10th April, 2001
Huang Jinao Farmer's Home Well Stocked With Rice Harvest, Appears Self Sufficient
Huang Jinao in the summer months, with hot dry days and farmers busy with their rice harvest, would appear attractive to any foreign visitor but for the farmers themselves, it is the time of the year when they reap the rewards of long hard working days.
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The concreted yard in front of the house was covered with drying rice and the rice straw made into ricks. A large stack of firewood, essential for cooking and boiling water, stood at the side of the steps, and then in front of the yard was a colorful display of flowers looking very much like an old English cottage garden. But of course it wasn't ! Herbs grown were used for cooking and for medicine, and the roots of other flowering plants were used to make a type of noodle.
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On a visit to Dazu in 1987 I looked out of our bedroom window on a misty morning to see grey curved tiles on the roofs of the houses below us, with smoke spiralling upwards from chimneys of some of the houses where someone must have been cooking breakfast. The view over the farmhouse roof was completely different, and behind me the fat pig continued with its snorting and grunting !
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The neighbours had helped Yin's family dig the well in their yard and install the necessary pump, and in return they had the benefits of a good supply of clean fresh water. This neighbour during my visit came with her two wooden buckets carried on a shoulder pole. I could hardly lift one of the filled buckets, but she hooked both of them back onto her pole and walked away with a skill acquired by much practice.
The water supply of my friends in another small inland town near to Huang Jinao, is the local river, which in the wet season sometimes floods the town causing considerable damage.
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Yin's nephew was not impressed with his first sighting of the Western visitor but later became accustomed to his presence. Here he is holding a peeled orange under the watchful eye of the family dog, but I am not sure whether the dog was guarding the nephew or hoping for a piece of the orange !
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