket sells for about 13 yuan, which means that if you are busy for a day, you can sell for 30 yuan. Not counting the money to buy strips. The picture shows the old man weaving a basket.
What is the old man in the picture weaving? It is estimated that the young people have not seen it, and the people in the city have not seen it. This stuff is called a cow cage. In the past, when peasants drove their cattle to work in the fields, in order to prevent the cattle from eating the crops in the fields, one was to waste the crops, and the other was that the cattle were not good at work. Put the cow cage on the cow's mouth so that the cow cannot eat crops or grass. The picture shows an old man weaving a cow cage.
Now there are basically no cattle in the countryside, and the cultivated land is mechanized. So what do you do with cow cages? Originally, in the local countryside, children had to marry a child to carry a chicken, one with a wine jug and the other with a big rooster. The rooster is lying in the cow cage. Why, what is exquisite, I don't know, anyway, it is good or auspicious meaning. That is to say, this kind of cow cage thing is still inseparable from the countryside.
The old man will also wrap dustpans and sieves. In the past, the wheat producing area was a dustpan and sieve for every household when the wheat was about to be harvested. And dustpans and sieves are the most likely to break. Therefore, when it is time for every household to harvest the wheat, it must wrap a dustpan and a sieve. The picture shows the old man wrapping around a dustpan.
The dustpan and the sieve are to go from village to village. It is to provide door-to-door service. The elderly generally go out to wrap the dustpan and the sieve will not go too far, probably the farthest is 30 miles away from home. At noon, the old man brought the steamed bun from home, and gave him a sip of boiling water from whoever wrapped the dustpan and sieve it around. The elderly are only serving the family all their lives, and they are reluctant to eat and wear. The picture shows the old man wrapping around a dustpan.
Although the children are older now, the children have their own careers. The family's five acres of fruit trees were planted by the old two. Planting fruit trees is very troublesome, such as watering, fertilizing, pruning, etc. However, the old couple is older and reluctant to invest in fruit trees, so the income of fruit trees is very small. The old man pulled all the fruit branches back and cooked in the yard with firewood in the summer. This is very economical. Such pot stoves are locally called pumping stoves, and do not use bellows.
The old man is 84 years old this year, for more than sixty years, the old man has been working year after year, day after day, working every day, suffering, and only this family is in his heart. But the old man lived happily. Although 84 years old, the waist is not painful, the legs are not sore, there is no disease and no disaster, the body is tough, the main reason is that the old man said, is to love labor. The wife is also in good health. Now, in addition to having daughters, sons-in-law, three sons and daughters-in-law, the old couple also has eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and the whole family lives in harmony and is a happy family. Please pay attention to the headline number "Xie Fuchang 123", you will see more stories of the people and the three rural areas.