Chen Lan chatted with Xiang Xi and the others for a while, asking about the construction progress of the new houses, and then they parted ways to attend to their own tasks.
Chen Lan hurried to find Uncle De and Uncle Fu, who were helping at the construction site. From a distance, she could see that in just a few days, the exteriors of several houses had changed dramatically, with the outer walls and roofs mostly completed. There was no one working outside. They were likely inside doing interior renovations and installing electrical wiring and plumbing.
Chen Lan walked into the third house and saw Uncle De helping Er Hu ge with tools for installing wires. Er Hu ge was bent over, running hidden conduits for electrical wiring inside the wall.
Chen Lan walked up and greeted Uncle De and Er Hu, calling out, "Uncle De, Er Hu ge." Er Hu turned and greeted Chen Lan before continuing to work diligently.
Uncle De walked over and asked, "Xiao Lan, do you need something from me?"
Chen Lan replied, "Yes, Uncle De. Autumn harvest is coming soon, isn't it? Do we need to find a place to level the ground to make a drying area?"
Uncle De smiled and said, "About the drying area, I discussed it with your Uncle Fu a few days ago. We'll build it in front of our houses. The road in front of the houses needs to be built anyway, so building the drying area there is killing two birds with one stone – it saves effort and money, and it's convenient for us to keep an eye on things. Xiao Lan, you don't know how fierce the birds and small animals in this valley are! We have to watch them closely, otherwise, our grain will be ruined by these animals."
After a pause, Uncle De continued, "Once we finish tidying up the exterior details of all the houses in the next couple of days, we'll clear away the construction materials piled up in front of the houses. Anything useful will be kept, and anything not can be disposed of as trash. Also… oh! Right, Xiao Lan, shouldn't we build a warehouse for storing things?"
Chen Lan nodded and replied, "Yes! Uncle De, I came to see you today for two reasons: one, about the drying area, and two, about building a warehouse. We need to build not just a warehouse for these construction materials, but also a warehouse for tractors and other machinery, a warehouse for grain, and a warehouse for dried goods. We also need to dig cellars to store winter vegetables like cabbage, radishes, potatoes, and pumpkins."
Uncle De eagerly said, "Xiao Lan, you're right, we need so many warehouses. This year we're harvesting hundreds of thousands of catties of corn, and hundreds of thousands of catties of potatoes. We'll also harvest a lot of peanuts. We need to build several large warehouses and store these grains separately."
As Uncle De spoke, he became anxious and said to Chen Lan, "Xiao Lan, let's go find your Uncle Fu together to discuss this. The warehouse needs to be built quickly. Autumn harvest is just around the corner. Once the warehouse is built, it still needs to be aired out to dry thoroughly before we can store the grain." With that, he led the way outside.
Chen Lan and Uncle De found Uncle Fu in the fifth house. Uncle Fu was also helping Xiang Dong ge by handing him things.
When Uncle De and Chen Lan reached the entrance of the fifth house, Chen Lan called out, "Uncle Fu! Xiang Dong ge."
Xiang Dong was busy and likely didn't hear.
Uncle Fu nodded at Chen Lan as a greeting.
Uncle De waved at Uncle Fu from the doorway, signaling him to come over. Uncle Fu put down what he was holding, said something to Xiang Dong ge, and walked out. As they walked, Uncle De told Uncle Fu about building the warehouse. After listening, Uncle Fu nodded and said, "We definitely need to build a warehouse, but where should we build it?" Uncle Fu looked up and asked Uncle De.
Uncle De replied, "Isn't that why we're here to discuss it with you?"
He then looked at Chen Lan and asked, "Xiao Lan, where do you think it's best to build the warehouse? Let me tell you, the rats and small animals in this valley are quite formidable!"
Chen Lan saw Uncle De asking her and shared her thoughts, "Uncle Fu, Uncle De, I think it's best to build the corn warehouse inside a cave after the corn has been dried. Caves are generally dry and cool. We can hollow out the mountain to create several caves for storing grain separately. We can reinforce the inside of the caves with cement mortar to prevent rats from burrowing in and stealing the grain stored inside."
Chen Lan continued, "However, corn has a high moisture content and is not easy to dry. Therefore, we need to build some temporary storage structures first to store the corn ears. These structures should be built in a dry and well-ventilated area."
Uncle Fu asked, "How should these temporary storage structures be built?"
Uncle De explained, "I know how to build them. Back home, when crops were harvested and there wasn't enough time to dry them, we used to build temporary storage structures. We'd use wooden planks to form a circle or use sorghum stalks woven into a circular shape, about two and a half meters in diameter. Other shapes are also possible. The storage structure should be raised about a meter off the ground. After filling it with corn, we'd cover the top to prevent rain or snow from causing the corn to get damp and moldy. Since corn isn't completely dry, we need to frequently check it for heat during storage. If it heats up, we should promptly transfer it to cool it down and reduce moisture. The best method is still to thoroughly dry the corn on the drying field to the greatest extent possible after harvesting."
After a brief pause, Uncle De added, "If the corn can be threshed in time while the autumn sun is strong, it can be dried quickly and stored."
Chen Lan thought, "Threshing, a thresher, that's right! There's a corn thresher."
So she said, "Uncle De, there are corn threshing machines. Once the corn ears are harvested, we just need to peel off the husks, spread them on the drying field, and after three or four days of strong sunlight, we can use the thresher to thresh the corn."
As soon as Chen Lan finished speaking, Uncle De anxiously said to Uncle Fu, "Chen Fu, let's go to the fields and see if the corn is ready to be harvested. If it is, we should harvest it quickly while the weather is clear and sunny so we can dry it in time."
Watching Uncle De and Uncle Fu hurry away, Chen Lan also quickly ran to where the tractor was parked, preparing to use the tractor to shovel the construction debris on the ground in front of the houses to the side. She also wanted to check if there was enough cement and sand in stock and see if she needed to replenish them.
During this time, Chen Lan had been using cement and sand herself, while others hadn't used much. She secretly purchased 200 bags of cement in the system and placed them in the cement shed. Chen Lan dared not put too much, fearing it would expire. She also added 50 tons of sand to the sand storage area, planning to gradually add to the cement and sand inventory when it was convenient later.
After dealing with the cement and sand inventory, Chen Lan drove the excavator back and forth between the five houses, quickly clearing and leveling a large open area in front of the houses.
Chen Lan drove the excavator, looking around in all directions. Seeing that everyone was busy and no one was paying attention to her, she secretly purchased another 200 bags of cement and 30 tons of fine sand in the system and placed them on the open ground. Thinking that crushed stone would also be needed for paving roads, she quickly took a shortcut to the dark riverbank and rapidly used the shovel she had used last time to fill snake-skin bags with crushed stones.