Neighbor kids

DaYiMa and Brian ( Daisy Mom is sister 4, and the youngest sister. DaYiMa is the oldest sister )

Daisy climbing up more mountains 5 months pregnant.

Corn is being planted now, and in mid-April the rapeseed will be harvested and sent for processing into vegitable oil, and the rapeseed feilds replanted with rice.

Having tea in front of ShuShu's old house. This house origionally had two towers but the right hand tower was later replaced by a modern room. Baba used to play in these towers when he was a kid, and they have arrow slits all up the outer walls as they were built to defend against armed bandits. There were a lot of wars in GuiZhou against the famous bandits in this wild west state, and the deadly combination of bandits, mountains, and caves kept the Japanese out of GuiZhou for the most part.

YaoJiu and I took his HuaMei Niao (Melodious Laughingthrush) for a walk over the mountains to the next valley using the HuaMei periodically to try to lure other birds as the HuaMei is known for its ability to speak the languages and sing the songs of numerous species. The mountains are really peaceful and YaoJiu told me of how the family survived by eating the roots of ferns up here during the Great Leap Forward, and about his times in XiShuangBaNa in the Chinese war supporting Cambodia, Against Vietnam, in the 1970’s ( after the US vs Vietnam/China war). Before becoming a military man, YaoJiu was a 5th grade teacher in the valley below. His dismissal from the military was either because he expressed his opinion, did not share his JinSha Sorghum wine with the right leaders, or refused to fight the enemy; depending on which story you hear. Now he farms rapeseed followed by rice, and loves his birds.

YuanYuan

LiLing got nailed by the Sorghum wine at lunch