Little Life on An American Ranch

  Chapter 43 Weeding rabbits

Sleeping beautifully, Jian Heng suddenly felt something dripping on his face in a haze, dazedly stretched out his hand to touch it, felt that it was still a bit cold, wanted to ignore it, turned around and continued to sleep , but soon the same feeling appeared on the side face.

   "What are you doing!"

   Jian Heng got up very angry, sat up all of a sudden, wiped his face and said impatiently.

   After he finished speaking, he opened his eyes, and the whole person became sober instantly, because at this moment a drop of water dripped down again, this time directly hanging on the tip of Jian Heng's nose.

   Jian Heng was a little puzzled: "I wiped it, where did the water come from?"

   After talking to himself, Jian Heng quickly found the source of the water. When he was fully awake, the sound of rustling rain outside immediately came to his ears.

  I was thinking about the rain when another drop of rain fell.

   Jian Heng moved his body, stood on the bed and looked up at the roof, and soon found the source of the rainwater. There was a wet spot on the top of the bed, and it was obvious that the rainwater seeped from there.

   After rubbing his head vigorously, Jian Heng calmed down, took a water cup and put it on the dripping place to catch water.

  After putting the cup away, Jian Heng immediately checked the room to see if there was any leak. After such an inspection, the problem came immediately, because all the rooms in the house leaked except the kitchen.

  Jian Heng is now a little thankful that he slept in his own room. If he had slept in the old man's room, he would be a drowned rat by now.

  The water dripping in the old man's house looks like a faucet that hasn't been tightened, and there are more than one place. If they are squeezed together, they can form a shower.

   After checking all the rooms, Jian Heng found no less than a dozen places where water dripped and seeped. It seems that the entire house has to be rebuilt. This situation is no longer something that can be dealt with by tinkering.

  Seeing that he couldn't fall asleep, Jian Heng raised his hand and looked at his watch. The time indicated 4:30 in the morning. According to the normal work and rest time of the ranch, generally speaking, it's about time to get up and work at this time.

  Thinking of this, Jian Heng simply took out the bright flashlight he had used before from the cabinet, twisted it and found that it was still working, so he copied it in his hand and began to check the outbuildings of the pasture such as the hay room and the barn.

  The straw house is better, there are no leaks, only a few places where water seeps, it only needs to be repaired simply, and even this work does not need to hire someone, Jian Heng can solve it by himself.

   After seeing the hay house, Jian Heng turned to the barn again.

When he arrived at the door, Jian Heng twisted the door of the barn a few times, and found that the iron latch was almost rusted, and the rust was a bit sticky when he grasped it. There was a creaking sound, and with a little more strength, he finally opened the latch.

Pushing open the door, a familiar smell of cow dung came to the face immediately. I haven't smelled this smell for several years. When it came suddenly, Jian Heng found that he felt so cheap that this smell seemed to make him miss it. Yes, this thought made Jian Heng's heart twist.

  Patter!

  Jian Heng was just about to step in, when he suddenly heard a sound, he subconsciously stood still! Then he turned the flashlight to look in the direction of the sound, and immediately found a wooden block the size of an adult's arm fell to the ground.

  Thanks to Jian Heng's quick reaction, otherwise this thing might have hit Jian Heng's forehead. When he raised his head again and swung the flashlight upwards, Jian Heng found a palm-sized hole in the roof of his left hand.

   "Oh my God, can this still be fun!"

Jian Heng's expression immediately turned into mourning, and now Jian Heng has to increase the cost of repairing the house in his heart. The house and the roof alone would cost nearly 10,000 yuan at least, not to mention the roof, and the rest Is the place safe? how is this possible!

   Sighing, Jian Heng turned his head and walked back. The barn was full of things falling down. How could Jian Heng go in such a dark time? We should honestly wait for the dawn to talk about it.

  Back in the room, Jian Heng sat back at the table, avoided the dripping place, took out a pen and paper, and began to make a list.

  I made a list of the things needed in the ranch in order of priority, and if I was in a hurry, ticked the front, that is the things that must be bought or done.

Bear the brunt of having a car. Cars play a very important role in the daily life of Americans. There are many choices of cars in the city, but for a rancher, there are not many choices. It's hypocritical, in fact, there is only one kind, and that is the pickup truck that is very convenient for pulling people and goods.

If Jian Heng has no debts, he can definitely get an F650 for fun with the money from selling Daben, but now that his pockets are tight, Jian Heng has to settle for the next best thing. It is best to get an F150 or something at a sufficient price. Cheap is good.

   Live within your means! When the auction price of Daben was not finally released, Jian Heng felt that he could save as much as possible, otherwise he would have a headache when the final tax filing deadline was on April 15th.

  As soon as the list was finished, it was already bright outside, and Jian Heng stretched himself and stood under the porch.

  Now the rain has stopped, and a rising sun in the east has jumped out of the distant ridge. At this time, the sun is not very dazzling, and even the sun is a little cold.

  Jian Heng breathed in the fresh morning air while doing chest expansion exercises.

