Episode 6: The Vegetable Garden (1)
“It comes out really refreshingly.”
“When you’re digging, if too much water comes out it makes the work hard, so we block the pipes with rubber and work.”
“Ah, so that’s why not much water came out at first.”
I had said the water wasn’t coming out well, but there had been a reason for everything.
“From what I can see, looking at the flow, I think it’ll be over 50 tons.”
“That’s a relief.”
The man had been telling the truth, and shortly after, the pumping test that measured the water quantity showed that the daily groundwater yield was 80 tons.
The man had said that even about 50 tons would be enough for agricultural use, but hearing it was 80 tons, it seemed I could live without worrying about water now.
“Now we just need to install the motor and the work is nearly done.”
Depending on the situation, we might have had to dig a few more times, but the work finished at the spot the man had chosen at the beginning.
“If we install the motor, can we use the water right away?”
“No, after you get the water quality tested and receive your well permit, you just need to install a utility pole and it’s done.”
“The utility pole?”
“Yeah, to use the motor you need electricity, but there aren’t any utility poles nearby.”
As he spoke, the man pointed to the road beside us, and indeed, there were no utility poles nearby.
To use electricity, we would have to draw it from the utility poles far away, but the man said there was no need to go through such troublesome measures.
“If you take your well permit to the electric company, they’ll install a utility pole wherever you want. The owner has to handle that themselves, but I’ll tell you how to do it later.”
I had already received quite a lot of help with just the tube well, and now he was offering to help with installing the utility pole too, so I felt extremely grateful.
“Thank you. Ah, you should have lunch, right?”
“Lunch? Of course I should. We were planning to go to a restaurant after finishing this work, but do you want to come along?”
The man suggested eating lunch together, but I had prepared something separately.
“Please don’t. Have lunch at my house instead. You gave me a discount too, so I felt I should at least treat you to lunch, so I bought some meat and alcohol.”
At the mention of meat and alcohol, the man’s expression brightened.
Come to think of it, in the countryside it was common to treat workers to lunch, but perhaps because it was a house where I lived alone, he hadn’t expected that kind of treatment.
I hadn’t thought about lunch at first either, but yesterday I had suddenly remembered something from the past.
During the busy farming season, I had come down to the countryside a few times to help my father, and we had hired people to work like this.
Back then, my father had always prepared lunch himself, saying it was the least you could do for people who took time out of their busy schedules to help with your work.
“Since you’ve prepared it, I have to taste it. We’re almost done with this work, so let’s finish up and eat lunch.”
“Yes, then I’ll go home first and get things ready.”
****
Returning home, I began preparing lunch.
I washed the rice and put it in the rice cooker, took out a large low folding table, and set up seats.
I placed a burner and grill plate beside the table to prepare for grilling meat, and began taking out the side dishes I had purchased at the market yesterday.
Making side dishes myself seemed like it would require too much effort, so I had bought ones sold at the mart, and after trying them they weren’t bad.
I placed the side dishes on the table and washed the vegetables that would be eaten with the meat in water.
Water still came out only a little bit, which was somewhat inconvenient, but now that I had dug the groundwater well, I just had to endure this for a few more days.
After finishing the meal preparations like that, a short while later Yeonggil and the others who had finished working came to the house.
The man looked at the prepared table and smiled as if pleased, saying,
“I didn’t have big expectations, but it looks like we’re going to feast in broad daylight. Everyone, sit down.”
Once people had taken their seats, I took the meat out from the refrigerator. I had tried to grill the meat myself, but one of the workers who had done the labor grabbed the tongs and sat beside the grill plate, saying,
“I’ll grill the meat.”
Sizzle—
As the meat went onto the grill plate, a delicious sound echoed, and perhaps because I hadn’t eaten breakfast, I began to feel hungry too.
Flipping the meat here and there, before I knew it, crispy samgyeopsal was done.
“Thank you for your hard work. I haven’t prepared much, but please enjoy.”
“This is practically a feast. Everyone eat well.”
Yeonggil and the others began eating, and I took out chilled soju from the refrigerator and placed it on the table along with glasses.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t feel right without this.”
As if he had been waiting, the man began passing around soju glasses, excluding those who would be driving.
“Minwoo, would you like a glass too?”
He offered me a drink too, but I refused.
“I’m fine.”
“Why? Can’t you drink?”
“It’s not that… after my father passed away from liver cancer, I vowed not to drink.”
At my words, the man nodded his head.
“Then don’t drink, just take the glass.”
At his words, I lifted my glass, and with a glugging sound, alcohol began filling the glass.
“Everyone got their glasses filled?”
The people raised their glasses and toasted, and after that everyone freely began drinking and eating meat.
I ate rice with the men too, and perhaps because it had been a while since I’d had samgyeopsal, it was incredibly delicious.
After eating like that for a while, Yeonggil looked at me and said,
“But do you not have any green onions at home?”
“Green onions?”
“I like green onion salad, and if you put it in the wrap the meat would taste much better it seems…”
I had prepared various vegetables like onions, peppers, garlic, and lettuce, but thinking about it, I had left out scallions.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t buy any green onions.”
