Chapter 562

Halimu and the others have been back for two days. The summer pasture already has a thick layer of snow, and in fact, there have been two heavy snowfalls here at the winter camp as well. Their migration process was also full of thrills.

But after so many years, they are used to it. Some herdsmen lost cattle and sheep, some were injured falling off horses, and others suffered frostbite themselves.

But in the end, everyone returned safely.

Halimu and Yushanjiang were discussing matters in the winter camp, while his wife was boiling milk tea, and a faint, milky fragrance permeated the room.

Soon, two bowls of milk tea were placed on the kang table. After Yushanjiang stroked his chest with his left hand and took the milk tea with his right to express his gratitude, he said with emotion:

"After sending my family down the mountain, they are living well, but my life has become difficult. Now I even have to come to your place to drink fragrant milk tea."

"Hahahaha," Halimu took a sip of milk tea and said with a smile, "Yushanjiang, you're joking. Your milk tea is brewed very well."

This was the truth; Yushanjiang is very good at brewing milk tea and making narin, but he also understood that Yushanjiang meant it was somewhat inconvenient to live alone in the winter camp right now.

After all, this place is different from the summer pasture. In the summer pasture, one has to graze every day and be careful of wolf packs, so there is a lot to do. Right now, every day is just feeding the cattle and sheep and tidying up the sheep pen; most of the time is spent huddled in the house.

"If it weren't for the radio Li Long got for us, it would be really hard," Yushanjiang said while drinking milk tea. He quickly finished a bowl and then handed the bowl to Halimu's wife by the edge of the kang.

"When do you plan to start the winter slaughter this year?" Yushanjiang asked.

"Li Long is coming over. I'll slaughter when he gets here. I plan to slaughter a cow this year," Halimu had already made up his mind, "and call everyone over for a wonderful meal. As for the remaining meat, we'll air-dry it and freeze it, and the offal will go to Li Long."

"That's what I was thinking too," Yushanjiang said with a smile. "I guess he should be coming soon. I'm almost out of rice and flour at home, and I'm thinking he'll probably bring us some when he comes."

"Hmm, I still have some here, so take some when you leave. I'm preparing to tidy up these hides so he can take them all when he comes."

"Right, I'll bring my hides over tomorrow too," Yushanjiang continued drinking milk tea. "He should be very happy when he sees these hides."

"He's married, but I don't know when he'll have children. I plan to give his child a pony when he does," Halimu said.

"I'm planning the same thing. Since you're giving a pony, then I..." Yushanjiang looked a bit troubled, "what should I give?"

Halimu smiled and said nothing. This kind of thing is better said early; look, because Yushanjiang said it late, he has to think of something else.

Nomadic peoples love horses, and Kazakh children can ride horses at three or four years old. When they are five or six, their parents will prepare a horse for them, and from then on, that horse belongs to the child.

So in the past, when going to pastoral areas, one could often see small children who hadn't even started school riding horses covered only by a blanket, running around without any issues.

Of course, they might have fallen, but no one saw it.

Winter slaughter is an activity herdsmen carry out after winter arrives and cattle and sheep change from grazing to pen-feeding.

Those with more means slaughter cows, smaller ones slaughter sheep, and there are also those who slaughter horses. Smoked horse meat and horse sausage are traditional delicacies of the Kazakh people. The slaughtered horses are, of course, meat horses raised for this purpose, which almost every herdsman has in their pen.

In early winter, horse meat narin is the most common and popular hospitality dish here.

Twenty years later, in his previous life, Li Long followed friends to the Yili pastoral area in winter, visited five families, and ate four meals of horse meat narin, until his nose broke out in blisters.

Horse meat is hot in nature and can only be eaten in winter. Usually, herdsmen here have a perfect breakfast in winter: a plate of sliced horse sausage, milk tea, naan, butter, honey, and another plate of horse sausage.

Smoking horse meat and making horse sausage is not something one family can do alone; usually, several families join forces to slaughter a horse and share the smoked meat and sausages.

After discussing things with Halimu, Yushanjiang declined the invitation to eat there, put on his hat, went out, and rode his horse back to his own winter camp.