The air in the ranch is two grades cooler than that of New York. At the beginning, I felt that it was a bit cold and hurt my lungs, but after taking a few breaths, I waited for my lungs to adapt, and I could immediately smell the icy air. It has a moist earthy aroma and a strong and sweet herbal aroma.

  At this time, Jian Heng really wanted to ride a horse. He wanted to just sit on the horse and gallop like a horse. Unfortunately, there was only an empty shell left in the pasture. There were no cows left. Where did the horse come from?

  Such a beautiful scenery, coupled with such a beautiful sky, Jian Heng felt particularly disappointed that there were no horses. He casually took out the note he had just written, flipped through it, and put a tick in front of the horses again.

   American horses are not expensive. Of course, this cheap refers to ordinary horses, not to famous racehorses or thoroughbred horses. Those horses are much more expensive than sports cars.

  Jian Heng said that it is an ordinary riding horse. A well-trained and gentle riding horse costs three to four hundred dollars, and a younger and stronger one costs five hundred dollars, which is very cheap. Jian Heng decided to get two to three horses first, to solve the urgent need, and by the way, let himself have fun when he was fine.

   While looking for the matter of riding a horse, Jian Heng saw the little gray shadow of Er Hu slipping past him from the corner of his eyes.

   "Hey, have you finished eating the weeds in the pasture?" Jian Heng couldn't help asking when he saw Erhu bouncing back to the bottom of the gallery.

  Jian Heng is also a pain in the ass, he feels uncomfortable because he doesn't have a horse to ride.

   Erhu naturally couldn't answer, staring at Jian Heng with red eyes, he lay down on the broken sofa and curled up into a ball, apparently ready to sleep.

   "Your uncle, don't work hard!" Jian Heng was purely looking for faults, pointed at the two tigers, turned his head to look around, and was about to see if there was any grass left to eat, just in time for training.

   This was unbelievable, and Jian Heng found that wherever he looked, he couldn't see a nasty weed like the one he fed the two tigers yesterday.

"I'm sorry, it can't be so awesome, the rabbit-shaped weeder!" Jian Heng immediately walked to the grass, no matter how rainy it was, the grass stems were covered with water drops, so he started to look around stand up.

  While walking and watching, Jian Heng became happier the more he watched, because after walking for more than ten minutes, Jian Heng didn't find the weed that he hated the most. Jian Heng doesn't know what the scientific name of this thing is, but people nearby call it bitter face grass, which means that as long as this grass grows in the pasture, the rancher will have a bitter face.

Weeds are much more tenacious than pastures. Ordinary herbicides have little effect on them. Professional herbicides will affect the quality of pastures. If the grass is not good, the cattle raised will naturally not be sold for a high price. Come.

   Now that the two tigers opened their mouths and directly wiped out this grass, Jian Heng felt that such a little happiness came a bit too suddenly, happily humming an out-of-key tune, and continued to look forward.

When he was happy, he walked quickly, and soon arrived at the edge of the fence of the ranch. The chest-high wooden fence was 1.6 meters high, and three barbed wire fences separated the two ranches. This is the Silent Lake Ranch, and the other is the Morey’s family. pasture.

  The Murray family’s ranch is smaller, with only more than 1,600 acres. The family mainly raises mutton sheep and a small number of alpacas. Anyway, before Jian Heng left the ranch, their house was like this. I don't know if it's like this now.

  I was thinking about this when I heard someone calling me.

   Jian Heng turned his head and found that about twenty meters away from his left hand, Emma, ​​the eldest daughter of the Morey family, was riding a horse and waving at him.

  Jian Heng raised his hand above his head and motioned to her.

   "When did you come back?"

   "Yesterday afternoon" Jian Heng finished speaking and asked again: "Still shepherding sheep?"

   "Otherwise, I don't have much culture, so can I still go to the White House?" Emma joked.

While Emma was talking, a young cowboy walked up to her. The young man was wearing a gray baseball cap and had whiskers. He couldn't tell the exact age, but he should be around thirty years old. .

   "My husband, Will"

   "Hello, Will!"

   "Good morning, Henry!" Will smiled and pinched the brim of his baseball cap to Jian Heng, as a greeting.

   After the introduction, Emma asked again: "Did you come here all the time?"

Seeing Jian Heng nodded, she said again: "Why don't I lend you a horse, and you just go to the north to have a look. There is a big piece of fence on your ranch that was washed away by bison, and you can still see it from time to time. The cattle come in and steal pasture."

"I can't control them now!" Jian Heng raised his hand and looked at his watch. Before he knew it, he had walked for nearly twenty minutes, so he said goodbye to Emma and his wife, and was about to turn around and go home, because soon The lawyer will come.

   Just as Jian Heng turned around, Will's surprised voice came: "Emma, ​​Emma, ​​come here, this piece of bitter face grass is gone!"

   "Wow, it's really gone!" Emma immediately yelled in surprise: "Let's look around again, if there is no one, it will be a miracle."

  Hearing the conversation between the couple, Jian Heng said: Damn, the rabbit has also learned to fuck!

  (end of this chapter)