Little Life on An American Ranch

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.

As soon as he opened his eyes after speaking, he became sober in an instant, because at this moment a drop of water dripped down again, this time hanging directly 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 regained consciousness, he immediately heard the sound of rustling rain outside.

While thinking about the rain, 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 began to check the whole 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.

Now Jian Heng is a little glad 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 dripping water 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 whole 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 hay house is better, there are no leaks, only a few places where water seeps, and 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.

Slap!

Just as Jian Heng was about to step in, he suddenly heard a sound, and 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 would 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 you still have fun with this!"

Jian Heng's face immediately turned into mourning, and now Jian Heng had to raise the cost of repairing the house in his heart again. The house and the roof alone would cost nearly 10,000 yuan at least, not to mention the roof.

Everything else is 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? Let's 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 started to make a list.

I made a list of the things needed in the ranch in order of priority, and ticked off the ones that were urgently needed, and that was the things that needed to be purchased 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.

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

Now that the rain has stopped, a round of 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.

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

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, and wanted to just sit on the horse and gallop like a horse, but unfortunately, there was only an empty shell left in the ranch, and there were no cows left. Where did the horse come from!

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

Horses in the United States 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 was an ordinary riding horse, a well-trained gentle riding horse cost three to four hundred dollars, and a younger and stronger one cost five hundred dollars, which was 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.

Just looking for the matter of riding a horse, Jian Heng saw Er Hu's gray shadow slipping past him out of the corner of his eye.

"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 porch.

Jian Heng is also in pain, he doesn't have a horse and feels uncomfortable seeing Erhu prepare to give a few words to the rabbit to vent his anger.

Naturally, Erhu couldn't answer, staring at Jian Heng with red eyes, he lay down on the broken sofa obediently and curled up into a ball, looking like he was going to sleep.

"Your uncle, don't work hard!" Jian Heng was purely looking for faults, pointed at Erhu, 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 unbearable, 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.

As he walked and watched, 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 kind of 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 meat 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.

Just thinking about this, 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 gestured 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, 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 walk all the way?"

Seeing Jian Heng nodded, she said again: "Why don't I lend you a horse, 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 when 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. It would be a miracle if it wasn't there."

Hearing the conversation between the couple, Jian Heng said: Damn, the rabbit has also learned from Lei Feng!