On the way, he was still thinking about what gift he should give when Li Long's child is actually born.

Should he give a puppy or a fawn?

Li Long pulled the last batch of reed bundles into the supply and marketing cooperative's courtyard and let the warehouse keeper inspect them.

The inspection here was relatively strict. Once the count reached twenty thousand, the warehouse keeper told Li Long to take the excess away, as he didn't want them.

Li Long smiled, took the receipt issued by the warehouse keeper, loaded the remaining dozens of reed bundles onto the cart, and then went to the finance office in the front to sign and collect the money.

This matter could be considered concluded.

The money he received wasn't much, as most of it had already been saved.

Right now, Li Long had roughly calculated that the money from tying these reed bundles would earn him just under four thousand. This was mainly due to the loss of some fuel, the fact that he had collected nearly a hundred extra reed bundles, and the price of fifty cents he gave his eldest brother, Li Jianguo.

Li Jianguo's family tied nearly a thousand reed bundles, which meant an extra payment of nearly two hundred yuan.

With the small change in his pocket, Li Long deposited the three thousand yuan, and his savings were now one step closer to thirty thousand.

It had been almost two years since his rebirth, and he had saved less than thirty thousand; it really was a bit of a disgrace for someone who had been reborn.

However, he felt these two years had been truly fulfilling, and he had hardly been idle at all.

Of course, the harvest was also huge. He had a home, a wife, a tractor, and soon he would even have a child.

In his previous life, except for the tractor, he had none of these. Or rather, they were mismatched.

He was content.

After staying at home for two days, Li Long spent two wonderful days sleeping until he woke up naturally and doing nothing.

Gu Xiaoxia couldn't stand it anymore and urged him to send some food to the mountains.

This was definitely something that needed to be done early, as Gu Xiaoxia put it:

"The snow is so deep, it's not easy for those friends in the mountains to come down. You must send them some food as soon as possible, otherwise, if they run out of food, it will be troublesome."

Li Long listened to his wife very well. That morning, after eating, he went to the market to buy food and two sacks of potatoes, then went to the pastoral team's outpost.

He had to send some food to the old and young here first.

Since the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the buying and selling of food in the free market had become truly free.

When Li Long drove to the outpost, he happened to see Nasen and Sasken carrying a bucket of water toward the house. The iron bucket was quite large, and the two of them were carrying it with a pole. The water in the bucket was sloshing around, spilling many drops along the way.

Li Long found it strange. Was the pressure well at Halimu's house broken? Otherwise, why would they be carrying water from outside?

Nasen and Sasken had already seen Li Long driving the tractor and were shouting excitedly.

Li Long hurriedly drove over, parked the tractor by the courtyard, got off, stepped forward to help Nasen and the others with the bucket, and asked as they walked into the courtyard:

"Is the pressure well broken? Why are you carrying water?"

"The pressure well is frozen and won't pump water," Nasen explained. "We don't know how to fix it. I remember you mentioned it before, but I forgot." He lowered his head, feeling a bit ashamed.

The old lady walked to the courtyard gate, and after seeing Li Long, she grinned.

"My father came back a few days ago. They have already migrated back from the summer pasture and said they would pick us up when school is out," Nasen was more talkative and said it before Li Long could ask.

Li Long nodded. He first poured the water into the water vat in the house and then went to check the pressure well.

The pressure well was indeed frozen. The handle for pumping water could barely be moved, which made Li Long unsure if it could still be fixed.

Actually, it wasn't really a repair; there was only one possibility for a pressure well not pumping water in winter: the water in the pipe was frozen. If only the top section of the well head was frozen, then pouring some hot water to melt the ice would suffice.

But if it was frozen deep down, it wouldn't be easy to thaw in a short while.

Li Long first moved the food and supplies from the tractor into the house, then told Nasen to tell the old lady to boil water—a lot of it.

There was less than half the water in the vat, so Li Long took a bucket to Yushanjiang's house to pump water; the pressure well there wasn't broken.

Yushanjiang's children were older and remembered what Li Long had said earlier quite clearly, so the pressure well hadn't frozen.