“I see. I saw you had a vegetable garden behind the house last time—don’t buy green onions, plant and grow them there. Now that you have plenty of water, I mean.”
“Can I plant green onions now?”
“Of course, if you plant them together with lettuce and peppers, the joy of harvesting will be quite something.”
I had already been planning to start farming by growing vegetables first.
Now that I had finished unpacking too, and like the man said, I had plenty of water, it seemed good to start farming by cultivating the vegetable garden.
“Yes, I understand.”
****
Swoosh-sh-sh-sh
When I turned the faucet, water sprayed out refreshingly and wet my hands.
After finishing the utility pole installation, Yeonggil had connected the water pipes to the house, and the water pressure was strong so I liked it very much.
The water quality test results were excellent too, and he said it was at a level where I could drink it immediately.
When I was in the city, I used to order bottled water online. It wasn’t just the money, but I felt sorry for the delivery people, so I would order small amounts frequently, which had been quite a hassle.
But now I could just drink the water flowing from the faucet.
“Ugh… cold.”
I took out a cup, filled it with water, and drank, and it was so cold my teeth ached. Well, it was water drawn from 100 meters underground, so of course it was cool.
Still, I thought it would be good to store some water, so I began filling the water container I had prepared.
How long had I been filling it?
Suddenly, my phone rang.
I turned off the water and checked my phone, and the caller was the Village Chief.
I answered the phone, and the Village Chief immediately stated his business.
“Regarding that village development fund, when do you think it will be ready?”
It seemed he had called to collect the village development fund from me, but now that I had dug the well, there was no need to pay the development fund.
“Ah, Village Chief. I thought water was too scarce, so I just drilled a tube well.”
“You drilled a tube well?”
“Yes, so I don’t think I’ll need to use the village’s shared groundwater.”
He had said from the beginning that the village development fund was a water usage fee. Since I wasn’t using the village water, I thought it was natural that I wouldn’t have to pay, but I asked just in case anyway.
“Since I’m not using the village groundwater, I don’t have to pay the village development fund, right?”
The Village Chief was silent for a moment, then spoke in a somewhat displeased tone.
“Hmm… I suppose so. Since you drilled a tube well, you can just use that water. Did a lot come out?”
“Yes, more than I expected, so there shouldn’t be any major problems for me to use alone.”
“Alright. I’ll hang up now.”
The Village Chief hung up immediately, but he seemed displeased that I wasn’t paying the village development fund.
‘Did I do the right thing?’
Honestly, two million won for the village development fund was money that I could either pay or not pay, since I had won the lottery.
But there was a reason I had gone so far as to drill for water instead of paying—it wasn’t just because water was scarce, but also to distance myself from the villagers’ attention.
In the countryside, there weren’t many young people like me.
Those considered somewhat young were over 40, and most were elderly. Because of that, relatively young me was bound to be called around for various odd jobs in the village.
I hadn’t experienced it myself, but this was valuable information passed down by seniors who had returned to farming before me.
I had come down to the countryside for my own healing, not to become a good young man who helped the village elders.
It was fine to help a few elders who thought well of me, but I couldn’t just help with other people’s work indefinitely.
So I had chosen to live quietly on my own without paying the village development fund.
Judging by the Village Chief’s tone, it seemed I had gotten on his bad side somewhat, but since my house was somewhat far from the village, there wouldn’t be many occasions to run into him.
‘Yes, my own peace of mind is the most important.’
****
Having woken up early in the morning, I changed into work clothes and put on rubber boots.
The rubber boots at home were blue ones that came up to my knees, which my father had worn, and fortunately they fit me perfectly since his foot size had been the same as mine.
Leaving the house, I went to the storage shed and began choosing the weapons that would help me work.
“A shovel and… a hoe should do it, right?”
With the shovel over my shoulder and the hoe tucked under my other arm, I walked to the vegetable garden behind the house.
I had brought the shovel and hoe thinking I would tidy up the vegetable garden, but seeing it overgrown with weeds, I thought this would be impossible with just these.
I had once seen the hell of endlessly growing grass in the army. Seeing the weeds grown up to my waist, memories of that time came flooding back.
But I wasn’t too worried. Because my military assignment had been as a brush cutter operator.
Simply because I was from the countryside, I had been assigned as a brush cutter operator, and while fighting against the heat and stones flying up toward my face, I had grown strong.
I could say I had nearly mastered brush cutter work, and thinking about showing off my skills after so long, I went to the storage shed to look for the brush cutter.
I remembered my father had a brush cutter, and I was able to find it stored in a corner of the shed.
If I had the brush cutter, I could cut down all the grass growing in the vegetable garden in no time.
Thinking I would finish the work quickly, I tried to start the brush cutter, but it only made a loud noise and strangely wouldn’t start.
‘Is there no gasoline?’
I tried putting in gasoline and engine oil too, mobilizing every method I knew to try to start the brush cutter, but all failed.
I had imagined cutting down all the grass with the brush cutter, but seeing that it wouldn’t start, it seemed to be broken somehow.
“So much for that…”