Li Long drove the tractor to Yushanjiang's courtyard, unloaded the things; his family situation was the same as what Nasen had said.

Li Long pumped two buckets of water, put them on the tractor, and slowly drove back to Halimu's courtyard.

In the house, a pot was already on the stove boiling water.

The pastoral team's outpost issued one ton of coal to each family. Li Long felt this wasn't enough, so he hauled another ton of coal to both Halimu's and Yushanjiang's courtyards.

Because they would move to the winter camp when the students were on break in winter, two tons of coal per family should be enough.

The water in the bucket on the tractor's hopper had spilled a bit, but not much. Li Long poured the two buckets of water into the vat, and it was almost full.

While waiting for the water on the stove to boil, Li Long asked about Nasen and Sasken's academic performance, and both children scratched their heads.

Well, they had just started school, so one couldn't expect too much.

When the water boiled, Li Long scooped it into a kettle, poured more water into the pot to continue boiling, and carried the kettle to the pressure well.

Nasen and Sasken hurriedly followed. Li Long told them to stay back, as boiling water could be troublesome if it splashed. The old lady also came out, closed the door, and stood at the entrance watching.

The heat in the house couldn't be allowed to escape.

Li Long first poured some boiling water into the pressure well to thaw the connecting rod and the rubber gasket. Next, he removed the well handle and the plug to look inside.

The boiling water he had just poured was already cooling down. There was a layer of ice at the bottom of the main body of the pressure well, about two or three centimeters thick. It must have been that after they pumped water in the winter, they didn't drain it, leaving it in the main body where it froze.

He poured more boiling water inside to make the ice melt faster. Li Long turned his head and asked Nasen to bring an old towel.

Nasen quickly brought a towel from the house and handed it to Li Long.

Li Long reached into the pressure well to feel it; the water temperature was still quite high, so he found a short stick and kept stirring to let the hot water above melt the ice below.

After a while, the ice layer below had melted quite a bit, and a palm-sized piece of ice floated up.

Li Long reached in to pick out the ice block, then used the towel to soak up the water that had already cooled down inside.

After soaking up most of the water inside, Li Long reached in to remove the pin blocking the pipe opening, but it wouldn't budge.

!.

This pin is used to seal the air, just like the mechanism of a cylinder lock. When the pressure well rod is pressed down, because the rubber plug seals it, the air pressure inside changes, the pin is lifted, and the water is sucked up.

When the pressure well rod is raised and the rubber plug (piston) is lowered, the pin falls, and the pumped water is stored in the main body of the pressure well.

Now the pin was frozen, so the water below naturally couldn't be sucked up.

Seeing that the pin wouldn't pull out, Li Long continued to pour boiling water inside.

He didn't pour much at a time, watching how much would seep down. As soon as the water cooled, he used the towel to soak it up and wring it out. This ensured that the boiling water poured in wouldn't be rapidly neutralized by cold water, maximizing the melting of the ice under the pin.

A kettle of water was soon used up, so Li Long went to the pot in the house to scoop another kettle and continued pouring.

Unexpectedly, Nasen and Sasken were quite patient and kept watching from the side.

Neighbors also came to watch. Because when this pressure well could pump water, everyone was using it. Later, when it couldn't be used, although they could go to Yushanjiang's house to get water, it was far, and it was troublesome for so many people to go.

Now that the person who originally dug the well was here and fixing it, they naturally wanted to see if it could be repaired.

Another kettle of boiling water was poured in. Li Long waited for the water to cool, cleared it out, and then moved the pin, finding that it could move.

But the range of motion wasn't large.

This was good news, indicating that the ice frozen below and the pin were together; if the pin could move, the ice frozen on the rod below the pin had already melted quite a bit.

Another kettle of boiling water was slowly poured in, and the pin was finally pulled out.

Li Long wasn't sure if there was still ice below, so he simply poured the remaining boiling water down.

"Uncle Li Long, is it fixed?" Seeing Li Long's expression become relaxed, Nasen asked.

"Not sure, let's try it first," Li Long said.

He put the pin back in, took the pressure well rod from the side, inserted the piston, and after fixing it, went to scoop a ladle of warm water to pour into the pressure well and began to pump.

Water soon came out of the outlet, and the people nearby cheered.

Li Long, however, shook his head. Pumping was very strenuous, indicating that there was still something blocking it below, likely ice blocks.

He removed the rod and piston again, pulled out the pin, and went to scoop a kettle of boiling water to pour down.

The water went down very slowly, but it was going down, and soon the water level disappeared from the main body of the pressure well.

Li Long looked and felt there was hope. He turned and went back into the house, scooped another kettle of boiling water, and poured it in.

This time the water went down relatively faster. Li Long guessed that the ice block was slowly melting and being pressed down by the water. In fact, two or three meters below the surface, the temperature was already above zero.

If the ice block inside rose, it would be continuously melted by the boiling water. If it was pressed down, it would continue to melt slowly as it went deeper. Either way, it was a solution.

It wasn't until the boiling water in the pot was gone that Li Long stopped.

Feeling it should be about right, he put the pin back in, fixed the pressure well piston and rod, and Nasen cleverly scooped half a ladle of water as a primer and poured it in.

Li Long pressed the rod, and this time it didn't feel as strenuous.

Water was continuously pumped out.

This time, everyone didn't cheer but just watched Li Long's actions.

Li Long told Nasen to bring the bucket over to catch the water at the outlet.

A bucket of water was pumped out, and Li Long carried it to pour into the water vat.

Another bucket of water was pumped out, and Li Long smiled.

This time, he was sure it was fixed.

"It's done, it can be used from now on," Li Long said to the others.

"Great, great!"

"So good, it can be used again!"

Li Long then taught Nasen:

"Every time you finish pumping water, listen to the sound inside. Listen..."

At this time, they weren't pumping water anymore. Someone hurried back to get a bucket, and Li Long told Nasen and Sasken to listen carefully:

"Sss..."

The sound of water being sucked back sounded, and Li Long said:

"Listen, that's the sound. When the pumped water isn't being pressed, it will flow back underground. You don't need to worry about this."

"Do we never need to worry about it?" Nasen was a bit puzzled.

"No, no, no, because we aren't sure if someone will come to pump water at night, and those people won't care. When you don't need water at night, remove the pressure well head and take it back into the house, and take that pin..."

Li Long demonstrated while explaining to Nasen:

"Take this pin out and put it in the house too. Just stuff a towel or something inside so dirt doesn't get in."

Nasen and Sasken nodded seriously. They never wanted to carry water again. Carrying at least four or five buckets of water a day from Yushanjiang's house was truly exhausting.

This pressure well was so convenient!

Li Long felt quite proud of himself for fixing the pressure well. He had done another practical thing for Halimu's family—honestly, if he hadn't come, this family of old and young might have had to carry water until the children's break in January.

Once they reached the winter camp, Halimu and his wife could carry water together, and the old and young wouldn't have to labor.

Thinking of carrying water, Li Long suddenly had an idea.

Halimu and Yushanjiang had done so many things for him; could he help them solve their water problem too?

They got their water from a stream forty or fifty meters away from the winter camp, which wasn't actually very far.

But if he could make it more convenient for them to get water, wouldn't that be better?

With this thought, Li Long's brain immediately started turning.

At this time, thick hard plastic pipes were still quite valuable; after all, the Dushanzi Petrochemical plant hadn't been built yet, and the Karamay petrochemical enterprise's capacity wasn't strong enough yet.

Expensive is expensive, but they could be bought.

And for Li Long's plan, only pipes were needed; the rest was labor.

For Halimu and the others, labor was the least lacking thing. When spring blossoms, there really was nothing else to do besides grazing.

Even when cattle and sheep were scattered on the pasture, they didn't need to be watched for an hour or so; with a lead sheep, they basically wouldn't run around.

Hmm, this matter was feasible. Li Long smiled, thinking Halimu and the others would be very happy when the time came.

If this was to be used in both winter and summer, he would have to discuss it with Halimu and the others to choose a good location. (End of chapter)